Tot School Week 4

Our theme this week was based on the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? We also did some other fun activities too.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities
Early on in the week we read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? by Eric Carle. I love this book and had planned on using it for my story and art activity. What started out as just one activity evolved into multiple activities. Here are some things that we did.

Math Activity: Color Sorting

While we were reading the story we talked a lot about colors. That's when I decided that it would be a good idea if we did a color sort. I copied three pictures from the book: blue horse, green frog, and yellow duck. Then I found items around the house that were one of those three colors and I had Little Sweets sort the items by color.

Science: Animal Identification Game
I copied all of the pictures of the animals from the book, cut them out, and glued them to index cards. Then I had Little Sweets point to the animals. I tried telling her which animal to point to but, she thought it was more fun to tell me which animals she wanted to point to. She wasn't super interested in this activity, but I hope to come back to it and emphasize the animals colors. I would like to ask her; "to point to the blue animal or the green animal etc."

Art Activity: Painting with Pudding

I got this idea from Michelle Kincaid at http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/ Little Sweets used pudding to paint her bear brown. Great art activity and snack....

Other Fun Activities

Field Trip: Saluda Shoals Park and Enviromental Center

Little Sweets loves being outdoors. She also loves animals, so I decided to take her a park near our house for a nature walk. While we were at the park we saw lots of squirrels and birds.

This is a picture of Little Sweets running after the birds saying; "flying, flying."

We also went to the enviromental center at the park. They had a play area for children. Little Sweets loved playing in the tree house and the tunnel.

Jellybean Math

I made jellybean number cards for Little Sweets. She placed the jellybeans on the card and we counted them together. To read more about this activity and to get printables for it go here.

I also made jellybean pattern cards. I used the cards to teach Little Sweets about colors, matching, and to introduce patterns. To read more about this activity or to get the printable to go with it, please go here.

Language Arts: Learning about the Alphabet

Little Sweets has a new favorite song; "The Alphabet Train" by Dr. Jean. We listened to this song four times in a row before daddy and I decided that was enough. Little Sweets danced on her alphabet mats as she listened to the song. She also got out her alphabet puzzle as soon as the song started playing.

Tot School Week 3

This week I decided to do things differently. I don't have a theme, but instead have divided activities up by subject area.


Science Activity: We are still learning about animals. Little Sweets loved going to the pond that is near our house. She got to see ducks and turtles. She enjoyed quacking at the ducks. She also saw lots of people walking dogs. She barked at most of the dogs and meowed at a chihuhua.

Math Activity:Sorting fruit loops by color

Language Arts Activities: We are working on the alphabet. We listened to the song The Alphabet Train by Dr. Jean and Little Sweets worked on her alphabet puzzle.

Art Activities: Talked about colors as we made fruit loop necklaces. We also made colored salt jars. (We made the noodle necklace a few weeks ago.)

Field Trip: We went to Edventure the Children's Museum in Columbia

I thought this was the cutest exhibit, a mini grocery store for kids. Little Sweets knew exactly what to do since she likes to go to shopping with mommy. When she was finished shopping she had to put everything back. She knew exactly where everything went. She's just like her daddy very organized and puts everything back in its place.

Colored Noodle Necklaces

Making Patterns with Noodle Necklaces
Today as I was rummaging through my old teaching materials I found a box of rigatoni noodles. When I taught kindergarten I used the noodles to teach about patterns. We colored the rigatoni noodles ourselves and then made pattern necklaces out them. This is a fun project you can do at home with your child. You will need rigatoni noodles, Ziploc bags, yarn, and food coloring. Place the noodles in the Ziploc bag and put a few drops of food coloring in the bag. Then shake the bag. Place the noodles on a paper towel until they are dry. Let the child pick out the noodles they want to put on their necklace. Practice making different patterns with the noodles. Help your child make a pattern for their necklace. Encourage your child to put the noodles on the yarn themselves; this will help improve fine motor skills. When they are finished putting their noodles on the yarn, tie a knot in the yarn and let them wear their necklace.

This is also a fun activity to teach colors. Little Sweets is obviously too young to understand patterns, but I was able to talk to her about the different colors. She also loves to wear necklaces which is why I decided to do the activity in the first place.

Necklace Making Turns into a Sensory Activity
As you will soon find out I have become an extremely frugal person. I love to come up with new activities with materials we already have. So instead of throwing out the Ziploc bags that still contained some food coloring, I put water in them. Little Sweets loved it. We talked about the color of the water in the bag, then we poured the water into a bowl and played in it. We mixed the different colored water together and talked about the new colors that were made. Little Sweets had a ball. Eventually she figured out she could drink the water and ended up pouring it all over herself. What started out as an activity about colors turned into a fun sensory activity. We made a huge mess all over the floor and all over Little Sweets, but it was worth it. If you do this activity be prepared to clean up a big mess and don't wear nice clothes while doing it. Little sweets ended up wearing only her diaper by the time we were done playing in the water.