Tot School - Letter "D"

Letter "D"

(26 Months Old)

This week we had a lot of errands so we didn't get much tot school in.  Here are some pictures of some of the letter "D" activities we did.

Math Activity

"D" is for Dora Counting Cards.  I made these Dora cards for Little Sweets.  She used foam numbers to match the numbers on the card.  I wanted her to count the characters on the card, but most of the time she just matched the number without counting.  She loves counting, but I think she got distracted by the foam numbers.   

Dramatic Play

"D" is for dollhouse.  Little Sweets loved playing with her Little People doll house.  She likes to mix all her little people together so if you are wondering that is baby Jesus sleeping in the crib. 

File Folder Game

"D" is for dog.  Little Sweets loves dogs.  I found a matching file folder game at the file folder fun website.  Little Sweets loved matching the pictures of the dogs. 

Art

Little Sweets enjoyed making dot pictures using her bingo dot markers.  She also put dots on a letter "D" stencil that I made. 

Language Arts

We read lots of books together this week.  I picked out some Dr. Seuss books and Little Sweets really enjoyed them.  I didn't have any pictures from last week, but here are some pictures of Little Sweets looking and books from a few weeks ago. 

Bible Activity

This week we didn't do an art activity with our Bible stories.  We did continue to read a Bible story before bed and listened to Bible songs. 

Other Activities

I took Little Sweets to the splash pad near our house.  She loves running through the water.  It was really nice because all of the school aged kids are in school now so I don't have to worry about her getting run over.

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Tot School Letter "C"

Letter "C"

26 months old

This week we worked on some letter "C" Activities.  We also continued with potty training and Little Sweets has done fantastic.   : )

Language Art Activities

 Letter of the Week Alphabet Cards

Each week we put up the letter of the week on the wall. Little Sweets reviews the letters that on are on the wall throughout the week. Here she is finding the letter "C."

Tracing the Letter "C"

I drew the letter "C" using a highlighter. I helped Little Sweets trace over the letter with a darker colored marker.

Read-alouds and Laptime Reading

We read lots and lots of books together.  Little Sweets loves to sit on mommy and daddy's laps and just listen to stories.  She also likes to get a big pile of books together and lay on the floor reading them.

Math and Fine Motor Skills

Caterpillar Fun

I made caterpillars on the computer and printed out the pictures. Then I glued them to note cards. Each caterpillar is made up of a different number of circles. I wrote the number of circles on the corner of each card. Little Sweets put circle stickers on the circles that made up the caterpillar. Then she counted the stickers afterwards and I showed her the number

The note cards I made.

Little Sweets putting the circle stickers on the caterpillars. (She is working on her fine motor skills.)

Little Sweets showing mommy her caterpillar.  She was very excited.

Little Sweets counting the number of  circles on her caterpillar.

The finished note cards.

More fun with Caterpillars

I pulled out the caterpillar pattern cards that we worked on during our bug unit.  You can print out a copy for yourself by going here.  You may need to enlarge the caterpillars  depending on the size of your pom poms.  Little Sweets matched the pom poms to the colored circles on the caterpillar.  This was a great activity to use to work on her fine motor skills as well as matching.  I also showed her the color patterns on the caterpillars. 

The caterpillar cards.

Little Sweets placing the pom poms on the cards.   

Art/Fine Motor Activity

Cookie Cutters and Playdough

Little Sweets had fun using cookie cutters to cut out playdough cookies.  She also enjoyed just playing with the playdough.  Playdough is great for building children's fine motor skills.

Coloring

Little Sweets loves coloring.  She is coloring a Dora picture in this picture.

Cotton Ball Sheep to go with our Bible Story

One of the stories we read from Little Sweets Children's Bible was The parable of the lost sheep. (Matthew 18: 10-14)  After we read and talked about the story Little Sweets covered a sheep that I had cut out with white cotton balls.  She enjoyed this activity, but wanted to wash her hands every few minutes because the cotton would stick to her fingers.  : )

Other Activities

Language Arts Matching Game

Little Sweets matched the letters from her alphabet puzzle to the letter cards on the wall.  She thought it was so much fun that she asked to get more cards out so she could do more matching.  She loves this game and plays it almost everyday. 

Little Sweets matching a letter to the cards on the wall. 

Other Cards and letters that she matched.

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Tot School Letter "B" Activities

Letter "B" Activities

(26 months)

Last week we were potty training, but we did manage to do some tot school activities.  Our letter of the week was the letter "B."  Here are some of the activities we did for the letter "B."

Math Activities

Sorting Balls by Color

I know these are actually pom poms but they are shaped like balls and my daughter calls them balls so I decided to use them for our letter "B" activities.  Little Sweets sorted the balls by color.  I also tried to help her identify the colors as she sorted.  She still thinks everything is green, but we will continue to work on colors.

Sorting Balls by Size

This bag of balls had three different shapes.  Little Sweets had no trouble sorting the small balls, but she mixed the medium and large balls together.  They were similar in size which made the task more difficult.  She had fun with this activity, she really enjoys sorting.

Fine Motor Activities 

Placing Balls Inside a Plastic Bottle

Little Sweets loved this activity.  She placed all of her pom pom balls inside the plastic bottle. She had me empty the bottle several times so she could repeat this activity.  (FYI if you do this activity it is difficult to get the balls out and may take some time, especially if you use the larger pom pom balls.)

Building with Blocks

Little Sweets really enjoyed making towers with her blocks and then knocking them over.

Math/Fine Motor Activity

Counting/ Matching Game

I made these sport ball matching cards on my copy machine. Little Sweets matched the sports ball erasers to the number cards.  We also counted the balls on the card.

Dramatic Play with Bugs

Playing with Bugs

Little Sweets enjoyed playing with her bugs.  She did use some baskets and try to sort them, but she also played with them in the kitchen area and cooked them up for dinner.  (I wish I had a picture.)

Language Arts Activities

We put up the letter "B" on our letter wall and added the magnetic letter "B" to our alphabet tree.  Little Sweets found the letter "B" in words as we read.  We also spent time reading alphabet books and other fun books that Little Sweets loves.  I believe reading to your child is one of the best things you can do to prepare your child to learn to read. 

Other Fun Activities

Painting with Water Colors

Playing with Shaving Cream

Trying to Look Like Daddy

For more great tot school posts go here. 

Review for 100 Prayers God Loves to Hear, 100 Praise Songs

I recently received the book  100 Prayers God Loves to Hear, 100 Praise Songs in the mail courtesy of BookSneeze.com.  The book is written by Stephen Elkins and illustrated by Tim O'Conner.  Two CD's with 100 praise songs are also included with the book. 

I was very excited to have the opportunity to review this book.  We own the book 100 Bible Stories and 100 Bible songs which is written by the same author and my daughter loves this book.  When I recieved the book 100 Prayers God Loves to Hear, 100 Praise Songs in the mail I shared it with my daughter.  She immediatly recognized the illustration style and got excited about the book.  She is 2 years old and this book has become one of her favorite books.  She enjoys when I read the prayers with her and especially enjoys looking at the vibrant illustrations.  My daughter also really enjoys listening to the CD's that came with the book.

The book includes mini lessons about prayer, prayers, some quotes from the Bible, and quotes from famous individuals.  I liked most of the prayers and quotes.  There were just a few prayers and quotes I did not like. The songs that go with the book are fun especially for younger children.  I would recommend this book to families with preschoolers and early elementary children.  The book could be used as part of a devotion time with young children. 
                                
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. For more information about this program please go here.

Tax Free Weekend!!!

August 6-8 is tax free weekend in South Carolina.  This is a great time to save money on items needed for school.  I would suggest trying to shop at stores that offer additional discounts on top of not having to pay tax.  The tax free weekend in South Carolina applies to the following items:  clothing, accsessories, footwear, school supplies,  computers , and computer equipment.   To find out if your state offers tax free weekend click here.

Tot School- A is for Apples and Other Fun Activities

This year I decided to write my own curriculum for Little Sweets.  I will be using my ideas and incoroporating ideas I see from other preschool websites.  One theme I will be doing is a letter of the week. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this theme, but I have decided to go ahead with it.  I want to make it clear that this will not be the only way that I will be teaching language arts.  While I think that knowing the alphabet is important. I do not agree with a phonics only approach.  Learning to read is so much more than knowing letters and their sounds.  I plan on including other language arts activities in my posts.  I also plan to have a Bible theme section. I would like to intergrate Little Sweets interests into the curriculum, so I plan to include an other acticvities section too.  I hope you enjoy my posts. 

A is for Apples

Language Arts -Alphabet Books

I picked up some great alphabet books from the library this week.  I thought this would be a great way to introduce the alphabet and the letter of the week theme.  Here is a list of great books I got at the library:

Bruno Manari's ABC by Bruno Manari

Alphabet House by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Max's ABC's by Rosemary Wells

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin

Here is a list of great apple books we read this week too.

Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Ten Red Apples A Bartholomew Bear Counting Book by Virginia Miller

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

I taped a picture of a coconut tree onto our refridgerator and had Little Sweets put the letter A on the tree.  Each week I will have her put another letter on the tree.  This is a great way to retell the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Confessions of a Homeschooler has a big tree in her house that she uses.  I adapted her idea to use with my abc theme.  I am using magnets because I don't have the space to make such a big tree. 

Science- The Inside of an Apple and Apple Tasting

We read an awesome book called Apples, Apples, Apples, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  The book is about a family that goes apple picking.  The book has a lot of factual information about apples in it.  One thing it showed was what the inside of an apple looks like.  Little Sweets was so excited about the seeing a star in the apple in the book.  We cut our own apple open so she could see the star in a real apple. 

We also tasted three different kinds of apples.  I wish I had pictures, but I forgot to take some.  She loved the red delicious apple and the gold delicious apple.  She refused to eat the granny smilth apple after she tasted it. 

Math- Counting Apple Seeds

I took out the seeds from our granny smith apple.  We counted the seeds.  The apple had 9 seeds!  Our golden delicious apple only had 4 seeds.  I was surprised at how many seeds the granny smith had. I did some research and found out healthier trees produce apples with more seeds.

Art- Apple Prints

Little Sweets used her apple to make some apple prints.  This activity didn't last too long.  I was hoping to see the star print, but we weren't able to get a good print with the star.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get a pretty star print?

stArt- Ten Red Apples

This week we read the book Ten Red Apples A Bartholomew Bear Counting Book by Virginia Miller. Afterwards Little Sweets painted apples on her own apple tree.  I cut the top off of a water bottle and Little Sweets dipped the top in paint and made red circles on her tree.  After she finished with her tree she continued to paint with the bottle top. 

For more great stArt activities go here.

Math- Big and Little

We read the book; Big and Little by Margaret Miller. I found things around the house that were in the book and used them as props while we read the book. After reading the book I asked Little Sweets to find the big hat or the little hat and she would show them to me.

After we read the Big and Little Book I had Little Sweets sort pictures of big and little apples.

Other Fun Activities

Art- Footprints

I orginally wanted to show Little Sweets the difference between a big footprint (mine) and a little footprint (hers).  The prints didn't turn out, but Little Sweets really enjoyed painting her feet so I let her paint her feet and then wash them.  She liked this activity more than making the prints anyway. 

Playing in the Pool

We spent most of the week playing in the pool in the backyard.

Bible Story and Activity- Jesus Calms the Storm

This week I continued to tell Little Sweets the story; Jesus calms the storm Mark 4: 35-40.  While she was in the pool she splashed around and pretended there was a storm.  (I wish I had a better picture.)  She had a little raft in the pool that represented the boat and it would go up and down in the waves.  We would say Jesus says" stop storm"  and she'd stop making waves.  We talked about how powerful Jesus is.  We also talked about how Jesus can help us when we have storms in our heart.  I explained that when we are angry and want to throw a tantrum we can ask Jesus to help stop the storm in heart and help us not to throw the tantrum.

Language Arts- Enviromental Print

Enviromental print is the print that is around us that we see everyday.  Examples are restaraunt signs and logos.  These printed materials can be used to help teach our children to read.  I had planned on eventually making a book of enviromental print when Little Sweets got older. This week she started reading the words on logos herself so I thought it would be a great time to start a book.  These are three logos she can read, not because I taught her but because she recognizes the print.  This can be used as a building block to teach reading and build children's confidence about reading.  Here are some websites I found that share great ideas about enviromental print if you are interested. 

http://www.sharonmacdonald.com/environmental-print.aspx

http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/teachers/environmentalprint.html

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