Tot School - Goodnight Moon

Sprout is 22 months old

This week we focused on Goodnight Moon.  While I was trying to map out our themes for the next few weeks, I started looking for books to fit the themes.  As I was doing this, I decided to make a book the theme instead.  I think this was great for this week, and am looking forward to continuing this.

Tot Trays
This Tot Trays we did this week were:

• Goodnight Moon Tot Pack
• Color Wonder - Playhouse Disney
• Stickers (counting)

There were more (different trays) laid out for Sprout to use, but this is what she ended us doing this week.

I made a Goodnight Moon Tot Pack for Sprout.  Check out the Tot Pack and Trays page to see more than what I'm showing you here.  I made a coloring book that went along with the book.  There were a couple other activities too.  Including a pairs matching game which I'm sorry I don't have pictures of, and without the tennis racket from last week Sprout wasn't that interested in.

I also put out some stickers for Sprout to use, and I included a paper to start our counting practice.  This was the first actual activity we did that was a "counting activity."  Normally, I integrate it into everything else, but for this one it was the skill.  This is Sprout's final product.  (That is before she found it again a couple days later and pulled the stickers off.)

After she finished I let her put stickers on a different paper.

While she enjoyed doing that, she found other more interesting uses for the stickers.

Sprout also found her Color Wonder markers and coloring book (which I normally have on hand for restaurants).  And wanted to color.

Projects

To go along with Goodnight Moon, we made a "bowl full of mush."

This was actually oatmeal playdough (a bit sticky, but perfect for mush).  It was 2 parts oatmeal, 1 part flour, and 1 part water.  This was a great playdough recipe to make with Sprout because it didn't involve heat or boiling water.  (Notice she didn't mind getting her hands in this mess!)

Note (5/10/10) - When I went to set up this week's Tot Trays I noticed that some of the "mush" was overflowing out of the container I put it in.  I tried to just get rid of the hardened part and realized that it stank!  If you make this dough, just be sure not to keep it around too long.

We also painted a red balloon, using a comb.  Sprout didn't love using the comb because she got paint on her fingers.  So we moved on to a paintbrush and she was much happier.  This was our stART project for this week.

Sprout also had a great time using her favorite dot markers.  I got this page from Making Learning Fun.

I was very proud of her for actually "dotting" in the dots.

And of course we wore the tops on our fingers.

Practical Play

This week Sprout thought she would help me with our Challah.  I had already put everything through the bread machine (yes, I cheat) while she napped.  So all that was left when she woke up was to braid it.  I'm sorry I don't have a picture of my part of the product.

Just like my challah, she made 3 different parts.

Not like my challah, she thought that they would make a great beard/chin guard when mushed all together.

We also made a Mothers' Day card for Bubbie (my grandmother => Sprout's Great-Grandmother).

After a variety of failed ideas, on my end.  This was our final product for the card.

Next Week

Next week we will be doing Laura Numeroff's books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  and If You Give a Pig a Pancake Big Book.

    

Hope you all had a great week!  To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.

Tot School - Butterflies and Bugs

Sprout is almost 22 months old

This week we focused on butterflies and bugs.  Honestly, for some reason, I had a tough time getting back into the swing of things this week, and we didn't get much done.  Hopefully, I'll be better off for next week

Tot Trays
This week's Tot Trays were

• Visual Discrimination Matching Game
• Playdough
• Stickers
• Wooden Lacing Beads
• Sorting/transferring pompoms with tongs
• Foam Shape Butterfly

These were the Tot Trays that were laid out for Sprout, and she was somewhat interested in them, but for the most part she made up her own activities this week.

She did play with the Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads and had a great time.  We are still working on lacing more than one bead on the string.  Sprout did try this...

But soon decided that it was far more fun to wear them on her fingers.

 

Even while riding her car.

She is still learning how to use the Alligator tongs.  Here she is trying to figure out how to use them.

Sprout also found some blocks that we bought for her from IKEA.  She thought these would be a good addition to her Tot activities.  And really, how could I say no?

Projects

We had two project this week to.  The first went with Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Sprout really enjoyed reading this book.  We made a coffee filter butterfly, using dried markers to watercolor.  

Sprout then used the stamp markers (we normally use them to "reward" her for cleaning up) to decorate the doll clothespin we used to make the body of the butterfly.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the final product.

Our second project was our stART project for this week.  It went along with The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.  We made a contact paper/tissue paper suncatcher.  

Tot Pack

I had planned on using parts of the Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1, and making some elements of my own.  I made a good number of activities, but didn't really use most of them.  The one that we did use was a butterfly shape matching game.  Go check out the Tot Packs page to see what else I made.

Sprout really enjoyed the butterfly shapes matching game.  I wasn't sure how she was going to respond to this, because (as I've said before) she's not always into "traditional" matching ideas.  I guess you could say she wasn't into the "traditional" methods this time either.  She made her own activity.  I gave her 3 wings and then showed her a wing to match to one of those 3.  Apparently, she thought she needed to look at them from a different point of view.

After doing this, she thought that it would work better to put the cards on the tennis racket and work from there.  And you know what?  She loved playing this way, and did a great job  making matches.

Practical Play

Sprout wanted to try out the camera again this week.  I will admit that it is getting harder to take pictures of her working on projects because she wants to check out the camera.  She took this picture while sitting on my lap.  Yes, she figured out which button made the camera take a picture, and proceeded to take 3 of these pictures.  (Please ignore the toys under the chair, they have been picked up!)

Other Stuff

We took Sprout to a Garden Center nearby that has a Butterfly Pavilion.  We're thinking about planting a butterfly garden in back, so we thought we would check out what the garden center had while showing Sprout the butterflies.  They didn't have many, but she loved watching them fly around.

(I'm sorry there are no pictures, I forgot our smaller camera and my iPhone chose that time period not to work :-(. )

Next Week

While planning for the next couple weeks, I decided that we would pick a book to establish our theme and work from there.  Next week's book is Goodnight Moon.

I'm really looking forward to this theme and have been working to create projects and Tot Activities for Sprout to do next week.  We'll let you know how it goes.

Hope you all had a great week!  To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.

Tot School - Week 6

Sprout is 20 months old

This week our theme is Passover.  This holiday has become my favorite and I was looking forward to sharing it with Sprout.  What I forgot was all the preparation that goes into getting ready for the holiday, even when you don't have it at home.  We had all of our last minute errands to run to pick up the things we need for our trip to the beach.  Not to mention the search for Kosher for Passover snacks.


Enough excuses... what did we do this week?


Tot Trays
This week's Tot Trays were

• Color Pom Pom Sort
• Playdough
• Seder Plate Matching and Passover Symbols Matching
• Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads
• Watercolor Painting

Here is Sprout sorting the pom poms by color. I used clothespins with poms glued on to help her sort.  I spent a lot of time helping to guide her with this activity, and it will take some guidance as we continue to master this skill.

I thought that this would be a good week to teach Sprout how to use watercolor paints this week.  I found a variety of printables for Sprout to use and thought that it would be a good time to try something other than dot markers and crayons.


I apologize I don't have any pictures of Sprout doing the Passover matching games, but if you go to my Tot Packs page you can find the activities we did.  I will say that I need to make a harder shadow matching.  As soon as Sprout saw this, she took all the pieces off and then put them all right back in their correct places.  She has spent the rest of the week trying/pretending to eat the Z'roah (shank bone), which resemble a chicken leg.


We started with traditional watercolor paints.

Sprout enjoyed this, but it did seem a little tough for her to understand that she had to get the brush wet and then put it in the paint and then paint.  It's a lot of steps at this point, and she enjoyed painting the paint cups more than the paper.  This led me to get out the dried markers and I showed her how to use those to watercolor with markers.  This was great for her.

Projects

Our main project this week was to make a "Kos Eliahu" (cup for Elijah) to give to Sprout's Aunt and Uncle who host our Seder.  I always send flowers to thank them, but wanted to do something from us.  This was quite the process for me, as I tried to figure out how best to make this cup.  I knew what I wanted, but wasn't sure how to get there.

My first problem to solve was what to use for the base of our cup.  My first thought was to take one of Sprout's old containers from her drinkable yogurt and a plastic cup to make the cup.  

Then while looking for things to keep Sprout occupied during our family seder, we found an acrylic wine goblet that was really quite affordable.  After finding that, there was no way I could pass it up to use my makeshift cup as the base for this gift.  

To start our project, we ripped tissue paper into small pieces to glue onto our cup to get the stained glass effect.

We then used watered down glue to add the paper to the cup.  Sprout enjoyed for this a little while, but after a bit she got sticky and didn't really want anymore to do with our project.  I let the project dry to that point.  And then let Sprout add some more paper with a glue stick.  Honestly, Sprout still wasn't all that excited about it, but I got her to add a few more pieces.  And to be honest, I added a couple of my own.

I also took a glue gun and glued some ribbon around the base of the cup.

Our stART project his week went with Naomi Howland's The Matzah Man: A Passover Story.  We made matzah.  Although, it didn't come out, as I would have hoped it was a great experience for both of us, and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

Tot Pack

We didn't use a full Tot Pack this week.  I made a couple pieces of one to use with Sprout.  These would be the matching games we did for our Tot Trays.  Go to my Tot Packs page to find more.

Practical Play

This week we decided to turn Sprout's car seat around.  We kept her rear facing because I know that it is safer for her to be rear facing for as long as possible.  Click this link to read the American Academy of Pediatrics thoughts on this.  Also, Sprout was not heavy enough for us to change the seat around until a couple months ago.  We weren't planning to turn her  seat around, but she has been showing a lot of interest in being forward facing, so we thought it was time.  She seems pretty happy about it.

Sprout thought she would help us put our pots and pans away.  Actually, we were quite impressed when she pulled out a couple pots and lids and matched the successfully.  

Sprout also thought she would try to work on her ability to fit into small spaces.  She climbed into a plastic container.  (We were right there the whole time.)

Then thought she would go for a ride in her stroller.  (Sorry that the second picture is a little blurry. The camera focused on her knee instead of her face, and this was all I was able to get before she climbed out.)

My little monkey is also starting to climb up the stairs on her feet instead of her knees.  I don't have any pictures because she will only do this if she is holding someone's hand.  This makes it a bit tough to take a picture.  But I do have a picture of Sprout monkeying around at My Gym.

What we used this week

One of our favorite books this week was Dinosaur on Passover by Diane Levin Rauchwerger.  This is a great book about a dinosaur who comes to visit for Passover and how an overzealous house guest can send things awry, but everyone still had a great time!

Next Week

Next week is Passover and we will be spending the week visiting with family, having seders and avoiding bread products and enjoying the pool and beach.  I will be sure to share the pictures when we get back.

To learn more about Passover go to Chabad.org.  To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.