Tot School - If you give a Tot a book...

Sprout is 22 months old

This week we focused on Laura Numeroff's books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake Big Book.  These are two of my favorite books for little ones.  As we were reading these, I kept thinking about all the activities we will be able to do for these when Sprout gets older.  I love how the same book can be applied to kids of different ages, and they all get something different out of it.  I know that it will be great in the future.

Tot Trays

This Tot Trays we did this week were:

• If You Give a... File Folder Game
• Playdough
• Stickers 

Again, this week there were more activities out, but Sprout wasn't all that interest.  Ironically, she had been trying to get at her Tot Trays whenever we walked past that room, but when it was actually time she decided she would rather be doing other things.

Like...

I guess it's time to actually put this in the garage and not just out of the family room.

But she did play with her new file folder game a little.  I think mommy liked it a lot more than she did.

Of course, she loved playing with stickers again.  This seems to have become a new favorite.

I was shocked when she pulled out the playdough this week and actually wanted to use it.  Usually, this one just sits on the shelf and she ignores it for the week.

She also thought it was fun when I was showing her how to roll the playdough into snakes and balls.  This is what she did with the balls.  I thought it was pretty creative.

Projects

This week I thought we would make pancakes and cookies to go along with our books.  One morning I thought we would make pancakes, and asked Sprout to help.  She decided it was more fun carrying on with her current activity.

But she did enjoy eating them.

I spent the rest of the week trying to find the time to make cookies.  As it turned out we made them one night toward the end of the week after dinner.  I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual process, as I was a little too hands on.  Here is Sprout checking out the cookies in the over making sure everything is okay.

And of course she loved eating these too.  JGD took these pictures, as I was trying to make sure that my couch didn't get smudged.  (I know using her chair at the table would have been a good idea, but for the amount of time it took her to eat the cookie, it would have been more time getting in and out!)

We also made a pig and a mouse to go along with our books this week.  (These should be our stART craft for the week, but so far I haven't gotten around to the separate post).

For the pig, I cut out a red circle (I didn't have any pink construction paper, and Sprout picked red) for the head and a smaller circle for the snout.  Then I cut out a couple ears and gave Sprout the googly eyes.


I was so impressed with where she placed everything.

Until... the ears.  This is when I had the "bad mommy moment" of taking them off and asking her to put them on again.  And sure enough she put them back in the same spot.  "So there, Mommy!"

When we made the mouse, we used a sheet that I had printed off a while ago from First School.  We just did the head.  Somehow, I accidentally printed off two.  So I cut one out myself, and let Sprout work on one.

These scissors are still tough for Sprout to use.  I think I'm going to get her these (Melissa & Doug Educational Toy ChildSafe Scissor Set) instead.


I glued the pink part of the ear on to the grey to make it a little more toddler friendly.  Sprout did the rest.

And even though I didn't get a picture before she dismantled the whole thing, it looked a lot like her pig!

Practical Play

We decided to take a family field trip to a local landscaping place that also have a U-Pick it area.  This was a lot of fun for us.  (Well, so I heard, JGD took Sprout, while I picked some things for dinner.)

We were greeted by:

 

and

 

Then we found

Then it was time to go pick some food.  They had:

Red Chard

Strawberries

Chives

Kohlrabi

Bell peppers

We also picked some spinach, but that's not that interesting to look at.  They had eggplants, blueberries, onions, lettuce, and a whole bunch more.  And this is the end of the season for us!  (Backwards, I know!)


Sprout's Books
I've been meaning to put these in a post for a couple weeks.  These have become Sprout's go to books.


She loves her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Look and Find book.  She is now at the point where she understands what she is supposed to do and will point to the object/character in the box and then find them in the picture!



She also loves her Little Einsteins Animal Alphabet book.  "Eo!"  She loves look at this book.  She is getting really into letters (even though we haven't really worked with them), so she loves looking through this book. 




This week she got a set of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse mini board books in a carrying box, and loves her "Gickey" books.  She carries them all over the house.  I think she likes taking them out and putting them back in more than reading them right now, but she does let us read them every once in a while.

Next Week

Next week is kind of up in the air right now, as I have just realized it is going to be a really crazy week or two.  We'll see what we can get done.

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

To see what other stART projects people did this week.  Go to A Mommy's Adventure.

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.