Tot School: A is for Apples (Fruit Theme)

Sophie is 23-25 months old during these activities.

We started our first letter "week" back in March.  Currently, it is still sitting on our Tot School shelf!  A lot has happened in our life between now and then, and changing out the Tot School activities just hasn't been priority! Fortunately, Sophie is still enjoying the activities, so it hasn't been too much of an issue.

Letter of the Week: Aa

Object and Theme:  Apples/Fruit

Color: Red

- Memory Verse:  Genesis 1:1.  In the future the verses may correspond with the letter of the alphabet, but I'm more interested in her memorizing the Scripture rather than have a new verse every week or two.  We'll stick with a verse until she gets it.  She did a great job with this one, and I'm pretty sure hearing her say it is one of my favorite things ever: "In binging, God acrated the heavens and earfs. Gensis mun mun."  Seriously adorable. :)

- Books: The main book we read with this theme was Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins.  The repetition in this one made it a huge hit!  Other books included The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Go, Go Grapes!  by April Pulley Sayre.

Sensory Fun

I had a really simple sensory bin with some red beans and rice.  I added some scoops, a few foam letter As, and the ABC Find It! A's from 1+1+1=1.  Sophie didn't really seem to get the idea of matching up the loose pieces with the letter mat, probably because they were all different sizes.  She had fun finding A's in the beans though, and as always had a great time pouring and transferring.

What's on the Shelf?

Lacing Beads.  Sophie really started to get good at the lacing beads this week!  I pulled out just the red ones to help reinforce our color of the week.

Playdoh with an A, apple, and acorn-shaped cookie cutters.  This probably ended up being her favorite activity from the shelf.  She received the Melissa and Doug Shape, Model, and Mold from my parents for her birthday and she loved playing with it.  She enjoyed making and squishing "A"s using the cookie cutters.

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Puzzle Book.  I pulled out the A-E page of the book and she really enjoyed playing with the magnets.  She did the puzzle the first few days, but then she remembered that magnets stick on our dishwasher and she spent the rest of the time playing with them there.  

Melissa and Doug Cutting Food Apple.  Her cutting skills definitely improved over time, but it's going to be a looonnnngggg time before this girl gets her hands on a real knife! ;)

Colored Apple Sort.  We also played a fun alphabet game with this tray.  It involved apple picking and a tambourine...seriously.  What fun is apple picking without a tambourine?! I shared the details over at The Activity Mom! Be sure to check it out!

Everyday Life Activities

We spent extra time in the produce department during our weekly grocery trips exploring the different fruits.  We talked about colors, textures, if it felt heavy, etc.  She loves being my helper by putting our fruits and vegetables into the bags!

We also attempted to make apple chips.  Sophie had a great time painting the apples with lemon juice and dipping them in cinnamon sugar.  Unfortunately, as with many things I find on Pinterest, this seemed pretty foolproof, but they didn't turn out as well as I hoped!  They stuck to the pan pretty bad and were a bit gummier than I anticipated.  Maybe if I cooked them a bit longer they would have turned out better, but Sophie still enjoyed them!

Fun with Printables

As I've said before, I am using the themes from 1+1+1=1 Tot School Printables as a guide for our letter exploration.  Sophie really enjoyed these printable activities.  Some I put in page protectors to reuse all week with dry-erase markers, and others we used as a one-time activity.  We didn't do all that are available, but we will branch out more as we continue.  Her favorite was using her Do-A-Dot paints to cover the Aa's.  

Arts and Crafts

Sophie LOVES gluing!  I definitely need to make sure to include a gluing activity in my plans in the future.  I love how the apple turned out!  (And honestly, my pride is very glad that the ant is covered in black paper...it was a pretty pathetic drawing done on the fly for a little girl who wanted "more glue"!)

We also tried our hands at apple printing.  I don't know if my paint was too thin or if I just gave her too much, but this was a mess!  She had a blast though, and she did get one or two good prints where she could see the star from the inside of the apple.

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I might link to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Teaching Tuesdays at Intentional Homeschool
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars