BIG Tot School: Fourth of July (Letter "j")

Sophie is 3 years old. (38 months)

NOTE:  To keep things organized, I will start calling Sophie's posts BIG Tot School.  Honestly, she is probably doing more preschool-style activities, but she's my baby and I can't bring myself to call it preschool yet...)

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to organize and plan Tot School/Preschool for Sophie at this point.  I can't really leave activities on a shelf because most of her activities involve items that Miles can't play with yet.  She's also wanting to do LOTS of activities.  She wants to do Tot School every morning during Miles' nap and we typically spend an hour to an hour and a half playing together.  So, I'm experimenting with workbox-style storage and planning.  We'll see how it works as we keep progressing.

For our Bible time this week, we were reading about the parable of the hidden treasure from Matthew 13.  We read from the Jesus Storybook Bible and acted out the story as well.  At the end of the week, I had Sophie tell me about the story while I wrote down her words.  Then we made a picture together to go along with it.  I'm working to gradually introduce the idea of narration to her.  

Our Memory Verse was the Fruit of the Spirit and Romans 3:23.

Our letter of the week was the letter "j" so she glued jewels (sequins) onto her "j" outline.

Most of the Fourth of July ideas came from Gift of Curiosity's Fourth of July Montessori Activities and printable pack.

Water Bead Transfer. Sophie used her spoon to transfer blue water beads back and forth.  These little guys are slippery and bouncy, so it was a little challenging at first, but she really enjoyed it.

Patriotic Shadow Matching. This matching game was from Gift of Curiosity's printable pack.  We hadn't ever done shadow matching before, but she got the hang of it right away and wanted to play it multiple times during the week.

Pre-writing Printables. Sophie loves writing and tracing in her "special book" and this week's patriotic themed pages (from Gift of Curiosity as well) were no exception. 

Wooden Bead Patterning.

Star Color Gradation. This was Sophie's first exposure to color grading.  I think the vocabulary of lighter and darker in this context was new for her.  This activity was a bit challenging for her and she wasn't super interested in repeated attempts.  It's something we will try again in the future.

Find the Flag. Similar to the Find the Birthday Cake activity she loved so much during our Birthday themed week, the idea of this activity was to hide a small flag behind one of the letters and call out the letter to search behind it.  I used some of the letters that are most difficult for Sophie to identify consistently.  

Toothpick flags into floral foam.

Painting Fireworks.  Since we saw fireworks from the condo when we were staying with my family, we had a quiet night in for the 4th of July. We got out the paint and painted fireworks to celebrate!  Miles used a dish brush, and Sophie used pipe cleaners twisted into a starburst pattern.  Sophie loved it, but Miles was less than impressed.  This was his second attempt at painting and he really wasn't anymore excited about it than the first time.

Super Simple Patriotic Treat. In a shameless last minute attempt to have a "cute" patriotic snack to celebrate (when we had gotten home from vacation the same day!) I rolled an ice cream sandwich in patriotic sprinkles.  My three year old pretty much thinks sprinkles are the greatest thing in the world, so I was a hero.  I'm sure the founding fathers would be proud. :)

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

Tot School: Fourth of July

Miles is 14 months old.

This past week was Miles' first Tot School shelf and he loved it!  I should go ahead and have the disclaimer that I have next to no completely clear pictures of my sweet son.  My sweet little tornado is constantly moving! :)

Fourth of July Parade.  This activity was actually for both Miles and Sophie.  I put on Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa and we shook our patriotic maracas and waved our American flags all throughout the house.  Sophie was into it right away.  Miles took a bit to warm up, but after a minute he decided to join in the fun!  (No...I did not dress him to match intentionally...but he looks adorable, doesn't he!)

Sensory Bottle.  I put some sparkly red "Easter grass", some pom poms, and star beads into a plastic jar for Miles to explore.  Pretty much anything that makes noise when he shakes it is a hit.

Patriotic Pom Pom Push.  Miles' favorite activity by far was the pom pom push.  I took a small snack cup I got from the Target Dollar section, cut a whole just a bit smaller than the pom poms, and showed him how to push them into the cup.  This was a great activity for him.  It was a bit of a challenge at first, but after a few tries he figured it out and probably played for ten minutes.  I was impressed by his perseverance!  This was really the first time I had seen him trying to really make something work the way he wanted it to.  It reminds me how much I love doing Tot School with my little ones to be able to witness all these learning moments!

Block Transfer.  Wooden blocks in colored cups.  Pretty self explanatory, but he enjoyed taking them in and out.  Sophie wanted to play with it too!  I had to laugh that she wanted HIS red and blue blocks when we had a whole basket of identical blocks in the playroom.

The last bag on the shelf was full of a few random red and blue odds and ends for Miles to explore. A sponge, a bean bag, a plastic star, and a squishy ball.  He never even touched it.  Hence, no pictures.

Overall, I think his first week of Tot School was a success!  It was nice to have some intentional play time with him.  I will need to figure out how to either involve Sophie productively, or find another way to occupy her so that Miles can have the focused time he deserves.  She would be playing well independently, but when we would start doing Tot School she would rush over to get all involved.  I did tell her that she could play with the items on his shelf, but if he got interested she had to give it to him right away. We'll figure it out, but Tot School for Miles is here to stay!

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

Shamrock Shape Puzzle Printable

Looking for a fun shape activity for St. Patrick's Day?  Be sure to check out the shamrock shape puzzle printable I'm sharing today at The Activity Mom.  Sophie LOVED this one!

Tot School - Hearts (Valentine's Day)

Sophie is 21 months old.

Better late than never, right?  This post is a little late in the writing, but we had so much fun with heart week I had to share!  We ended up spending two weeks with this theme because Sophie loved the activities so much and we were traveling for a few days the second week.

Sensory Bin

The sensory bin for heart week was filled with candy conversation hearts, small plastic heart containers I found at the dollar store, and foam hearts.  Sophie really enjoyed pouring and making noise with the conversation hearts.  I never had any issue with her trying to eat them since she had no idea they were candy, I just had to inform everyone that entered the house that she didn't know they were candy so they didn't say something that would encourage her to taste them! :)

Tot Trays

The trays were a hit this week!  Her first tray was heart sticks (umm...no idea what these things are actually called!) in floral foam. She loved it!

Her second tray was playdoh, which is always a winner.  I got out some heart cookie cutters and she made some hearts, but mostly she put it on her nose (Daddy taught her that) or made little balls.  This is her new "show your teeth" face.  Hilarious.

The third tray was a conversation heart color sorting printable I found at Teaching Tiny Tots.  She did this a few times with ease, but really preferred the other trays instead.  

Sophie's fourth tray was an heart lacing idea from Nicole at The Activity Mom.  Sophie tried this one and got frustrated and never really wanted to try again, unfortunately.  I just think she isn't quite ready, even though I thought this was a good stepping stone to threading.

Her fifth tray was utilizing one of my favorite DIY toys - a heart bracelet stacker.  We used heart-shaped bracelets from the Dollar Tree.  These bracelets have since been added to her purse, because they are a must-have fashion accessory.  She preferred stacking them on her arms to stacking them on the dowel rod, but she loved them!  One of her favorites!

The last tray was by far the favorite tray of the week.  This was two small bowls of conversation hearts for Sophie to practice pouring back and forth.  She got SO good at this skill during these weeks.  I think the bowls and hearts were the perfect size for her to practice with and were easy to clean up.  I was very impressed by her progress pouring - and she was so proud of herself.

 Other Activities

We made heart cookies with her BFF!  We had so much fun cutting out and decorating cookies on Valentine's Day with our good friends.  They turned out delicious, and of course they were works of art.  Sophie decided to pose with her cookie to make sure we got a good picture.

We also did several different arts and craft activities this week, including a heart do-a-dot, foam stickers, and gluing conversation hearts on to a heart outline.  (Be sure to get my free printable shape outlines here!)

 The weather started to warm up here (though it has since turned cold again) and so my loves got to spend some quality time riding the bike and playing outside! She kills me in those shades! :)

 Next up will be a really simple rectangle week!

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking 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

Conversation Heart Activities

Looking for some inexpensive and festive Valentine's Day activities to do with your little one?  Be sure to check out my latest post at The Activity Mom!

Tot School - Christmas

Sophie is 19 months old.

Last week (and continuing this week) has been so much fun!  We've done lots of Christmas activities in Tot School to celebrate the season.  I've wanted to be very intentional about focusing our family on the birth of Christ this holiday season and have tried to create some activities that provide lots of opportunity to share that story with Sophie.

Sensory Bin 

I have been excited about this sensory bin for several weeks!  I made a Nativity sensory bin for her using hay, Nativity figurines, farm animal toob figures, and some handmade trinkets to represent the other elements of the Nativity.  For full details, check out my post over at Activity Mom.

Sophie really liked this bin.  It was so sweet.  Her high chair is right next to our Tot School shelf and the very first morning the bin was out, she was so interested in it she didn't even want to finish her breakfast.  She spent a lot of time exploring this bin.  Her favorite parts were the jar of sparkly baby oil ("myrrh") and making all of the animals and character kiss Baby Jesus "night-night." I love that I can tell her the story of Christmas over and over as she explores this bin.

Tot Trays

Her first Tot Tray was a Christmas Light matching game (free printable available here).  Honestly, she didn't touch this one.  I may try to suggest it a couple times this week, but since these trays are going to be out for two weeks I didn't bother.  If she's not interested it's no big thing, but she seems to enjoy matching even though she rarely chooses it given more enticing options! :)

Her next tray was a Christmas Tree Pom Push box.  This one was a hit!  She loved pushing the craft poms through the holes and asking "where go?"  I tried to get a picture of her sweet face and hand expressions every time but I just couldn't capture it!  You can see my tutorial for making the push box here.  I love that this idea could be used for almost any theme!

Her third tray was stringing beads.  This was her first true stringing beads experience.  We've played with the beads and we've put them on skewers before, but had never tried on a string.  She really enjoyed doing it, even though she needed lots of assistance (which was expected).  I would either hold the bead for her while she pushed the string through, or she would hold the bead while I pushed the string and she grabbed it from the other side to pull.  She was so proud of herself for getting all the beads.  You can see her wearing her necklace in many of the other pictures! :)  I love how proud she looks in that picture modeling her hard work!

Her fourth tray was a simple cookie cutter transfer activity.  I had two Christmas tins and put all my Christmas cookie cutters in them for her to play with and move between tins.  She loved the sound they made hitting the bottom of an empty tin!  I also learned that she could identify and name a star through this activity!  

 The fifth tray this week was a fine motor activity using a little peg game I found at the Dollar Tree.  She really liked the "little men" and did a great job putting them in the holes in the Christmas tree.  This one was great to throw in my purse when we were going somewhere like a restaurant!

Her final tray was kind of a carry over from her Winter theme.  It was a jingle bell transferring activity, but it was mostly out because I wanted us to be able to play with the jingle bells.  We loved singing "Shake and Stop" and "Shake those Bells" from Carisa's Song Notebook at 1+1+1=1.  We also loved just putting on the Christmas Pandora station and dancing around with our bells.  

Other Activities

Sophie spent a TON of time playing with her Little People Nativity set.  It has been out all month, but we play with it almost every day.  She even wanted a blanket on her head like Mary to rock Baby Jesus. 

I also got her a magnet Nativity set I found at Hobby Lobby.  She was so sweet telling Daddy to "look" at each piece when he came home that day!  She would then jabber on and on like she was telling him all about it. Precious!

We also did lots of craft projects (some of which cannot be shared because they are Christmas gifts for family!) but she has fallen in love with glueing!  You can find my printable for the shape Nativity here.

Here I just made some simple shapes for her to glue on the Christmas Tree.

We won't be doing Tot School next week, because we will be at Disney World with my family!  We are so looking forward to seeing Sophie's reaction to all the exciting things there.  You can be sure I'll have some great pictures and stories to share.

We'll be starting with our shapes in the New Year!  I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking 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

Tot School - Winter

Sophie is 18.5 months old.

If you have seen a weather map of the country lately, you would probably know that while a Winter themed tot school would be perfect for most of the country, it seemed highly inappropriate in Florida this week!  We have had almost 80 degree weather some days.  The state obviously hasn't gotten the memo that it's December...but I digress.  Needless to say, even though it was almost hot outside, we were talking about a winter wonderland inside! :)

Sensory Bin

Sophie really liked the sensory bin this week.  I used cotton balls as the base and then added some "ice" in the form of clear and blue glass stones.  I also included some sparkly plastic snowflakes and Sophie's favorite part - two pretend cardinals (tree decorations from the Dollar Tree).  Her favorite thing to do (other than kiss and "love" the birds) was to pull out all the glass stones and put them on a plate.  The cotton balls kind of bothered her, because they pulled apart ("uh-oh"), but she loved separating the parts (a great toddler-created sorting activity!)

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was a total mom failure.  I got a snowflake stamp and an ink pad and planned to let her explore stamping.  I thought she would love it.  She did - only her mother made a horrible assumption that an ink pad placed with children's crafts and children's stamps and called "Silly Winks" would be a washable ink.  WRONG.  My daughter strongly dislikes getting her hands dirty, so when she got ink no them, I tried to wipe it off and allow her to keep stamping.  It wouldn't come off for anything.  She started freaking out, looking at her hands crying and saying "rub rub" (what she calls washing her hands).  I did what any sane woman would do in such a situation - called my mom for a solution!  I tried every suggestion she and google had (that wasn't a strong chemical or potentially harmful) and that ink wasn't budging.  My daughter was traumatized the rest of the night.  Way to go, Momma. I'm adding washable ink pads to her Christmas list.  We'll try again after we both recover.  Needless to say, there are no pictures of this one. ;)

Her second tray was MUCH less eventful.  I made one-to-one correspondence sheets for the numbers one through three and gave her enough plastic snowflakes to go in each spot.  We would count as she placed them in the circles. 

Her third tray was a big hit.  She definitely needs practice with a spoon, so I got some large jingle bells and a snowflake bowl for spooning practice.  She was occasionally successful with the spoon, but the real fun was shaking the jingle bells to music. :)

The fourth tray was more one-to-one correspondence and transferring practice.  The idea was to use the tweezers to move the "snowballs" into the ice cube tray.  She did that a few times, but the tweezers are still really difficult for her.  However, she likes exploring them, so I keep including them for her to play and practice with.

The fifth tray was by far the favorite and the one we spent the large majority of our time on this week.  It was a pouring activity using two metal condiment cups (four for a dollar at Walmart - they were absolutely the perfect size and one of my favorite finds!) and small glass beads.  She LOVED this activity.  It was the first pouring activity I had given her and we seriously spent all week pouring back and forth.  She did a great job, although sometimes she liked spilling the beads on purpose and playing with them on the tray.  

Her final tray was probably her second favorite.  I cut out some foam snowflakes (umm...WAY more difficult to do than I anticipated!) and she put them in and out of the snowflake jar.  She loved opening and closing the snap lid.

Other Activities

Window clings - these were such a hit for fall that I had to get her a new set for the winter and Christmas season.  She loved the "window stickers" and put them on and off all week long.  These will stay up through the new year.

Painting with cotton balls - She painted with cotton balls and white paint to make snow.  She really enjoyed it!  Although I honestly think she likes cleaning up afterward more! :)

Up next week:  Christmas!  I am so excited about the Christmas activities I have planned for her.  We've been doing several different crafts for Advent (I'll share some soon!), but tot school for the next two weeks will be all about Christmas.  I can't wait! :)

I'll leave you with this sweet picture from the Christmas parade last weekend!  Care to guess who she gets her great dimples from? ;)

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking 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