Tot School - Pumpkins

Sophie is 17.5 months old.

Last week was all about pumpkins!  Sophie had been to a pumpkin patch in St. Louis several weeks ago and had seen lots of pumpkins then, as well as visiting a small pumpkin stand here. (Momentary side vent:  There is a serious lack of pumpkin patches in our neck of the woods.)  So she was familiar with pumpkins and was already pointing them out around town as she saw them!  

Sensory Play

Sensory play this week was some orange playdoh I shaped into a pumpkin (with a foam shape stem).  She enjoyed the playdoh much more this time than she had in the past!  (As evidenced by the condition of my kitchen after our play time.  Yikes!  Thinking next time we may try it in the plastic pool in the kitchen.  But seriously, look how much fun she was having in that second picture - I couldn't bring myself to make her stop!)  The very first time she saw my "pumpkin", she pulled out the stem and said "geen" (green).  Wow!  She still doesn't seem to really have a grasp on colors (totally okay at this point!) but every once and a while she surprises me like this.  

I considered opening up a pumpkin to let her play in the gooey insides as a sensory experience, but this pregnant momma just couldn't handle it at this point.  Next year! :)

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was similar to one my sister made for Sophie's "Grandma Tot School" a few weeks ago.  I traced foam pumpkins that I picked up from the Dollar Tree and numbered them.  She's obviously not ready for numerals, but seeing them is just one more way to expose her to them.  She's loved "counting" things around the house, so this just provided opportunity to talk about the numbers as we put the foam pumpkins in place.  

Her second tray this week was a one-to-one correspondence activity with candy pumpkins and a paint palette.  She had no idea they were candy, so we didn't have an issue with her putting them into her mouth!  (I would be careful doing this activity if your child knows they are food!  I was careful to make sure Sophie never saw me eating the leftovers!) 

Her last tray was a pumpkin face activity.  I printed out a pumpkin shape on orange construction paper, cut out some happy pumpkin features, and added googley eyes.  This was a big hit!  I would ask her where the different parts of the face should go and she would put them on.  It was a great vocabulary builder as well as helping her understand the face better.  You could modify this for an older child by adding more options for the face as well as more body parts!  This will definitely be something we repeat in other ways.

Other Activities

The other big hit of the week was a set of pumpkin window clings (also from the Dollar Tree).  Our front window is the perfect height for Sophie to look out and is one of her favorite places.  She played with the "window stickers" all week long.  In fact, since they are more fall than Halloween, they are still up on our window and she is still playing with them!   (PS. The hat was all her!)

We did two different painting activities this week.  The first was "pumpkin" stamping with a friend.  I took slices of a pool noodle and they dipped them in orange paint to create pumpkins.  So, they were pretty much just circles on the page, but with older kids you could totally do more with this.  These little ones were just already done by the time they had finished the stamping part.  No worries! 

The other painting activity was finger painting on a paper plate to make a pumpkin face.  By the end of the week she was so good with her pumpkin face tot tray activity that I decided to make a "permanent" pumpkin face with her.  She painted the paper plate and then added on the eyes, nose and mouth I cut out for her.  I was so impressed with how well she did placing the parts of the face!  (And confession, honestly I was pretty proud of myself for controlling my urge to move the eyes just a *little bit* higher. Terrible, I know, but I resisted the urge!)

The next week will be spent doing some general fall activities!  I'll leave you with these sweet pictures of my sweet little Halloween peacock! :)

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 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
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 - Gray Week

Sophie is 17 months old.

This was the last of our color themed weeks!  I can't believe how far she has come since we first started doing Tot School back in June.  She has grown up so much just in that short time.  I am so thankful for the fun time we've had together doing Tot School.  

We had been traveling for two weeks right before this, so admittedly, gray week is a little less involved than our previous color weeks.  And even though I personally love the color gray, for a toddler, well, gray is just a little blah.

Sensory Bin

For her sensory bin this week, I just pulled out an old favorite.  We had been out of town and I couldn't come up with anything gray (and quick and on-hand) for her to explore, so I got out her rainbow rice and some tools we had around.  I added a funnel as a new way for her to play.  

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was a button snake that I made her.  She loves buttons, snaps, or zippers of any kind right now, so I thought this would be a hit.  It wasn't.  She could do it with help, but just wasn't that interested in it.  I may try again doing a button "board" instead - sewing a bunch of buttons on a piece of felt-wrapped foam core - so that at least one side is stable.  It was difficult with both the button and the felt shape moveable.  We'll put it away and try later. (No pictures of her trying it, because it took my hands to help her!)

Her second tot tray was super simple and she loved it!  I took my silver colander (not gray, I know, but close enough!) and some silver pipe cleaners and just let her go at putting them in the holes.  This was such a hit, that all the next week, long after this tray was put away, she would get the colander out of my cabinet, walk to her tot school shelf and said "play tot school."  So I ended up pulling it out again the following week because she specifically asked for it! :)  I wish I had a picture of her face when I "figured out" what she was wanting to do.  It was priceless!

Her final tot tray was a repeat of the black and white week.  She enjoyed the matching cards so much that I left them out for this week.  And besides, black and white make gray, right?  I like to think of this less as lazy and more as presenting her with an advanced color mixing lesson at an early age. ;)

Honestly, that's pretty much all we did last week (as far as planned Tot School activities) - it was just so crazy getting back into "real life." 

Our next several weeks (through the end of the year, actually) will be holiday and seasonally themed weeks.  There are just so many exciting things this time of year that I want to share with Sophie! :)  Next week will be all about pumpkins! 

I'm Guest Posting on The Activity Mom Today! :)

Hey guys!  I'm excited to share that I am guest posting on Activity MomThe Activity Mom today!

Be sure to stop by and check out my Toddler Thankfulness Tree!

While you are there, be sure to explore the TONS of other great ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, and kids of all ages!

Sophie's Got a Secret...

She's going to be a big sister in April! :)  I'm due April 30 and am currently 14 weeks along.  We are absolutely thrilled and feel so blessed.

This is the best picture my squirmy little shy one would let us get last time.  He or she was facing away but you can just barely see a face profile.  So sweet!

So, now you know why the blog has slacked off a bit in the last couple months - I've been completely exhausted!  Naptimes have been used for my own nap rather than blogging (or dishes, or laundry... :/), but I'm starting to feel that beautiful second trimester return of my energy and am hopefully back at blogging a bit more regularly!

Grandma's Tot School

Allow me to just brag for a second.  I have the best mom ever.  We live 14 hours away from my family, but my mom goes out of her way to be a fabulous grandma despite the distance.  If she's not dressing up for a Skype tea party or singing countless verses of "Five Little Monkeys" through the computer screen, she's cutting out felt "paper" dolls for Sophie to play with.  (More on these later!)  She's seriously pretty fabulous.

Sophie and I just recently got to spend almost two weeks in St. Louis.  Knowing how much she likes her Tot School time, my mom set up a special "Grandma Tot School" just for her.  My awesome sister helped as well (sharing from her stash of kindergarten teacher stuff!).  Here are some of the fun activities they did!

Foam Mat Puzzle

My mom found this Disney princess foam mat puzzle at a garage sale (she's a pretty great garage saler too!) and Sophie had lots of fun playing with it!  She couldn't quite connect the pieces really well yet, but she enjoyed stacking the pieces and counting with Grandma.

One-to-One Correspondence with Foam Blocks

Sophie has taken off with the one-to-one correspondence concept lately, so my mom had a bucket of foam blocks (from the kindergarten teacher's stash!) and an ice cube tray for Sophie to play with.  Also, foam shapes are fun to throw. :)

Beanbags

Grandma included the constant favorite around here - beanbags!  We mostly threw them, but stacking is sometimes fun as well. (PS. Aren't the pumpkin bins she used as her "trays" the cutest?!)

Counting Pumpkins

This was a fabulous way to introduce Sophie to counting beyond our simply pointing and counting everything in sight (which is a current favorite activity).  My sister traced some foam pumpkins she found at the Dollar Tree on three different posters.  Sophie could then put the pumpkins on the outlines and we could count together.  It was kind of like a puzzle to her and she did a good job putting them on the posters.

Fall Tree

My mom drew an empty tree on a poster board and had a bucket full of foam fall leaves.  Sophie would put them on the tree to decorate it.  We choose not to attach them so that she could do it over and over again, but we will probably do this activity again and make some artwork with it!  She also liked putting them in the bucket as well as throwing the leaves (anybody catching a theme here?).

We also had lots of other fun times including the zoo and the pumpkin patch.  She loved the large dried corn bin at the pumpkin patch!  She probably spent twenty minutes playing (with her uncles burying her legs in the corn).

I'll post our regular, back-at-home Tot School week soon! :)

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 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
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

Titus 2sday at Time Warp Wife

Trivium Tuesday at Living and Learning at Home

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine

Tot School - Black and White

Sophie is 16.5 months old.

This was a really fun week!  I had debated over whether to do black and white separately or together and I am really glad I did them together.  

Sensory Bin

This week's sensory bin was a fun mix of different sizes and textures.  The base was white lima beans and black beans.  I found some smooth black river rocks at the Dollar Tree and added those along with some fluffy cotton balls.  Throw in a black spoon and some white pvc pipe pieces and you have a sensory bin!  She really enjoyed it, but was bothered that the pvc pieces were not cups and that the beans went all the way through.  She just kept looking, trying to figure out why her beans weren't staying in the tube!  Sweet girl. :)

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was ping pong balls in a paint palette.  She really liked the rock one-to-one correspondence activity from brown week last week, so I thought I would include another one this week.  However, I didn't take into account that this would be pretty challenging, one, because ping pong balls are easily knocked from their spots, and two, because both the ball and the palette were white.  She did a great job, though.  She just needed some help keeping the balls in place once she got them there so she didn't get frustrated.  I don't have a picture of this one, because she liked to do it on my lap.

Her second tray was by far the favorite of the week.  I printed these black and white three part cards from Memorizing the Moments (although I just made two copies of the second page - we're not quite ready for the full blown three part cards yet) and made a matching game.  She did such a great job!  Like I said last week, this skill has just really taken off in the last couple weeks and she couldn't get enough of it.  I would lay out one set of the cards and hand her one card at a time to match up.  So proud of her!  (Unfortunately, no pictures of this one either.  We had lots of lap snuggles this week!)

The third tray only lasted a day or so before it just got integrated with the sensory bin.  I made a rectangle out of painters tape on the tray and filled it with black beans.  I placed her mini broom there with the intention that she would sweep the beans into the rectangle.  Should have thought this one through better.  It was more like slapshots in hockey than a gentle sweeping motion.  Pretty soon the beans just got put in the sensory bin (by her) and I didn't fight it.  She sweeps up the other beans in her pool so we still get practice sweeping.

Other Activities

We had a yummy black and white snack this week that was a huge hit.  She tried chocolate chips and marshmallows for the first time and really enjoyed it.  We were able to talk about the colors and the different textures while she ate.

We also painted her pictures for her God Made Everything Color Book.  She dot painted a black sheep and finger painted a white cloud.  She is getting much more interested in this activity every time we do it!

Soon I'll post some catch-up posts - there has been a lot going on in our house lately, including a two week trip to St. Louis to visit family (which is why this post is two weeks late!).  Our next tot school week at home is the color gray - our last color theme! :)

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 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
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

Titus 2sday at Time Warp Wife

Trivium Tuesday at Living and Learning at Home

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine

Tot School - Brown

Sophie is 16 months old.

Sorry this week is so late in posting!  Our days have been shifted around here a little bit and I've just been thrown off my groove. :)  Last week we focused on the color brown.  I had many more ideas to go with this week that just didn't happen - we may have to revisit with a teddy bear theme or something down the road.

I didn't have a sensory bin this week because I was a slacker.  And the brilliant idea I thought I had ended up being black instead of  brown, so maybe it will make an appearance next week instead.  We'll see. 

Tot Trays

This week's tot trays were a bit challenging in the sense that Sophie found lots of ways to make mischief with them, so we could only play a bit before they had to be put "bye bye" for a few minutes.  But she really enjoyed all of them, which I was glad about.  She's also really started to like to sit on my lap to do her activities, which is super sweet and I enjoy.  However, it makes it difficult to get pictures!  :)  So I don't have as many pics to choose from this week.

Her first tray was brown river rocks in an ice cube tray.  This was by far the early favorite and the first time she was successful with one-to-one correspondence (putting one rock in each empty cube compartment).  She was really proud of herself.  This was something that kind of just clicked in the last couple weeks, along with matching and puzzles, I think she's had a little developmental growth spurt.  It's been so fun to see her figure out all these new things!  

Oh my goodness...who is that big girl?  She looks SO grown up in this picture!

Her second tray was several wooden balls and brown paper tubes.  The idea was for her to drop and roll the balls through the tubes.  She had fun with that sometimes, but had more fun stirring or throwing the balls.  This was probably not one of my better-thought-through tot trays - those wooden balls hurt to get hit by!  And usually the rule is we only throw balls, so I had a tough time trying to tell her not to throw them.

Her final tray was not very popular at the beginning, but she figured it out by the end of the week and it became the favorite.  I put a thin dowel rod into a small coffee canister and painted some wooden spools.  She enjoyed stacking and unstacking the spools onto the dowel as well as counting them.  (This one was pretty much exclusively enjoyed from my lap - sorry for the terrible picture, but not sorry for the snuggles!)

Other Activities

We made brownies early in the week and ate some chocolate pudding.  We also explored the brown dirt outside (not too much - she hates getting her hands dirty!).  

She also did her page for her God Made Everything color book.  This week we glued tissue paper squares onto the bear.  We've only really tried glueing one other time (both times I put a dot of glue where she wanted the paper and she put the paper), but she really seemed to enjoy it.  It also kept her occupied much longer than painting usually does. (PS.  Please notice the spot between the bear's eyes.  She wanted a piece there until she noticed that it covered his eyes.  Then she said "Uh oh. Eyes." and wanted it off.  Seriously. I love this girl!)

She really got the gist of her God Made Everything book and feltboard pieces this week.  We played over and over matching the pieces with the pages.  Sometimes she would deliberately choose the wrong piece and say "nooo" when she put it on the page.  Such a silly girl! :)

One of these days I'll get back to doing the Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready activities with her.  Things have just been crazy lately.  We'll be traveling to visit my family in Missouri next week and I'm hoping I can spend some time planning out some tot school stuff.  I really enjoy both planning and implementing these ideas, but it has just fallen by the wayside with other commitments I've got right now.  I really want to get back in a good groove with it, because I think it is great for both Sophie and me!

Next week is black and white 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 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
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

Titus 2sday at Time Warp Wife

Trivium Tuesday at Living and Learning at Home

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine