Tot School Catch-Up: February and March

Life got ca-razy in February and March, so while we did tot school (most weeks!), I haven't had a chance to document it. This will be one giant catch up post to finish up animals month and for weather month. We did a few more activities than I ended up taking pictures of, and some weeks we were just too dang busy to get too much done.

Ocean Animals

Maddie is 16 months old.

Math - Color Matching Sea Animals

We are still working on color matching. She's about 60% accurate right now, but she enjoyed this!

Practical Life - Transferring Ocean Animals

Maddie was SO good at this one, and loved it too! Her one to one correspondence is really improving.

Fun - Finding Nemo

We had never watched this movie before, so Ocean Week seemed like the perfect chance! Maddie kept saying "fishie, fishie!"

Practical Life - Pouring Blue Rice

Ha. I'm crazy, giving a young toddler a pouring activity. This... turned into a sensory activity. There was no pouring happening this time!

Art - Do a Dot Ocean Animals

I was surprised how many dots actually made it into the right spots! Mostly she just enjoyed playing with the dot markers.

Literacy - Themed books

This was the favorite of all the books we read this week! Which is great, because we'll be using it in May as part of our Feelings unit as well. :)

Farm Animals

Maddie is 16 months old.

Sensory - Pigpen Sensory Bin

This was a HUGE hit! My normally shy sensory child dug right in once she realized it was taste safe (chocolate pudding ;) ). She played for over half an hour with the pigs and the "mud."

Sensory - Washing Animals

Another fun sensory activity. She had so much fun washing the animals with a little sponge and playing in all the soap bubbles! We worked on animal sounds as we washed each animal as well.

Literacy - Themed Books

Click Clack Moo was the favorite this week!!

Dramatic Play - Little People Farm

We played with the Little People farm all week, pretending to care for the animals.

Rain

Maddie is 17 months old.

Sensory - Rain Themed Sensory Bin

She was actually not a big fan of this bin the first few days. She refused to touch anything but the peg people for a while. By the end of the week, she would scoop the rocks and played a little more, but something about this turned her off. Maybe the fuzzy clouds? I'm not entirely sure.

Art - Making Raindrops

I drew the umbrella, she added the rain. She LOVED this. Again, she's really into the dot markers lately!

Practical Life - Pouring "Rain"

I decided to try pouring again. This time was much improved!! She successfully poured the rice maybe three times before turning it into more of a sensory activity. :)

Music - Singing

We sang LOTS of songs about rain this week, which she loved.

Misc. - Book Kit

We checked out the rain book kit from the library, which had a rainstick and lots of fun books and songs to sing.

Snow

Maddie is 17 months.

Sensory - Snow Sensory Bin

I froze Epsom salts and added glitter to make a "snow" effect. Maddie LOVED this bin! She spent lots of time in it this week.

Art - Painting Ice

She painted a big block of ice with the watercolors. This was the first time using the watercolors and they were a big hit!

Art - Glitter Snowflake

I put down glue in the shape of a snowflake, and Maddie poured glitter on it. She was so proud of this! We hung it on the fridge and she had to show EVERYONE who came to our house. :)

Misc. - Book Kit

We checked out the snow book kit from our library, which had lots of books, a snowman movie, and a snowman puppet that Maddie loved!

We also did a sunshine week, but I don't have any pictures or remember much of what we did. We had a cloud week on the books, but didn't make it to any of those activities either.

Tiny Tot School: Pets

Maddie is 16 months old.

Math - Color Matching Dogs/Bones

I was worried, at first, about matching colors. I didn't think Maddie was quite there yet. After about 5 minutes of just playing with these dogs/bones, Maddie ended up correctly matching all 4!! I figured it was a fluke, so I tried again. She got them all again! This girl has been holding out on me.

Practical Life - Dog Grooming

This was the favorite this week. Maddie has been crawling around with the dog and the brush ever since we did this on Wednesday!

Literacy - Painting the Letter C

We read a book about kitties and then painting a letter "c" for cat.

Art - Harry the Dirty Dog Project

We read Harry the Dirty Dog and then she used chalk to create both a "clean" and "dirty" Harry. Really and truly, the dirty Harry was the only one she cared about... probably because she's right handed and that was the one on the right. :)

Literacy - Reading

We don't have as many pet books as zoo books, but Maddie sure loved Mouse Paint. We've read it many times this week!

Practical Life/Fine Motor - Putting Band-Aids on a Stuffed Cat

She is currently obsessed with this Marie stuffed animal, so I created some simple felt bandaids she could stick onto her. She loved it!

Tiny Tot School: Zoo Animals

Maddie is 16 months.

I kind of changed the way we do tot school this month. Instead of 3 or 4 activities she does every day, I'm choosing around 6 that she does once per week, unless of course she requests to do the activity again. It's working better for us. We tend to do tot school 3 days per week, 2 activities per day. Ish. We're pretty flexible, and it's working for us so far. :) Sorry for the crappy phone pictures too, my DSLR is currently having issues.

Literacy - Dear Zoo Storytelling Basket

Maddie isn't quite old enough to understand a storytelling basket, but she loved this! Each page of the book, after we read it, I would ask Maddie to find that animal. She was correct about 90% of the time! I was impressed! This became her FAVORITE book this week. We read it over and over and over and over again.

Art - Animal Footprints

My child loves anything to do with paint, so this was a definite hit! I gathered some different zoo animals and showed her how to put paint on their feet and stamp it onto the paper. She ended up just finger painting by the end. :)

Fine Motor - Playdough Zoo

This was another big hit! Maddie doesn't quite have the motor skills to put the craft sticks back into the playdough, but we're working on those skills. :) She really enjoyed pretending the animals were in the zoo and taking them out and putting them back in.

Art - Finger Painting

We ended up finger painting again because she just loves it so much. :)

Literacy - Reading Books

We read TONS of zoo related books this week! We have lots of them and Maddie is starting to really enjoy being read to these days.

Tiny Tot School: Rainbow

Maddie is 15 months.

Sensory - Rainbow Sensory Bin

I filled this bin with poms of all sizes and several different rainbow objects - including cups and spoons for stirring, pouring, and mixing. Maddie LOVED this and easily spent 20 minutes each day exploring.

Sensory - Rainbow Loom Sensory Bottle

This was a total bust. I'm surprised I even got a picture of her with it, because she literally spent 10 seconds on it and then refused to touch it again.

Math - Transferring Poms

A regular activity, but a good one. Maddie EASILY completed this one this week - it's amazing to see how much she has improved since we started! This was no big deal to her... guess it's time to introduce spooning and other ways of transferring.

Fine Motor - Pipe Cleaners in a Strainer

Maddie couldn't figure out how to get the pipe cleaners into the strainer holes, but she sure loved taking them out and seeing how many she could scrunch together in one hand.

Gross Motor - Throwing Rainbow Bean Bags

This activity was her second favorite, after the sensory bin. I sewed some basic bean bags with rainbow fabric and put them in a basket. She LOVED throwing them out of the basket and putting them back in. She would repeat over and over again!

Tiny Tot School: Orange

Maddie is 15 months.

So... I didn't take any pictures of tot school this past week. It was a crazy week, and I didn't get around to it! I wanted to still write a post though because I want to remember what we've done.

Math - Counting orange flowers

I used foam cutout flowers - just three of them - and wrote the numbers 1,2,3 on them. We practiced laying them out and counting. Maddie enjoyed this for maybe two days and then did not want to do it anymore after that. She did enjoy trying to hold all three in one hand though.

Cognitive Skills - Number Foam Puzzle

This is a new puzzle that Maddie hadn't seen before. It's a foam puzzle so it feels and behaves differently than her wooden Melissa & Doug puzzles she is familiar with. This was probably one of her favorite activities this week! She loved taking the pieces out... she never quite matched any up and put them back in, but not for lack of trying!

Fine Motor Skills - Craft Sticks in a Cheese Container

I opened up the three holes side of a parmesan cheese container and put orange craft sticks on her tray. This was easily her very favorite activity this week! She loved putting the sticks through the holes - she figured out pretty quickly how to do it and kept saying "I did it!!" " I did it!" each time she succeeded. It was so adorable and I love how excited she was.

Art - Orange Paint and an Orange Car

I gave Maddie orange paint and an orange hot wheels car to paint with. She wasn't super interested in making tracks with the car, so I gave her an orange square toy to stamp with. She liked that quite a bit, once she figured out how to use it!

Tiny Tot School: Purple

Maddie is 15 months.

We are slowly but surely making our way through the colors. I'm still not sure Maddie fully recognizes any of the colors, but she really enjoys doing tot school and she's still pretty young, so I know she'll catch on here before too long!

Fine Motor Skills - Clothespins on a Purple Cup

She could fairly easily pull the clothespins off, and she really enjoyed taking them off and putting them in the cup, then shaking the cup so they all fell out. :) She was never able to get the right "pinching" motion to be able to take them off this week.

Fine Motor Skills - Tearing Paper

Maddie really enjoyed this activity! Once I showed her how to tear the paper, this was all she wanted to do. The first couple days, I had to start the tear for her, but by Friday she could tear the paper independently.

Math/Science - Purple Magnets

Maddie has never really seen how magnets work before (I need to get some fridge ones she can play with!) and she was enthralled! She loved to try and stick them together and to the pan. I cut out some squares and circles in order to encourage some sorting, but Maddie was definitely not interested in that, only in how the magnets worked. :)

Art - Gluing Tissue Paper and Painting a Frame

We added to her "God Made Everything" book by gluing tissue paper to a purple flower. Maddie was very interested in the glue but did NOT like it on her hands, haha. She loved painting her picture frame, as you can see!


Also, totally off topic, but I pulled out my 50mm f1.8 lens again to take pictures this week. I forgot how much I love the ethereal quality of the pictures I get from it!! 

Tiny Tot School: Hanukkah

Maddie is 14 months old.

Tray #1 - Felt Menorah

I created a felt menorah for Maddie to explore this week. We practiced counting, one to one correspondence, and it was a sensory experience as well. She never really put the candles on the menorah, she much preferred to take them out of the basket and put them back in. :)

Tray #2 - Blue Candles, Floral Foam

Similar to our golf tee/floral foam activity. Maddie worked on finger strength and fine motor skills as she pushed candles into the foam and pulled them out. She enjoyed this activity a lot, and would do it over and over again each day.

Tray #3 - Yellow Button Pushing

For this activity, Maddie pushed yellow "gelt" through a buttonhole in an old Parmesan cheese container. She LOVED this, easily her favorite activity this week. She quickly figured out that, once there were several buttons in it, the container made a great rattling noise! She would put them all in, shake it around, and hand it to me to open and get the buttons out.

Tiny Tot School: Pink

Maddie is 14 months.

We had lots of fun with the color pink this week! No surprise there, Maddie is no stranger to this color. :) We tried some different activities too - some went over well, some not as much. That's okay, we are figuring this out as we go.

Sensory - Jello

Okay, so the Jello turned out red instead of pink, but that's okay. Maddie LOVED this. It took about 10 minutes the first day for her to warm up to it, but then she went to town every day. She would stick her hands in and just squeeze the life out of the Jello in order to feel it squish through her fingers. She also enjoyed picking it up and tearing it apart. I used the Jiggler recipe, but in hindsight, for sensory play, the regular recipe would probably be better.


Tray #1 - Pouring water

I thought maybe we could try a pouring tray, but I think Maddie is still too young for that. She just wanted to play with the lid on the teapot. Most of the week, I would pour a tiny bit into her cup and she would drink it - she loved that. We turned it into more of a grace & courtesy lesson than a pouring activity. We worked on the signs and oral language of "please" and "thank you." On Friday though, she surprised me by trying to pour the water from the pot into the cup! She did a decent job and was so proud of herself too.


Tray #2 - Pink pasta shells and egg carton

I painted some pasta shells pink (couldn't get the right color food coloring on them) and set them out with half an egg carton. Maddie only gets one to one correspondence about 50% of the time, so I want to do lots of these activities with her to really cement the idea in her head. She, however, does not care about what I want (haha!) so she never once used the tray as I had intended. Which is fine, but just so funny! She loved playing with the shells and putting them in and out of the basket. She also enjoyed opening and closing the egg carton all week.

Tray #3 - Pink stickers on paper

Since she loved stickers so much, I decided to do another sticker tray with her. This time, Maddie would point to the sticker she wanted and I would start it, then let her finish peeling it off and put it on the paper. She did SO much better with this activity this time around. It's amazing what 6 weeks or so of development will do!


Art - Coloring with pink marker

Maddie really impressed me this week! She knew which way to turn the marker in order to draw with it, and she was able to color quite a bit! She doesn't have the right hold down, but that's just a matter of age and development. She loved coloring her pink pig picture.


Playdough - Christmas

I made a Christmas-y playdough to use throughout the month this month. I colored it green and added green glitter. Maddie really enjoyed this as well - she is getting really interested in sensory activities! she loved smooshing and squeezing the playdough and breaking off chunks.

Tiny Tot School: Green

Maddie is 13 months.

Since I didn't get my act together last week until Wednesday, we did the color green both last week and this week.

Sensory - Green bubble wrap

Maddie had never really experienced bubble wrap before this. I knew she wouldn't quite have the finger strength to pop the bubbles, and she didn't... but if she balled it up and squeezed with her whole hand, she was able to get a few pops. She loved it for the first couple of days... and then totally lost interest.

Tray #1 - Green foam and golf tees

The idea of the activity was for Maddie to push the tees into the foam. It took several days of playing with this activity for her to understand how to do so. She really only "got" it the last day. However, she came up with lots of ways to play with it the rest of the time! Her favorite was pulling them OUT of the foam after I pushed them in. She also got really interested in using her fingernail to scrape the foam, turning it into more of a sensory activity.

Tray #2 - Green ribbon pulling

I rolled up some green ribbon and placed it in a Parmesan cheese container. Maddie would pull on it and get the ribbon out of the container. It took a few tries to figure out that she had to stabilize the container in order to get all the ribbon out. She would then wrap the ribbon around her like a scarf and make the funniest face. I can only assume it was an "I'm so pretty!" face.

Tray #3 - Alphabet Puzzle

I bought this puzzle because I knew Maddie would really like the little knobs on each piece. And, it can't hurt to get a little alphabet exposure, right?? :) She did really well taking the pieces out. I would name each letter as she took it out. She was never interested in putting them back in though, but she would observe each piece for quite some time as she took them out. I tried to emphasize M for Maddie, but she isn't quite there yet.

Tiny Tot School - Yellow

Maddie is 13 months.

Sensory - "Lemonade" Sensory Bucket

In retrospect, this is a better July activity than November one... oops. Even though we were inside, poor Maddie's fingers were almost blue from the cold. I colored water yellow, added ice and some whole lemons, and a few scoopers and let her go to town. She LOVED this. Mostly because she liked to suck on the ice (don't worry, she was fully supervised the whole time). Also, pigtails are my new favorite look for her.

Tray #1 - Banana Peeling

I neglected to take a picture of this one, but I cut a banana into about 1 inch wide slices, and gave her about 3-4 at a time. I showed her how to take the peel off and then eat the banana. I didn't think she would get it, but I was wrong! She instantly understood and quite enjoyed the activity even! The snack is a great motivator. :)

Tray #2 - Yellow Poms in a Paint Pallet

The idea is to help her learn one to one correspondence. Surprisingly (again!) she actually understood the concept the first go around. She would carefully take each pom and place it in its assigned spot, then look at me, grin, and dump the pallet onto the floor, where she would carefully put each pom back in the yellow bowl. We counted the poms each time as well.

Tray #3 - Yellow Stickies on Yellow Paper

She enjoyed the blue sticker activity so much, I knew she would enjoy this one! Once I showed her how to peel off the Post-Its, she was in toddler heaven. She peeled them off and stuck them right to the paper. Funny girl - I stuck one to my forehead to be silly, and she gave me a dirty look, took it off my head, and put it on the paper. OCD much, child? ;)