Letter C

Letter C

Week 3

21 months, 22months, 3, and 4

On Monday I had an errand to run in the downtown square at the post office. I decided not to let an opportunity and day fly by without talking about the letter c. So, we went on a scavenger hunt through the city for letter C's. This was right up L's alley. He could point them out everywhere and would pose for me at each and every one. So proud of himself for finding them! The other kids may have just wanted to kill me for having them walk. ;)

These are all the ones L found through the city which I thought was a pretty good job. We also passed by construction work being done on a road and we talked about how C is for construction and caution when coming to yellow blinking lights.

C is also for creek, which the children naturally took to and played in for the afternoon. They loved reaching in and finding colorful leaves, rocks, and sticks. They would see who could make the biggest splash with a rock.

We did a tiny bit of our normal routine for the week and I did get a letter C sensory bucket together. Inside I placed a cape, cow watch, letter C puzzle piece, crane for construction work, crown, crayon, cup and letter c magnets. I went over the items in the bucket going over what the sound C makes. They were allowed to play with these items any time they wanted.

C is for castle. The children played in a bouncy castle most of the week. I have to say this was Andy's favorite for the week. He'd say, "jump! jump! jump!" clinging to the door to go outside and play in the castle. Thanks to the wonderful sun coming out for us this week we actually made it down to one of our favorite playgrounds, Castle Park. We talked about how different C verbs- climb and cross. They played in the wooden car and we even got to review our letter A with the airplane and alligator the children love to play on. At home I did centers with them one day. I pulled out cars and a castle and had them play for 30 minutes with these items. They have never really taken to toys very well but for some reason on this day they went the whole thirty minutes playing.

 I set this center out for clothes. Clothing the magnet doll. Sometimes this center is a hit and sometimes it's a dud. I never know what I'll get.

I cut left over fabric from other projects into shapes like clothes-- shirts, pants, dresses, and even a baby onesie. I hung it up on their coat racks like a clothes line. The activity would just be hanging the clothes up and maybe folding them. Anything. I thought J would at least really love this activity but I could only get her to do it once and she even cried "nooo" when I asked if she'd tried that activity. L did it once without being asked but he didn't seem to really care for it either. Maybe your kid would enjoy it? L's sister loved pointing out the clothes and I'm sure if she had stayed with me that day she would have played with it. She's eight. Oh well, it was another dud to the little ones.

However, these snap-n-learn counting ladybugs that I got from Goodwill for only a $1.50 was the biggest hit of the week! It went over colors and counting which is what I focused on the most this week with the kids. I sat with W and went over colors. He knew to match the colors together to make his ladybugs. I had J and L put the ladybugs in order from smallest number to largest number which was a challenge. First, they had no clue was the number "0" was and where to put it. When I explained it was none and that it would go before one it really upset them. In fact L insisted it did not belong anywhere and would hide it under his legs. 

We painted letter C's that I cut out of construction paper with cars. The kids dipped the cars in their choice of color and went to town driving their cars all of their papers. I learned this activity at Puddle Jumpers where I would take J and her sister last year. It's a free program offered in coweta county for kids 2 and 3. It's a mommy-and-me kind of class that you attend together once a week for maybe three months and the kids focus on their shapes and colors. It was fun and I recommend anyone who has an upcoming 2 year old to try and sign up!

I got this micro cactus on clearance at Michaels awhile back but thought it'd be a perfect little project and maybe something we could keep up with. It might teach them a tiny bit of responsibility to water the plant once a week with a spray bottle. It may end up dead or it may not even sprout with my luck and plants but they enjoyed planting it anyways.

 The children baked chocolate chip cookies this week. I didn't get a picture of the final product as we ate them too quickly. ;) They enjoyed baking and being in the kitchen. They will never pass up the opportunity to bake or cook.

The last thing we did this week is really an act of kindness. I wanted the kids to cook but for a family that needed it. I was able to find a family with a newborn who needed a dinner so I planned on making something easy the children could really do most of the work. We chose a penne pasta bake. The children crushed up the garlic and even diced up the onions using a chopper. Too bad the onions made our eyes burn and the children ended up crying that they would never come near an onion again. Me neither! I'm not a cook, I leave that to Derek. Anyways, the kids love stirring and mixing. They even loved adding the cheese on top. Hopefully it tastes great and the family will enjoy not cooking tonight and being with their newborn. :)

C is for Camping

On Monday while making breakfast I had a great idea that I would take the kids on a camping trip for 'C' week. Luckily I'm married to a guy who loves camping and has a few supplies that he didn't mind if we used. He also let me use one of his tents that he insisted was "one of the easiest tents to pitch" as he knows I've never pitched a tent or been camping. I mean the one time I was supposed to go camping as a child the trip was cancelled. If I remember correctly the camp site got flooded out the week before we left. I've only slept in a tent during one of my best friends birthday parties as a child. But that's it. I probably haven't been in one since I was twelve. So... here I was yesterday with the "easiest tent in the world," which I never fully got the darn thing right. Oh well!

First, I pulled the tent out of the bag and staked the tent to the ground which I guess I don't have the strength to pull tight enough across each way as my poles were always needing more room. Also, I had no idea if the poles went in the inside or the outside of the tent. I had to make a phone call to Derek. As he walked me through my questions the children were also on their cell phones calling their moms or Derek for help. Haha.

We made some progress but I learned that I had to make sure the rods were touching and none of the string was showing. Because well this was my first final product.

Somehow I made it look more like a teepee than a tent. Good thing there is FaceTime as I was able to show Derek what in the world was going on instead of just trying to describe the parts, plus how do you describe THAT? Besides HOT MESS.

J didn't seem to mind the teepee. She HAD been waiting and this was perfect for the few minutes it lasted.

In the end, after maybe 30 minutes of sweating and trying my hardest to figure this easy tent out here it was! Derek says the tent looks sad but it finally looked like a tent! I learned I will probably never go camping. Tents are a pain and too much work. Maybe if i get to lay out and drink lemonade by a waterfall while Derek pitches the tent and watches the kid I'd be more willing. Anyways, the kids LOVED the binoculars that Derek let them use. They would try and spot birds and squirrels that ran by and spy on each other.

 

Exploring all the items. J took to the egg holder while L took to binoculars and the carafe. The babies just decided to watch.The had gathered leaves and sticks into a pile in front of the tent and pretended it was their camp fire. They had canteens, a coffee carafe, an egg holder, compasses, binoculars, and a camping frying pan to help with their imaginative play. I also gave them cowboy/girl accessories like a hat and a bandanna. They loved the cowboy/girl dress up and most of the time pretended they were out in the west. They called each other "partner" and greeted everyone in the tent with "howdy!"

J and L gathered sticks for the campfire. Since counting is a 'c' word I tried to make sure we counted the sticks they were collecting.

In the 'morning' L made everyone coffee. (It was really mud and grass)

Somehow my cowboys/girl turned into magicians and were pulling items out of their hats. Haha. It was great to see their creative juices and silliness through out the afternoon. It was good to forget about staying inside and doing trays and actually getting out and enjoying the sunshine while also reinforcing letter 'c' with camping. Since the eldest is only four right now this is exactly what kind of learning they should be doing. They grow and learn so much just by imaginary play.

What kind is a camping trip if you don't tell scary stories? L told us a scary story about a girl who heard a noise and hid under Derek's bed. She then heard the front door open and BOO! It was L dressed up a ghost. I was apparently the girl. (when i was little, last year. Or so L says.) J told a story about marshmallows.

S'mores were made and enjoyed of course! How people eat these in the woods is beyond me as they are a MESS! Baby wipes really helped but I felt like they all needed a bath. All of them returned home painted in Hershey's chocolate so of course it was a great day! 

If you can't tell we had a pretty good day camping. Soaking up the sunshine, learning to pitch a tent, using their imaginations, running around, climbing up a play house, building their campfire, cooking their pretend dinners, eating s'mores and telling scary stories. I feel like they at least got the experience of camping and had a fun day together. I hope to be able to think of many more ideas for different letters which has them use their imaginative play in different settings. We'll see what I can think up during breakfast. :)

Tot School

Week 2

Letter B

21 months, 22 months, 3 years, and 4 years

 On Monday when we went out to play and the kids found a 'Happy Birthday' balloon just sitting outside of their neighbor's empty and abandoned home. How perfect! "B is for balloon," I told the children. Too bad when the kids went to pick it up the wind blew it right out of their hands and took it right into the sky. We watched it disappear into the clouds and L made sure to tell me that it was for his Granny in Heaven. (Sometimes kids say cute things that I'll just have to add in, of course.)

Nature sure is awesome! We found this butterfly on our rag that we used to wipe their bikes off with. The kids are crazy over butterflies and are always trying to catch them/ have them land on their fingers.

Every Monday I'm going to start off introducing the letter with the sound and then bring out this sensory bucket which will be filled with things around the house that start with the letter. This week it's the letter B so there is a baby, boy, brush, boot, Bb Bear puzzle piece, teddy bear, B magnet, wooden B block, Buzz lightyear, batman, baseball, and little B game pieces to an alphabet game. The kids get to play with whatever is in the bucket and I try to have them say each item.

We checked out eight 'B' books! The one that is hiding in the back is 'Arthur's Baby.' We read these in the mornings and a lot during lunch while they're eating. Their favorite book this week is called Bicycle Race. The children loved turning the pages and naming the colors and numbers of each bike. They loved seeing who was in the lead of the race on each page and which number and color bike actually won the race was quite a surprise. (the bicyclist had to stop and change their tire and was out for half the race)

I had bubble wrap left over from a gift that Andy's Gramy had given to him the day before so I used that to let the kids do bubble wrap painting! Seriously they can never get enough painting. I cut the bubble wrap into strips for each child and cut out letter B's, taped them onto the piece of paper and told the kids to dip their bubble wrap into the paint and stamp all over the paper. When the paint dried I pulled the B stencils off the paper and Woo-La! They thought this was magic. If I were to redo this project again I'd probably use thicker paper. The paper ripped when taking the stencils off. We also used blue paint since obviously it's starts with 'B.'

The children painted birdhouses to take home and hang up outside. The oldest child, L sat for thirty minutes fully focused painting his birdhouse making sure it looked perfect. I enjoy when I can tell some  kids are really into making their projects looks exactly the way they want it. Then they are so proud of themselves when it's finished.

They painted butterflies and added puffy glitter paint to them to give a bit of a texture. They love painting. We also talked about how "brush" starts with B.

Thanks to having teacher friends at Jefferson Parkway I came up with a stamping activity for the kids. They stamped the letter B, a boy, and a bear. Paint stamping was a hit and I'm sure we will do this again, even if every kid did come home covered in the red paint.

I purchased paper bear masks at michaels. ($1 for 6 masks) The kids colored them brown with crayons, glued pink foam on the ears, a pink pom pom for the nose and glitter for the whiskers. It's too bad I forgot the masks at the school or I would have gotten a photo of them completed and on the children's faces. Oh well, you'd forget them too if you had to get four kids out of a school while carrying diaper bags and activities. Whew. I'll get photos next week.

Every morning we watch a clip about the letter B on youtube. Today it was Sesame Streets' 'Letter B' song from the The Beatles. Way too funny. I had the kids sit and listen the first time around and then the second time around they were all about dancing to the song.

The 3 and 4 year old also trace their letters on laminated sheets with a dry erase marker. I also focus on having them work from top left to top right and then bottom left to bottom right. I never realized what a skill this is to learn and doesn't actually come naturally. I've learned everything is fun when using dry erase markers, and they can do it as many time as they like each day! I also keep these out after nap time so the first ones up can trace and keep quiet while the other's nap. Tracing is definitely something they enjoy, for now at least. 

This is the "beach" tray. I took yellow and blue felt and made the beach quickly. This idea actually just came to mind one morning. I used those decorative rocks from the dollar store as "seashells." When given the tray all the 'seashells' were scattered all over the beach (the yellow sand) and the goal was to sort the seashells by color and shapes into the little cups. This was the three year old's favorite activity! She did this one over and over again for the whole day.

Andy also enjoyed the beach tray. He wasn't into sorting but he did put rocks in the cups and would then pour them into other cups which was fine. He was working on his motor skills and never spilled a rock. He also sat and concentrated for at least five minutes which is the longest I've seen him concentrate or even work on a tray. This was an achievement! He too was fond of the little rocks the whole day and had one in his hand for quite awhile.

These two boys loved the bug activity tray. For this tray the children had to take these toy bugs and trace the big B and the little b. I came up with this activity while at the dollar tree and just brain storming.  These guys were awesome at placing the bugs and even enjoyed playing with the bugs as they placed them.

In this tray I used a felt burrito set made by Melissa & Doug. The kids enjoyed taking my order for my burrito and making what I ordered. I'd usually just pick three different items even though the burrito came with at least 12 different items. It was a challenge to listen and follow my directions of what three items I wanted as they wanted to throw all twelve items in each time but they eventually would listen and try to get my order right.

I had a bead set out for the children to work on their motor skills by stringing the beads on the laces. This activity got the least amount of attention. I am not sure if it's just too hard and takes too much time for them to really concentrate. We'll try it again another week.

The children were able to play and build cubes with waffle blocks. This activity the two older ones enjoyed the most and really focused on wanting to make cubes more than anything else. They had the skill mastered in a few minutes.

We gave a baby a bath this week. I got this idea from another blog. All the kids enjoyed this activity. They got to use real baby bath wash and a baby washcloth to use on the baby. All the kids enjoyed playing the water, of course.

They had to dry the baby off, and wrapped the baby burrito style. ;)

We dotted our B's/b's this week on this ball worksheet. The kids are still super excited to do these. Even the youngest has picked up on the instructions and kept most his dots on the b's! I was impressed.

Our sensory activity this week was with a boat and water. I bought little fish to go in the water with a scuba diver so the kids could pretend the scuba diver was diving off the boat and exploring in the blue water. I dyed the water with blue food coloring. (just one drop gave it a beautiful aqua color that made it more exciting for the kids) They also placed the little decorative rocks in the water for 'treasure'. These were then sorted over and over in the water. Even the older kids enjoyed this sensory activity as their siblings begged me one morning to leave it out for them. 

We blew bubbles almost every day. 

The children made banana pops for their 'B' snack this week. J cut two bananas in half this morning and inserted the lollipop sticks. We laid them on the cutting board and set them in the freezer. We left them in the freezer when we left for the school and came back for them three hours later. We immediately pulled them out of the freezer and let them thaw as we melted the chocolate in a cup. We used a deep narrow cup so we could have an easier time dipping the bananas in the chocolate. We then dipped them in sprinkles and Woo-la! Banana pops!

My awesome little students enjoyed these!

At the end of the week J and L could point out the letter Bb and tell you it's sound. They can list items that start with the letter. Andy and W can say the B sounds along with you and say the letter 'B'. This was a great week! They learning so much and still having so much fun each day. Woohoo!