2.24.2013

tot school - 20 months

Hooray! It was our first week back in Tot School in a couple of weeks and it felt great. Though I had intended to coordinate this with Valentine's Day, that failed and we had pink week this past week. It worked out okay because both Ethan and I were thrilled to resume our Tot School activities and each day was such a blast.

THIS WEEK IN TOT SCHOOL:

From Top to Bottom:
1. Rainbow Fish Color Matching - I had found a Rainbow Fish coloring sheet online and drawn in little star shapes. Ethan got to match the star stickers to the coordinating color stars in the fish, which we was excellent at minus the fact the star stickers were just a little too tiny for him to handle easily. They kept getting folded over or stuck in between his fingers and he quickly got frustrated and moved onto something else. Instead, we improvised by pointing to the star stickers and then to the coordinating colors on the Rainbow Fish print-out and I helped him with the stickers.
2. Piggy Tail Stringing - This was the hit of the week! I printed a little pig out online and had my husband create a backing for it so it stood on a tray (neither of us are very crafty -- this was harder than it seemed for us!). Using a pipecleaner, I twisted up the tail into a little curly-cue. I painted an old toilet paper roll pink and sliced and cut the pieces into smaller rings. Ethan got to string the pink ringlets onto the pig's tail, which proved to be more challenging than he thought because of the twists in the pipecleaner. It was great to watch Ethan utilize his problem solving capabilities to figure out how to get the rings completely on the tail, be it using two hands or trying to unwind or stretch out the tail as he went. He loved doing this activity over and over.
3. Pink Counting - Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd throw in a little counting activity for numbers up to five. Ethan loved counting each item out with me on the tray, but had no interest in figuring out which numbers went with what. This tray got the least attention this week, other than Ethan pointing out the pink cupcakes and exclaiming "mmmmm!"
4. Pink Sensory Bin - The plus to me not being able to get my act together on time for Valentine's Day would be all of the wonderful clearance pink stuff I was able to get my hands on. Everything was more or less $0.30 and can be used for so many different activities! Ethan really enjoyed the sensory bin this week, which included a lot of "dress up" elements, like pink bunny ears, a pink heart headband and lots of crazy and fun Valentine's Day beads. Also included were some random pink boxes with lids he could put things in and some pink Easter eggs that I filled with different items to give them each a different sound when shaken, like bells and rice. Ethan's favorite item in the bin would be the pink popsicle shaped bubble container. He had a blast blowing bubbles in Tot School this week!
5. Pencil Garden - I filled a herb planter with rice and stuck in different colored pencils. I put out a little palette with matching pencil toppers. Ethan enjoyed the way this activity looked but found it a little difficult to get the pencil topper erasers on, even though he knew which pencils they matched up with. My husband and I both had to really use two hands and maneuver the erasers on, which I wish I would have noticed before I put it out for Ethan -- this frustrated him so much! Still, we had fun doing this activity together until Ethan realized the pencils (which were in point down) had points for coloring.
6. Pink Magnet Board - This was another flop this week, despite the magnet board usually being Ethan's favorite. I'm thinking he's just over the magnet board by now since it exists each week. That, or there weren't exactly many exciting or familiar pink items that I was able to include on the magnet board.
7. Object To Photo Matching - Ethan really loves matching objects to their corresponding pictures. This go round, I wanted to include items he didn't see regularly or wasn't familiar with, including an aftershave belonging to my husband and one of my favorite DVDs. He's always so proud when he gets the entire tray right with ease!

ARTS & CRAFTS

This was actually a big week for making art. It seemed all Ethan wanted to do was make art! We didn't really do any special projects this week, aside from making some President's Day art on President's Day:

Otherwise, we just did lots of pink art. Ethan really loved these foam stampers.

READING LOG:

We didn't make it to the library this week. I'm having library zoning issues that I'm trying to get worked out. Until I succeed, we're just rereading Ethan's books that he has at home. He did get a kick out of our new music listening space, and we spent a lot of time relaxing and listening to music or putting on music to inspire us while we made art.

LINKING UP WITH:

Tot School Montessori MondayI Can Teach My Child

No Time For Flash CardsFor the Kids Friday



5 comments:

  1. I love all the crafts you did with Ethan this week! I need to be better about doing those with Henry. Is always such a fight but I know that the more we do it the easier it will be for both of us!

    Great week as always. I've pinned that pig project and I'm TOTALLY doing that when we get to P week!

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    Replies
    1. For some reason, Ethan goes through these periods of only wanting to do art! Art, art, art, all day long. Other days, I can't get him to touch any of his art supplies. Toddlers are strange! I find some great print-outs on the Twisty Noodle website for coloring pages and I got the little sponge stampers for $0.30 at Target in their clearance aisles! Fun!

      Yay! I hope Henry likes the pig project! It was fun to watch Ethan really use his brain to figure out how to string the tail pieces.

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  2. I like the look of those foam stampers. We have some foam brushes but they look better fore little hands. I'll have to see if I can find some.

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  3. LOVE the little piggy! So adorable!

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