4.07.2013

tot school - 21 months

B week ended up being two weeks long. Last weekend, I was so very sick and barely had enough energy in me to walk out to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, let alone put together an entire week of tot school curriculum. Our B week curriculum was strange in the sense that the hits were hits and the misses -- well, they were definitely misses.

THIS WEEK IN TOT SCHOOL:

During A week, we did a similar activity but with an airplane that Ethan "flew" to trace the letter A. He loved the airplane activity so much that I was sure to recreate it for B week using a boat.

For some reason, the boat with the letter B ended up being a huge flop. Ethan loved playing with the boat but refused to keep it on the tray or trace the letter B with it. It ended up becoming his newest tub toy!

Another flop was the bean sorting activity -- which surprised me, because I was sure this would be Ethan's favorite!

The point of the activity was to sort the beans into the lowercase and uppercase letter B. Ethan took one look at this activity, poured the beans on the floor and walked away from it.

Lately, Ethan's been really into matching and babies. I printed some stock images of some babies and made a matching game for him that he absolutely loved. We did this one again and again. Once he started to memorize which order the babies went in, I reprinted the sheet to switch them around in a different order to keep the game fresh.

One of the tot trays that I was sure Ethan wouldn't want anything to do with was the bead pouring. He's never expressed an interest in the pouring activities in the past, but to my surprise he was super excited about this one.

He had trouble pouring the beads from one cup to the next at first. It took him a few tries before he was able to master it but once he did, he absolutely loved this activity.

One of the activities I was excited to try with Ethan was one I borrowed from The Kavanaugh Report. I brought in Ethan's old baby bathtub in from the garage and placed it in the tot school room with a baby doll (who came with toy bath accessories -- for $3!). From the moment he saw the tub and the baby in it, Ethan was so excited about giving the baby a bath. I didn't put water in the tub like I had planned because the plug wouldn't stay closed but Ethan didn't seem to mind. His imagination has really come into play lately and it's been so awesome to watch.

We also did a blackberry sorting activity using tongs. It was Ethan's first time using tongs and he was having trouble with it. He gave it a shot for about ten seconds and then decided the best thing to do with the blackberries would be to eat them.

We had some pretty fun activities planned for B week. Our local dollar store always has these tiny little creatures that you stick in water and by the end of the week, they become huge. We had placed a bug in water at the start of B week and by earlier today, it was full grown and ready to play with!

My sister was on spring break from school over the start of B week, so she joined us for some of our activities. We found some water balloons at the dollar store and spent a fun morning playing with them out back. Ethan absolutely loved the balloons!

One of Ethan's favorite B week activities was our bubble tub that I set up in the backyard. I filled a beverage tub with some water and a Lush bubble bar and filled it with some B items, like a basket and some ballpit balls.

ARTS & CRAFTS

We had some fun art projects over B week as well!

Ethan's favorite B week art project was the painting we did with bouncy balls.

I put some construction paper in an old lasagna pan, squirted some paint in colors of Ethan's choosing and gave him three bouncy balls. He painted by bouncing or rolling the balls through the paint. He made some paintings by rolling the balls through the paint and others by bouncing or tossing them and it was fun to watch him explore the different patterns the balls made in the paint depending on how he moved them!

We also painted a paper plate and turned it into a bird:

Since B week began over Easter week, we had fun making a special Easter craft for my husband to keep at his desk at work. Ethan loves using glue so I thought he would love this activity. At first he did great, gluing and adding cottonballs to the paper plate I had cut for him -- but then he went a little nuts with the glue, and the two year old tantrum, and this project ended up taking us about six hours to complete from start to finish!

...But it turned out so cute that it was completely worth the struggle of washing glue out of both our hair and our clothing! ;)

We also made bees in a beehive, which was one of Ethan's favorite art projects, oh, ever to make. I taught him how to make "bzzzz!" sounds and he spent the entire day doing so.

We used toilet paper rolls dipped in paint to make the hive. I dipped Ethan's feet in yellow paint and stamped them onto the paper to make the bees and then drew on black stripes and a stinger.

We filled the same old lasagna pan with some shaving cream and some paint and then had fun dipping paper balloons into the paint and shaving cream mixture to make some marbled balloons.

I've been so excited to do this activity for the longest time. Ethan and I made a bird bath for the backyard using plastic pots and a clay saucer, which he happily decorated with acrylic paints, and a bird feeder using some wooden spoons and an old water bottle.

Both of these were super easy to make and I'm excited to say that since we made them, our backyard has been buzzing with bird activity! We cut slits in the water bottle big enough for a spoon to fit through with a little wiggle room. The birds are able to perch on the wooden spoons and peck out some of the seeds. The bird bath was also super simple -- and cheap! -- to make. I went to Wal-Mart and picked out three plastic pots: one small, medium and large. I used hot glue to attach the pots to one another upside down and also used hot glue to fasten the clay dish to the top. It was a project that took all of ten minutes to make and has made a world of difference in our backyard!

LINKING UP WITH:

Tot School Montessori MondayI Can Teach My Child

No Time For Flash CardsFor the Kids Friday



5 comments:

  1. Seriously, our kids are so alike! They are so fickle! I love the variety of stuff you did this week! I'm jealous that Ethan will do all those art projects, Henry hates doing artsy type stuff but there are so many cute projects out there for letters. And, can I just say that I LOVE that you not only got a different gendered baby for Ethan but also a different ethnicity! Thats so great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh and as always, I'm so jealous you guys are outside in bathing suits with water balloons...but that pretty much goes without saying ;)

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  2. I love this. My son is two but I want to try this with him.

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  3. نقل عفش بالباحه
    نقل عفش بعسير
    نقل عفش بالمجمعة
    نقل عفش بشرورة

    شركة نقل عفش
    اهم شركات مكافحة حشرات بالخبر كذلك معرض اهم شركة مكافحة حشرات بالدمام والخبر والجبيل والخبر والاحساء والقطيف كذلك شركة رش حشرات بالدمام ومكافحة الحشرات بالخبر

    ReplyDelete

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