8.10.2014

tot school - letters w, x & y - age three

It's hard to believe we're almost finished with our second trek through the alphabet. I am excited to move onto our next set of themes which I've been busily brainstorming. I also have a few ideas to sort of pep up our tot school classroom and make it more age appropriate for Ethan. Our tot school classroom itself has seen many changes (including a room change!) and it's pretty great the way it is, but there are a few things I would like to add to help make it the "big kid" space that I know Ethan could really benefit from the more independent he becomes.

I decided to keep letter Z for this upcoming week as a grand finale to the alphabet of sorts so this week was focused on W, X and Y. These are all letters that Ethan knew very well prior to the week starting and, for me, these are always tricky letters to coordinate with activities. Still, Ethan really enjoyed himself in tot school this week and I, of course, love watching him and grow and learn. These have been very reflective times for me as a parent and I couldn't be more proud of this little boy or our tot school journey!

WEATHER WANTS

This was Ethan's favorite activity of the week. I had placed out several cups labeled with various types of weather: sunny, rainy, stormy, windy and snowy. I had also cut out some different items that you would want to go with the coordinating weather -- such as sunscreen (for sunny weather), mittens (for snowy weather), shelter (for stormy weather) or rain boots (for rainy weather). Our weather has been insane as per usual this summer so Ethan has really been into the different types of weather, which I think is what made this tray a favorite. A few weeks ago we were having lunch with a friend on a bright, sunny day when remnants of a tropical storm rolled in and we watched hail smash down and the streets flood. Ethan still likes to talk about "Tropical Storm Arrfur" (Arthur) and loved recounting it while working on the stormy weather cup.

WEATHER LOG

For this one, Ethan got some crayons and got to draw the weather as it looked at the time of our tot school session. We kicked Monday off with rain and I was a little nervous the rest of the week would show rain as well, but we had a mix of sun and storms in there, too! He also added some clouds to one of the days after noting it was "cloudy" and totally showed me up, because I had totally bypassed cloudy weather. (Oops!) I'm almost leaning towards keeping the weather log in upcoming weeks. We used to have a weather wall when Ethan was a baby and learning the different types of weather, but now that he's able to draw what he sees, it's a lot more fun for him!

X-RAY PUZZLE

At Ethan's favorite science museum, they have a little x-ray puzzle where you get to piece together a foam skeleton on the x-ray screen. He absolutely loves that activity so I wanted to recreate it at home. Ethan also loves skeletons (he reminds me of me in middle school, hello, Hot Topic!) so I knew he would have fun with this. He did enjoy this one constantly throughout the week until one day he decided to glue down the pieces when I was making dinner and, well, that was that. But it was still a lot of fun!

LETTER X WRITING PRACTICE

I was so angry at myself for messing up the printing format of this printable thus having to do "printable surgery" on it, but Ethan didn't notice. I took a bunch of words that contain the letter X and let Ethan practice finishing them up. Considering he's really into learning to write his letters I thought this would be fun for him, but he only wanted to do this one once or twice throughout the week.

X-RAY BUILDING

We did this craft last Halloween, but Ethan really enjoyed that I turned it into a tot tray this week. Ethan got to build an x-ray picture by making a skeleton out of q-tips. I cut up some of the q-tips so they were all differing sizes to assist with his building. He really enjoyed this one and it was fun seeing how his work changed since we did this last time!

LETTER Y YARN FILL-IN

Well, this was one was our gigantic bust for the week. It was a repeat from our initial Y week tot school, but Ethan had no interest in it whatsoever. The point was to use the tweezers to pick up the yarn and fill in the letter Y. Ethan gave it a big "no, thanks" each time he passed by it on our tot tray table.

YOGURT PAINTING

For this one, I filled our sensory tub with plain yogurt and put in some paint brushes. Ethan got to practice writing his letters in the yogurt or just drawing different pictures. He had a lot of fun this one and, of course, couldn't resist sampling some of the "paint."

LINKING UP WITH:

Tot School Montessori MondayI Can Teach My Child

No Time For Flash CardsFor the Kids Friday



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