This was our fourth week of tot school and I noticed a few things this week. 1- My son anticipates tot school and looks forward to it (he asks when he wakes up "Can we do tot school". 2- His attention span has grown- minimally but still some growth 3- His pencil grip has improved and thus so has his ability to trace lines (still needs work in this area but vast improvement- I remember reading and commenting on this on someone else's blog. 4- the routine is more established and it is getting easier.
I am enjoying this time with the Little Man so much. I have really been reevaluating my decision to put the Little Miss in Jr. Kindergarten this year and am contemplating taking her out and having her join us. (Am I up to the task yet?)
So here is what we did this week. What amazes me is how many activities we got through even though we really only had "tot school" TWO days this week.
I revamped our fall sensory bin a bit (see post 11/16) so it did get some play this week. I ended up using the beans that used to be in it for a second tub where I hid bottle caps and later glass stones with the letters T-U-R-K-E-Y and Little Man had to find them and recreate the word. The beans and some silk leaves made the perfect filler for hiding the letters.
We reused the Fall Clip counting activity because little man is still struggling with the clips so this is good fine motor practice as well as counting. This activity is from the Fall pack at Homeschool Creations. We did a DO-A-Dot page from Making learning fun with the sparkly pom pom magnets (one of little man's favorites). I also introduced the Turkey Hunt from Making Learning fun. This was a fun way to review shapes. Both Little Man and the Little Miss enjoyed lifting the haystacks (cups) to find the matching turkeys. Little man has really mastered the basic shapes and a few more. Sometimes I feel these shape reviews are too easy for him. I am debating between moving on to solids or more advanced 2d shapes. (I'm having the same issue with colors being to easy-- any ideas or suggestions?)
We had a couple fine motor skills activities this week. I made a cute felt turkey (See post 11/13) for Little Man to practice buttoning. I originally saw this idea on My Montessori. This was really challenging so I will keep this on our tray for the next couple weeks for more practice. I also put out a bowl of marbles with a couple different shaped spoons and a couple bottles with different sized openings. In the picture you see Little Man trying to scoop the marbles into the bottle with the spoon but after a few minutes he decided to try just putting them in with his hands. I tried to convince him to go back to to using the spoon but he just wanted to pour them in with his hands then shake the bottle to hear the loud noise. I got this Idea from The Snail's Trail blog.
Our focus story this week was Turkey Trouble, we also read about Thanksgiving. The Turkey Trouble story was a big hit. To stay with the theme of the story I made a hand puppet from Childcareland and a Old McDonald Felt Board activity. (See post on 11/ 14)
He did quite a few of the pre writing sheets which is how I noticed his lines are much better this week. He really likes the CARS one from the Preschool CARS pack at 1+1+1=1. We the fall leaves one from the Fall pack at Homeschool Creations as well.
We did a little more with math this week. In addition to the Turkey Shape Hunt activity and the Fall Clip counting we worked on tallest and which one is different as well. We used the Thanksgiving pack from Our Little Monkeys.
As you can see we had a really full week. Next week we will mostly be doing thanksgiving crafts so I'll share a few of those. I really love visiting all the blogs and seeing what others are doing. I hope my blog helps inspire a few of you as well. Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, preschool corner and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey.
I am enjoying this time with the Little Man so much. I have really been reevaluating my decision to put the Little Miss in Jr. Kindergarten this year and am contemplating taking her out and having her join us. (Am I up to the task yet?)
So here is what we did this week. What amazes me is how many activities we got through even though we really only had "tot school" TWO days this week.
I revamped our fall sensory bin a bit (see post 11/16) so it did get some play this week. I ended up using the beans that used to be in it for a second tub where I hid bottle caps and later glass stones with the letters T-U-R-K-E-Y and Little Man had to find them and recreate the word. The beans and some silk leaves made the perfect filler for hiding the letters.
We reused the Fall Clip counting activity because little man is still struggling with the clips so this is good fine motor practice as well as counting. This activity is from the Fall pack at Homeschool Creations. We did a DO-A-Dot page from Making learning fun with the sparkly pom pom magnets (one of little man's favorites). I also introduced the Turkey Hunt from Making Learning fun. This was a fun way to review shapes. Both Little Man and the Little Miss enjoyed lifting the haystacks (cups) to find the matching turkeys. Little man has really mastered the basic shapes and a few more. Sometimes I feel these shape reviews are too easy for him. I am debating between moving on to solids or more advanced 2d shapes. (I'm having the same issue with colors being to easy-- any ideas or suggestions?)
We had a couple fine motor skills activities this week. I made a cute felt turkey (See post 11/13) for Little Man to practice buttoning. I originally saw this idea on My Montessori. This was really challenging so I will keep this on our tray for the next couple weeks for more practice. I also put out a bowl of marbles with a couple different shaped spoons and a couple bottles with different sized openings. In the picture you see Little Man trying to scoop the marbles into the bottle with the spoon but after a few minutes he decided to try just putting them in with his hands. I tried to convince him to go back to to using the spoon but he just wanted to pour them in with his hands then shake the bottle to hear the loud noise. I got this Idea from The Snail's Trail blog.
Our focus story this week was Turkey Trouble, we also read about Thanksgiving. The Turkey Trouble story was a big hit. To stay with the theme of the story I made a hand puppet from Childcareland and a Old McDonald Felt Board activity. (See post on 11/ 14)
He did quite a few of the pre writing sheets which is how I noticed his lines are much better this week. He really likes the CARS one from the Preschool CARS pack at 1+1+1=1. We the fall leaves one from the Fall pack at Homeschool Creations as well.
We did a little more with math this week. In addition to the Turkey Shape Hunt activity and the Fall Clip counting we worked on tallest and which one is different as well. We used the Thanksgiving pack from Our Little Monkeys.
As you can see we had a really full week. Next week we will mostly be doing thanksgiving crafts so I'll share a few of those. I really love visiting all the blogs and seeing what others are doing. I hope my blog helps inspire a few of you as well. Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, preschool corner and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey.
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