TOT School - Week of 3/4

It's been a long time since I've posted any Tot School posts.  It's not that we haven't been doing anything....I just keep forgetting to take pictures!!  But this past week, I remembered and here's a bit of a recap of what we did. 

We didn't have a structured lesson plan.  I rotated Nudgie's trays and gave her freedom of what she wanted to choose.  (Mostly because I was trying to get caught up with laundry!)

We read our "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" book and put the letter "S" on the coconut tree.  She really love doing this!

Then out came the playdough and the "S" playdough mat.  HUGE hit!

When I came back from the laundry room, I saw that she had pulled out her snowflake patterns and started working on that.  She must have sat for a good 45 minutes working on this (which equals about 2 loads of laundry!)

We learned our numbers and how to count by giving our snowman some buttons.  Nudgie added an additional layer of learning by calling out the colors of the buttons as she was putting them on the mat.

Later, she pulled out her peg picture mats and started putting them together.  Pardon the no pants - we're trying to potty train!

We also tried a letter recognition activity using letter mats and clothespins.  These clothespins were just a little too big and kept sliding off the mat which really frustrated Nudgie.  So I just gave her a dry erase marker and had her draw a line to match the letters which worked out much better for her!

The peg puzzles came out again and this time she used the other side of the pattern page to create her own designs.

We finished up our week playing dress up......with a little "rock on" thrown in!  Nudgie is also VERY into doing puzzles.  Much more than Nani ever was.  Just last week she put together a 63-piece puzzle all by herself.  I was amazed!  She also loves putting together her Ariel floor puzzle - as you can see!

How did your week go?

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Back to (Tot) School - Part II

So yesterday, I did a post about a new calendar center (which I'm VERY happy with how it turned out!  I even had a friend who asked me to make one for her too!)  Now that this big project was done and out the of way, I could focus on getting the rest of Nudgie's activities ready.

Inspired by Carissa's idea at 1+1+1=1 for Christmas notebooks, I thought that since Nudgie really enjoys "writing" that I'd create some binders for her to work on. 

First up, the ABC binder - using a number of printables from a CD that I had purchased last year from Childcareland

Second, was the "Numbers" binder.  (The photo is a little hazy because the binder cover is slightly "frosted". 

The third binder includes a variety of worksheets including Nudgie's name for her to trace, shape worksheets, and eventually color worksheets where she will trace the color word.

Next up were playdough mats (numbers, alphabet, and "make-a-face")  The number playdough mats were from Homeschool Creations.  I printed the alphabet letters from Quality Kids Crafts and the faces from Sparklebox.

I also belong to our local Freecycle group.  If you don't know about Freecycle, I highly suggest that you go and check it out.  The other day I picked these blocks up -- for FREE!  A quick wipedown with some Clorox wipes and we were ready to play.

I also set up our winter reading board.  Our theme is "A Flurry of Books".  For each book we read, a snowflake gets put on the board.  If we read a total of 75 books before the official first day of spring, then each girl will get a brand new book!

And finally, I set out some independent play/learning items for Nudgie to choose from.

What's in your school room?  Share your post in the comment section below!  I'd love to see what others are doing!!

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Back to (Tot) School!

It took me awhile to get back into the swing of things after the holidays.  But slowly, the Christmas decorations are coming down.  (Our tree is still up and twinkling away....and I still have the majority of our Christmas decorations up.....)  I did clear away one small area that I had decorated with things that Nudgie could play with over the Christmas break - nutcrackers, her Fisher Price nativity (that I found at the Thrift Store for $3) , playdough with Christmas cookie cutters.  Putting those things away is about the closest I've come to "taking down Christmas".

But back to school!

I've been wanting to have a little calendar area for Nudgie.  Something where we can have a regular calendar/circle time.  I came across a calendar post from Mama Jenn and knew right away that I could adapt it for what I wanted to do for Nudgie.

Our calendar after a long night of laminating, cutting, and pasting

The calendar printables (day, month, date) I got from Mama Jenn.
The "what's the weather" printables, I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
The "seasons" printable is also from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
The shape printables, I got here, via Mama Jenn.
The letter flashcards were something that I found in my files but don't remember where I found them.  The Sesame Street number flashcards were something that I had picked up at The Dollar Tree when school started.
The Bible verses I got here from Totally Tots and here from ABC Jesus Loves Me

My thought was because Nudgie is still so little, we would focus on a Bible verse a month while still doing our regular Sunday school lessons (Bible story and craft) with Nani.  To reinforce our monthly Bible verse, I used this AWESOME site to create writing worksheets for Nudgie to practice her writing skills.  (She's adament about "writing" like her big sister and is doing a great job of tracing letters and words)

Now that I've completed her calendar center, I can turn my focus to the rest of her learning centers. 

And maybe even get those Christmas decorations put away.

Maybe......

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Linking Up:

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Tot School - Letter A

(Nudgie is 38 months old) (To see what others are doing at Tot School, click on the "Tot School" above!) ************************************** 

This week we focused on the letter "A" and apples.  My camera was acting up a lot this week, so I don't have too many pictures!  (Boo!)

We started off the week again with basic letter recognition.  I was recently sent a DVD of Alphabet Songs from Have Fun Teaching. 

I started off our lesson by putting on the Alphabet Song and then following it up with the Letter A song.  Nudgie LOVED them and kept asking for them over and over.  I think this will be a great way to start off our lessons now!

We then read "Chica Chica Boom Boom" and put our letter "A" on the coconut tree. 

I gave her some large letter "A" pages and then had her stamp the letter A as well as glue letter A's all over.  (This is when the camera decided to act up!)

We practiced our prewriting skills too.  Nudgie is really loving this activity and is always asking for more.  I found some great preschool workbooks at the Goodwill and ARC stores and have been using the prewriting exercises from those too.

We did more name recognition activities and I also added the word "apple" and had her find the letters in the craft gravel box.

We read lots of books this week, but a few of our favorites were "A Plump and Perky Turkey", "Disney's Sweet and Spooky Halloween", and "A - See It, Say It, Hear It".

We're also keeping track of our reading on our fall leaf tree.  Nudgie has the yellow leaves and Nani has the red leaves.

We scooped:

We made a leaf book:

We finished up our letter A week with:

An apple shape match game

Our bible verse - "Keep me as the apple of Your eye"

"A is for Apple" Do-A-Dot

You can find the apple prewriting pages and the bible verse here at 1+1+1=1.

You can find the apple shape match here at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

You can find the "A is for Apple" do a dot here at Developing a Heart for Home.

Hope everyone has a great week!

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Linking up with: No Time for Flashcards - Link and Learn 

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Tot School - Letter M

(Nudgie is 38 months old) (To see what others are doing at Tot School, click on the "Tot School" above!) ************************************** 
We really had a FUN week learning about the letter "M"!  Anything that involves M and M's is a good thing!!!

We started off the week with basic letter recognition.  I gave her some large letter "M" pages and then had her stamp the letter M as well as glue letter M's all over.  She really enjoyed doing this, so I think this will be something I'll keep doing for each letter coming up.

To work on fine moter skills I gave her a "sewing" activity to do.  I found this sink mat at the Dollar Tree.  I then took a big safety pin and put a little duct tape around the top so that it wouldn't pop open and stab little fingers.  I fed some yarn through the bottom of the safety pin and then added a wooden bead at the end so that it wouldn't pull through as she was "sewing".  I found that this was another hit with Nudgie, and I'd often find her sitting quietly "sewing".

We're also starting to learn name recognition.  I took some blank word strips and stamped Nudgie's name on one of them.  Then I gave her some blank sheets and had her stamp her name herself.  Our other activity was to find the letters in her name.  I buried the letters in some craft gravel and she had to find the letters and then match them to her name.

We also practiced some pre-writing skills with both the letter M and some basic line tracing.  This was yet another hit.  Nudgie was so proud of herself when she would "write" like big sister, Nani!

We played with our number peg boards and shapes puzzles.

Making random pictures without a pattern

We read "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear".  To emphasize what we were reading, we read the book twice.  Once, just straight through and then a second time, we acted out the story using a little mouse and a strawberry.

We finished up our letter M week with:

A letter M match game

A "m"onkey shape puzzle match

And our favorite!

M&M color match and pattern work.  We don't keep a lot of candy or sweets in the house, so this was a big treat for Nudgie (and mommy too!)

Hope everyone has a great week!

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Linking up with: No Time for Flashcards - Link and Learn 

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