WEEK OF SEPT. 20 - A IS FOR ANTS

~Punkin is 25 months old (for most of the week anyway)~

Theme: Ants

Letter: A

Number: 1

Shape: Oval

Color: Black

Verse: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Songs: "The Ants Go Marching"

Videos:

The Ants Go Marching

Starfall - Letter A

Books:

TOT TRAYS

Since we didn't get to do any tot trays last week, I kept them out for this week, even though they were apple themed. Hey, it's still the letter a!

We worked again on lacing cards. This was the first time she picked them to do by herself and actually made an attempt to complete them without my help. She didn't do it perfectly, but I was proud of her for working at it and trying. At least she was "getting" how to put it in and out of the holes and pulling the string through.

Thanks to Patricia for another great idea! Punkin played with this activity a LOT and she LOVED it! I printed out an apple shape and taped it onto the top of a shoebox. Then, I used just a pen to poke holes around the edges through the box. She stuck penne pasta noodles (not cooked) in the holes and used her toy hammer to pound them into the box. She loved opening up the box to find them and do again!

I put an Aa tracing sheet in her trays for her since she loves using dry erase markers. I tried to get her to also circle the number of apples that I told her to, but she hasn't figured out to "circle" things yet. So, she made lines on them. We'll keep working on this.

I tried the cup idea again this week from Patricia. This time, she was to match the capital and lowercase letters to spell APPLE. Well, this week she just wasn't interested in it much. She'd mostly just throw everything around the room for some reason. She LOVED it the last time we did this activity, but ....... oh well.

Again, I didn't get a picture of her doing this, because I was helping her a lot. I put out some apple pictures and had her cut the apples. She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it either. I think the novelty of cutting kinda wore off a bit though.

This was another tray she was NOT interested in. I think she is getting tired of sorting activities. We'll have to put this kind of activity on the back burner for awhile and bring it out again in the future when it is "new" to her again.

TOT LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Once again, we started out our lessons with more practice from her Kumon tracing book.

I thought she did a great job on this page in her Kumon color book.

She used Do-a-Dot markers to make capital and lowercase Aa.

We spent time reviewing our Letter Book (that only has letter A in it for now). She loves going through this book. And she can now make the capital A on her own on this page.

We built our letter Aa on her letter puzzle page in the book. She can do the lowercase a, but needs help with the capital A.

We used push pins on an insulation board (we didn't have styrofoam big enough) to make our letter Aa.

I printed out the letter hunt page from HERE. Again, we worked on circling all the Aa's. She ended up making marks on them. She wasn't in the mood to do "schooltime" this day, and was a bit ornery, so it didn't last long. She ended up drawing lines and scribbling all over the page before it was all over.

She sorted capital and lowercase ants using this printout from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Once again, not too into doing "school" so I had to do a LOT of prodding and guiding to help her finish.

This is not ant related, but I have had this printed out for awhile and decided to put it to use. I set out all the cut apart cards and gave her directions on where to put them. I'd point to a box and tell her to put "a shape" or "a letter" or "a number" in that box. She knows all her shapes (even hexagon and octagon) and numbers to 9 and all her capital letters by sight and name, but I wanted to see if she knew the difference between a letter, a number, and a shape. She did great with the letters and numbers, but when I said "shape" she wasn't sure at first what that was. I thought it was a great activity, and she like it because she got to use glue.

I cut these ants apart and had her count the dots on one side and match it to the correct number on the other. I printed them all in black and white, though, so she had to focus on the number, not the color.

And these ants were a simple shape matching activity. She did this with ease, though she needed help at first putting the pieces side by side instead of on top and bottom for some reason. Once again, I printed them in black and white so she would focus on shapes and not colors.

This was a fun idea from Tots and Me. We did this after reading our book about the Ant Picnic.

Since our number for this week again was one, I made this simple ant counting activity. She had to put ONE ant of the matching color in each box, then we counted how many ants of each color we had. She always said, "One. Just one." She was struggling with the concept of one before we started this new "curriculum" but now she definitely has mastered it!

And we made this "My 1 Book" which was inspired by another idea from Tots and Me. We had so much fun making this book together, and she has had a blast "reading" it over and over. Obviously, she has it memorized, but she will say it as I point to the words. This is the first step, though, in the reading process, so I am thrilled! Punkin also traced the number one with a marker on every page after she glued on the correct item. I think we'll make a book like this for each number we do. Below are close up pictures of our pages.

STRUCTURED PLAY ACTIVITIES

Playdough using our A is for ant mat and our A, 1, and oval cookie cutters.

Our sensory tub was macaroni and "ants" (raisins). She was to pull out the raisins and put them on the dots on her page to make an a. But I should have known she would have other ideas since she loves raisins. She dug around and found them, but ate them instead! Oh well. It kept her occupied for the whole time until her timer went off.

Shaving Cream!!!!!!!!!! This was a special treat. She kept seeing the shaving cream can in our cupboard where we keep some of her tot materials, and she kept asking for it. So, one day I let her use it during Structured Playtime.....which was a gamble on my part since I usually get lunch ready during that time and am not right there beside her. But she has always done really well with it, so I gave it a whirl. Not too bad. She had it all up her arms, but that was the extent of her "messiness" so I was pleased. I tried showing her how to make letters and number and shapes with her fingers, but she just wanted to "play."

STRUCTURED TIME WITH MOMMY

We went outside one day to look for ants with our magnifying glass. She enjoyed this, although, she kept stepping on them on purpose after she found them!

We attempted to make "Ants on a Log" using pretzels for the logs, frosting, and raisins for ants. Because of her food allergies, she can't have peanut butter, and I had no celery on hand, so this was the best we could do. But she enjoyed them!

We also baked cookies which is always a favorite.

MISC. STUFF

I watched the neighbor girls one afternoon, and Pukin enjoyed having three extra playmates for an afternoon.

Sharing her aquadoodle.....

.....and her playdough.

One day I suddenly couldn't find Punkin. She had gone upstairs on her own without me knowing it and was just sitting contentedly reading all her theme books by herself. The girl still LOVES books!

Playing with the chalk again outside, making lines of course.

These days all stickers go on her face. The more the better!

Well, that was our fun week. To see what other tots were up to, visit 1+1+1=1.

WEEK OF SEPT. 13 - APPLES

~Punkin is 25 months old.~

~Bear with me.....this is a LONG post this week!~

Letter: Aa

Color: Red

Shape: Circle

Number: One

Verse: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-kbawyW3m0
• http://www.kideos.com/video/caillou-goes-apple-picking

Books:

This week was the start of our new letter theme units and morning circle time. Punkin has known her captial letters for a long time, and she knows most of her lowercase letters, but we will still focus on lowercase recognition as well as the letter sound and things that begin with that sound. Also, I am incorporating a number, color, and shape of the week as a review so she doesn't forget. We will spend two weeks on each letter and number, though the theme, color, and shape will change. For instance, for the letter a and number one, we will do apples one week with the color red and the circle shape. The next week, we'll still do a and one, but with an ant theme, the color black, and ovals.

Here is our new calendar board. Right now, it takes about 10 minutes, but I'll add stuff to it as she gets older and has a longer attention span. Punkin has LOVED this new time in our day, and asks for it after we brush teeth in the mornings. I am excited about the info that she is gleaning from this daily time. (She woke up this morning singing her Bible verse song, and yesterday she randomly said, "Make a" as she drew the shape in the air with her finger and made the silly sounds that I always do when we practice it on our board.)

We start off by having her put up the new number for the date. Then, she uses her special pointer to point to each number as we count them all. She can verbally count well to 13, then skips a few and says, "20!" But she only recognizes numbers 0-9. So, I am hoping that the repetition of this counting and pointing every day will help her count consistently to 20 and also to recognize the double digit numbers. Again, it's the daily repetition that is key. After counting the date, we sing our "Today Is...." song and our "Days of the Week" song together.

Then, we add a new paper clip to our board as we learn about patterns. I point to each clip and say the color in each row, and when it gets to the new one, I have her tell me what color we need. Then, she picks out the paper clip from a cup and puts it on. She thinks this is so fun. For now, I make each row on the board the same pattern, starting over each time at the beginning of the row. When I taught first grade, we continued the pattern over the whole board, not starting over at each row. But I thought that would confuse Punkin.

After our clip patterns, we sit by our pocket chart and work on the color, number, and letter of the week. I take out the letter tiles spelling the color of the week and have her look at the word card to put the letter tiles in order (with my help of course as needed). Then, we use our special pointer and I say, "Good morning, red." (she repeats) Then, we do our color chant as we point to each letter. ( I do it first, and she repeats.) She really thinks the whole repeating thing is funny. Next, for our number, I help her trace the number with her finger as we say our "chant" for how to make the number. For instance, number one is "Pull straight down and then you're done. That is how you make a one." Next, we use buttons in the shape of the week to count out that number. This week it's easy with one. But she already has gotten the concept because she points to it and says, "One." Then stops and looks at me and says, "Just one." For our letter of the week, we take down the letter poster from our calendar board and we trace the letters with the pointer or our fingers and we sing the Leapfrog song from her fridge phonics toy that teaches the sound of the letter. Then, in the pocket chart, I have her tell me the letter and sound again and we add a new picture of something that starts with that sound. And then, she sits in her little recliner as I read her a few books that go along with our theme of the week. Finally, we move to the computer and she gets to watch some kind of little video about the letter or number or theme of the week.

We have had a few other changes this week. Our playroom / school room is finally finished in our basement, and we have officially "moved in." We are excited to have a space to spread out and store all of our "stuff."

We also tweaked our routine a bit to utilize our new room and to fit in our calendar time in the morning. Here is what our new routine looks like (times are just rough guides, not set in stone):

8:00 – Punkin wake up / Get Dressed
8:15 – Breakfast
8:30 – Bible Time / Clean up / Brush Teeth
9:00 – Independent playtime in Room (Mommy’s Computer Time)
9:45 – Circle Time / Read Theme Books – Mommy picks

10:00 – Tot Trays
10:30 –Structured Play with Mommy (an activity chosen by Mommy related to theme OR time together outside, going for a walk, go to the park, etc.)
11:00 – Free Play in living room (Mommy does Chores for the Day)
11:30 – Structured Play Alone (Mommy chooses activity) / Table Time
12:00 – Lunch
12:30 – Storytime – Punkin picks from ones Mommy sets out
12:45 – Nap (Mommy’s computer time or daily chores)
3:30 – Snack / Read Aloud
3:45 – Tot School (Playroom)
4:15 – Independent Play in Playroom (Mommy’s Comp. Time or dinner)
5:00 – Video Time
5:30 – Dinner
6:00 – Family Time, Play Outside, Free Play
7:15 – Get Ready for Bed (bath, jammies, teeth, 2 stories, prayers)
7:45 – Punkin in Bed

TOT TRAYS

We did not get to Tot Trays at all this week, as we tended to have other things going on every morning this week. Even though they all related to apples, I think I'll just keep them out for next week (Ant theme) since we are still doing the letter a.

TOT SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

We start off our Tot School lesson times each day with our new Kumon books. This is going to take some practice!

We put apple shapes in order of size. She can still do great with 3 or 4, but we are working on using more, even though it's more difficult for her.

She worked on this flip book that I found at Making Learning Fun.

I created these apple tree pages for her to work on sorting big A and little a. I just wrote the letters on red dot stickers for her to put on the trees as the apples.

We used our red Do-a-Dot marker to fill in the "apples" on our lowercase a.

She matched stickers with lowercase letters on them to the capital letters on the page to spell APPLE. I printed this page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

We made fingerprint apples on her lowercase a one day. I can't remember where I got this idea from, but I remember it said to use paint. I wanted red paint for this and another project I had in mind, but I couldn't find red paint at Walmart or Dollar Tree, and I wasn't about to drive 30 minutes into the city to Hobby Lobby just for red paint. So, we improvised with the stamp pad, and I think it worked out great!

We are making a letter book (binder) where we will store our projects and pages for each letter. Part of each letter's pages will include a letter tracing page....

....and a letter sound collage page. I got this idea from Tired, Need Sleep.

We will use these as review each week as we "read" through our "book."

Another page that will always be in our book for every letter is a "Letter Puzzle" page. I got the templates from KizClub. They have some GREAT printables, by the way!

We also made our "a is for apple" craft from Totally Tots. I didn't have foam, though, so we just used construction paper. I also decided to use raisins as the seeds. Punkin counted all the seeds for me as she put them on.

For our number one, I had Punkin use the red stamp pad again to put "apple" fingerprints on all the number ones on the page. She did very well. The idea was that when it was done, it would make a 1 on her page. I don't think she really got that part, though.

I printed this page from Confessions of a Homeschooler as well to practice writing the number 1. As she did it we also said our number one writing chant: "Pull straight down and then you're done. That is how you make a one!" Punkin loved doing this, and did remarkably well. What you see in the picture she did by herself after I showed her a few of my own and erased them. After she did the page once, though, she began getting wild and just "coloring" all over the page.

We also worked on patterns a bit with these apple pattern pages that I printed from Spell Out Loud. Punkin did VERY well! I was shocked. She hasn't really "gotten" patterns much before, but I think doing the paper clip patterns on our calendar board each morning has really helped. I had her put an apple cutout over each apple picture to match and say the color as she did it. Then, she had to pick the last one on her own. The only thing I noticed was that at first, she'd be saying, "red, green, red, green, red, green, white" because the last box where she was to put her own was white. LOL! But after a few times of me helping her, she got it.

Then I had her just sort all the apples by color in the tray.

STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES WITH MOMMY: TOT ART AND OTHER FUN STUFF

We made this torn paper apple collage. I was going to have her paint the paper plate red, but when I couldn't find the red paint, we went this route. We tried torn paper art one other time, and this time she was able to actually tear the paper on her own!

I love how cute it turned out.

I printed out these apple tree number cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I decided to try something new, and we lined them up on our stairs. I didn't know if Punkin would be interested at all or if I'd even be able to keep her on the stairs long enough to do anything with them. We usually do activities at the table in her highchair where she can't "escape." But I wanted to be more diligent about planning more active activities, too, so I gave it a try. I'm glad I did. She had so much fun, and has asked to do it again on more than one occasion. First, we just "jumped" up the stairs as we counted each number. Then, I told her a number and had her climb to it and sit down on it. When she got tired of that, I got out a red ball (apple) and "threw" it to a tree and had her go get it for me and tell me what number it was on. Then she'd throw it back down to me.

After a bit of that, she began on her own to put the ball on a number, tell me what it was, and then roll it down the steps to me. So, for the next 10 minutes, I'd tell her a number to go put the apple on, which she'd do and then roll it back down to me. This was her favorite part. And I was surprised with how well she really does recognize her numbers!

A highlight of our week was making apple pie! Now, you have to understand, I am NOT a cook, baker, or anything of the sort, and I have for sure never made a pie before in my life! But I found this recipe that seemed doable with a little one, and we gave it a whirl. It turned out okay....it was at least edible, though a bit "runny." I wouldn't ever serve it to guests, but for our purposes, it turned out great, and Punkin LOVED it! She really enjoyed stirring, dumping in the ingredients, and snitching the apple filling before we baked it! While it was baking, she even went to her little play kitchen and pretended to make her animals apple pie. :)

Daddy even got in on the action, helping her cut out the A's for the top of the pie. And then, once I looked over, and she was dumping on more sugar from the sugar container! I guess she didn't think it was sweet enough yet!

I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like after it was baked, but here's a picture right before we put it in the oven. I love how cute the A's make it look!

STRUCTURED PLAY (ALONE)

I give Punkin an activity each day to do on her own while I fix lunch. She is supposed to do it until the timer goes off, then it's time to wash up and have lunch. Sometimes she is on the floor by me, other times at the table. We have a routine each week of what she does each day. One day she does playdough, one day a sensory tub, one day coloring, one day her aquadoodle, one day Do-a-Dots, and one day puzzles. Of course if we are gone some days, she doesn't do all these in a week.

Her sensory bin this week was all red. I dyed macaroni red, then added things that were red circles of some kind: red beads, red buttons, red counting chips, red lacing beads, etc.

Her coloring pages this week were an apple picture and a number one page. I let her use a red marker for the first time without my hovering. (That's why she doesnt' have a shirt on.) She did very well, and didn't get marker on the table or all over herself.

I helped her make these little apples out of playdough one day. I made the balls, and she stuck in the twigs and leaves.

It was funny watching her try to roll the playdough into a ball like I did.

I also gave her cookie cutters that went along with our themes this week: the letter A, the number one, and a circle.

She used her Do-a-Dots to make apples on an apple tree. (She did about 4 of these.)

MISC. STUFF

We had our first Muffin Tin Monday Meal - only on Saturday. Don't know if we'll do it every week, but it was fun for a change. I gave her strawberries, raspberries, little grape tomatoes (she did NOT like those), red jello, red applesauce, and red fruit snacks. Not the most well balanced meal in the world.....Oh well.

And this is just my favorite picture of the week. She was chilling in our bed watching Leapfrog Letter Factory.

Whew. Sorry for such a long post. We look forward to doing A is for Ants next week. To see what other tots were up to this past week, you can visit 1+1+1=1.