T IS FOR TREE (AS IN CHRISTMAS TREE)

~Punkin is 29 months old.~

This post encompasses two weeks worth of Christmas activites (with a slight emphasis on T is for [Christmas] Tree). We have been having fun just taking it a bit more easy and enjoying lots of Christmas outings and activities that have taken up our normal "tot school" time. In addition, I have a confession to make: While the "sickies" around here have taken their toll on our tot school as well, I can now officially tell you that my daughter did indeed have a yucky cold for awhile, but MY "sickies" have lasted me about 11 weeks, and will most likely continue for a few more weeks, causing me to lay low as well on the tot school and planning. Yep. We will be having a "Little Firecracker" sometime on or before July 4! SOOO, that is the biggest reason why things have been a bit "off" around here.....

Okay, on to our last two weeks....

TOT TRAYS

Punkin has really enjoyed our Christmas themed tot trays lately. These were out for two weeks, and she played with them a lot.

Our Christmas sensory bin that included green and red macaroni, little Christmas light ornaments, small ball ornaments, little Christmas symbol ornaments, Christmas erasers, Christmas glittery shapes that I found at Dollar Tree, a stocking, and other misc. things.

I had ordered Punkin a new Tag Jr. book when I saw it for like $3 called "Christmas in the Manger." I tell you she sat and "read" that book over and over almost every day. She loved it.

I cut "cookies" out of a thick cardboard box, and Punkin used a small spatula and cookie sheet to pretend she was making cookies. She loved trying to flip them over.

Playing with little Christmas erasers I got at Dollar Tree. She sorted them in this tray a few times, but spent most of the time making "sandwiches" with the matching erasers and "feeding" them to her stuffed animals. LOL!

Christmas Tic-Tac-Toe from Dollar Tree.

Glittery Christmas shapes. For some reason, she always lined these up like this in rows instead of "sorting" them. But hey, that was fine by me! I love when she makes up her own activities. She told me, "Look Mommy, a rainbow!"

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Building the letter Tt.

Tracing the letter T....She is so good at this!

Making our collage page for our ABC Book.

Sorting capital and lowercase Tt ornaments onto trees. You can download the file HERE.

Punkin enjoyed placing magnetic pom poms onto the correct letters on these abc tree pages that I got from Prekinders.

We read (and re-read) this little "Where is the Present?" book that I printed from 1+1+1=1.

Punkin did ornament sorting by color and by the design on the ornaments. She did well at this. I got this from Prekinders as well.

She surprised me with how easily she did this pattern block tree pattern that I got from Prekinders.

I cut out some different sized rectangles and had her glue them on the page in order from biggest to smallest. She didn't even need my help! Yea!

We did this Christmas tree sort from 1+1+1=1. She had to really look at the designs on the trees, and some were pretty similar, but she did great.

We were behind on our number of the week book, so even though our number this week was 6, we did our number 5 book. I was impressed with how well she traced her fives.

I cut out little Christmas trees and numbered them 1-10 and had her put them in order. Then, I had her count out the correct number of beads (ornaments) to put on each tree. She worked really hard on this and was so proud of herself when she was done.

She did the Christmas Cookie matching activity from Making Learning Fun. She is really into "making cookies" right now, so it was a hit.

We both played this Roll a Christmas Tree game. (I can't remember where I printed it from...sorry!) It was the first time we had attempted an official "game" and she had fun!

CRAFTS AND OTHER FUN

Making a craft stick / button Christmas tree..... so cute! I found the idea at The Amazing Mess.

Here is the finished product that I made into a magnet and stuck on our refridgerator.

You can't see it in the picture, but she is painting an outline of a tree, and then she painted a stem and star as well.

When they dried, I cut them out, and then she glued them onto a red piece of paper and she used the eraser end of a pencil to dot on the ornaments.

We made some more cute Dollar Tree magnets to use as gifts. Oh does she love using glue!

Aren't they so cute?

She asked a couple times this week to make bubbles in the sink. We hadn't done this in awhile, and she could have done it all day had I let her!

And of course we had to make Christmas cookies.

Sporting her apron.

Yummy! (She loved helping me make and cut them out, but was not real interested in helping to decorate them.)

To see what other tots have been up to, go visit 1+1+1=1.

T IS FOR TURKEY...AND SOME CHRISTMAS THROWN IN

~Punkin is 28 months old.~

This is 2 weeks worth of activities in one post. With the craziness of last week and Thanksgiving, and still feeling sickies around here, I didn't get anything posted. This week has been just as crazy, so not a lot got done. Here's to hoping that after the Christmas season, we'll finally be back to normal tot school and normal posts.

We've been working on the letter T. Last week it was for Turkey, and I intended to do T is for Tree (as in Christmas tree). But that will wait until next week, I guess. This week I wasn't in the mood to really plan much, so I just made a list of some of the Christmas things I had already made up or planned and we randomly did some of those. I have planned to continue Christmas and tree activities through Christmas, so we may not even really intro a new letter again until after that. We'll see.

I am not going to go into detail as much....it's going to be quick. But here is what we did:

TOT TRAYS

(We had these out for two weeks.)

I had out her Melissa and Doug See and Spell as well as magnetic pom poms, but I didn't get pictures of those.

Lite Brite

Little Foam Number and Letter Puzzle

Putting turkey feathers into a tp tube turkey. (Got the idea from HERE.)

Pop up flashcards

TURKEY ACTIVITIES

Noodle pounding the letter Tt.

Do a Dots

Writing the letter Tt. I was amazed at how well she caught on after watching me once. I got it from this tot pack.

Dotting the letters on her turkey that I called out for her. (from HERE)

I created this capital / lowercase Tt sort for her. She loved this!

Working on matching lowercase to capital letters and spelling TURKEY. I printed this off from this tot pack as well.

Matching beginning sounds (from HERE). She needed a bit of help on this one, as we've only done this kind of activity twice now. But she liked doing it.

Working on patterns using colored craft sticks for feathers. I got this idea from HERE.

We played the "Gobble, Gobble Game" from 2 Teaching Mommies. She loved "spinning" the paper clip (I didn't have a spinner), and she loved the silly poem that went with it.

And we had to make handprint turkeys of course. We later added features to the turkeys wrote a little message on the plate, saying "Hope you have a handy dandy Thanksgiving" and gave it to Grandma and Grandpa.

We made a turkey hat together, and worked on scissor practice and spelling TURKEY along with it. I used the basic idea from 2 Teaching Mommies.

I found this idea to make a turkey out of an apple and marshmallows at I Can Teach My Child. Good fine motor work.

Of course, she had more fun eating the marshmallows than anything, but it sure turned out cute.

CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES

Candy Cane letter matching puzzles from HERE.

Sorting and patterning with christmas ornament lights.

Stocking / Candy Cane match (from HERE). She had to look at BOTH colors on the candy canes and stockings, so it was more challenging than just a normal color match. She did well.

I bought a couple foam magnet making kits from the Dollar Tree awhile back, and she worked this week on gluing the pieces on to make these magnets.

She made this Christmas wreath, to replace our fall leaf wreath on our bulletin board.

I was originally going to have her tear the pieces, but then changed my mind and had her practice more of her cutting skills.

When I was putting up the tree, she insisted on continually dumping out these little red ornaments. So, I got smart and turned it into a "structured learning activity" rather than having them thrown all around the room.

She made a birthday cake for Jesus with her playdough. (Although, later, when I asked her to tell Daddy who she made a birthday cake for, she told him it was for Puppy.)

Helping me decorate the tree in her tot tray room.

She loves wearing around the Santa hat that she found while we were getting out the decorations.

I had to make a Christmas snack for a party we went to, and of course Punkin wanted to help. I just made a simple white chocolate mix with cereal, pretzels, M&M's, etc. She was in heaven with all her "favorites" in one pan in front of her. At one point, she was shoving stuff in her mouth as fast as she could, afraid I'd take it away, I guess!

And here's the yummy snack "drying." MMMM!

Well, that was our TWO weeks. I wonder how this next week will go? I guess we'll have to wait and see. For more Tot School ideas, visit 1+1+1=1.