ICE CREAM THEME

~Punkin is 37 months old.~

We actually were able to get back into our routine a bit the last two weeks, and it felt great! It took us two weeks to go through the stuff I had planned, but that's okay. We just did what we could each day and I didn't worry about how long it would take. Punkin was soaking it all in, and loving being able to do tot school again. She amazed me this week with some of the things she was just suddenly ready and able to do!

Since I planned out the activities and got everything ready for this unit before Firecracker was born (to have things to quick pull from when life got busy), I don't remember exactly where each idea and activity came from to give credit. But I do know that I got a lot of the ideas and activities from a few different tot packs that I downloaded HERE, HERE, and HERE.

I found this bulletin board at a garage sale, as well as the foam stickers. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them! I have been wanting to make a word wall for Punkin for awhile now, and I did just that during one of Firecracker's naps this week.

I added a few things to our calendar board recently, and Punkin is now tall enough to use her pointer to count her numbers on her own without using her stool. She still enjoys our calendar time each morning.

She also enjoys doing her letter and number writing practice each morning during our calendar time.

TOT TRAYS

Tweezing beads into a small spaces tray.


Big floor ABC puzzle

Making words with her Leapfrog word whammer.

Sticker color match activity.

Pattern block pictures.

Connect Four (She doesn't really play the actual game, of course.)

Punkin is really into writing letters lately, so she plays with her Leapfrog Scribble and Write all the time! I LOVE this "toy."

DAILY FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Kumon cutting book

Kumon Tracing Book

Practicing her letters in our new letter writing binder that I put together using the sheets that go along with Carisa's PPT lessons. After doing these each day, Punkin can now make the letters we've worked on all by herself (without tracing them).

I made her a name writing book (like the one HERE), and she AMAZED me with how well she could just suddenly write her name. I had her trace over one I wrote in highlighter, then I had her try on her own. I didn't show her final product because it shows her real name....

Line tracing practice using this ice cream themed page.

ICE CREAM ACTIVITIES

Sorting hot and cold pictures.

Circling which ice cream cone is different in each row.

Coloring ice cream scoops according to the color words.

Matching capital letter ice cream scoops to lowercase ice cream cones.

Matching pictures to the correct beginning sound on the cones.

Spinning an ice cream spinner and graphing the results.

Using magnetic pom poms to count ice cream scoops.

Using Dot Markers to do the same thing.

Putting numbered cones in order and then counting sprinkles on scoops to match to the cone

Making ice cream cone patterns.

Size ordering

Matching same sized cones.

Ice cream themed puzzle pictures.

Using colored ice cubes to paint ice cream cones.

This cute idea came from Spell Out Loud.

One day she asked for filters and marker.....so I gave them to her. She simply wanted to color on coffee filters for a change, I guess. Here she told me she made a clock.

Playing with her play dough cake making set. She plays with it almost every day.

She also has enjoyed drawing on her aquadoodle again after not having gotten it out in awhile.

I got her this ice cream shooter at a garage sale. She loved it, but it lasted all of about 10 minutes before it broke.

She loves playing with the calculator.

She got out the scrabble tiles one day to play with.

And of course we had to eat ice cream to go along with our unit.

And we made banana "ice cream" as well using just frozen bananas and a bit of peanut butter and honey in the blender. Punkin thought it was ice cream, and I didn't care that she was eating something "healthy."

We printed off the emergent reader books that go along with Carisa's powerpoint lessons and Punkin has enjoyed reading them every day. And I love that she truly can read them! By herself!

Punkin just started drawing people one day. I never taught her. I never have even really encouraged her to do so yet. But she just did it one day and now loves drawing everybody in our family.

Well, it felt great to get back into the routine of things. I think we'll do some watermelon stuff next that I have had all planned for awhile but never have gotten around to doing. To see what other tots were up to this week, visit 1+1+1=1.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO...

It's been a bit unstructured around here lately which frustrates me, but that is just the season of life we're in right now. I don't have time to write an in depth post, but here are some pictures of some of the things we've been up to the last few weeks in no particular order....

Coloring coffee filters and cutting slits in them to create "firecrackers." I forgot to take a picture of the final product.

I drew firecrackers on a black piece of paper with white crayon, and she helped me use squeezable glitter glue to trace over the lines. I had to help her quite a bit since the bottle was hard to squeeze, but she loved the final product.

Punkin loves blowing bubbles!

Playing in her sandbox is another favorite activity these days.

Drawing in shaving cream. Here she said she was making rainbows and clouds.

We were lucky to have the opportunity to go with Cousin M to see Rachel Coleman live in concert. She is the lady who does all the Signing Time DVD's for those of you who are familiar with those.

I think Punkin enjoyed Hopkins almost more than Rachel. Shhh....Don't tell!

She really enjoyed going to Grandpa's church for their end of summer / kick off to school family event. The bouncy slide was a huge hit, and she could actually do it this year by herself.

And she had her face painted for the first time. She insisted on being a tiger, so the lady made her into a "girlie tiger."

We spent quite a bit of time doing Carisa's Powerpoint lessons, as well as www.starfall.com.

Once the hot weather let up a bit, we spent many evenings outside going on walks and drawing with chalk.

Dot markers are always a favorite.

Another way to keep her occupied while I feed Firecracker....Stickers.

One actual tot school activity we did spur of the moment because she was begging for schooltime ....I wrote a sight word on a card and she had to read it to me, then use her water dropper to drop water on the letters in order. She LOVED this.

She has played with playdough a lot lately.

Daddy ordered something that came in this big box, which provided many hours of imaginative play. Here she was using it as her "crib."

Helping me make blueberry muffins one morning while Firecracker was taking a nap. She was a good little helper one night when I decided that the stroller needed to be washed.

Well, that's it for now. To see what other tots have been up to, visit 1+1+1=1.