Bear started fake coughing one morning and wanted honey. I gave her the honey bottle and she started making pretend honey tea for her pink bear. Poor pink bear has been sick a whole week now. I think Bear just likes making tea!
A quick idea - make tunnels and ramps for matchbox cars out of old cereal boxes.
The Home Teacher mentioned this Hokey Pokey shape lesson plan on her post.
Bear loved playing this. We sang it so many times with shapes (I used the wonderful shape lacing cards I won earlier this year from ABC and 123), but then I thought, you could use the Hokey Pokey to review anything!
We sang it to review colors using her Mickey Mouse paint chips.
We sang it to review the letter sounds using her foam alphabet ("You put the /b/ like baby in, you put the /b/ out...").
You could use it to review letter names.
You could use it to review numbers using foam numbers or wooden number pieces.
Any other ideas?
I made Bear a quick toy using two skewers (sharp end down) and a piece of foam that was around the new toaster oven we recently acquired. It doesn't look pretty, but she kept herself busy for at least 30 minutes transferring her beads from one skewer to another. I was delighted at all the eye-hand coordination this involved. However, it did need supervision - I was a little wary of leaving her alone with those sticks poking out of the foam.
I am a collector of book lists. I saw this list at The Peterson Party and decided to create my own list (most of the books from her list are there, but I deleted a few and added some that I wouldn't want my daughter to miss. The ones in red are the ones we have NOT read yet. (We've read a LOT of books not on this list as well.) There are so many lists of "100 books before kindergarten" or "100 picture books everyone should know." I think the important thing is to read a variety of new and classic picture books to our children and not worry if the book was on a list of any sort. My biggest criteria for a book is for Bear to say "again" as soon as I say "the end." Then I know I have chosen a book that resonates with her.
That said, please don't forget to read fairytales and nursery rhymes to your children. I taught third and fourth grade before Bear was born and you would be amazed at how many students in my classroom were not familiar with the common fairytales.
1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
2. Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing
3. Andy and the Lion
4. Angelina Ballerina
5. Blueberries for Sal
6. Bread and Jam for Frances
7. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?
8. Caps for Sale
9. The Carrot Seed
10. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
11. A Chair For My Mother
12. Corduroy
13. Curious George
14. Chrysanthemum
15. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
16. Dear Zoo
17. Doctor De Soto
18. Eating the Alphabet
19. Each Peach Pear Plum
20. Freight Train
21. Fancy Nancy
22. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
23. Goodnight Moon
24. Gossie
25. Guess How Much I Love You
26. Happy Birthday, Moon
27. Harold and the Purple Crayon
28. Harry the Dirty Dog
29. Henny Penny
30. Horton Hatches the Egg
31. I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!
32. Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue? An Adventure in Color
33. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (and also If you Give a Pig a Pancake)
34. In the Tall, Tall Grass
35. Is Your Mama a Llama?
36. It Looked Like Spilt Milk
37. Jamberry
38. Little Red Hen
39. Leo the Late Bloomer
40. Little Blue and Little Yellow
41. Little Red Riding Hood
42. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
43. Madeline
44. Make Way For Ducklings
45. Maisy Goes Swimming
46. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
47. Millions of Cats
48. Mouse Mess
49. Mouse Paint
50. Mr. Grumpy's Outing
51. Morris' Disappearing Bag
52. The Napping House
53. My Very First Mother Goose
54. Old Black Fly
55. Olivia
56. Over in the Meadow
57. Owen
58. The Very Busy Spider
59. Planting a Rainbow
60. The Polar Express
61. Rosie's Walk
62. Rumpelstiltskin
63. Seven Blind Mice
64. The Snowy Day
65. Stone Soup
66. The Story of Ferdinand
67. Strega Nona
68. Swimmy
69. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
70. The Tale of Peter Rabbit
71. The Doorbell Rang
72. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
73. Tikki Tikki Tembo
74. The Three Little Pigs
75. The Story of Babar
76. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
77. The Three Bears
78. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
79. There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
80. There's a Nightmare in My Closet
81. Wemberly Worried
82. Where the Wild Things Are
83. Where's My Teddy?
84. When I was Young in the Mountains
85. The Wheels on the Bus
86. We're Going on a Bear Hunt
87. Sheep in a Jeep
88. The Empty Pot
90. The Relatives Came
91. Gifts
92. A House is a House for Me
93. Peek-a-Boo (Janet and Allen Ahlberg)
94. Roxaboxen
95. The Little House
96. Lily's Purple Plastic Purse
97. A Tree is Nice
98. The Story about Ping
99. The Little Engine that Could
100. Where's Spot?
Add in there a few number counting books and a few ABC books too.
What are your children's favorite books?
I put four objects (one for each of the letters you see) into Bear's rabbit basket. She picked an object from the basket and matched it to the letter. Here's the Mommy script I used: "Ooh, you picked a rabbit. What letter do we use for the sound /r/ like in rabbit? Can you put the rabbit on that letter?" Bear matched them all no problem. In the basket were a rabbit, a mouse, a bath toy frog, and a basket of apples (from her Little People toys).
Tomorrow I plan on trying this with the letters b i t g, as well as reviewing R A M F with different objects (that is if Bear even feels like doing this). For those wondering why I am doing these particular letters, I am following the order in which Montessorians introduce their letters.
I tried to play "I Spy" with her ("I spy something that starts with /r/") with those four objects later on, but my saying these words reminded her of a book which says the same thing so she went to get the book for me to read to her instead of playing my game. Thus is life with a 20 month old! But oh how I love how her little brain makes associations!
Bear has two sets of foam numbers - one set is the ever popular set that is meant for bath time play, and the other is a smaller set from a foam puzzle. I took the smaller set, put it in a basket and had her match the "baby" numbers with their "mamas." Bear just is not into matching of any sort for more than 30 seconds - sigh - but it was worth a try considering I had two sets available and it took no effort to set up.
- Bear is 20 months-
gross motor skill - running away from Mommy Monster:)
gross motor skill - throwing
I just discovered Preschool Express via an article at Let's Explore. It is full of great ideas for numbers, letters, toddlers, patterns, art and more. Check it out.
Read more...I apologize for very bad photos. I set up activities on the counter for Bear to do (if she chooses to) while I do breakfast dishes, so when I take the photos, my hands are usually wet and soapy and I take them very quickly. Secondly, Bear loves to take off her own pajamas while I am busy doing dishes and is usually naked for these activities, which then limits my photographic angles.
Pompoms pushed into an empty parmesan container.
Pompoms dropped into an empty water bottle. She then shakes them back out. I got this idea from someone's blog and if it is yours, then please tell me in the comments so I can link you. The yogurt container you see on the left above has a slit cut in the lid and Bear loves to push popsicle sticks through it. (Bottom photo) This is also a color activity since the popsicle sticks are colored. When we do this one together, I ask her to put in specific colors of sticks.
Wow! I am truly blessed. Two awards in one week!
Thank you Mary Anne of Thrifty Craft Mama who awarded me the “Premio Dardos” award for "bloggers who distinguish themselves for showing cultural values, ethics, great and fun writing skills, as well as individual values, through their creative writing."
Thrifty Craft Mama has great ideas for toddlers. Check out this thrifty idea for a sandbox.
Here are the award rules:
I made Bear another tot tool, even though she isn't quite ready for it. It is meant to be a matching game. I put the corresponding dot stickers on the back of the numeral cards as well so that later, Bear can check her answers. I think I will use different scissors for each card pair (the scrapbooking type scissors with special edged blades) before giving them to Bear, as another means of self checking. Also by doing this, it will be more like a puzzle. I used the Montessori way of arranging the dots as it allows a child to see odd vs. even more readily.
The next photo shows a possible extension to practice one-to-one correspondence. The child puts the correct number of objects (I used a pompom but it could have been a counting bear) on the cards. I actually might do the extension first, with the cards already together like this, so Bear can make the association, as with her counting book.
While I was getting dinner ready, Bear found the bag of dice and started entertaining herself. First she stacked them. (I missed a great picture of her six block tower.)
Then she dumped the whole bag on the floor, but picked them up and brought them up to the counter, where she proceeded to line them up in a straight row. 
At least she didn't feed the birds again!
This list is incomplete of course, but I always lose/forget where I got a great idea, so I thought I would start a list on my blog to come back to.
felt finger puppets - I love these ones Annette at The Whipples made for her daughter.
felt carrot - Bear has tons of felt food, but she is missing some important things. For example, her rabbit stuffed animals haven't been able to satisfy their carrot cravings.
felt ice cream cone - here's a tutorial for a waffle cone.
This toy would be too easy for Bear, but I want to make it for the baby that's due in August.
Ikat Bag is one of my favorite blogs because of all the neat things she makes for her children. Here she shows how to make a pantyhose potato. She has great tutorials for dress up clothes too. Of course, they are all on my list, but I'll just link once. Look on her left sidebar for the tutorials.
puppet theater - I can't find the one I originally saw that gave me the idea, but I found one at Sycamore Stirrings so you can see how easy this is. It involves a tension curtain rod and some fabric across a doorway.
And who knows if I'll ever print these out, but you can print out animal and habitat cards to use to play concentration (or even just do a straight matching game. This would be a great way for a toddler to learn different animals and their habitats.
Wow! Thank you Annette of The Whipples for giving me this award. As such a new blogger, I feel especially honored to be chosen.
Here are the rules for this award: Tape it up on your blog somewhere. Pass it along to 5 fellow super bloggers, and comment on their blog to let them know how lucky they are today! When you present your Super Blogger awards, link back to the super blogger who gave it to you.
There are so many blogs out there that I think are fantastic. Here are 5 I'd like to recognize.
Ikat Bag
United Teaching
The Snail's Trail
Preschool Playbook
Storytime and More
While I was busy with dinner, Bear decided to feed the little birds that hang out in our yard. She took her whole tray of dried lentils (maybe two cups worth of lentils) and dumped it all in the same grassy spot right next to the front door. I really hope it doesn't attract roaches or mice! I think I need to teach her about "sprinkling" her bird food around (farther from the house) as opposed to dumping it.
Read more...
Our house is incredibly messy right now because we were supposed to move and then the move got postponed because my husband got sent on a business trip. Most of our things are in boxes, so I printed out an A (the computer isn't packed yet, thankfully) and had Bear stick ant stickers all over it. She loves stickers so she loved this.
Then I printed our some pictures of "a" words and had her glue them into an alphabet booklet we are starting.
Bear finger painted. I showed her how to make prints using bubble wrap and water bottle lids (dip the open part of the lid into the paint and then stamp across your paper). Bear liked that, but even though she always starts out using the tools I offer her for painting, she always ends up just sticking her whole hand in the paint and making handprints. I just let her do what she wants. Art at this age is all about exploration.A site that lists words from all types of categories for each letter of the alphabet. This could be useful when trying to find objects to place in a sound box or if trying to make an alphabet book with your child.
This one has great printable letters.
This site also has great printable letters, but also has printables for numbers, color, and shape and is available in English, French, German, and Spanish.
Here you can play games about letters, numbers, shapes and colors in English, Spanish, German, and French. This is worth checking out.
A to Z phonics is also worth exploring. I went to alphabet printables and got some great PDF files to print.
I stapled some computer paper together to make Bear a counting book. I wrote the numbers 1-6 across a two page spread. Bear (with my help) put the correct amount of dot stickers next to each number.
The next day, (Tuesday) we were doing some letter A activities and Bear was sticking some ant stickers all over an upper case A template. I took her counting book out and on the next two page spread wrote the numbers 1-6 again. This time, because I was cooking lunch, I made little circles next to each number so she would know how many stickers to put next to each number. Bear seemed to be enjoying this, but stopped after sticking ants on 3.
I like this counting book idea because Bear gets to review counting 1-6 many times as we can keep counting until we run out of pages. Also, stickers that go with any theme can be used. Bear seems proud to have a book that she has helped make and she has let me read it to her a few times already since we have started it. To top it off, using stickers is a great fine motor skill activity.
She's still a little young and when she stops showing interest we stop. However, I think the exposure is important. I'll keep this in my toddler bag with some stickers in case she decides to show interest while we're waiting at the obgyn's office tomorrow.
Today we painted and Bear was really into making handprints. She chose to do 6 of them on one page. As she was doing this, I was counting them for her - this is mostly how we work with numbers right now. I count a lot to Bear.
However, once the painting had dried, I showed Bear her painted hands again and I wrote the number in each of her "hands." We counted (I counted) them a few times while she watched. Then I thought, "Why not make it into a game?" So I cut out some apples from the paper she had painted mostly red, wrote the numbers 1 through 6 on those and had her put the corresponding apple into each hand. Laminating it would make it more durable. You could use any shape to place into the hands (whatever fits into the theme you might be working on). I'll be using this matching game this week with her.
We did some Montessori practical life - sweeping. Taping a square on the ground helped her know where to direct her sweep, as opposed to flinging the beans everywhere.
Bear beaded (she chooses this activity frequently). She attempted to do lacing cards, but these still need a lot of guidance from me.
Bear is good at matching, even though she never wants to do this for more than a few minutes at a time. I decided to challenge her by having her match objects to some cards on which I had traced the objects' outlines. The first time was challenging, but now she does it pretty fast; I'll have to make her new ones.
As you can probably tell, one of my goals for Bear is for her to be able to recognize her colors. I came up with this game that I made with her (she watched and helped me find the right color marker). The great thing is that this game also helps them practice fine motor skills. I call it the Clothespin Color Game.
First, you need
an empty yogurt container (the large kind, not individual)
markers (actually, I think Sharpies would work MUCH better)
wooden clothespins (I used 9 - I think)
I colored a square on the end of the clothespin that you pinch and a circle at the bottom end. I wrote the color in the middle (even though she can't read, I try to expose her to as much print as possible).
The game is for me to ask for a color, for her to find it and pinch the clothespin open to place it on the rim of the yogurt container (which could totally be covered in paper or painted to make pretty, but I didn't bother). The square is there for the color, but also for me to be able to say, "Put your thumb on the square to pinch it open."
To extend the game further, she then had to pinch the clothespins off the container. Then, to continue being able to talk about colors, I took the lid and cut a square big enough only for the clothespin. I taped the edges and then put the lid on the container. Bear now had to take the clothespin I asked for and put it through the hole.
Bear had fun and we played this again in the afternoon. However, her fingers do get tired of pinching and so in the afternoon she was mostly interested in putting the clothespins through the hole. She asked to do it "again" 3 times.
She is starting to tell me what certain colors are, so I think all my color tools are paying off. :)
I've been doing a mystery bag activity with Bear. I put some objects in a little bag she has. We take out all the objects and look at them and I have her feel each one as we talk about the texture and shape of the object. Once we have gone over all the objects, we put them back in the bag and I ask her to find one of the objects without looking. I call out an object until she has taken them all out of the bag. Bear really loves this.
I was reading about Montessori stereognostic bags using pairs of wooden shapes and at first I thought, well, I don't have wooden geometric solids so I guess I can't do this one, but then I realized that Bear's wooden blocks are not all just cubes. So I put some pairs of her blocks into the bag, pulled one out and after she felt the shape, she searched for the match in the bag without looking. This was a little more challenging for her and I don't think she is quite ready yet. We'll try again in a couple of weeks.
After seeing the part/whole cards on Chasing Cheerios I wondered if Bear would be able to do this activity. Jan Brett, the author and illustrator, has an awesome website where you can download tons of stuff, including flashcards. I printed out some of these cards and cut them in half to make my own Part/Whole matching cards. I didn't print out all of the cards because rarely does Bear want to do anything involving matching for more than a minute. I also didn't want to overwhelm her with the whole alphabet at once. She liked the illustrations on the cards and enjoyed doing the activity with me so maybe I'll print out a few more letters soon.
Bear and I have been taking nature walks every morning. There's not much nature where we live presently, but we walk along the road and I try to point out what I can - flowering weeds, bees pollinating clover, butterflies, birds singing, etc.
On two occasions last week, (I briefly posted about these in my Tot School post), we had the good fortune of finding very nice insects. Bear had a lot of fun looking at them, especially the "aplar" (caterpillar) that was very active.
Our new house is on a large lot and I look forward to our nature walks. Just one more week to moving day and I am not looking forward to unpacking.
I just discovered contact paper and have totally fallen in love. Hehe. Chasing Cheerios did a texture collage using contact paper and numerous other blogs were using it to make suncatchers.
So a few days ago I bought some and gave Bear a tiny square of it today. She loved the stickiness of it and kept putting her fingers and hand all over it. (Great sensory activity.)
Then I gave her scraps of paper (from her cutting practice) that I cut down into little shapes, yarn, and cotton balls and yarn and she enjoyed sticking them onto the paper.
We'd done texture collages before but with liquid white glue and it was slightly messy. I love that contact paper is totally mess free. I also figure I can use it to "laminate" flash card type things, which will be much easier than using packing tape as I have been doing.
I love these little gluesticks with blue glue. Bear can see exactly where she has put glue. She loves to practice using glue and it is a great fine motor activity. I cut her an egg shape and used these stickers from Family Fun. I don't have sticker paper, so I printed the "stickers" on plain paper and cut them out for Bear. She had so much fun gluing.
Bear loves this book (Imogene's Antlers). I found it in a box of books while organizing. Last month, when I tried to read it to her, she showed no interest, but two days ago I had to read the book 7 times IN A ROW! And then many more times later. I have branches with hanging eggs to decorate for Easter and every time we would walk by it, Bear would say "Imonene." So we used some spare branches and a headband and created some antlers for Bear.
I found a great list on a blog, and now can't find the blog, but it doesn't matter, because the list is actually from a book by Gettman. It is a list of the Montessori Period One activities.
I have decided that now that I know what Bear should be working on (according to the Montessori approach) I can now develop a learning plan.
I don't think I will manage to start this plan however until we are moved and unpacked and tidy.
Also, I don't know how to do all of these activities, but have been researching a lot on line, which is why I am not posting as much as I'd like.
Here's the list for anyone interested:
SEQUENCE OF MONTESSORI WORK
PERIOD ONE
[Early Practical Activities, introductory Sensorial, Culture, and Language Activities, no Math]
Practical:
- Pouring beans between two jugs
- Opening and closing containers
- Buttoning
- Buckling
- Other simple dressing frames
- Carrying and laying floor mats and table mats
- Saying Thank You
- Other early grace and courtesy work
- Carrying a tray
- Lifting, carrying and putting down a chair at a table
- Climbing and descending stairs
- Walking on the line
- Folding
- Hanging clothes on a hook
- Brushing hair
- Dusting
Sensorial:
- Cylinder blocks
- Pink tower
- Color tablets, box 1
- Presentation tray of geometric cabinet
- Sensitizing the fingers
- Touch boards
- Presentation 1 of geometric solids
- Stereognostic bags
Language:
- Classified pictures, exercise 1
- Classified pictures, exercise 2
- Speech
- I Spy, Stage 1
- I Spy, Stage 2
- I Spy, Stage 3
- Book corner and library
Culture:
- Land and Water
Sorry about the lack of photos, but my husband took my computer apart after I went to bed, and so I am on his laptop without access to my photos.
Bear and I have been doing a lot of insect watching this week. We have had the good fortune to find both a grasshopper and a caterpillar on our driveway this week. We put them in a jar for a bit for observation and then released them. Then while taking a walk, we observed bees harvesting nectar from clovers. Bear loves honey and I tried to explain how bees make honey from the nectar of the flowers. We also watched some spiders (and read Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider over and over and over).
We finally got out the shape lacing cards from the ABC and 123 giveaway. I realized that Bear knows her shapes quite well when she walked over to me with the star and the oval, held up the star and said "star" and then held up the oval and said "oval." She then did this again with the rectangle and circle. She has learned the shapes much faster than the colors and I wonder if it has anything to do with all the shape songs I have been singing to her.
Then, of course, there was more of the usual...puzzles, and lacing beads, and watching Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on You Tube. I finally printed out the coconut tree to put on the fridge for her to play "Boom." She also played a lot with her rice tub and we got out the water tub a few times to play with her new watering can.
For more Tot School updates, visit here.
I save a lot of glass jars since we don't have recycling where we live. One day I found Bear playing with them and trying to find lids to fit the jars. I just put her self-found game on a tray. Sometimes I put an extra lid in there to throw her off a bit because otherwise it is just a bit too easy for her. She's very careful with the glass, but needs reminders not to walk around with the jars in her hands.
I actually taught the concept of big and little to Bear at mealtimes when she was much younger. I'd hold up her spoon and say "little", then hold up my spoon and say "big" and then ask her to take the "big" spoon (or sometimes the "little" spoon). I basically did this with whatever utensils and dishes I could while she ate.
I followed that up with a sorting activity I made for her a long while back. However, she gets bored with sorting of any sort and will usually stop after just one or two items of a category.
Bear LOVES rocks and collects them every time we go outside. I wrote big and little on two cards, making the words respectively big and little since she can't read. I chose 5 rocks of each size from her collection and put it in a little box with the two cards. It was simple and fast. Now that she has the concept of big and little down pat, I just need to do the same thing for long and short.
When I make smoothies for Bear, I always freeze the extra in popsicle molds. She tends to fall a lot and has bitten her lip on numerous occasions, and when she does, I just pop out a "popsicle" and she sucks away feeling much better. I get peace of mind because I know she is eating something wholesome.
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