Alyssa just turned 24 months old on November 19th
All activities are done under VERY CLOSE supervision due to small items.
Please do not use photos of my child on any website, etc. Thank you!
All activities are done under VERY CLOSE supervision due to small items.
Please do not use photos of my child on any website, etc. Thank you!
This has been a really busy week for us due to the holidays. I don't have all of the photos for this week's activities to share because my CF cards were full. But ... I really wanted to start posting on Carissa's Tot School blog (web address at the bottom of this post). Most of these photos and activities were from one day.
Alyssa would roll the die and identify the number of dots (by either recognition or counting them). Then, she would count out the number of white pom poms (snowman ice cube tray) or jingle bells (Christmas tree ice cube tray). At the end of each activity, Alyssa would count all of the items up to ten. The ice cube trays were bought at Dollar Tree.
Roll a Die Counting Snowman Game
Putting in the last five.
Roll A Die Counting Christmas Tree Game
Alphabet Tag Sequencing
We played a Christmas wrapping paper matching game. I cut out 3" by 3" pieces of wrapping paper twice. I didn't have time to make them look fancy or laminate them. This was too easy for her so next time I will have to make it into a Memory (Concentration) game.
Wrapping Paper Matching Game
We used a 1-5 counting sheet to practice counting bows, bells, and presents earlier in the day. I forgot to take photos of her doing the activity so I just photographed it. The counting sheet can be found at http://www.accomplishate.com/totschool/072409/1-5.pdf. We tried to alternate colors if we had enough of the items. We also used green bells for odd numbers and red for even numbers. I know this is way too advanced for her, but I just wanted to expose the words odd and even.
Counting Christmas
She saw me photographing and decided to count with the little bells. She would first say the number, count the boxes, and then count out that number of bells. Yeah - I photographed her doing it!
As I was putting the bells away, Alyssa realized that she still wanted to play with them. So, I gave them back to her with several spoons (different sizes) and a milk jug. She identified the smallest and largest spoons and stacked them in order with the smallest on top. Then, she spooned (transferred) the bells into the small milk jug as she counted them. Last of all, she poured them all back into the storage container. She loved twisting the lid on so that she could shake the container while she sang a song and danced around the kitchen.
Spooning & Pouring Bells
Alyssa and I read all of the Christmas books seen on the stairs together in one sitting. I think she is a bit addicted to books and reading. This is a picture of her identifying the word "orange" in this book. Her favorite books read TONIGHT were: Clifford's Christmas Presents by Sonali Fry, A Snowy Night by M. Christina Butler, God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren, and Bear Stays Up by Karma Wilson. She asked me to read each of them more than once. We do all sorts of activities as we read books: predicting, describing and finding items on a page, retelling the story, finding words that she knows on a page or two (number, color, shape, sight, names, etc), finding letters in a word, and identifying parts of a book. These are just a few activities. It is getting late ... or early ... so my brain is not quite functioning. I have a new stack of books for next week!
Christmas Books
She loves sorting activities. Alyssa sorted Christmas items (colorful mini bows, presents, and bells) in a holiday sectional tray. She also counted the number of items in each section of the tray. I didn't get a picture of her doing it, but she also sorted these items by color in piles on the floor.
Sorting Christmas Items
This was the second time she did this activity. She wanted Santa to have the presents, the tree to have bells, and frosty to have the bows for his hat.Alyssa sorted larger bells by color (green and red) using two hands at once. She reviewed her colors and counted how many of each color she had in the Christmas buckets. Then, she told me the bowl was empty and insisted that she needed more. I told her that I didn't have any more bells and asked her what she could do to get more. Then, she poured them back into the bowl and helped me mix them up.
Sorting Bells
The next activity was a little advanced for her so we only worked with numbers up to 5 items. First, I placed several Christmas items inside a red velvet stocking from Walmart. Then, Alyssa would reach in without looking and she tried to count the items she felt. Afterwards, she would put that many items in the green stocking (telling me the number). We would compare what I had in my stocking to hers to see if we had the SAME amount. Bigger stockings would have made this activity easier too, because the stockings were almost too small for her hands. The picture below shows a sample of the items used for this activity. The smaller bells worked best for this activity.
Stocking Count Match
She patterned red and white beads on a pipe cleaner into the shape of a candy cane ... I did lay them out in order for her. But, she recognized the color pattern on her own. We also read a sheet about candy canes and the color representations. She started counting the beads. I understood her words up to ten. It sounded like she was attempted to count into the teens, but I couldn't understand her words. We couldn't go to the classroom area to paint or do other art activities, because it was too cold down there and we haven't bought a heater for that room yet.
Patterned Candy Cane Craft
She played with her two-piece puzzles by The Learning Journey (transportation, alphabet, and all about me) found at Ross. These are awesome and she has been able to do them since she was very little. She matches the word piece to the picture piece. Each puzzle has about 26-30 puzzle sets. These puzzle have helped with word recognition, problem solving, vocabulary, and other early learning skills.
She sang her "Mommy Loves Daddy" song on her guitar.
We also decorated our tree which should have been done a long time ago.
Tree Decorating
She REALLY enjoyed putting the stockings on her feet (at least she told me she had two and what colors they were). She started dancing and hopping around to Christmas music after I took this picture. So ... mommy and daddy stopped what they were doing to join her.Sock Hop Dance
Alyssa peeled off adhesive gift tags (fine motor skills) and added them to wrapped gifts. She identified several gift tags with her name on them. Check out some of the name recognition activities that we do too on my blog. I will add more later some time. She would also name the bow colors and stick them onto the gifts too.
She helped me with Christmas cards by signing an "H" on some of them. This is the only letter she writes on her own right now besides drawing circles (O's). Here is a picture of her writing "H's" on her Aquadoodle Wall Runner. This was an awesome birthday gift she received! She loves to write on it, leave the room, and ask me where her H's are. I can't wait to buy her the travel one for long car trips.
Letter Doodling
Alyssa used her fine motor skills to peel Elmo stickers out of a sticker book and onto paper squares. She would also count how many stickers she had on each piece of paper. She enjoyed sticking them to my back side while I cooked instead of on the paper! Her giggles during this activity cracked me up! Don't forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for more Tot School ideas. There are some great ideas shared on this blog ... Check it out!!!!
What a wonderful week. I really like how you have a desk for your little one. I have seen those before at Michels and thought that my daughter might enjoy one. Merry Christmas!
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ReplyDeleteThank you ladies! Alyssa's aunt painted her name on the tray for Christmas last year and she loves sitting at it (that is ... when she isn't working on the stairs). We sometimes use it for name recognition activities. When she was younger, we would match letters underneath her name. I also gave her some letter tiles so that she could sort the letters that were in and those that were not in her name. I just made a T-chart with tape and paper labels on the tray. I am so excited about tot school!!!!
ReplyDeleteOH NO! I just accidentally removed Karen's comment. I was trying to deleted MY previous comment because it was still showing and clicked too quickly. I apologize. Sorry Karen! I am still new at this blogging stuff. I guess I need to be more careful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week! I love her little "desk" I might have to get one of these for my son! I love the stocking picture.. too cute!
ReplyDeleteI love the snow man dice game and the counting Christmas activities!!! Great week!
ReplyDeleteHi girl! What a smart girly you have on your hands!! Thanks for stopping by my blog, too! And gosh, I love so many of your activities and am scrambling to get them in before Christmas! :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Tot School and I can't wait to see what you've been up to this week!
-Jill