Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts

Sunday, September 2, 2012

T and U!

For letter Tt, we read books about tigers, turtles, trees and of course, trains.

Sam and Anna's tiger handprints.
 
They made dot marker T and t.


I brought home colorful tape to make tape art.

 
We also made trains by painting paper tubes and attaching them together with paper clips.




 Sam and Anna decorated paper plates and then I put them together to make a tambourine.  They had fun shaking them after I put rice inside!

 (Sam made Thomas and Percy on red railroad tracks on his plate- can you tell?)


We practiced fine motor skills by putting toothpicks into a cheese container.

We explored painted towel tubes and made some shapes with them.



Sam and Anna practiced tracing Tts and coloring objects that begin with t.

They also sorted turtles by size: large, medium, and small.
 
Of course, we had to play with trains a lot (but that's what usually happens on a daily basis around here regardless of what letter we're on).


We had fun wearing tutus (yes, even Sam). In fact, Sam was even more happy as a clam  than Anna to be prancing around in his tutu.  It was super cute seeing them dance together, holding hands.



We ate trains for lunch (the corn is smoke from the smokestack).

We also had to visit two trains near us.  This yellow train car is within walking distance of our house.


When grandma came to visit we took her to the black steam engine Sam and Anna love to climb up on.
 
No train visit is complete without going up on the red caboose!
 
 
For letter u, we didn't do as much because I was back working long hours setting up my classroom.
 
Sam and Anna made umbrella handprints, with thumbprint raindrops.

We matched shapes on umbrellas.

And also put umbrellas in size order.

Sam and Anna traced Uus and colored U objects.

They colored umbrellas by matching the color words.

We did dot marker Uus of course.


Sam and Anna also made underwater scenes with sea animal foam stickers.


They made umbrellas with muffin wrappers, pipe cleaners and dot markers too.


 
Finally, we ate a underground snack: dirt and worms!  This was definitely a special treat for us because we almost always have a healthy snack.

Anna wasn't so sure about the dirt and worms.

 
But my sweet-toothed Sam loved it- especially the gummy worms!
 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

P and Q!

 
For letter P, we read lots of books about penguins and pigs.  We read a few princess books (like The Paper Bag Princess, an excellent one with a less stereotypical image of a princess) and some books about puppies.
 
Here are Sam and Anna's penguin handprints.
 
We played with pinwheels.
 
We made dot marker P and p.
 
 
We explored a new playground.
 
 
I brought out some new puzzles with 12 pieces this week.  We needed a new challenge because all the single piece picture puzzles are way too easy for them now.  While Sam and Anna need lots of assistance with the 12 piece puzzles right now, they really enjoy them.  They are learning how to put like colors together and see a piece as part of the whole picture.  LOVE these wooden Melissa and Doug ones because 4 came in a wooden box, and each one has a small shape on the back to help keep them form getting mixed up.  I know we'll be getting more soon.
 
 
We poked pencils in playdoh.
 
And we experimented with making prints of different things in playdoh too.
 
My favorite P activity was mixing paint in plastic bags.  I used primary colors and Sam and Anna got a little intro into color mixing.   They loved discovering the new colors we created when they got mixed together.  It was mess free and I thought it was great that you could still see on the edges the two colors we used to make a new color even with lots of smushing.  Fun, easy, and fast clean-up!
 
 
We traced Pps.
 
We ordered puppy pictures from largest to smallest.
 
We did some fine motor practice with pom poms and tongs.  Sam had trouble using the tongs (and I only have one) so I brought out spoons to use too.  Anna really surprised me with how adept she was at using the tongs to pick up a pom pom and transfer it into the dish, sorting by color, using one hand (although I know this picture shows her using two hands).
 
We also sorted paperclips, as well as counted them and made patterns.
 
Sam wanted me to take a picture of the pattern we made together.
 
This was our special P lunch:  pepperoni pizza, peas, pickles, pineapple and plums!  We also ate pasta at many meals, peaches, pears and pancakes.
 
I gave Anna and I pink and purple pedicures this week too. :)
 
Not to mention the advent of potty training in our house!
For letter Q, we read books about quilts, queens, quiet, quick, and ducks books (quack).
Here are Sam and Anna's quail handprints.
 
We made dot marker Q and q.
 
 
We also used dot markers to make "quilts."
 
 
We traced Qqs.
 
Sam and Anna painted using Q-tips.  As usual, Anna was really into the free-exploration art.  Sam was done fast, Anna had to be torn away 45 minutes later. 
 
 
We sorted pictures by loud and quiet sounds.
 
And then we practiced being loud and quiet ourselves.  They loved doing the opposites right after each other.  It was a huge giggle inducer!
 
We played a quarter game where they had to try to toss quarters into the Q... I let them get as close as they wanted.
 
Then we sorted money by quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.
 
Of course, we had to go feed the ducks too... we heard a plethora of "Quack, quack!" while they scrambled for the bread!
I asked Sam and Anna 21 questions at different times without prompting any sort of answer- and got fun responses, even if they aren't completely accurate!  What they said at 2 and a half years old:

  1. What is your name?  Sam [last name], Big Girl Anna [last name].
  2. How old are you?  Sam- two, Anna- I two.
  3. What is your favorite color? Sam- red Anna-red (keep in mind I did not ask both of them at the same time)
  4. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Sam- bacon, Anna-fruit
  5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Sam- bacon, Anna- mac and cheese
  6. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Sam- bacon (notice a trend?), Anna- no response
  7. What is your favorite snack to eat?  Sam- apricot (fruit strips from Target), Anna- apricot (same thing)
  8. What is your favorite fruit? Sam- watermelon, Anna- apricot
  9. What is your favorite vegetable?  Sam- corn, Anna- french toast (?)
  10. What is your favorite thing to drink?  Sam- water, Anna- water
  11. What is your favorite animal?  Sam- elephant, Anna- lion
  12. What is your favorite toy to play with?  Sam- elephant, Anna- mama (she likes to pretend everything is a mama, including pinecones, pieces of food, etc.)
  13. What is your favorite book to read?  Sam- duck book (Little Quack), Anna- Monkeys Jumping Bed
  14. Where do you like to go?  Sam- Grandma's, Anna- Grandma's
  15. What is your favorite song?  Sam- Grandma (?  Maybe he meant singer?), Anna- Jesus Loves Me
  16. Who is your best friend?  Sam- Anna,  Anna- Sam (everyone awww all together now)
  17. What is your favorite thing to watch on tv?  Sam- watch Thomas on tv, Anna- Thomas
  18. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Sam- in the dirt, Anna- no response
  19. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Sam- play basketball (we don't have a basketball or a hoop), Anna- play in the sandbox
  20. What is your favorite thing to wear?  Sam- diaper (on the second day of potty training, hahaha!), Anna- shirt
  21. Who is your favorite person?  Sam- me, Anna- ... (then Sam interrupts:  "Sam is!")