Animal Friends - Tot School Thursday

All of our animal friends came for a visit today.  Of course they are the stuffed kind that don't take a whole lot of responsibility :)  Lil'ManJ decided that it would be nice to give the horse a drink though.  It was so sweet and something he completely came up with on his own.  Since J really loves his water bottle it was such a nice act of sharing something special <insert heart melting "awww">.

 This picture cracks me up. There's nothing like a pair of bunny ears on a large pink floppy hat to make you grin!

 The sandbox was a big hit today.  Now that I think of it though, it's a big hit every Thursday.  This group of kids just really enjoys it.

 Snack worked out great today.  We had a couple of peaches, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  Some kids ate all the tomatoes, others ate all the peaches, and still others loved and ate all the cucumbers. I encouraged every child to try all three items, but some were certainly more interested in one item over the others.

 After everyone else was done with snack Lil'ManJ discovered a new trick:

 Followed by this:

 He was very happy with activity until his water bottle ran out of water and he gave me a look requesting that I solve his water problem.  I filled up his water bottle again and he repeated the squirting it into the cup and drinking 1/4 of the cup while pouring the rest on himself until the water bottle was empty again.  Again he wanted more water, but it was chilly enough that he was starting to shiver so we moved on to warm dry clothes.

 We made the egg carton ants again today and read oodles of fun books about animals.  Be sure to check out the Animal Friends Tot Pack for all the lesson plan ideas and resources.

 The tot pack is always a hit and attracts the attention of multiple toddlers as soon as I pull it out. 

 As we played with the tot pack we also had some fun sock puppets to explore.  Sock puppets, and puppetry in general, are starting to become a passion of mine.  EMan walks around with a sock "puppet" (aka: a dirty sock that should be in the laundry) on his hand all the time.  I've heard that others in tot school have started putting socks on their hands as well.  Don't be surprised if you start seeing it in your home.  It's becoming a trend :)

 This Tot Pack has a sorting animals by home activity.  There are farm animals and animals that are more traditionally pets.  It's quite a bit more challenging for toddlers as there aren't outlines for matching the animal to but they played this game over and over, so we know it's a keeper!