Tot School Sept 12 - Dentist

Tot School was so much fun today.  We learned the letter T and talked all about the dentist.  We talked about our body parts and that we have teeth in our mouths.  We decided that teeth are white and had a fun craft activity where we painted egg carton teeth white.

 We are also still working on counting to 5 and played our first "Hop Along the Path" game with the big number mats.

Another fun activity we did was playing with colored masking tape and trying to put in on our papers.  

Letter T with the Dentist and Interest Led Reading

We had so much fun in our morning class today!  We started the day with the puppets and toothbrushes.  We had a silly time talking about where we use our toothbrushes (On our hair?, NO!).  The kids got a kick out of brushing the puppets teeth.  We then moved into our shared reading activity.  We reviewed all the things good readers do and read the "T Book" on the SmartBoard.  I love reading together that way because I can highlight letters and everyone can see what we're doing.  Next we read the dentist book together.  For this activity every child had their own copy of the text (it's in their binder, they get to keep it at home!).  I introduced my magic tape that can help us identify letters.  The letter "T" can be quite confusing.  There is a unique design that we call the "Princess t" to identify it.  It gets confusing with a capital "J" but they'll pick it up as they identify more letters.  With our magic tape we highlighted all the T's we could find on the cover and then a t or two on the following pages as we read it.  As you're reading to your children encourage them to point out the letters they know and what sounds they make.

 We had a ton of fun with our math lesson today.  It was our first time playing "Hop Along the Path" a game we'll play often during the school year.  The idea is to hop from object to object while counting.  It's the first step in learning how pieces move in board games, helps with counting one-to-one and is a FANTASTIC large motor activity!  Art was also a ton of fun because we had tiger teeth that needed a cleaning.  We "cleaned" them with toothbrushes and "toothpaste" (white paint).

 Our afternoon class got to look through the dentist book today as well.  We marked many different Ts as we found them.  It was really exciting to have our first day to pick our own theme to read about.  They thumbed through the encyclopedias and found a page that looked interesting.  Then they would read the words they knew or point out the letters and their sounds to their sock monkey.

This is such a cute example of what they do with their encyclopedias.  The volume is really quiet, so if you turn up your speakers be sure to turn them down after :). 

 We also played the "Hop Along the Path" game today.  The afternoon kids picked up the process of standing in a line, waiting your turn, moving up and going when appropriate quite well.  For art we played with do-a-dot markers and wrote words or letters to describe what we drew.  Their journals will reflect their wonderful growth in learning throughout the year!

If you turned up your speakers for the previous video be sure to turn them down for this one.  It's a little "Hop Along the Path" fun!

Fall, Autumn and the Dentist

What a wonderful day of school.  We had so much fun talking about the letter T and how the season fall will soon be beginning.  We played with paper leaves by tossing them in the air over and over and saying, "It's Fall!"  The kids had a complete blast!  With the introduction of the letter T they each now have a new Amazing Action Alphabet mini reader book in their binders.  Be sure to have them read it 3 times a day.  We loved reading them to our sock monkeys today in class.  In art we colored a tooth brushing chart, be sure to use it this week and reward your preschooler with the certificate at the bottom of the page.  They also received 4 tooth picks in art today to make them into two Ts, a "Mommy T" and a "Baby T".  Have them recreate them at home!  During math we played with equal quantities up to 5.  Please see the details below on how to play this homework.

In our afternoon class we talked about the letter T with the Dentist theme.  We read in our encyclopedias about the human body with muscles and bones.  We marked words we can read or simply the letter T.  Please read this page with your preschooler tonight or tomorrow as their homework.  Let them point out additional ts or read the words they highlighted (and any additional ones they can read).  This strategy is called companion reading which gives kids a way to access text they can't yet read on their own.  In math today we also played with creating equal quantities.  Each preschooler received their own paper with two circles on it.  We used tokens (poker chips) to put an equal number in each circle.  If they had 2 tokens on the left side they needed to have 2 tokens on the right side. These papers went home as homework tonight.  Using pennies or other small tokens recreate the game.  Let them put some on the left hand side and then an equal number on the right hand side.  PLEASE encourage children to MOVE the token as they are counting it.  Perhaps they have 3 tokens in one circle, as they count them they move the token from the top of the circle to the bottom of the circle.  This reinforces one-to-one counting which nearly all of my preschoolers are missing.  If your child is 3 years old only allow quantities up to 5 in each side.  If they are 4 years old you may allow quantities up to 10 per side.

 We had a fantastic time talking about letter t saying /t/ and not /tu/ if you open your mouth after /t/ to make an /u/ sound the tiger might accidentally bite off his finger!  We loved our reading groups and enjoyed helping T the Tiger brush his teeth in art.  After our 'teeth' are dry I'll send them home!

Dentist Office Field Trip

Don't forget to swing by and enter to win the Lakeshore Learning Craft Supply Box!  http://littleadventurespreschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/lakeshore-giveaway.html

We had oodles of fun at the Dentist Office today.  If you happen to live in the Aurora/Centennial area I'd highly suggest Saddle Rock Pediatric Dentistry.  We enjoyed going for rides in their chairs, touring the whole facility, meeting the dentist and even having a lesson about how to brush our teeth. 

 This is where they take pictures of your teeth.  It was such a fun and easygoing exploration of the Dentist Office and I'm certain it will make our next appointment (particularly the x-ray part) much easier!

 The children all gathered around for a lesson on how to brush teeth.  Of course, using a fish with teeth and a giant toothbrush made it super engaging as well!

 The kids loved the toddler room since it was full of great toys to explore!

I believe that going on field trips helps to broaden our children's horizons and I find it sad that there is not time in the school system to make field trips happen often enough.

Dentist - Preschool

We had a great day of learning about the Dentist, letter T and our teeth!  The kids really loved brushing the teeth of the puppets as we got started this morning. 

 As we learn the letters of the alphabet children start to find them in their environment.  It is a great activity to give them a highlighter or colored pencil and an old magazine or junk mail and let them find where the letter of the week is throughout the whole thing.  It's harder than you think!

 We watched a video of Elmo pretending that he had teeth and how he would take care of his special teeth.

 One of our favorite activities is painting the bottom of an egg carton white with a tooth brush.  We talk all about how the grey is a dirty color and when we brush our teeth we make make them white and clean.  If we had them dry before the end of the day we would have also practiced flossing our "teeth" with a piece of string.

Dentist - Tot School

We had so much fun learning the letter T today and talking about teeth and the dentist!  

 I love that the dollar store has packs of 4 toothbrushes.  It makes getting new ones for every class so much nicer on the budget. We enjoyed trying to drop a toothbrush into a wide mouth jar and brushing the "teeth" of our puppets.

Though it has nothing to do with letter T or the Dentist, we worked on throwing soft balls today as well. 

 The kids enjoyed the Dentist Tot Pack and playing the different games like sorting by color, talking about quantities up to 5 and a little Dentist hide and seek.

 One of the activities in the Dentist Tot Pack is lacing teeth.  It was really fun to watch kids pick this up this year when they struggled with it last year.

 For art today we painted the bottom of egg cartons like they were teeth. We used the tooth brush to paint and talked about how when we scrub our teeth with each day it makes them sparkly white.

 The rain finally stopped and we were able to spend the last 20 minutes of our time together outside.  I went to take the cover off the sandbox but the kids had pushed it aside and were playing with the muddy puddle so I let them continue with their game.  We had so much fun!

September Tot Packs

Find the year long theme calendar {here} and follow along with us!

This post gives details and pictures of all September Toddler Packs. Be sure to scroll down to see all of them.

Tot Packs 3-6

Tot packs are about 20 pages in length. They each have 2 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.

The printable pages include songs, matching games, drawing games and other activities.

Tot packs are designed to be a first introduction to math concepts, letters, shapes and colors. They are not meant to obtain mastery in any subject. Let them be a guide for educational play between you and your child.

3. Feelings Tot Pack {Download}

Feelings are rather hard to teach to little ones, but with our exclusive art from Jon Boone it's so much fun! After I get this printed and bound together I'll add more pictures. This pack is intended to be taught third in the curriculum. Find the year long theme calendar {here} and follow along with us!

Printables in this pack:

• Gluten Free Play-dough Recipe
• Feeling Balls
• How do you feel today?
• Today I Feel Silly - a pouring activity
• Feelings Book
• 2 Piece Emotion Puzzles
• Size Sequencing
• If You’re Happy and You Know It

  

This tot pack has 2 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.

4. Dentist Tot Pack {Download}

This pack is just full of great ideas for learning about the dentist! Each pack includes links to all the books and supplies you'll need to have a fantastic time with your toddler learning about the dentist!

The Dentist Tot Pack is 15 pages of great activities for toddlers.  There are 2 pages of ideas that are hands on experiences for kids, like flossing an egg carton!  There are also 2 piece puzzles, a "Where is the Dentist?" game, color matching, a game for practicing sets up to 5, and a "flossing" lacing card!

5. Animal Friends {Download}

Printables in this pack:

Shadow matching animals

Matching animals to their homes

Farm Animals and Pets Sorting

Color Matching Fish

Monkey Hide and Seek

Practicing Letter A

Tracing Letter A

Pet and Animal Friends Songs

My Animal Friends Book

This tot pack has 2 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.

 The printable pages include songs, matching games, drawing games and other activities.

6. Nursery Rhymes {Download}

This pack is just full of great ideas for learning about Nursery Rhymes! Each pack includes links to all the books and supplies you'll need to have a fantastic time with your toddler learning about Nursery Rhymes!

 You'll be introducing ordinal numbers and working on identifying beginning sounds from the letters we've already learned.

 You'll also practice sequencing and be playing with nursery rhymes. There is overwhelming evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes and rhythmic poems, songs, and chants significantly enhances early reading skills and phonemic awareness. In fact research highlights phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of a child's reading success.

 There are fun shadow matching games as well as a simple homemade tutorial.