Tot School - Scarecrows and Thanksgiving

Because of how the weeks fall this month we were able to do our Scarecrows theme and Thanksgiving theme together this week.  We started the day off by decorating our scarecrow hats and saying "Boo" to the stuffed animal crow.  They thought that was a hilarious game.  We also made handprint turkeys - be sure to check the binders for those gems!

 One of the favorite activities was making dancing scarecrows.  They were pre-cut and assembled with mini brads to make the head, arms, and legs wiggle like they are dancing.  I thought they turned out delightfully adorable!  Have a great Thanksgiving, no tot school next week!

Tot School - Indians and Pilgrims

NOTE: This educational tot pack and activity day is meant as an introduction to Native Americans and Pilgrims.  I have intentionally used the word Indian to introduce the letter I.  Indian, however, is not an accurate description of Native Americans.  For more information please see this link. There are also many different tribes of Native Americans that have very different traditions. Though the Pilgrims were in contact with the Wampanoag, this pack introduces ideas from many different tribes.

We had a fantastic morning in tot school yesterday.  I have loved watching this group of children grow up- they really do grow and change so quickly.  One thing that I'm noticing now is how they are developing the ability to play together, a developmental step just beyond playing side-by-side.  I love how they are interacting and saying hello and goodbye to their friends by name.

We made feather headbands and counted to four.  We read stories about being thankful and Thanksgiving.  We also built tons of buildings with blocks.  One of our favorite activities was making petroglyphs by coloring on sandpaper (because carving rocks is a little out of our league right now).  Last, but not least, we made a home made game with a popsicle stick, a string, and a circle of chenille stem.  The idea is to hold the stick and try to get the circle around the stick by swinging it. We had such a fantastic day!

Thanksgiving and Snow

 We had a fantastic lesson about Thanksgiving today.  We made a giant list of the things we are thankful for.  I was so proud of them for listing things like: family, books, friends, hugs, houses, someone even said "life".  What a fantastic group of kids!  We learned the letter L the Lizard and practiced making the /l/ sound.  It's such a tricky sound to make!  We continued working on "Guess My Secret Rule", this time with the silverware drawer.  The idea of the game is much like the Sesame Street game "One of these things is not like the others".  There are 3 items that match and one that is different.  The children are to identify which is different and why (such as it is bigger than the rest, it's a different color, it's a fork not a spoon). The game is actually REALLY hard and we're struggling with understanding the concept.  So... please pull out your own silverware draw, line up 4 objects (3 the same and 1 different) and ask your child which one is different and why.  Play it every day!

Preschool B had a blast talking about snow.  It was fun to read all sorts of books about snow and discuss the weather and then see that it was starting to snow outside!  We worked hard in our reading groups mastering the letter F and working on the Moffatt Girls Ready2Read program.  We moved to ABB patterns in math and they picked up the concept right away!  

Preschool Thanksgiving

On Tuesday of this week we were able to talk about Thanksgiving.  Since we already spent a day talking about the first Thanksgiving with Pilgrims and Indians we were able to focus on the thankful part of Thanksgiving.  We talked about all the different things that make us thankful and read a great book called "I'm Thankful Each Day". For the rest of our lesson plans and printable activities be sure to check out our Preschool Thanksgiving Pack. 

We learned about letter L this week in many fun ways.  We searched all around the room for the letter L and put highlighter tape on all the L's we found.  We also practiced saying /l/ by licking a lollipop and making our tongue touch the top of our mouth for /l/.   

We're working on using our newly acquired descriptive vocabulary to verbalize why an item doesn't match a set in our "Guess My Secret Rule" game.  Today we used silverware to play this game.  Silverware is great because there are different types (spoon, fork, knife), different sizes and different colors or material (metal/plastic).

Overall, we had a fantastic day of learning!

Indians and Pilgrims

NOTE: This theme is meant as an introduction to Native Americans and Pilgrims. I have intentionally used the word Indian to introduce the letter I. Indian, however, is not an accurate description of Native Americans. For more information please see this link. There are also many different tribes of Native Americans that have very different traditions. Though the Pilgrims were in contact with the Wampanoag, this theme introduces ideas from many different tribes. 

Yay!  It's the holiday season!  We talked all about letter I in tot school today.  We made Indian headdresses (though I should remember to make the feathers smaller next time) and the kids loved them!  They all picked their favorite colors for the feathers.  It was funny that they all picked 2 of the same color. 

 We also were stringing beads to make necklaces and building houses from Lincoln Logs.

 We made totem poles with large cardboard tubes markers and stickers.  It was fun to watch them decorate their totem pole in so many different ways.  We also made a game with a stick, string and pipe cleaner.  The idea is that you swing the circle and try to catch it on your stick.  I was successful exactly ZERO times while trying to demonstrate it to the kids.  I hope they're having better luck at home with it!

 It was really fun when I started setting out green mats for story time they all ran over to find a mat right away without me being done setting up mats or even saying anything.  They love story time and we read oodles of books about Pilgrims and Indians.  We talked about the very basics of the events that led to the first Thanksgiving.  Each time I finished reading a book I'd hand it to a child to look at.  That ended up working really well because they were fully engaged in the books and wanted to be closer but all those kids in my space at the same time doesn't work.  I think I'll try it again next week where they each get a book to look at while I'm reading.   We had a fantastic day!  I look forward to seeing you all again next week!

November Tot Packs Are Up!

NovemberTot Packs

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

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

Tot Packs 12-15

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.

12. Indians and Pilgrims {Download Here}

NOTE: This pack is meant as an introduction to Native Americans and Pilgrims. I have intentionally used the word Indian to introduce the letter I. Indian, however, is not an accurate description of Native Americans. For more information please see this link. There are also many different tribes of Native Americans that have very different traditions. Though the Pilgrims were in contact with the Wampanoag, this pack introduces ideas from many different tribes.

Printables in this pack:

· Two Piece Puzzles

· Indian Feather Headbands

· Native American Teepee Paper and Straw Craft

· Dream Catcher Lacing

· Letter I

· Songs

13. Scarecrows {Download Here}

Printables in this pack:

• Color Matching Scarecrows


• Scarecrow Body Parts


• Location Word Book


• Shadow Matching


• Size Sequencing


• Letter L


• Spin a Scarecrow


• Cornmeal Play-dough


• Scarecrow Songs

14. Thanksgiving {Download Here}

Printables in this pack:

Handprint Turkey

• Thanksgiving Dinner Plate - Trying New Foods


• 3 Piece Puzzles


• Letter L


• Turkey Grid Game


• Thanksgiving Songs and Poems

15. Animals in Winter {Download Here}

Printables in this pack:

Animals in Winter Songs

Tracing Winter Animals

Animals in Winter

Letter P

Cave Size Sequencing

Animals in Winter, a Short Path Game

Preschool - A Week and A Day ago

I apologize that this post is picture heavy and doesn't have credit to all the creators of these great ideas, but I'm over a week late posting this anyway.  Last Monday we had preschool and then I fed my family lunch and 30 minutes after sending everyone out the door we jumped in the car and headed to the airport for our Thanksgiving vacation.  Preschool was a blast and here are some memories from it:

J loved coloring his T is for Turkey page from First School

 M worked on a puzzle that I created by finding a black line turkey picture, printing it twice, coloring them identically, laminating, and then cutting one out and adding magnets to the back of it.

 I'm not sure where this Thanksgiving turkey/number match came from.  If you recognize it please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due! A and I enjoyed putting all the turkey feathers on.

 R and M matched the puzzles from my Thanksgiving Math Pack.

 These pattern cards are from 1+1+1=1

 After coloring our Turkeys we glued feathers onto them!

 I put Velcro on the "glue" section of my geometric solids and everyone felt so successful when they put the shapes together!

 Here the boys are practicing the grid math game from my Winter Math Pack

 We also had quite a high success rate for the first time with a color by number turkey from 1+1+1=1

During our music time each of the kids (decided by themselves) that they should get out our Amazing Action Alphabet flip charts and find the song we were singing about.  It was so much fun to watch them sort through the cards looking for the right letter!

We also did this T is for Turkey dot art from 2 Teaching Mommies.

It was a great preschool day, as all days are, and I look forward to my young friends returning tomorrow after a week break!