School Tools - Thursday Tot School

To do your own awesome tot school with your child or playgroup you can easily follow along with us.  Just download our lesson plans along the way!  Today we did the School Tools Tot Pack.

 This was the first day for the majority of these kids.  We started with play-dough and the first few pictures tell all.  The picture above shows faces of uncertainty and timidness, but then eventually everyone dives into the fun!

 We sang a fun song about using scissors to learn to open and close them.  Most kids used play-dough scissors, the kind without a metal blade. 

 Tot school is a very free flowing activity day.  Toddlers should be able to choose which activity they want to do when (within reason).  As I introduce activities I try and be engaging and exciting, but if digging in the sandbox or riding a bike is more exciting, so be it, that's why those toys are out.

 Once the playhouse doorbell was discovered we all heard it for five minutes straight.  If you are my neighbor, I am so sorry.  I distracted them with snack as soon as I could.

 Speaking of snack, it was delicious!  We had cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.  We also drank from open cups.  My favorite was one little gal who dumped her water on her chest and excitedly exclaimed, "Splash!"

 If you don't have door stoppers somewhere convenient for toddlers to play with you should consider it.  It's completely worth the buck fifty :)

 We did a lot of coloring with crayons today.  Scribbling is an important activity to develop all the small muscles in your hands and it strengthens hand eye coordination.

 A few of the kids are old pros at the tot packs.  Children that hadn't seen a tot pack before were curious and loved exploring the different activities.  We played the "Where are the crayons?" game over and over.  I can't believe I don't have a picture of it.  The giggles and squeals of delight while playing that game were so precious.

 We also tore tissue paper.  LilGalP was so giggly.  Tearing the tissue paper was so silly!

 We tried to get a picture of the tot class, but getting that many toddlers all together and happy was quite a challenge.  It's still a cute picture though!

School Tools - Preschool

Wednesday was a wonderful second day of school for preschoolers.  We started out playing a few puzzles.  I like to start with something relatively simple that encourages kids to start thinking.

 We had learned our good morning song words on Monday, so I taught the sign language that goes with the song Wednesday.  They picked it up relatively quickly.  We learned:

• Good morning.
• How are you?

 Next we read a cute little book that turned all the kids into Super Friends!  I just loved it at the end of the day when one of the kids ran to their mom and said, "Miss Amanda turned me into a super friend!" It was so cute.  Super friends have super powers.  Their super powers help them solve problems they might have with their friends.  They are powers like "Use Nice Words" and "Share".

 During art time we made super friend emblems for our shirts.

 We practiced cutting, hole punching, gluing and taping. 

 To practice the idea of a quantity of 2 we made lots of pairs of socks.

 We also played with our preschool pack about school tools.

 One of the greatest activities during music time is acting like animals.  Our focus for music in August is volume.  We read a fantastic book called Loud and Quiet an Animal Opposites Book.  We then proceeded to act like different loud and quiet animals.  For more fantastic ideas for the first week of school be sure to download the lesson plans!

 Preschool B dove right into math on Wednesday afternoon.  We focused on how to count sets.  We experimented with just looking at objects and counting in our heads, then touching each object when we said a number, and last we actually moved the objects when we counted them.

 We also started talking about the word "Equal".  We discussed how it means "the same".  Did you know that 2 is the same as 2?   Or that 2 is equal to 2? 

 Reading was so much fun!  It was a light bulb kind of day.  The kind of day where you can just see the light turn on inside a little ones brains.  We reviewed the sounds of the letters M, T, A, and S.  Then we worked on blending the sounds together to make words.  Each child is moving at their own pace, so some kids are working on letter sounds while others are mastering word families and sight words.

 For snack time we had eggs and vegetables.  First a quick lesson in cracking eggs...

 It's a tad harder than you think, but with one egg and a bowl each child eventually mastered it.  Way to go kids!

 Yum!

I just love the way preschool b is shaping up.  We're learning about friendship and how to work together and mastering all sorts of skills.  I can't wait to see these kids on Monday!

Tot School - School Tools

We had such a blast today in tot school talking about School Tools.  We utilized the Tot School Tools printable pack which you can download by clicking {here}.  We began our day with cutting.  The little ones used play-dough scissors, which are a great scissor to start with because there is no blade, just plastic.  Play-dough scissors often come in play-dough toy sets and I wish I had a ton of them.  They do cut paper (though not well) but can't hurt anything.

 I have to apologize again for this :(.  Lil'GalS was having so much fun singing the "Open and Shut Them" song from the tot pack that we accidentally cut her shirt.  I am so sorry!

 Play-dough held these little guys attention for an amazingly long time.

 So many things you can do with it!  Look at Lil'GuyT just poke it and poke it!

 Someone was ringing the playhouse doorbell over and over and these cuties just had to point to where the noise was coming from!

 Yep, the doorbell was still ringing!

 Snack time was grapes and peppers.  Everyone got to try an open cup and of course all the grapes needed to be dunked in their cups.  It was so much fun!

 I don't remember what was so funny or if it was the taste of the pepper, but I thought this face was just fantastic!

 Riding bikes and running are great ways to have fun!

 Scribbling is a great activity for toddlers.  I was impressed that no one ate the crayons today.  Hurray!

 We also ripped tissue paper.  All of these fun activities are listed on the first couple of pages of each tot pack.  The activities are specifically organized throughout the year to aid in each child's development.  I'd encourage families at home to be proactive about playing with their toddlers, and if you need a boost and some ideas check out the Toddler Curriculum I'm putting together, it's full of awesome!

 These little ones loved playing "Where are the Crayons?" They took turns hiding the crayons and finding them.

 CJ even got into the fun by playing with LilGalA.

 Shadow matching is a first skill for developing problem solving skills.

 One shoe off and one shoe on!

 Musical wind chimes hang at just the right height on my fence to create a musical burst of energy in a toddlers world.

 I love this picture of the two of them working together.

 We also explored some blocks today.  There is a great song in the tot pack about stacking the blocks and then knocking them down.  They got such a kick out of it!

 LilGuyT enjoyed reading the "My School Tools" book to us.

 Did you want this grass Miss Amanda?  I just found it right there on the ground!

A great day was had by all and I can't wait to see how these awesome kids grow and learn throughout the year!