Tot School (Week 18)

Caeden is currently 26 months old.

 For more Tot School ideas, visit Carisa's blog over at 1+1+1=1!

HOT...HOT...HOT...that is how the weather has been in our area.  We've been in excessive heat warnings for the past few days and I feel that it has sucked the motivation right out me.  We haven't been able to go outside but once this entire week and we had to go first thing in the morning.

Poor guy...so tired when we came inside!

We also spent two days soaking up some Daddy time before he went back to teaching.  So I put Tot School (w/me) on hold until Wednesday.  We did make it out to the library to check out some new books and to just get Caeden out of the house.  By the end of the week, I was getting a bit CrAZy staying inside all day...and I've definitely used the television to give me some sanity peaceful moments.

With all that said, here's a look at our Tot School from this past week!

Alphabet:
We completed letter "V" activities this week.  We started with our letter "V" template that I printed from HERE.  After reading a few blogs that mentioned some good finds at Target's $1 Spot...I hurried right out and found some fun things for us to use.  I found foam shape stickers and thought we would use the circle since that was our shape of the week.  He did fairly well placing them on the "V" but he had a hard time being patient while I took the backing off. :)

I have been using some activities from the Raising Rock Stars Preschool Curriculum (even though C is not even close to pre-school) that was created by Carisa over at 1+1+1=1.  She has PowerPoint lessons that are available to Members Only, which you can learn more about the Members Only section here.  There is also the entire printable unit that is available for FREE on the main RRSP page…Raising Rock Stars Preschool.  . You can also see a video here showing a PowerPoint lesson.

So I went over parts of the letter Vv PowerPoint with C.  He absolutely loves the PowerPoint lessons, even if he doesn't get all of it right now.  I don't use the printable's from RRSP (yet), but you can see the entire Vv unit (along with the other units) HERE.

We also went through the ABC Powerpoint Show that was created by Carisa.  He loves this as well!  He has been singing his ABC's lately so this just reinforces learning the alphabet (and it's super cute too!) I haven't printed the Alphabet Printables but I'm sure I'll get to it sometime!

NUMBER'S/COUNTING:
My other fun purchase from Target was this cute Crayon pointer that I thought C would like to use.  He did okay with pointing to the numbers and letters (which as you can see I have not completed any more letters since M!)  He then used it like a hammer...or a drum stick.  :)  Couldn't resist it for $1!

I also got out our new nesting blocks from Melissa and Doug and not only worked on our counting, but worked on stacking and lining them up by size, and by the letters (with a lot of help from me).  He has been starting this thing where he lines up things and then walks over them.  Do not have not a clue where he got that idea!

 And since we got out those nesting blocks...we had to get out our Eric Carle nesting blocks. :)

  
Shapes:  Circle
I always forget that I have two shape sorters, so I brought those out for C to use this week.  He isn't so much into the Fisher-Price shape sorter, but loves the Mickey Mouse shape sorter that he got from his Aunt Tracy and Uncle Chad (they got that at Disneyland!)

C also wanted to play with the giraffe drop & giggle...which was another way to talk about circles.  He also thought that maybe his truck could fit too.  Yeah..not so much!

Color:  Yellow
The main color we focused on this week was yellow.  I mentioned in my last week's post, that I thought about just focusing on one color a week.  So I gathered up books about yellow, objects that were yellow, art activities that were yellow...and so forth.

I was kind of disappointed that the activity I had planned didn't go with what C had planned!  I was going to do a toss-the-ball-into-a-bucket activity.  So I went downstairs and pulled out all of the yellow balls from his ball pit (it's actually a now deflated swimming pool) and placed them in a plastic tub.  I was going to have C stand back and toss them into the tub and would work on counting and reinforcing the color.  He maybe tossed one in?  Then he grabbed the shoebox that they were in and just dumped them all in.  The pictures tell what he did next...

 At least he was having fun...and got some reading in too! :)

I also did the color matching cards that I printed off from Homeschool Creations.  You can find those printable's HERE or review my post from last week.  I found a pocket chart (Target $1 Spot) that holds the cards perfectly so we can review them everyday.

Sensory: Pasta
I got our pasta pan out this week to use for our sensory activities.  I usually don't let him pour it out of the pan, but he was pretty content with this activity so I just watched to see what he would do next. 

Click on the image to read the captions.

Games:  Penguin Bowling

I found this Penguin Bowling game at a consignment shop a long time ago and for some reason he dragged it out one day, so we played it a few times this week!  We were able to work on counting as we were setting up the penguins (over and over, and over again).

MISC:
Another fun activity I have been using is this Name Tag Reference Printable from the Lauren over at LAWTEEDAH.  I have it placed on the table where Caeden is usually sitting at for meal times, and he has been looking at it while I'm preparing his food.  The first time he saw it, he rambled off the shapes...and when I turned to look at him, he was pointing to the correct one's!  I just wonder how when I ask him what shape things are, he looks at me like he doesn't know...but when he is on his own he CAN name them!  He also points to the crayons at the bottom but just calls them "cayons"...no colors!  This has been a great transitional tool to get C focused on something while he has to wait!

Mom's Favorite:

I think someone already misses Daddy? :)

That was our week!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out our Tot School activities!

Books we read this week:

Additonal books not in widget:
123's:  Under the Sea 1-2-3
           Going Up!  The Elevator Counting Book
           

Tools we used this week: