Here are the books that we are planning to use during the months of April and May 2011. If you subscribe in a reader, you can click HERE to view the books.
Little Books for Little Cooks
Now I Know My ABC's
Once Upon a Book
Summary: Everyone loves Little Gorilla: his mother, his father, his aunts and uncles, Big Boa Constrictor, and all of the other animals living in the forest with him. Then one day, Little Gorilla begins to grow...and grow...and grow, until suddenly, at his birthday celebration, Little Gorilla's family and friends discover that he isn't little anymore! A cute board book that has become a favorite book in my home.
The little girls read Little Gorilla with their grandma. A great way to start out our Letter G week!
ABC Letter Introduction Activity
I created an ABC letter box to start out each letter unit. On the first day of the letter study, the girls dig through the box to find the objects. We name all the objects and listen to the first sound the word makes. Then I point to the letter and tell them that this is the letter that makes the /g/ sound. You can find more details about the ABC Letter box and how to use it at Spell Outloud.
ABC Letter Learning Activities
I forgot I had Pocket Pals by Marilynn G. Barr. When I looked through it, I found Gg for gorilla! Perfect for our study. My two girls colored the picture cards, then we cut and laminated them. The gorilla only got to hold pictures that had the “g” sound.
We went over our gorilla poem/coloring/handwriting page (download available below).
I printed out letter G playdough sheet from Homeschool Creations and picked up a set of jungle stickers. For my 2yr. old, my main objective was to have her practice getting stickers off the sticker paper and placed onto the page (fine motor skill practice). For my 4yr. old, I had her place the big gorillas on the capital G and the little gorillas on the lower-case g.
We have a set of ABC playdough cards that go along with our handwriting program. You can print out ABC playdough mats and slip into page protectors instead of using these cards. My girls are thrilled anytime they get to use playdough or clay. It’s a great way to incorporate some fine motor-skill practice along with letter learning.
ABC Crafts
We had some gooey gorilla fun making our own growing gorilla. You can find the complete gorilla craft instructions on my blog.
These look like gorillas, right? :) Maybe next time we make these I’ll let the girls paint the eggs first. These are our gorillas who are growing grass for hair. They loved making gorilla chia-pets!
ABC Theme Ideas 
We practiced putting Little Gorilla in order by size. As you can see, we’re still working on this concept :)
My son happened to have a Webkinz gorilla that he let us use for this unit. We used it to retell the story and work on positional words (put the gorilla next to the chair, place the gorilla under the blanket etc.)
Tots sure are cute, aren't they? Be sure to click on the photos to visit the mom bloggers of these cute tots!
Is one of these tots your tot (or has your tot been featured as a Cute Tot in the past)? Grab this button for your blog to share with your readers...
If your tot was sent in and not featured this time, please resend a new photo when asked again! We got so many submissions this time as you can see! It was my intention to include you all, but I make mistakes and might have overlooked someone by accident!
Next month our theme at Totally Tots is Birds. Here are some ideas for you to use in a sensory tub with your little one to explore the theme up close and personal.
What’s in the Tub?:
I visited our local craft store, Michaels, a couple of days in a row and used 40% off coupons for almost everything in our tub.
I removed the wires from all of the small birds. The two larger birds I left the craft wire on so we could hang them on the tree branch.
The birdbath is made out of a small clay pot and saucer. I used the pot as the base of the birdbath and hot glued the saucer on the top. I then cut a piece of blue felt for water.
So, what fun things did we do with the tub?
What’s in the Tub? is a feature that focuses on fun sensory tub ideas to go along with the monthly theme at Totally Tots. Click here to see past sensory tub ideas.
Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!
Bolded are items we personally own and love! If you are hosting a TOT friendly giveaway you are free to leave a link in the comments section!
