Book Basket ~ June/July 2011

Here is a heads up on the books that we’ll be using during the months of June and July 2011 for the following features: Little Books for Little Cooks, Now I Know My ABC's, and Once Upon a Book. These lists are to help you out so you can be looking for the books at your library, digging through your stacks in search of them, or order those 'must haves'!

If you are reading this post in a blog reader, be sure to click through to read the full post and see the books we have planned. :)

Little Books for Little Cooks

Now I Know My ABC's

Once Upon a Book

Treats 4 Your Tot

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!!!!

• LOTW K4 & You Can Read Combo…ends 5/28 {today}
• LOTW K4 & You Can Read Combo-#2…ends 5/28
• Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe…ends 5/31/11
• Seeds Family Worship CDs {full set}…ends 5/29/11
• Weekly Homeschool Planner…ends 6/2/11
• U-Play Mat…ends 6/5/11
• Boon Animal Bag…ends 6/9/11
• Bumbleride Stroller…ends 6/13/11
• Morph Baby Carrier…ends 6/17/11

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!

In My Heart ~ Faith Hebrews 11:1 & 6

Faith {Hebrews 11:1&6} is #10 from Seeds of Faith.

Full Page Verse Printable…

Verse Mini Book {which could also be cut into mini flash cards to have kids put the verse in order}… 

Copy Work Tracers {print & cursive}

Copy Work Sheets… 

Full Verse Coloring Pages…

Seeds Family Worship printables here!

Visit the main Seeds Family Worship Printables page here.

Visit Seeds Family Worship to learn more about their ministry here!

Simple verse cards from Seeds, and also a verse memorization checklist can be found here on their site!

Enter to win a FULL SET of Seeds CDs here {ends 5/29/11}

Once Upon a Book ~ In the Castle

In the Castle by Anna Milbourne

Book Summary: Follow the imaginative adventures of a little boy who is whisked back in time as he plays in the ruins of a castle, only to find himself transported to the hustle and bustle of the building in its heyday - complete with jousts, banquets and valiant deeds. A perfect mix of information and story for tots!

Bible Verse:
Ephesians 6:11--Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Art:
Using this tutorial, make a shield out of cardboard! My "little knight" loved this! If you have a girl, make a "lady in waiting" hat.

Jonah used his knight shield and foam sword to storm the castle...er, I mean, swingset!

Fine Motor:
I cut a small shield out of some thin cardboard (recycled cereal box). I used a hole-punch to make holes along the edge. We used a lacing cord from another lacing set we had and Jonah practiced lacing.

Math:
I had some crown cut-outs from my teaching days that I pulled out. Jonah counted "jewels" to go with each crown. The "jewels" were some glass beads bought from the Dollar Tree.

 

Imaginative Play:
While we were learning about knights and castles, some friends from church blessed us with a great hand-me-down gift! I kid you not, they gave us this gigantic Imaginarium Medieval Castle and lots of Knight Figurines to go with it! We were so excited that they passed this along to us after their grandson grew tired of it. Jonah has played with it nonstop! It was the cherry on top to our castle week!

Videos:

We watched The Backyardigans: Tale of the Mighty Knights and Backyardigans: Escape From the Tower. You can get both of these DVD's through Netflix! There are also two streaming Netflix Backyardigans episode involving castles called "Knights are Brave and Strong" (Season 1, Episode 9) and "Robin Hood the Clean" (Season 3, Episode 14). This was great for some afternoon downtime!

 

Other Resources We Used:
We used the Knights Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations and played the Crown Grid Game from Mama Jenn.

Now I Know My ABC’s ~ Kk is for Kisses

 

Counting Kisses by Karen Katz

Summary: A tired,little child lovingly receives kisses from her family members in a good-night game. Kisses are planted on her head all the way to her tiny toes.
Supplement book: Kiss Goodnight by Amy Hest.
ABC Letter Box
      

For our Letter Kk week, we pulled out our ABC letter box. I hid various letters and letter Kk objects in the box while the girls searched to find them. They also had fun using funnels to fill up cups with the mini-letter fill.
ABC Letter Activities

I got this salt box tray idea from The Adventures of Bear. We used our Kumon alphabet cards. My daughter practiced drawing the letter in the salt. She also placed the card in the salt and buried it. Then she used her finger to find the letter K on the card.

We also traced and colored our letter Kk page and read the poem.
ABC Theme Activities

My 12 year old daughter made jumbo paper dolls of both my 2yr. old and my 4yr. old. We used these for our “Kisses” game.

Using body part cards from Education Cubes, one player rolls the die. Whatever body part lands face up gets kissed. I glued a pair of lips onto a square piece of cardstock. My daughter had to place it on the correct spot on her paper doll. You could add a second die with number inserts. One player would roll both dice and then place that many counters on the correct body part.

I’ve made a print-out that can be used several different ways. Print and cut to use as game pieces for the game above. Another option is to cut the squares and create patterns with your child. Start with a simple pattern, red, pink, red, pink, and have your child finish the pattern with the correct cards. A third way is to print as-is and use as a grid-game.
One activity that I didn’t get around to doing was “Blow a Kiss” game. Get a couple of ping-pong balls. You can either kiss the ping pong ball with lipstick or glue one of the lip cut-outs from above. Place the ping pong ball on a table and have your child blow the ball across the table. You can also place a cup on its side and have your child try to blow the ping pong ball into the cup. This is a fun game that also helps work some of the mouth muscles needed for good speech.
Downloads

You can find this download under Letter K activities.

Other ABC Resources
ABC Printables from Homeschool Creations
Letter of the Week Curriculum from COAH
ABC Flashcards and More from 1+1+1=1
ABC Letter Crafts
Songs for Saplings ABC Verses
 

Play With Me ~ Twisters and Twister Curves

This month our Play With Me toy a fun and colorful construction toy from Guidecraft ~ Twisters and Twister Curves.  Twisters are plastic pieces that can be ‘snapped’ together to create and build. Each set comes with small pegs that help to hold the pieces more firmly in place.

Twisters includes 66 pieces, 24 connecting rods, and a small pair of plastic pliers used to pull the connecting rods out of the pieces. Twister Curves include 66 curved pieces, 24 connectors and a pair of pliers {recommended for ages 3 and up, just be cautious of the small pegs}.

Here are a few fun things that you can do and create with the Twisters and Twister Curves to extend your learning with your little one:

Create shapes. See how many shapes you can create together using the pieces in your set. Then have fun sorting them by shape or color!

Use the small pegs to practice fine motor skills. Can your little one fill all the holes with pegs?

Stack them! After putting together a bunch of shapes, see how tall of a tower you can create before they tip over.

Make letters. Make the first letter of your little ones name, or trying making different letter of the alphabet. You can even spell simple words.

   

Stack and create graduating sizes. Which one is the tallest? Shortest?

A few more ideas for using Twisters:

• sort the pieces by color
• create simple color patterns {orange, yellow, orange, yellow}
• create simple shape patterns {circle, square} after creating shapes with the pieces
• create a hands-on graph with the pieces once you have sorted by color ~ which color do you have more of?

Twisters can be purchased directly from the Guidecraft website, via their NEW Facebook page or from Amazon.

Much thanks to Guidecraft who provided this toy for us to use and review as a part of the Guidecraft Mom Bloggers team.

What’s in the Tub ~ Pond Life

Next month in June, our theme at Totally Tots is Ponds.  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?: 

• blue rice (colored with blue kool-aid to make it smell good, hand sanitizer and blue food coloring)
• wet felted water lily (which were really easy to make)
• felted lily pads
• reeds made out of felt 
• frogs and turtles toob
• dragonfly and spider from insect toob
• fish 
• Safari duck
• Safari bullfrog
• letter tiles
• pond critters lampwork beads
• fish from under the sea lampbook beads set
• pond life matching cards from Pond Life Preschool Pack created by Jolanthe @ Homeschool Creations 
• tin pal from Target dollar section
• small fish net

 

We used the lily pads for the frogs and turtles to relax on.

Aiden used the small net to catch the pond critters and letter tiles.

Then we match the critters to the pond life matching cards and spelled out the words with the letter tiles.

We also worked on counting the number of frogs, turtles and insects.

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.