Counting Presents ~ Simply Made

During the month of December, most tots are fascinated with the presents that start appearing under the Christmas tree. Little ones find the mystery packages almost too much to resist, but with this activity, they don't have to be off limits.

Materials:

• Miniature Christmas Tree (ours is less than a foot high and was purchased for a $1)
• Miniature Christmas Presents or small jewelry boxes (The mini presents are ornaments with the string cut off)
• White Board & Marker or Number Cards (optional)

Directions:

Play a fun counting game with your tot. Depending on your tot's skill level, you could place gifts under the tree for them to count. Then, they could write the number on the white board. Or, have your tot pull a number card and place the correct number of mini presents under the tree.

At our house, we are focusing on simple addition, so we practiced with our presents. My little guy had fun choosing who would get the presents in our number stories.

   For the younger tots, you could have them sort the presents by color or make a simple pattern.

Hopefully this will give your tot a chance to play with presents, without unwrapping the real ones under your tree!

Merry Christmas!

Turkey Hand Puppet ~ Simply Made

Here's a simple Turkey Hand Puppet to make for your tot. You can use the puppet as a prop for stories, songs, or fingerplays.

Materials:

• New Garden Glove
• Felt Pieces
• Googly Eye
• Hot Glue Gun

   Directions:
Cut your felt pieces to look like feathers and a turkey body.

Glue the felt and googly eye to the garden glove.

Play! The Turkey Hand Puppet is fun to use with the puppet theater or with songs and fingerplays. Our favorite turkey song is below.

Turkeys Big and Fat Song
(tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)
We are turkeys big and fat, big and fat, big and fat.
We are turkeys big and fat, Strutting all around.

Hear the gobble sound we make, sound we make, sound we make.
Hear the gobble sound we make~Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

I hope you and your tot have fun with this simply made activity. Happy Thanksgiving!

Feed the Monster Language Game ~ Once Upon a Book

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

 

To practice identifying letter sounds, we played "Feed the Monster". The game is really simple and can be adapted to different learning levels for your tot.

To start, I used an empty tissue box to create a monster. I cut and glued features to the tissue box, using the opening for a mouth. Your tot could even help make this one day for a craft and then play the game the next day. Once the glue had dried, we gathered our letter magnets to start our game.

In my best "monster voice", I asked for certain letters. For example, I said, "I'm hungry for a letter that is at the beginning of the word COOKIE." My son found the C and "fed the monster". Then we repeated it until the monster was full. Sometimes I varied the monster requests to keep my little guy thinking.

The best part of "Feed the Monster" is that you can tailor it to your child's target learning skills. Shapes, Letters, Numbers, Sight Words, etc. would all work well!

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

Monster Songs & Fingerplays – If You’re a Monster and You Know It

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

If You're a Monster and You Know It...
When you read If You're A Monster And You Know It , you can access a free recording of the song online. My son really enjoyed listening to the song on the computer and acting out the motions to go with the words.

Five Little Monsters
(Author unknown)

Five little monsters sitting on the floor.
The first one said, "Let's knock on someone's door."
The second on said, "Let's act a little scary."
The third one said, "Why are we so hairy?"
The fourth one said, "I hear a funny sound."
The fifth one said, "There's no one else around."
Then "WHOOSH" went the wind and "EEK!" someone said
So five little monsters ran under the bed.

Monster Pokey
(Sung to the tune of "Hokey Pokey")
You put your claws in.
You put your claws out.
You put your claws in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your fangs in.
You put your fangs out.
You put your fangs in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your horns in.
You put your horns out.
You put your horns in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your tail in.
You put your tail out.
You put your tail in and you shake it all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

For this fingerplay I made some small felt monsters to place on the felt board as we sang. I left these at the felt board throughout our monster theme for my son to practice counting, singing the songs, and other imaginative play.

Ten Little Monsters
(Sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians")
One little, Two little, Three little monsters,
Four little, Five little, Six little monsters,
Seven little, Eight little, Nine little monsters
Ten monsters can't scare me.

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

Fabric Sensory Box for Toddlers ~ Simply Made

My tiny tot is at the stage where he wants to pull everything out of the toy box, cabinets, or anything else left unattended. While annoying and messy at times, I know that exploring his surroundings is a part of his learning stage and teaching him about the world around him. Instead of fighting his natural exploration by taking everything away, I set up up a box for him to explore safely.

Materials:

• Empty wipes box
• Fabric and ribbon scraps of all sizes and textures (I used corduroy, felt, cotton, soft minky, silk, chenille and flannel fabrics)

Directions:

1. Place the fabric scraps in the wipes case.
2. Let your tot explore by pulling and stuffing fabric in and out of the top hole.
3. Let them explore the fabric textures. As you play, describe the fabric to them by saying things like "This piece is soft", "This piece is red", "This piece is silky", etc.
4. When they've pulled them all out, help them put them back in and do it again!

Variation:
As your tot grows, help him sort the fabrics by color, size, or texture.

My tiny tot loved this and sat with the Fabric Sensory Box for longer than his normal attention span. I hope your tot enjoys it as well!

If You're a Monster and You Know It ~ Art Activity

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

My son loved the silly monsters in this book. Multiple eyes, horns, crazy teeth...he thought they were all so fun. We decided to see if we could make our own silly monsters and we ended up with some of my favorite art he's ever produced.

Materials:

• Paper
• Paint
• Scissors
• Glue
• Collage Materials (We used our Collage Box.)

   Before you can decorate your monster, you need to make some "Splat Art". Place a few drops of paint in the middle of your paper. (Not too much! Trust me, a little goes a long way!)

Fold your paper in half and press the paint around. It works best if you push the paint toward the edge of the paper (opposite of the fold), instead of up and down the fold.

Peel it open and be surprised at your blob shape.

Repeat. Your tot WILL want to repeat this a few times. Let them dry. (This is the hard part.)

When your splat art is dry, get out your Collage Box and decorate them to look like monsters.

 

 

 

We worked all afternoon and made an entire collection. We used a little bit of teamwork when it came to specific things, like monster hands and the pair of glasses he wanted for "Green Monster" to wear. He was so pleased with his silly monsters! 

 

 

 

 

Which monster do you like best? I'm having a hard time deciding!

 

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

I'll be back next Thursday to share more activities to go with our Monster books!