Once Upon a Book ~ Designed By God So I Must Be Special

Designed by God So I Must Be Special

by Bonnie Sose

Book Summary: This is a great book that shares with a child all of the wonderful things that God gave them and how He designed them to be the special person that they are!

Bible Verse: I praise you because I am fearfully, and wonderfully made! Psalm 139:14

Bible printable from 2 Teaching Mommies

Craft: Using our Education Cubes, the boys made themselves and worked on shape recognition at the same time! We used the Shape Person printable from 2 Teaching Mommies and our shape insert cards along with our cube. The boys “made” themselves by rolling shapes. As they rolled a shape, they identified the shape and if possible, they added the corresponding body part until their body was complete!

Fingerprints: The boys had lots of fun stamping their fingerprint as they used the Fingerprint Activity from Making Learning Fun.

Counting: We practiced a bit of counting and 1-1 correspondence by using our Dot Counting insert cards along with our Education Cubes. The boys rolled the cube, counted the dots and then counted the same number of body parts. Here, one of my boys is in the process of counting out five fingers!

My Body Book: We talked about their different body parts and the boys colored their My Body Book from DLTK.

Body Parts: We talked more about body parts and had a little fun identifying body parts using our Education Cubes along with the Body Parts insert cards. The boys rolled the cube and identified the body part. Then they pointed to the part on their own body and counted the part(s). Another more advanced option would be to use the Spanish Body Parts cards.

Custom Books: I found these adorable Custom Books from DLTK that the boys LOVED! We were able to customize each book and then print it out for the boys to color!

Name Stamping: The boys love stamping! So, of course, the Name Stamping from 1+1+1=1 was a huge it!

More “Name” Activities: The boys also had fun spelling their names with foam letters and letter magnets!

Snack: For a fun snack, you could make some yummy people cookies!

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!

Little Hands-On abc's and 123's ~ Duplo Tower Race

I love when games combine different skills.  This game focuses on counting and fine motor skills, but can also focus on colors if you add a color die.

You'll need Duplos (or Megablox or Legos, or even wooden blocks,) a number die, and possibly a color die if you want to add that element to the game.

Roll the die, count the dots (a jumbo die would be great, but isn't necessary), then add that number of Duplos to your tower.  If playing with a color die as well, you would need to add the number of the correct color.   The person with the tallest tower wins.

By placing the Duplos at the opposite end of the room from where you are tossing the die, you can add some exercise to the game as well.

Many children, especially boys, learn much better by being active.  This is a great example of how you can achieve learning while mixing in physical activity.

Another extension would be to cover the dots with numerals written on Post It notes - this could extend the game well in to the teens, though it may be hard to find enough Duplos!

Simply Made ~ The Funny Font Book

One of the things I've noticed over the years as I've interacted with children and books, is that depending upon the font used, children may have trouble identifying the letters. I've recently noticed my son has hit this stage and knew it was time to pull out "The Funny Font Book." When I went digging in my boxes of school materials from my teaching past, my "Funny Font Book" wasn't in good shape anymore and I had to make another one. Luckily, you get to benefit as well! (Download below)

The Purpose of  "The Funny Font Book":
We live in a world full of fonts. Advertising, environmental print, and books all have various fonts that serve different purposes aesthetically. Depending on the font, certain letters can look differently, making it hard for young learners to identify the letter...even if they might already know it.

For example,

To help children become aware of these "funny letters", we need to draw their attention to them and help them become familiar with them.

While I am using the typical "teacher" handwriting to teach my son, we are still addressing the "funny letters". One of the ways that we are addressing these "funny letters" at our house is through the use of "The Funny Font Book."

Directions:

1. Download The Funny Font Book from my blog.
2. Print. (I suggest using cardstock for durability.)
3. Laminate. (This is optional, but I HIGHLY recommend it!)
4. Punch holes in the left side and insert Metal Book Rings.
5. Explore the book and draw attention to the "funny letters" with your child.
6. For more fun, try some extension activities mentioned in the download with your child.
7. Enjoy!

Touch, Feel, Learn ~ Animal Camouflage

It’s time to explore the world around us and have some fun enjoying the great outdoors ~ learning how the stripes and colors of animals and insects help camouflage them. 

 

To demonstrate how animals use camouflage we grabbed some of our plastic animals and insects and headed outside for a little hide and seek.

We took turns hiding the critters around the yard and searching for them.

Can you find the hidden animal or insect in the first picture?  The second picture is a close up.  We were amazed how hard it was to spot them!  

A snake,  

 

a praying mantis,

 

a lizard,

 

a moth,

 

a tiger and her cub,

 

and a cricket.

 

Even though the animals and insects were plastic it really shows how they use camouflage to blend into their surroundings.

Touch, Feel, Learn is a fun feature that focuses on science and nature activities for little ones.  Click here to see past Touch, Feel, Learn ideas.

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!!!!

• My First Study Bible…ends 8/8/11
• Endangerbles…ends 8/8/11
• WeeRide Bicycle Seat…ends 8/11/11
• Shaun the Sheep…ends 8/12/11
• Speekee Spanish…ends 8/12/11
• Umi Shoes…ends 8/12/11

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!

Now I Know My ABCs ~ Pp is for Panda

Panda Big and Panda Small by Jane Cabrera

Summary: Two pandas seem so very different but find that they do share their friendship in common. This book is a wonderful way to introduce children to opposites.

Letter Activities:

I wrote phrases from the book on our chalkboard wall. I then read them and pointed to the letter P in panda or other “p” words. We went over what sound we heard at the beginning of “panda”. Then she was suppose to erase all the letter P’s, but she wanted to erase everything. That was totally fine! My main goal was to introduce her what the letter P looks like and what sound it makes.


 
We went over our Panda poem and letter sheet.

Theme Activities:

We happened to have two stuffed animal pandas in the house—perfect for being Panda Big and Panda Small! The girls each held one while we read the book. Then I put one in each tray.

In a bowl I placed 2 different size pom poms. My daughter had to sort the pom poms by size. The little pom poms went in Panda Small’s tray. The big pom poms went in Panda Big’s tray. This book is full of opposites and there were so many more directions I could have taken with these two bears and the book. One activity I had planned but didn’t get around to doing was to measure the stuffed animal bears with counting bears. Then based on how many bears, cut a length of string to be that bear’s rope (taken from the book to show longer and shorter).

We also did a pattern activity using black and white pom poms. I stuck with a simple ABA pattern because my tot is still working on understanding patterns.
Crafts:

Our panda craft allowed us to talk about shapes. I cut one large white circle out of felt, 4 medium ovals out of black felt, and a black heart.

I made a sample of the craft first. Then I had my tot look at my sample. What shape do we need to glue first? What shape comes next?

Here was my sample panda. He came in handy for retelling the story too.
 
Here’s my daughter’s panda. She decided she wanted to make hers into a puppet. She was proud of her creation and the next day she pulled off all of the pieces and put it back together again. She was excited that she remembered where to put everything. I love that she took ownership of her craft project.
Downloads:
Letter Pp poem and handwriting page
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