Little Hands-On ABC's and 123's - ABCs at Snack Time

Sometimes the unplanned, simple idea works really well.  I had a different post in mind, but the night I was to write it, this activity happened and I decided it was a better idea for now.

I have a toddler boy who does not sit still for very long so I look for teaching opportunities whenever they can happen, like at snack time, when J-jo is obliged to sit.

 

This particular week, I had the letters c, m, a, t out for J-jo.  So I quickly made a little mat...

...and then started asking him questions.

"J-jo, can you feed the 'a' a grape?"

"Great job! How about the 'c'? Can you feed 'c' a grape?"

"Great job!  Can you give 'm' a grape?"

"Now 't' wants a grape."

"Great, J-jo.  All the letters have grapes.  Now can you eat the grape that is on the 'c'?"

"Next, can you eat the grape that is on the 't'?"

This activity would work for a lot of material - other letters, sight words, cvc words, numbers, addition, subtraction, shapes, colors....  Just make sure the snack is relatively dry:)

Mommy Made Printables ~ Pets

We are excited to share some Pets printables for you to use with your tots as you explore together!

Dogs Preschool Pack {from Homeschool Creations}

Cats Preschool Pack {from 1+1+1=1}

Cc is for Cat ~ Pets Theme {from 1+1+1=1}

Pp is for Puppy {from Confessions of a Homescooler}

Do you have any free Pets printables YOU have created {and share}? If so, leave a link to your blog post in the comments below!

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!!!!

• Betty Lukens Fun with Felt-6 sets…ends 9/28/11
• Grapevine Studies: Life of Joseph…ends 9/20/11
• Scramblebug Ride On Toy…ends 9/19/11
• Prince Lionheart Wheely Bug…9/19/11
• Zhu Zhu Babies…ends 9/23/11
• The Crippled Lamb, by Max Lucado…ends 9/27/11
• Little People Zoo Talkers…ends 9/27/11
• Mamas and Papas Stroller…ends 10/7/11

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!

Once Upon a Book ~ Not Norman

Not Norman: A Goldfish Story

by Kelly Bennett

Book Summary: This is a cute story about a boy who declares that Norman, the goldfish, is NOT the pet that he wants. However, over time he realizes that Norman IS the perfect pet for him!

Bible Verse: Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

We had lots of fishy fun! The boys worked together and played the Clown Fish Grid Game. They used our homemade puff ball magnets and our Education Cubes (with the Clown Fish insert cards).

The boys had fun with our Design & Drill Set and patterns. They copied the patterns and made a fish and the letter “F”.

We pulled out our Bambino LUK and played a fish color match game for some independent learning time! (You can read my review about it here.)

I pulled out our Fishbowl file folder game.

Blocks of any sort are always a hit with my boys. They enjoyed using the pattern blocks (along with the fish pattern card from PreKinders).

I discovered a fishing game (made from a Preschool in a Bag Activity Swap). We used our Education Cubes along with the color word insert cards and played a fun color matching game with our fish. The boys took turns rolling the cube. Then they had to fish out the color fish as indicated on the cube.

We even used our Purpllinker to make a fish!

Finally we had some edible fun with some colored goldfish! We made fish patterns!

We graphed our fish!

Then we got to enjoy our fish with a fun, fishy snack!

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!

Ss is for Spaghetti ~ Now I Know My ABC’s

On Top of Spaghetti by Paul Brett Johnson

Summary: Using the classic children’s song, “On Top of Spaghetti”, Johnson weaves a silly storyline of Yodeler Jones, who is trying to create the perfect meatball. Great illustrations and a fun book, especially if you sing the words.

Theme Ideas:

I pulled out a ball of yarn and had my little girls start cutting up their own bowl of spaghetti. This is such a great way for them to practice their cutting skills. My youngest concentrated very hard on cutting her pieces just right.

When the pieces were cut, I pulled out some pom poms to be our meatballs and our Education Cube for a counting game.

My daughter would roll the cube and then place the correct number of meatballs in the bowl of spaghetti.

 
After my girls get tired of the meatball counting game, I had them create a craft out of the game pieces.

We glued the yarn and pom poms to create a spaghetti letter S for their ABC notebook.

Other Spaghetti ideas: * Get various types of pasta and have your child sort them by shape or size.

* Dye pasta and have your child sort by color.

* Make your own spaghetti and meatball meal.

* Sara came up with a fun spaghetti spelling activity that would go well with this theme too.

* Check out the Letter Ss is for Spaghetti Pinterest board for even more ideas.

Downloads:
Letter Ss poem and Spaghetti Craft 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

Simply Made: "Spaghetti" Spelling

Sometimes we're not in the mood for playdough around our house, but we still need to work on letters and how they are formed. Or maybe, mommy just isn't able to supervise the use of the salt tracing box because she's busy working on a meal or attending to the new baby. That is how "Spaghetti Spelling" was born. We pretend that our white yarn is spaghetti...my son loves this silly name!

Don't laugh at how easy this one is.....You can do this in 10 seconds or less!

Materials:
White Yarn
Scissors
Sheet of Felt (dark color is best)

Mommy Prep Directions:
Cut various lengths of the white yarn. They don't need to be very long--just a few inches or so. I cut 3 different sizes ~ some short pieces (about 2-3 inches), some middle size pieces (about 5 inches), and some long pieces (about 8-10 inches). It's not an exact science, I literally "eyeballed" it. The longest size helps with those curvy letters like S, O, Q, etc.

How to Play:
Use the yarn pieces to form letters, numbers, or shapes on the felt sheet. For tots that still need some support in letter formation, use a letter magnets or flashcards for help. Even though my son can identify all of the letters, he still needed this support to form them. At times, I noticed he even traced the letter with his finger.

 

 

 

Now THAT is what I call "Simply Made"...enjoy!

Touch, Feel, Learn ~ Butterfly Life Cycle

It’s time to explore the world around us and have some fun learning about butterflies and making a butterfly life cycle.

Whenever we are reading about butterflies I grab one of my favorite books, From Caterpillar to Butterfly.   After reading about the amazing transformation from caterpillar to butterfly we put together our own butterfly life cycle.

Our caterpillar eggs are tiny pompoms we glued to a leaf.

 

Aiden glued pompoms together to make a caterpillar and added wiggly eyes.

 

To make the chrysalis, the kids covered a plastic egg with white Crayola Model Magic,  added a hook screw to the top before the clay dried as a way to hang it, and painted it brown.

The butterfly is also made out of a plastic egg.  I cut the wings of some pretty cardstock and assembled everything with the hot glue gun (head, eyes, antenna, and proboscis ~ we didn’t want him to get thirsty!).  I glued a piece of string to the middle of the butterfly so we could hang him.

We attached everything to a tree branch that I hung on the wall with 3M hooks.  Note:  If you want to preserve this I suggest use an artificial tree branch.  Ours started wilting after a couple of days ~ it lasted long enough for us to finish our butterfly study.

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.