Simply Made ~ Clothespin Games

Photo credit: gifrancis via Flickr

Clothespin Games are two-fold in their purpose. They can address target learning skills and they are great for strengthening fine motor skills in little hands. Plus, clothespins are cheap! You can find them at the dollar stores in the laundry supplies. I prefer the wooden clothespins because they can be written on to address skills.

There are a variety of ways to make simple clothespin games:

• ABC Order: Label clothespins A-Z and have kids pin them to a hanger in the correct order.
• Number Order: Label clothespins 1-20 and have kids pin them to a hanger in the correct order.
• Spelling: Use the A-Z clothespins to spell names, sight words, etc.
• Word Families: Use the A-Z clothespins when working on word families. Have kids change the first letter to change the words.

Creative Clothespin Games To Make:

• The Adventures of Bear ~ Clothespin Color Game
• The Adventures of Bear ~ Clothespin Spelling
• The Adventures of Bear ~ Paint Chip Color Clothespin Match-up
• 221Vision.com ~ Paint Chip Color Clothespin Match-up

Printable Clothespin Games:

• Confessions of a Homeschooler ~ A-Z Review Clothespin Match-up & Number Circles
• Confessions of a Homeschooler ~ Clothespin Number Cards
• Confessions of a Homeschooler ~ Beginning Math Skills 
• Teach Mama ~ ABC Cards and Clothespin Match on a string 
• 1+1+1=1 ~ Learning Color Wheels
• 1+1+1=1 ~ Uppercase/Lowercase Matching
• 1+1+1=1 ~ How Many? Number Cards
• Some of the preschool packs from Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1 have cards that can be made into a clothespin game.

Do you have a clothespin game to share? Let us know in the comments!

Little Books for Little Cooks ~ Animals Train Animal Crackers

Animal Train Animal Crackers

All aboard! Have some fun on the animal train with some animal crackers.

The Book Before You Cook…

Animals Aboard

by Andrew Fusek Peters

Summary: “There’s a party on the train, now who to invite to climb aboard and dance through the night?” Follow along as the animals board the train and make music all through the night.

When It’s Time to Cook…

You’ll need:

• animal crackers
• peanut butter and/or jelly

To Make:

1. Find matching animal cracker pairs
2. Spread peanut butter and/or jelly on the crackers.
3. Press two matching crackers together.
4. Continue with the remaining animal cracker pairs.
5. Stand up your animals and have fun forming an animal train!

Little Books for Little Cooks is a monthly feature that focuses on creating some edible fun with your little one.   We will share a fun book to read with your little one along with a cooking activity to do that ties in with the featured book. Sometimes there may be actual cooking involved…and sometimes just fun!

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!!!!

• Speekee Spanish…ends 6/19/11
• Pocket Full of Rosies…ends 6/20/11
• Pediped Shoes…ends 6/27/11
• Veggie Tales Live DVD…ends 6/27/11
• Learning Resource Birthday Play Set…ends 7/5/11
• Super Party Parachute…ends 7/8/11
• Rocking SeeSaw..ends 7/8/11
• Trunki Suitcase…ends 7/11/11

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 ~ The Icky Sticky Frog

 The Icky Sticky Frog by Dawn Bentley

Summary and Bible Verse:  OK . . . time out for the Bible verse.  I was puzzled as to what verse to give to you in order to use The Icky Sticky Frog in such a way as to draw your child nearer the living truth in the Bible.  The Icky Sticky Frog is a simple book that shows the reality of the food chain that the Lord created.  However . . . discussing the food chain with a 2- or 3-year old would be a bit of a stretch.  A 4-year old would just begin to understand this concept.  But as I searched Scripture, the Lord led me to Scripture I have been studying in my own personal quiet times!   Turn to Matthew 6 . . . the great Sermon on the Mount. 

• Give us today our daily bread.  Matthew 6:11 – just as the frog waits for his food, so we can be content with what the Lord has graciously given us.  We don’t HAVE to have dessert with every meal.
• Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6: 19-21 – though the frog obviously is lacking in possessions  (unless you count lily pads), I did find myself wondering . . . does he only think about food?  Like my children often do?  Wondering if there is a bigger and better snack?  Additionally, this verse opens up a great opportunity to talk about how what we spend most of our time doing, reveals what is most important to us . . . what our treasure truly is.
• Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  Matthew 6: 25-27 – remember that old song, “Don’t worry, be happy!”  Well, don’t worry . . . spend time with your child talking to God about things they are worried about.
• Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”  (Exodus 8:9) – if prayer can make frogs disappear than it can take sin away too!

Allow the rest of this post to be a dose of reality.  (Perhaps that is why I chose to focus on Scripture instead!)  When you read someone’s blog, filled with happy children doing marvelous activities well beyond their age . . . don’t you just wonder . . . wish . . . hope that you could do that in your home?  But alas you know it will fail?

Allow me -- little ‘ol Totally Tots writer -- who is supposed to have beautiful children who LOVE to read books and accomplish coordinating activities, give you a peak into my occasional reality.

I had a Tot who didn’t want to cooperate with The Icky Sticky Frog!  I’m going to blame it on the fact that we have been potty training. 

Counting Frogs

Supplies:

• frog notepad or frog printable from File Folder Fun
• dark marker
• scissors if you are using Valerie’s printable
• frogs (we used a toob of frogs)

Directions

• Decide what you are going to count to with your Tot.  We had 12 frogs so . . . we counted to 12.  As I wrote the number on the frog, I handed it to Gabe.

• My primary goal (s) in this activity was to have him repeat the number as I handed it to him and for him to begin to recognize the number. 
• After I had handed all of the numbers to him, his job was to place a “real” frog onto each piece of frog paper.  Simple.

If you have older children, involve them in Tot School by having them place the frogs in numerical order.  I ended up making over 30 frogs my eldest to count.

How Many Frogs on the Lily Pad?

Supplies

• frog stickers (or make your own)
• green construction paper with a lily pad drawn on it

Directions

• Increase those fine motor skills!  Most children *heart* stickers!  Give your child some frog stickers and see how many frogs can fit on one lily pad. 

• If they aren’t interested, try to have an older child entice them . . .

• Or better yet, take away the distracting {vacation} toys.

• You can expand this sticker activity to include graphing frogs and creating math problems.

  

 

Jumping

And if you know someone who happens to have a collection of frogs . . .

Then, have your Tot try out his/her jumping skills!  Pretend to be a frog and hop over other frogs or lily pads!

 

 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 - Counting

Children need to hear counting often to commit it to memory and be able to parrot it back.  They need a lot of practice with one-to-one correspondence to understand that the numbers we say are attached to the objects we are counting. (Ever see a child speed through the numbers and point to only one or two items, or double count lots of items?)

 

Count everything you can with your child and count slowly, emphasizing each item. "One apple, two apples, three, four, five apples!"

One way you can make counting a little different and fun is by putting ant stickers inside baby food jars.  Jar one had one ant sticker, jar two had 2, and so on up to 6. (I couldn't get more than 6 stickers to fit in the jar.)  The child has to feed each ant a marble.  The sound of the marble hitting the jar was delightful and made my 22 month old want to keep feeding the ants over and over. (You can use any other sticker and any other type of manipulative as a counter. The idea is to count out as many counters as there are stickers.)

      Label the jars with numbers.

Add the stickers.

Now feed the ants!

 

There's even a picture book called One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes that would go well with this activity.

Mommy Made Printables ~ Pond

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

Pond Preschool Pack {from Homeschool Creations}

 

Pond Tot Book {from 1+1+1=1}

 

Tt is for Turtle {from Confessions of a Homeschooler}

Pond Activity Pack {from Confessions of a Homeschooler}

Frogs or Turtles Grid Game {from Mama Jenn}

 

Pond Printables {from 2 Teaching Mommies}

You can visit my Pond Theme pin board on Pinterest to see even more pond ideas I have found online!

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

Touch, Feel, Learn ~ Solar Oven

It’s time to explore the world around us and have some fun learning how we can use the sun to cook some yummy treats in a homemade pizza box oven.

You’ll Need:

• recycled pizza box
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• plastic wrap
• black construction paper
• tape
• non-toxic glue
• marker
• ruler
• scissor 
• wooden dowel or stick

What You’ll Do:

1.   Using a ruler, draw a one inch border around the box. 

2.   Cut along three sides.  Make sure to leave the line along the back of the box uncut.

3.   Cut a piece of aluminum foil to fit in the bottom of the pizza box. 

4.   Then let your child add glue to the bottom of the box and attached the aluminum foil, making sure to smooth out all of the wrinkles.   

 

5.   Tape the black construction paper over the aluminum foil.

6.   Cut a piece of aluminum foil to cover the top flap of the box and glue it down (don’t forget to smooth all those wrinkles).

7.   Open the box lid and cover the opening with plastic wrap, taping it down.   This will help retain the heat.

8.   Prop open the box with a wooden dowel or stick.

9.   Your oven is ready!  Make sure and place it outside facing the sun so it can preheat before you use it.

As we were preparing our lunch ~ hotdogs and s’mores, we talked about how the aluminum foil heats up as we positioned the box toward the sunlight.  If we tilted the lid, directing the sunlight onto our food, we were using the sun to cook. 

Note:  I forgot to preheat our pizza box oven so it took our hotdogs over an hour to cook.

For dessert we made s’mores ~ which took about 20 minutes. 

The verdict – It was VERY YUMMY and fun!  

Don’t forget to make some sun tea to go with your lunch!

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.