Theme:
Memorial Day
Honey Pot is 2 years oldStar Cookie Cutter Prints
Memorial Day is coming up! We kicked off the return to our Tot School
adventures with a fun craft that I discovered on No Time For Flash Cards. It
had been so long since we put on her smock and had some messy fun. She was so
excited to go to her craft table! First I squirt out a little bit of red and
blue paint onto a paper plate – she told me what the colors were.
I then asked which cookie cutter she wanted to start with, as we have multiple
sizes. I was so pleased when she said “the big one,” and then later, “the small
one.” She has grown so much even over the course of two months! I showed her
how to press the cookie cutter into the paint, and then press it onto the
paper. She quickly caught on, and she really enjoyed this project.
Patterns
We used her magnetic pom poms on our homemade chalkboard for
the first time. I created a simple pattern, and asked her if she could create
the same pattern on the line below.
She started off well!
For the second pattern, I just asked her to sort the pom
poms by color.
For our new and improved Tot School, I want to include more
sensory experiences. (The water beads were such a HUGE hit during our purple
theme!) But Honey Pot doesn’t like a mess…so I wasn’t sure how she would handle
this activity. She asked me to go first, so I did. Then she hesitantly dipped
one hand in.
I encouraged her to dig in with both hands, to squish it
around. We discussed its properties, and swirled it around with a rubber
spatula. I added a few drops of red and blue paint as well, to tie it in
(however minimally) with our Memorial Day theme. Then we kicked it up a notch
and squirted water into it (…this was her favorite part).
After she had had enough, I began to clean up our station.
(I also threw in an impromptu load of laundry!) Then I patted some of the
shaving cream mixture onto paper, folded the paper in half, and opened it up
for her. I didn’t expect it to look like anything in particular. But it did,
and she helped point it out. “Butterfly!”
Honey Pot and I made Jello for the holiday as well. (I found the recipe and idea here.) She
helped me mix ingredients together. We discussed the hot water and the cold
water as we used them. And she even helped me to cut the stars out. They came
out very pretty…and were tasty too!
We also made a simple American Flag. I provided Honey Pot
with strips of paper from my scrap stash, as well as her star stickers and some
glue. She placed a couple of the stripes on herself, but lost interest after
that. So I finished them and then directed her to the stickers!
I know we have only covered letters ‘A’ through ‘G’
individually, but I thought it would be nice to incorporate some alphabet
review into this week’s theme. I wrote down some words related to the holiday
and asked her to point out particular letters. She did great – even with
letters we haven’t covered yet. I read the words to her, but didn’t go into
much discussion about what they mean or how they relate to the holiday. She is
only two after all!
Then she decided to draw freely on the chalkboard.
Apparently this is a picture of a girl. Sure…I can see that.
We concluded our theme this week by placing magnetic pom
poms on a picture of the American Flag. It is always such a simple and fun way
to extend our activities, and practice fine motor skills. The free printable came from Making Learning Fun.
