Handprint Family Craft

Honey Pot is 2 years old

Little M&M is 2 months old

I had seen this idea on Pinterest (originating from this blog) and decided that, while on hiatus from Tot School, we needed some creative fun. For a while, Little M&M kept his hands clenched in fists...so we waited until he was a little older. Finally, on Mother's Day, the timing was right!

We traced all of our hands on bright cardstock, cut them out, and glued them in size order. Then I matted it on a piece of cardstock that matched the smallest hand.

I am so in love with it. I may make it an annual Mother's Day tradition.

Because it's my holiday...and why not? :)

Elmo Birthday Party!

The theme of Honey Pot's 2nd birthday party was Elmo! Okay, technically this is not a tot school activity. But I just had to share! I had so much fun planning this party and creating all of the little details. Take a peek at what I did.

Here is the invitation. I nabbed the Elmo from a Google search after seeing it from this site, and tweaked it in Photoshop Elements a bit.

A banner I created to hang above the food table. Unfortunately the inspiration for this was not pinned correctly by the initial pinner. But this is the original that I saw.

I made cute little Sesame Street signs.

I am so proud of my first wreath! The inspiration for this comes from here. 

And the frame with our featured photo. Take a look at the original here. It's awesome! But the fabric I found that resembled it was a bit too costly for me to justify for such a small project. So I used felt. 

I made custom labels for the water bottles.

I kept the cake quite simple - just yellow and chocolate cupcakes with custom toppers that I made.

Red and orange cookie pops!

And my Elmo cookie pops...inspired of course by Bakerella.

I just love how our party favors came out! The sign reads, "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too...here are some edible ones and other gifts for you!"

Close-ups of what's inside:

Bubbles, again, with my custom labels!

Edible crayons. I followed this tutorial, and used their free printable labels!

And I packaged them with cute little tags that say, "Thank you for celebrating with us!"

Of course we had the children play a Pin The Nose On Elmo game! I had seen DIY versions of this on Pinterest, but decided to just pick one up from the party store. It wasn't expensive at all, and saved me lots of time!

And I decided to include some Elmo on Honey Pot's presents as well!

And finally, here is the beautiful birthday girl in her custom tutu!

New Baby

Theme Of The Day: New Baby

Age: 22 months

Notes: We have been trying to prepare Honey Pot for the arrival of her baby brother for many months now. But I wanted to include it in our Tot School as well, especially now that I am full-term in my pregnancy. So here are the activities we did today!

Big Sister Book

I gave Honey Pot a new book this morning called I'm A Big Sister, by Joanna Cole.

She wanted me to read it to her right away! I love how simplistic the words are, as they are told in the first-person by the new big sister. It explains that babies like to drink milk and sleep a lot, and reasons why they cry. It also says that they can't yet play with toys or eat pizza. The language is perfect in helping Honey Pot understand what her baby brother will be like. As soon as I finished reading it, she asked me to read it again. We read it FIVE consecutive times this morning, as well as a few more times throughout the day. She loves her new book, and I highly recommend it.

Photo Album

As described in the book above, I pulled out a photo album full of pictures of Honey Pot as a baby. At first she thought it was her baby cousin, but I was able to convince her that it was actually her, and that she was a little baby once too.

There are a couple of toys in the pictures that she still plays with, such as the O'Ball. She ran right to her room to get it.

Changing A Diaper

A week ago, we purchased a baby doll for Honey Pot - her first one! She fell in love with it immediately and has been taking care of her ever since, even sleeping with her at night. So we practiced giving the baby a "dipey change" a few times. She even ran to her room to get the wipes and baby powder!

Being Gentle

I told honey Pot that she needs to always be gentle with the baby, so we practiced how to do that.

Reasons Babies Cry

We discussed a few reasons why the baby might cry. Then any time Honey Pot had her baby go "wah, wah" I would ask her what she thought was the matter, or what we could do to make the baby happy. Her first answer was so sweet. She gave the baby a kiss.

The next time the baby cried, we decided that the baby was hungry and wanted some milk.

Later, she wanted to be rocked. So Honey Pot held her, sang her the ABC song and then set her down in the baby swing. She even made sure the buckle was on so that her baby was safe and snug.

A Present For Baby

We ended the day by decorating a onesie for her baby brother. I told her that she could color an outfit for Little M&M, and she was so excited. I hadn't planned this in advance, and so I did not have special fabric markers or appliques to use. But I read online that you can use permanant markers as well. So that is what we did...very carefully!

Honey Pot was so proud of the outfit she made for her baby brother. I told her that Little M&M would be so happy to wear it when he arrives, and that it would show him how much she loves him.

After ironing the onesie to allow the colors to set, it is now ready for Little M&M to wear!

Shape: Arrow

Theme Of The Day: Arrows

Age: 22 months

Which Way?

I created these in Photoshop Elements as a way to introduce our shape today. I told Honey Pot what the shape was called, and explained how it is pointing in a certain direction. Then I said, "If I want to find the dolphin, I would go this way," and then point to the right. It seemed like a difficult concept for her to grasp. So I decided to use these arrows another way!

Follow The Arrow

I cut out the arrows from the worksheet above. As I was doing so, Honey Pot went looking for her scissors too. I provided her with the scraps to "clip, clip" while I set up the game. She loves her Minnie and Mickey Mouse. So I set the arrows up on the floor and told her to have Minnie follow the arrows! I demonstrated with Mickey first.

She did so well with this! We changed the direction of the arrows a few times, to help enforce the idea that they are pointing which way to go. (Sorry for the last blurry pic - but Minnie Mouse was in a hurry to "fah-woh" the "ah-woh" that time!)

Tracing The Path

We have never used our dry erase markers on the window before. I knew Honey Pot would really enjoy it, so I incorporated it into today's theme. I first drew some arrows onto the window, and then asked her to take the other marker and draw along the path. She started off really well!

Then she just went a little color-happy from there!

And the eraser was a lot of fun too!

Trying to return to the theme at hand, I drew an arrow and asked, "Is the arrow pointing up or down?" She answered correctly, then went about drawing again. Not sure if it was just a lucky guess or not. We'll have to return to it again sometime!

Letter: G

Theme Of The Day: The Letter G

Age: 22 months

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics and Which Is G?

I love introducing our letter this way. First I pulled her toy off of the fridge, and set it up on our tray. I placed the "G" inside so Honey Pot could see it and hear what it sounded like.

Then I created groups of three letters, and asked her to identify the "G" among them. She did really well with this!

Even the baby doll helped point to the "G" for us!

Play-Dough G

We continued the theme of the day with Honey Pot's homemade play-dough. First she helped me roll it out.

I pulled out the "G" cookie cutter, and asked her what letter it was. Success - she remembered! Then she pushed the cookie cutter down with all of her might!

We played with the "G" and the rest of her play-dough for a good long while after that.

G Is For Giraffe

I came across this fun idea at a blog called The Blessed Country Mom. First I traced the letter "G" onto yellow paper, as well as a giraffe head template that I found online. (There was no way I could have free-handed it!) Then I cut out some giraffe spots from orange paper. Another glue craft - Honey Pot was so excited to try it.

I placed the "G" flashcard (from a set I made for her wall) as well as her stuffed animal onto the craft table for inspiration.

She placed the two googly eyes onto the face.

Then she dabbed a bit of glue onto the "G" and placed a spot onto it!

Going glue crazy...

And finally, with a bit of prompting, she finished placing the spots onto the giraffe's body.

The final product!