Dr. Seuss!

Theme Of The Day: Dr. Seuss

Age: 22 months

11 Books

Here are all of the Dr. Seuss books we currently own (minus The Grinch, which is put away with our Christmas decorations). I am happy to report that we read all of these books today, in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday! And there are still so many more I want to buy...

The Cat In The Hat

We made another paper plate hat today! The idea for this one came from a blog called I Can Teach My Child. I cut out the shape, and provided Honey Pot with a glue stick and strips of red paper. She initially placed the stripes vertically, but without enough glue. So I helped her dab the glue, and place the strips in the right spots. As soon as we finished, she wanted to "look in mirror" to see how it looked! Then we read the book, of course!

Ten Apples Up On Top

Honey Pot really enjoyed this activity, because she loves stickers! I created the worksheet myself in Photoshop Elements, complete with a picture of Honey Pot so she could stack the apples on top of her own head. A collector of stickers as a child, I happened to have a whole bunch of apple stickers for her to place into the numbered boxes. It was a nice review of the numbers 1-5, which we covered over the last few weeks. We ended this activity by reading the book.

Green Eggs and Ham

For lunch we ate green eggs and ham! I just added some green food coloring to the eggs before scrambling them, and gave her some ham roll-ups with it. I read her the book after I was done eating.

After her nap, we continued the theme by reviewing the shapes we had covered so far in a green egg game. This idea came from The Princess And The Tot. I created the worksheet in Photoshop Elements. She identified each shape, and placed them in their proper spots.

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

We tried our first Roll and Graph activity today, using a template from 2 Teaching Mommies. I did alter it slightly in Photoshop Elements, as well as create my own sound die. (I just inserted paper squares into each side of one of her photo blocks.) I decided to use this game as a review of the colors she's learned so far too. So I colored each side of the sound die a different color, and that was the color of the dot marker she would use on the graph.

First she rolled the die...

Then I would read the sound that landed face up, and ask her, "Who/What says ___?" She'd point to the picture that corresponds to the sound. I'd then ask her to find the appropriate color, and show her where to make a dot. You can probably tell which dots I made and which she made!

She seemed to enjoy this activity somewhat, but lost interest quickly. It may be a game better suited for older children, but I'm glad I introduced her to the concept anyway. And I had fun. :) We concluded the activity by reading the book.

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Shape: Rectangle

Theme Of The Day: Rectangle

Age: 21 months

Squares Vs. Rectangles

I created this page by tracing some of Honey Pot's Mega Blocks with markers. I wanted to show her the difference between squares and rectangles, since they may seem very similar to her. It started off very well, with her placing the blocks in the spaces they fit into...

Then we went a little off-course and starting building towers! It was definitely a fun activity.

Rectangle Cut and Paste

We had a lot of success with this activity last week for triangles, so I decided to do it again today. The free printable came from Kiz Club. First I took out my scissors to cut out the rectangle pieces. Honey Pot immediately ran to her closet to get her scissors too. So I provided her with the scraps, and let her "clip, clip" away!

Later, I opened the glue stick and explained to her what each of the images was meant to be. She dabbed the glue on, however minimally, and placed the rectangles where they belonged as best as she could. Again, I love how this craft allows her to see real life examples of the shapes. She recognized many of these!

I think she did quite well!

Short day today, as it was a lazy snow day for us. And we will also be taking tomorrow "off" for the first time since beginning Tot School. I've been unable to get out for the past couple of days, and so I have many errands to catch up on! Looking forward to a fun-filled Dr. Seuss Day on Friday though! Stay tuned!

Letter: F

Theme Of The Day: The Letter F

Age: 21 months

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics and Which Is F?

I like to introduce the letter of the day with Honey Pot's Fridge Phonics so she can get a feel for what the letter looks and sounds like. So I placed the letter “F” in there for her. Then I created sets of three letters, and ask her to identify the letter “F” in each one.

F is For Fish - Magnetic Pom Poms

This handy dandy printable came from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. Honey Pot placed a few magnetic pom poms onto it, and then had her Piggy and Wolf play on it for a while.

Pipe Cleaner Go Fish

Continuing with our fish theme, we went fishing! This idea comes from E Is For Explore. First I cut pipe cleaners in half, and twisted them into a fish shapes. Then I created a makeshift fishing rod. It’s made up of an unsharpened pencil, tape, yarn, paperclip and a magnet. (Look out, MacGyver!) I demonstrated how to dip the magnet into the “fishing pond”, and then let Honey Pot play with it as she wished. She soon got the hang of holding it and grabbing the fish. For some, she named the colors as she pulled them out.

Then when she had had her fill of fishing, she decided to swim all over the floor like a fish!

Fish Handprint

I had seen many versions of this. My favorite comes from a great website devoted to these crafts called Handprint and Footprint Art. First I asked Honey Pot to choose two colors of paint. Then I painted each of her hands, and pressed them onto paper. As you can see, she took the liberty of pressing them down again before I could stop her!

After cleaning her hands off with a wipe, I let her paint freely with her brushes on a separate piece of paper. She got some paint on her finger by mistake, and so I encouraged her to try finger-painting. She did for a minute or two, but I don’t think she likes the mess!

When the handprints had dried I took out her crayons and we drew bubbles and seaweed. Finally, I added eyes and mouths with a black marker. All in all it was a cute and fun craft!

Play-dough F

We ended the day with this activity, which we do on each letter day. Honey Pot pulls out a tub of her homemade play-dough, and I help her squish a cookie cutter into it. It is a nice way to reinforce the shape of the letter in a hands-on way.

Color: Orange

Theme of the Day: The Color Orange

Age: 21 months

Which Is Orange? and Color Walk

Instead of creating new color sets, I gathered the ones I already had on hand from other color days. This is a color that Honey Pot is not too familiar with, and so she had a difficult time with these at first. Despite sometimes getting the answer wrong, she is always so excited to do this activity. As usual, we followed with a color walk around the house, where she pointed out to me other items that are orange. (I don’t have any pictures though!) Again, this is definitely a color we need to return to!

Do-A-Dot Art

I printed off this fun printable from one of my go-to sites, Making Learning Fun. And with Honey Pot's newest art supply, washable dot markers, she went at it. “Dot, dot, dot!”

Snow Paint

I found this fun idea at a blog called Really Quite Lucky. I combined water, food coloring and a small dab of paint in a spray bottle. Then, before the snow from last week completely melted away, we headed outside to paint it. Honey Pot took an interest in it initially, but being outside in the snow is just too much fun! So she gave it a few squirts then spent the rest of our time outside just walking around blissfully. Of course, as soon as we came inside she begged for the squirt bottle! Perhaps when we have more snow, I’ll gather some up in a bucket for some indoor fun…some very supervised and towel-laid indoor fun. :)

Orange with Lunch

Quite impromptu, I decided to emphasize the color orange in Honey Pot's lunch today. I gave her an orange plate, and served oranges and Cheetos with her sandwich. Had I planned this in advance, I may have given her grilled cheese (with orange cheese) or colored her bread orange, as I have seen on Pinterest!

Fruit Loop Necklace

Honey Pot and I sat down at the table with a plate full of Fruit Loops. I asked her to pull out all of the orange ones for me. After I showed her one or two, she was able to help me. But she was very busy eating all of the ones that weren’t orange! Then I strung the orange Fruit Loops onto an orange thread, and tied it into a necklace for her. She thought it was a fun way to eat them! Note we also dressed in orange today!