Letter: I

The Letter I

Honey Pot is 2 years and 2 months old

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics

We started our letter of the week as we always do – by listening to Scout’s little jingle about the letter I and how it sounds. Throughout the week while standing beside the fridge, I’d often ask her to find the letter I amidst a group of letters. She does extremely well with it this way! But if I show her a letter ‘I’ and ask her to tell me what letter it is, she says ‘T’. So I feel as though she knows the letter, but cannot vocalize it quite yet. It’s all about how you ask it!

My “i” Book

Last week as I was at the library picking up my cloud-themed books, I came across a series of alphabet books. I decided to borrow this one to see how they were. We left it out in the living room and read it a few times throughout the week.

It certainly wasn’t a favorite, but it was nice because it allowed us to hear words beginning with ‘I’ over and over, such as this page:

Placing Stickers

I bought these stickers for Honey Pot during her potty training weekend. It was a huge set of over 1000 of them, so I knew I’d have a lot of extra for tot school stuff. When I saw her layering them on top of one another on her potty train, I decided we’d try some fine motor skills. This printable came from Homeschool Creations, and is meant for those Do-A-Dot markers (which we also love). I shrunk it down a bit in Photoshop Elements so that it’d be better suited for her stickers. We discussed what the pictures were, and the letter I.

Then she started placing them into the circles.

I like to let Honey Pot take each “lesson” where she pleases, to make it more fun than work, so I knew the stickers would stray from the circles. What I didn’t know is that she’d make little eyes on the inchworm!

And here is the final product.

Play Dough Fun

Usually for our letter themes we use our alphabet cookie cutters. But this week I wanted to try something new. I keep seeing play dough mats on Pinterest, and wanted to give one a try. So I printed out this cute one from Homeschool Creations.

Yes, I know they are meant to be laminated…and I had every intention of doing so. But after I had already planned out the week, I decided that I’d like to eventually make my own play dough mats. Not wanting to waste the laminating pockets on a page so temporary, I just let Honey Pot use it as is.

First, I made a new batch of homemade play dough. (So in love with this recipe right now.)

 

Then we squished some play dough onto the letters.

 

And I showed her how to roll the play dough into worms, and we placed them over the inchworm.

Here’s the final product! Cannot wait to make up some of my own play dough mats for more fun (and easier laminated clean-up!) in the future!

 

Ice Painting

I found this idea on Pinterest multiple times, originally from Share and Remember. They use liquid watercolors, and I’ve seen it done with food coloring as well. But I used good ol’ paint! I put a squirt of each color into an ice cube tray and filled each section with water. Then, halfway through freezing them, I stuck in a wooden craft spoon. Meanwhile, on a heavy sheet of paper that ice wouldn’t melt through, I drew a big letter ‘I’. Then I set Honey Pot out on the deck with them. She had a lot of fun “painting” with the ice cubes!

Note Little M&M hung out with me while his sister did some ice painting!

And a last minute wardrobe change...she needed her smock - it was a bit messy!

And of course it was very important to move the ice cubes from one section of the tray to another…over and over again.

 

As she explored the cold, melting cubes, her hands became covered in paint. So she decided to use her hands too!

Two at once!

Here is the result:

When she had finished her letter I artwork, I grabbed a bin of water and let her swirl the remaining ice cubes in it. She watched the water change color and the ice cubes melt. And she played with this for a good twenty minutes, I’d say!

Then we came inside for a beverage on this hot, hot day. What did we have? Well, ice water, of course! Actually, it was her idea, not mine!

Clouds

Theme: Clouds

Honey Pot is 2 years and 1 month old

Little M&M is 3 months old

Books

We kicked off this week’s fun theme by gathering a few cloud books. We own one, and the other two we borrowed from the local library. These were left out in the living room and we read them often throughout the week.

Clouds, by Marion Dane Bauer

Little Cloud, by Eric Carle

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, by Charles D. Shaw

Blowing Clouds Across The Sky

I provided Honey Pot with a few cotton ball clouds, and we practiced blowing through straws, making them drift across the blue paper sky. I found the idea at a site I recently discovered called Preschool Express.

Cloud Crafts

I found these craft ideas from Blissfully Domestic. The blogger there used them in conjunction with It Looked Like Spilt Milk, as we did!

First, we used a clothespin to paint with clouds…

It was a lot of fun to turn it into a finger-painting. She dipped her hand in, fearlessly!

Then, I let Honey Pot squirt some glue onto another blue page.

We stuck cotton balls over the glue to make a cloud.

Then I asked her what she thought it looked like. She said a sheep, but I think it looks more like a reindeer! What do you think?

Cloud Gazing

Later we spread out a blanket outside and did some cloud gazing.

We spotted a dinosaur head…

A squirrel…

And a few others. But you know the attention span of a two-year-old. Honey Pot did about five minutes of cloud gazing…followed by about twenty minutes of crawling around on the deck saying, “I’m an ant!” and chasing one around. What a goofy goober.

Sky Jello

I discovered these on Pinterest, originating from a blog called Anastasia’s Palace. What a neat idea! First my little helper did some mixing…

Then I added the whipped cream clouds. Cute!

Honey Pot tasted her sky and cloud Jello. “Mmm, nummy!”

Cloud Dough

We also did a sensory bin this week, with a concoction called Cloud Dough. It is eight cups of flour plus 1 cup of baby oil. I halved the recipe, and I’m glad I did! Honey Pot had a BLAST with this mixture, but it all wound up out of the bin by the end of the afternoon! It feels much like plain flour, but is moldable! I don’t have too many fun gadgets, but I provided her with some old measuring spoons, cups and a small sifter.

Honey Pot had fun digging her hands into it.

“I need a bowl!” she insisted. So I ran inside and got a bowl too.

She poured, scooped and squished to her delight.

Then I helped her mold some of the dough. “Birthday cake!” she shouted.

And you know it’s a successful sensory bin when she puts her feet in it!

Even Little M&M got to experience the fun!

And then Honey Pot helped clean up the mess. Err, she ran across the deck with the broom in her hand. Whatever works!

Walking Across The Clouds

This is a last minute activity I wanted to add to this week’s theme. We had been using these stacks of printer paper to help Little M&M reach the floor while sitting in his Jumperoo. When he was done with them I spotted them on the floor and knew we had to make a game of it! So I printed out a few images of cloud clip-art, and numbered them from one to five to put a little educational spin on it.

Then we took turns walking across the clouds!

I spread them out a little bit for a challenge.

Scattered clouds...get it?

And here she is saying and pointing to the numbers as she walks across them.

It was a great balancing game!

And throughout the remainder of the day, every time I walked by them I would walk over them, saying the numbers as I stepped on them. We went from one to five and from five to one. It actually turned into quite a good number review - I wasn't expecting that!