Circles

Little M&M is 2 years and 1 month old.

Stacking Cheerios

We started off our circle unit with something Honey Pot did when she was learning about circles. It was so much fun! First I cut out a circle shape from playdoh, and stuck two pieces of uncooked spaghetti into it. Then I asked Little M&M to stack them up. He loved doing this!

Circle Playdoh Fun

While the playdoh was out, I noticed Little M&M sticking his extra Cheerios into it. So we cut out more circles of various sizes, and used some of our other circular playdoh accessories (buttons, googly eyes, etc.) too.

Sticker Shapes

I found this idea on Pinterest, from a blog called Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. I traced a large circle onto paper, and asked Little M&M to put these stickers onto the dots to make a circle. He and Honey Pot both always love sticker activities!

Size Sorting

I kept the playdoh cookie cutters out for our next activity, as well as some pom poms of three sizes. Then Little M&M had to sort them by size.

He always enjoys sorting activities, and asks to do them over and over. So the next time we arranged the circles into a Mickey Mouse and he loved that!

Circle Glue Craft

I found this idea from JDaniel4'sMom. I printed out a bus template from the Internet. Then I used a circle punch to cut out lots of yellow and black circles for Little M&M to glue onto the bus. We started with the wheels.

And then he added glue for the yellow circles.

That were a lot of circles for his little attention span, so I helped him toward the end. But he was pleased with the end result!

Coloring Page

He kept asking for "other a'tivity" but I had nothing else prepared. So I quickly printed out a coloring page from Mia's Craft Ideas. He actually colors in the lines fairly well sometimes! I colored the page with him.

I even caught him holding his crayon properly a couple of times!

Circle Hopscotch

We were eager to get outside one afternoon during circle week, so we brought the chalk out and played for a while. I drew multiple circles in a row, each a different color. Then I asked Little M&M to hop to a particular circle. For example, I'd ask, "Can you hop to the blue circle?" And he loved doing this! He's been perfect with color recognition, even colors we never focused on individually like brown, pink, silver and gold. But this was a fun review!

Of course Honey Pot wanted to play too!

Circle Paint Craft

Honey Pot also joined us for our next activity. In the past we had used sponge shapes for prints. But those are a little too squishy, and I wanted a clearer result. So we used plastic cups! I poured four different paint colors onto small plates, then the kids made circle prints on brown paper.

They came out really great, and the kids had fun!

Circle Hunt

We finished our unit by going on a hunt around the house for circles! We gathered all the circles into Little M&M's Easter basket. First, the shape puzzle, because we were sure to find one there!

I was surprised at how many circles we had lying around actually. Many in their toy kitchen and on their music shelf.

When we were finished, we dumped out the basket and explored all of the circles we had found!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Earth Day!

Honey Pot is 3.5 years old.
Little M&M is 2 years and 1 month old.

Books

We checked out a few books from the library this week about the earth and how we can do our part to keep it clean and beautiful. I thought they were a great introduction, particularly for Honey Pot's age group, of what Earth Day is all about. Here is the selection:

Tree Snack

For their snack one day this week, I prepared each of the kids pretzels and grapes in the shape of a tree. Simple, and they both loved it!

Earth Do-A-Dot Page

I gave this to Little M&M to keep him busy while Honey Pot did a maze activity. As it turned out, Honey Pot also enjoyed it when he was done with it. The printable comes from Gift of Curiosity.

Little M&M used magnetic pom poms...

When Honey Pot took her turn, she used some gems from her gem jar (a positive reinforcement technique we discovered on Pinterest that seems to be working for us).

Coloring Page

Also, to keep Little M&M busy during Honey Pot's big kid activities, I provided him with a simple Earth Day coloring page.

Tree Root Maze

I found this maze at the Education website. Honey Pot loves doing mazes! We talked about trees and their roots, and how they grow. The maze stumped her once, but then she completed it just fine!

Happy/Sad Earth

This wonderful idea comes from A Little Learning for Two. I just loved the concept! I printed two images of the Earth and drew a happy face on one, and a sad face on another. Then I had Honey Pot glue them onto a piece of black paper.

On ten strips of paper I had written things that would make the Earth either happy or sad. We picked up one at a time and discussed whether what was written would be good or bad for the Earth. It was a new concept for Honey Pot. But in conjunction with this week's books, she seemed to begin to understand what it meant.

Here is the final product!

Earth Shaving Cream Craft

I discovered this idea on Teaching with TLC. It even had a video tutorial, which made it super simple to replicate. First we spread some shaving cream into a large piece of Tupperware, and Honey Pot squeezed some green and blue paint onto it.

Then she swirled it around with a large toothpick.

When she was happy with the design, she pressed a piece of white cardstock in the shape of a circle onto the paint/shaving cream.

We let it sit for a few seconds, then carefully peeled the paper off. We let this sit for about 5 minutes like this.

Then I scraped off the shaving cream layer, and we were left with this beautiful creation. Love this!

Gardening Sensory Bin

To further explore the Earth and things that grow, we had a simple sensory bin. I filled a container with potting soil (leftover from an Easter plant that had expired), small pots (which are actually cupcake molds that I have), a dish full of Dollar Tree black beans (which we also used for our watermelon unit), a spoon and a pitcher of water.

We talked about the things flowers need to grow: soil, water and sunlight. Then Honey Pot got to work planting her black bean "seeds" and covering them with soil.

She poured water onto them...

And placed them in a sunny spot.

And poof! Flowers grew! I purchased a bouquet from the Dollar Tree, and cut them to fit. Honey Pot loved this!

So she took the flowers out, and played again. And again.

A great lesson and a fun sensory experience indeed.

Hiking Scavenger Hunt

I created a scavenger hunt for Honey Pot to do during our first hike of the season. Little legs need a break now and then, and this provided her with something fun to do!

Here's what she found!

And here is a free printable! There are two per page, and they should fit onto the Dollar Tree mini-clipboards perfectly. Enjoy!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *