Tot School Time!

Another week of Tot School has passed, and a crafty one at that. Maddie and I stayed busy this week with art projects that she chose ("Let's make a snowman!") and new trays that I laid out for her. So... Here we go!

She loves watercolors and I can finally leave her to do this independently while I finish laundry or dishes. It took some practice, but she can (successfully) dip the brush in water and then paint (and then repeat). She made a ton of masterpieces this day that I have since turned around and used as birthday cards for friends and family.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was the biggest hit of the week. I've been wanting to try it with Maddie and when I finally picked up a pipette (a dollar at the local teacher supply store), I set it out. She was super interested in it and immediately chose it and sat down with it.

What they are are those bath tub suctions from the dollar store (we've used these many times to balance marbles on). I tinted some water blue (with food coloring; it didn't stain anything) and laid out the pipette. She had to transfer the water from the bowl to the tiny cup suctions on the shape. She loved this.

Since she was having such a good time with the starfish shape that I dug out a dinosaur and a duck, too. Annie and Megan were over and were so great to encourage, guide and help clean up (which is easily done with a dishtowel). She quickly and easily learned how to use the dropper and seriously stuck with this activity for a long time.

This was an inspiration from My Montessori Journey (love, love, love that blog!). Since I had all the materials on hand, I threw it together. One adjustment I made was stuffing some tissue paper into the salt shaker, since I cut the pipe cleaner "branches" too short and they were getting lost inside.

First, she had to place the branches through the salt shaker lid. Then, she slid the "leaves" onto the branches (aka: pony beads). I pulled fall-ish colors, to keep up with our ongoing leaf study. Such a great activity for fine motor development.

Another one from My Montessori Journey: turkey with removable feathers. Maddie has always had a tough time with clothespins (the feathers are glued onto mini clothespins) but has had a lot of interest in it this week. She's pulled it out almost daily to use and she IS getting better (even if the feathers are occasionally attached to his foot).

I think I've blogged about this Melissa and Doug product before, but I'm going to again. Ha! Maddie plays with this daily and we just love it. It's such great quality, it is a great tool for teaching or practicing shapes and colors and it's just fun. She's really been into following the pattern cards and I'm noticing that she is getting much better in sticking with a task (and that goes for all things lately; it's neat to see). It really is a great product. If I could have one complaint it would be that the corners of the shapes are rounded, which makes it hard for them to really "fit" together. It's not a huge thing, but now that she's into making pictures (as opposed to just putting them on the board), I do notice that it bugs her.

Oh! She even got to visit Daddy's classroom and participate in his Meet the Masters art presentation. Yay for Norman Rockwell and oil pastels!

I found these printables over at DLTK's crafts and Maddie has had a blast with them. They're really cool because they have blank circles that are the perfect shape for her dot stampers (which are, probably, her very favorite art product). I knew she'd go nuts for the scarecrow so I printed that one in color, but the rest were black and white (meaning that she colored them in and then stamped the spots). Love these and they're great for more precise fine motor work!

We had to make... Christmas cookies?

That's what happens when you ask the two year old what she'd like to bake. Ha!

I haven't talked about our activity bags in a while, but we are still using them and I'm constantly rotating new ones in (and old ones out). When we went out to dinner this week, I brought the Open and Shut bag, which is filled with different containers or objects to open and close. She loves this and puts forth a great amount of concentration to get all the little bottles and boxes and locks open. I also added in a handful of pennies, since she seems to enjoy hiding them inside and then "saving" them.

On one morning, I asked her what she'd like to create. She answered, "A snowboy and a snowlady!" And so, we did. I turned it into a shape and directional art lesson. She loves these little guys!

There was lots of Play-doh time this week, too. She has mastered the use of cookie cutters and has a great time stamping me out a "meal." This one included lots of flowers (which she calls broccoli) and a few gingerbread men (also known to her as cookies).

Inspired by Chasing Cheerios, I swapped out our spooky Halloween sensory box for more of a fall-themed one. I replaced the black beans with popcorn kernels and filled it with silk leaves, feathers, teeny-tiny buckets, plastic acorns, pom-poms (that, according to Maddie, are "fall apples") and a miniature turkey. It's a big hit.

She's resurrected the alphabet book we lovingly made (and, for whatever reason, stopped at the letter T) and we've gone through it daily. We really must pick up and finish the remaining letters because she likes it so much.

She had a blast with some chunky foam stamps shaped like ocean animals. I picked these up at Lakeshore for like, 70% off (they were coming out with a newer version).

And finally, in cleaning our garage, Mike found some games that I used to keep in my classroom for rainy days. The first one we played was Don't Spill the Beans. She didn't enjoy this one at all. In fact, she told me, "Let's put the beans away. They are bad."

And yet, Don't Break the Ice became an immediate favorite (unfortunate for me, as it takes a bit to set it up). Games are such a great way to practice early social skills and taking turns and being good winners and losers. We've had plenty of opportunities to put those things in action, since we played over and over and over again. :)

What a week, right?! Go check out the happenings of other tots by hopping over to the Tot School page!