Tot School Time!

We had quite a week in Tot School! Michael had the entire week off (yay for elementary school schedules!) and Maddie has just loved having him home so much. He got in on a lot of the action in Tot School, including puzzles, painting and baking.

This was a new tray for the week. I put some colored rice in a measuring cup and Maddie and I sat together as I showed her how to pour. I was impressed at how great she was at listening and following directions. However... I used too much rice, resulting in a heavy vessel for her little hands. Also, I need to get another measuring cup, which will make it much easier for her to transfer and pour. Off to the dollar store I go... :)

This was probably her favorite tray of the week. When a snack-size baggie of marshmallows got left out (resulting in marshmallow rocks), cheapo me couldn't throw them out. Instead, I made a tray out of it! I'd found this brush and dustpan at the dollar store a while back, and knew that it'd make a good tray for Maddie.

I taped down a square (I know I've seen this on a blog somewhere...) and put the marshmallows in a bowl. She first dumps the marshmallows in the square and then uses the brush to sweep them up and transfer them to the bowl. She loved it. It requires a lot of hand-eye coordination and focus, but she chose this one every single day.

Ohhh, this was another really fun one! I got out some number stickers and chart stickers (seriously, I must have millions of stickers; if you ever have a specific sticker need, let me know and I will gladly send some your way!). I cut the number stickers up individually and cut the fishy chart stickers into rows, placing them in bowls.

Then, I used some index cards to make "number dominoes." I laminated the cards so that they are more durable and so that the stickers can be peeled off and the cards can be reused.

Maddie had to peel the chart stickers off and place them on the corresponding dots. Then, she used the number stickers to match it to the card. Daddy did this activity with Maddie and they both liked it a lot! They did the numbers in groups of three so that it wouldn't be too overwhelming. And surprisingly, she did one through nine in their entirety!

Of course there was peg board play (as always). Although, this week I noticed that she started matching colors and moving them around so that like colors were together.

This was just a quick tweezing/sorting activity that she immediately deemed "not fun."

This, however, was very fun. I printed this page off from the Prekinders site (awesome place to visit, by the way), backed it with scrapbooking paper and laminated it. I set it out with red Play-Doh.

My little baker used the "cherry dough" to make a cherry pie! She loved this and I'm excited to introduce more Play-Doh mats that I've found. This was a big hit and also encouraged lots of role play and imaginative thinking ("This pie smells so yummy! You buy it with your money Mama?").

When Maddie wanted a marshmallow snack (honestly, all the kid wants to eat lately are marshmallows and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), I decided to add a twist to it (because I just have to and that's how my mind works; Ha!). I had printed off some of these patterning strips and laminated them a few weeks ago (but hadn't used them yet).

Then, I put out a bowl of holiday marshmallows.

After a quick demo, Maddie set to work, patterning her snack! She did so well with the AB pattern that we also did an AAB pattern, to which she had to work a little harder on. Although, about halfway through that one, she said, "My tummy is so hungry." Ha! Activity over, snack time on!

We made these pinecone turkeys for Open-Ended Art (to which I forgot to link up to again! What is wrong with me?!). She didn't really enjoy making these, as the glue was dripping, the pieces were falling off...

But, they did spice up Nana's Thanksgiving table!

Christmas is making it's first appearance! I printed this off from here and set out some of Maddie's magnetic circle tiles.

She chose this, and was initially very excited. Although... It uses lower case letters and I think that threw her off a bit. She successfully did all the lower case a's before deciding that we should "try it again later." It was never visited again though. We'll try in a few weeks.

Nana found Annie and Megan's old stacking cups, to which she enjoyed stacking (and knocking down). We also found my old nesting dolls (which was thrilling to me because I'd been wanting to get Maddie some) and they were a huge hit. Love them!

Oh, I should also mention Maddie's proudest moment: putting on her own shoes! She even gets them on the right feet and fastens them shut.

Now that the whole shoe thing is mastered (and let me tell you, she is so proud of herself that she takes them off and puts them on all day long), she's tackled putting on her own skirts and taking off her own shirts. It makes for an interesting nap session. I never know what I'll find when I go get her (like today when she was standing on her bed stark naked, saying, "Look what I can do!").

Painting is constantly on Maddie's request list. For this session, I gave her this cool paint thingy (imagine a Koosh ball on a stick). She loved it (thanks Ginger!)!

And finally (wow, this was long, huh? Thanks for sticking with me!), I got out the animal puzzle I bought last year (or maybe it was the year before that?) at Costco. It's a really cute set, with farm animals on one side and wild animals on the other. She has to pop the pieces out (hello fine motor skills!) and then match the mama to the baby.

I think we've done this... Well, I can't even give you a number because I stopped counting shortly after 20 times. Ha! It's also a great vocabulary activity, as Maddie now knows many baby animal names.

What a week! Go check out what other tots were up to by heading over to Carisa's blog!

Open-Ended Art: Feathers

Alright, I'm cheating quite a bit a little bit with Open-Ended Art this week. The theme is feathers and while we do have a large bag of colorful feathers, I'll admit that I hate working with them. I'm not sure why, but I just don't like them (I'll take glitter over feathers any day!). So, here's how we happened upon feathers this week...

Maddie's aunt, Annie, was a crow (or was it a raven?) for Halloween. Because of that, there's been an increased interest in crows lately. So, when I saw this craft on DLTK's website, I knew we had to try it. It took a lot of work, coloring all those pieces in!

Upon gluing it all together, Maddie decided that "Megan the Crow" needed two things: googly eyes (of course!) and... feathers! Ha (saying that I "killed two birds with one stone" doesn't seem very nice to our Megan the Crow, huh?).

And so, that's our weak fair attempt at feathers this week. Check out what others did with feathers by flying on over to Mommies Wise Bookworms!

Open-Ended Art: Henri Matisse

What a fun Open-Ended Art project this week! The theme focused on Henri Matisse and making collages. Maddie loves collages of any kind and she really enjoyed this project. In fact, she enjoyed it so much that after we made this one, we also made two more!

This is how we started out. I cut a bunch of free-hand shapes from sticky foam sheets, purchased from Lakeshore on super clearance. She chose the cardstock color (gotta love a mountain of scrapbooking supplies, right?).

At first, I helped her peel the backing off the shapes and she decided where to place them. But, I quickly realized that she was totally capable of doing it all on her own!

The focus, concentration and effort was amazing to watch.

We talked about the colors and shapes. She layered some shapes on top of each other and told stories about others (she "built" a see-saw and there were lots of "rain clouds fillin' up").

What a fabulous creation! Seriously, these projects are just awesome. They encourage so much vocabulary, foster creativity and are just plain fun. Check out other takes on Matisse by clicking HERE!

Open-Ended Art: Black and White

This week over at Open-Ended Art, the theme is black and white. Maddie loved this project (though I'll admit, it wasn't terribly open-ended since I did kind of have a plan...).

We started out with white paper, black paint and a mountain of cotton balls. She painted with the cotton balls all over the paper. I had drawn some ghost shapes on the paper and as she painted, we talked about how all ghosts are "nice and not scary." :)

Then, I cut the ghosts out and sprinkled silver glitter on them. I asked her if she wanted to do the glitter and her response was, "I'd rather wash my hands." Ha! Black paint on fingers can make a clean freak a little nervous, I guess. :) She did come back and help glue on the googly eyes.

Then, we strung some black ribbon and hung our "nice ghosts" in our front window.

Check out how others used black and white by visiting Open-Ended Art!

Open-Ended Art: Orange and Black

It's been a while since we've participated in the Open-Ended Art project and I think we've both missed it. The theme this week is black and orange. Unfortunately, I couldn't find ANY black paper and we are out of black paint. So... We substituted. A little black for a little brown. :)

She chose the paper color and I gave her a tray (love those things; got them from Oriental Trading but again, can't find the link) of paint. I also gave her different painting tools: a brush, a sponge, this blue cleaning thing (she called it the "bagel"), Q-tips and cotton balls.

The brush was totally her favorite (I think because it got really gloppy and she could get a ton of paint on the paper).

And, let me also explain that my original intent was for her to paint and once it was dry, I was going to cut it out in the shape of a big pumpkin (and let her decorate the face). But, when she finished painting, she said, "This is my dinosaur. He has batteries. His name is Cowboy. Roar!" I can't cut up Cowboy. He'll stay as Cowboy the Dinosaur and this will truly be an open-ended art project after all. :)

Check out other fun ideas over here!

Open-Ended Art: Mosaics and Paper

Last week (I think I'm a week late to this party!) at Open-Ended Art, the theme was paper and mosaics. Since Maddie loved using the pebbles to make mosaics, I knew she'd love the paper version, too.

The original plan was to have Maddie tear paper and then sort by different colors. Instead, she took a really long nap and to prepare for the project, I cut the paper and sorted by colors. :)

Then, they (our friend Owen came to join us; I'm hoping to make it a weekly thing for the two of them!) painted the glue on the paper...

And glued down their shapes!

This was Maddie's finished product! She worked so hard on this and was proud of the result. Check out Teaching My Little Bookworm for more paper mosaic ideas!

Open-Ended Art: Mosaics and Pebbles

This week's Open-Ended Art involved mosaics. I was at a little bit of a loss, to be quite honest. She has no interest in gluing scraps of paper (we've tried) to make a picture, and wasn't sure what to do. We made these mosaic stepping stones a few months ago, but I wanted to do something else, since she DOES love open-ended art and we hadn't done it in a week or so. I saw Crunchy and Green's take on it and knew that Maddie would love it (so thank you for the inspiration!).

We started with Model Magic and a jar of glass rocks and pebbles (dollar store). I have always loved "magic rocks," as my brother and I used to call them. When we were little, I remember going over to my Mimi's house, where there were always clear ones in dishes or jars. She used to let us take one or two each time. Sweet memory. :)

Together, we rolled out the clay and pushed cookie cutters into them. Then, she took pebbles and pressed them in.

And, here are our final products! Kinda pretty, huh? I'm thinking that these would make some pretty nifty gifts for Grandparent's Day! :)

Check out other GREAT mosaic ideas this week on Teaching My Little Bookworm's Open-Ended Art!

A Colorful Kind of Morning

While I was reading blogs, I saw the greatest idea for making sunflower prints. Mike had surprised me last week with a bundle of sunflowers and since they were pretty much on their last leg, I knew that this would be a great project for today. She loved doing it and they turned out really neat! Check out Growing Up Our Style for directions!

Of course, the paint was out and that prompted Maddie to request more "race car painting." We'd done this with Open-Ended Art a few weeks ago and she frequently requests to do it again. Fortunately, Annie was here to paint with her (and then Megan was here to read her many books in the bath that immediately followed!).

Once Maddie was clean and settled in with The Fresh Beat Band (a new show that completely fascinates her), I dyed some rice. It was so easy, thanks to My Two Happy Homeschoolers' blog. Mike flattened it out so hopefully it will dry quickly.

I thought it looked so pretty, all laid out! We're going to be using this for all sorts of crafts and activities this week and I really think (well, I hope) Maddie will like it!

Open-Ended Art: Yellow and Prints

This week, we joined in the Open-Ended Art project, going on over at Teaching My Little Bookworm. It is, as the name suggests, open-ended, and this week's theme is both yellow and prints. Maddie had a blast.

I gave her a piece of cardstock, a shallow (though, not shallow enough! You really don't need that much paint) plate of yellow paint and a bunch of circle-shaped "stamps" to make prints with. She knows her shapes, but circles seem to be her favorite so we focused on that today.

Among her "stamps," were a paper cup, a small lid, a bowl and her favorite: a styrofoam "tree." It was left over from Christmas and she loves it (actually, there are about three or four left). She's pretended that it's a microphone, an ice cream cone and today, it was a "circle maker."

And, here's one (of four) finished products. I think we both really enjoyed this and I look forward to doing more of it. Click here to see what others are up to with yellow and prints!