Telling stories with wooden pieces

Because I'm a craft hoarder, throughout the years, I'd built up a little collection of these painted wooden pieces (most craft stores carry them). I never knew why I was collecting them, but because they were cute and cheap (anywhere from $0.29 to $0.59), I of course had to have them.

Anyway, imagine my excitement when I saw how other bloggin' mamas were using them as storytelling tools.

I squealed when I first saw it on Chasing Cheerios because I wanted to try it with Maddie.

And so, we do and it's always fun.

Here are some of our wooden pieces.

Every time we're at a craft store, I let Maddie select a new one that we can add to our collection.

She loves to search for just the right one to tell a story...

She's learning how to tell stories (most start out with, "It was a dark and spooooooky night...") and she's being exposed to literature components. If I ask her who the characters in her story are, she's able to tell me which animals or princesses or pirates are at the lead.

I don't know if it's the wood, the bright colors or the fact that they're just fun (some even have felt pieces on top), but she always gets excited when we get these out. They also make a great activity pack, since she can use them to tell stories at restaurants, trace around them or sort them (we recently did a sort of things that are alive and not alive).

Next time you're at a craft store which is daily for us, pick a couple up and try telling some stories with them!

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!

Tot School Time!

Wow! I love Tot School because it helps me record everything we've done throughout the week (sometimes I forget that we do get stuff done) and I also get a sneak peek into what other tots have also been up to.

We had a great week and I feel refreshed and renewed and excited. This week, I realized the importance of switching out trays and boxes each week; it really affects Maddie's interest level (for some reason, it's always been hard for me to actually put games/activities away). Also, I'd really like to switch over to doing a weekly theme, and we dabbled in that a little bit with Five Little Monkeys. Since we still have a monkey snack to make (probably tonight), I'm waiting to post those activities. Stay tuned. :)

But, here's everything else...

Maddie's been really active lately (as in, running, spinning and constantly twirling in circles). I found these cards over at one my very favorite blogs, colored and laminated them (by the way, I really want my own <tiny> laminator some day!). I put them in a pocket chart (from the Target dollar spot) and Maddie turns over one card at a time. We all do whatever the card says and she gets so into it.

There was renewed interest in the activity where she decides whether or not the object fits through the tube (originally found over at another of my favorite blogs!). I swapped new toys and pieces in and she sat and worked with it for quite a while.

By far, this was her favorite thing this week: pegboard birthday cake. Ha! RockerMom had introduced me to the peg board and this week, I upped it by adding in marbles that she had to balance on top of the peg. She decided that they were candles and that we had to "light" them. Then, we choose someone (primarily, her) and sing the birthday song together. One day, we did it seven consecutive times before moving on.

She really, really loves it!

We found this in my parents' garage; it used to belong to Annie and Megan but I knew Maddie would love it. It's a cash register and Maddie loves the buttons, the drawer and the attached microphone. We "bought" many things this week.

Inspired by the Open-Ended Art challenge, we worked with yellow and prints several times (but I was bad about taking pics!!). In this one, I taped down butcher paper, set out bowls of yellow paint and gave Maddie some race cars. We worked together to dip the cars in paint and then create some crazy (crashing) tracks.

I've seen this idea on several blogs, and recently, Shannon's blog left me inspired to make our own salt tray. I had this wooden tray (from a play food set, I think?) and placed a piece of green paper at the bottom. Then, I filled the tray with salt, talked about some rules and let her go to work.

This is, according to Maddie, an "A" and a monkey. :) She loved working with it, although the green paper eventually had to be ditched because too much salt got underneath (and you could still see the designs, even without the paper).

Here's an example of putting something away for awhile and then bringing it out again. She hadn't paid any attention to the peg board for quite a while so I put it away. I brought it out this week and she loved building towers with it (it started with me trying to talk about patterns, but towers are more thrilling I think).

And, this is another use with RockerMom's fabulous counting creation. This week, I laid it out with glass bird beads. I've found that Maddie loves tiny, pretty things and these beads were a big hit.

And finally, I made these patterning strips that became a new activity bag. I found these magnets at the dollar store and used some smiley stickers (from my teaching stash) to make simple patterns. Since they are magnets, I'm hoping to use these with our big magnet board when we're at home. She wasn't overly interested in this at the restaurant, so we'll try it again this week.

And, that's our week, with some monkey business to be posted soon. Check out Carissa's blog for more Tot School fun!

Tot School Time!

It was a little bit of a different week since we were gone on vacation. On our trip, we visited a very cool children's museum and we also got in some letter activities. To see what others were up to this week, hop on over to the Tot School homepage!

Our letter this week was "Q" and when we got home today, we made our quilt man (and, he's only called a "quilt man" because she insists on putting googly eyes on every creation and always calls them boys).

My sister Annie gave us a ton of scraps of fabric which we used to "quilt" the Q. I always love watching her concentrate with such seriousness!

Then, we laid out all of her quilts and had a birthday party for... her (of course). We'd made cupcakes together and she wanted to put candles on them and sing the happy birthday song (we went to her friend Callie's party this weekend and she's got birthdays on the brain...again).

Vacation time! So, we spent a couple of hours in the car driving down to the hotel. I packed a ton of activity bags (I should've taken a picture) and introduced some new ones to her, too. This one is a cookie sheet (dollar store!) and these magnets. They're fabulously sturdy and strong. I recently discovered a whole slew of Melissa and Doug products at Ross; they're really discounted and they have a great variety!

Another handy activity bag was the one stuffed with finger puppets. Some are from the dollar store, but we also recently bought her these. She loves them (and they're a great deal!) and everyone at the table got to participate in her play! Ha! Her favorite thing is to make her "friends" go either "to the playground!" or "to a party!"

Onto the children's museum... It was fabulous! There was SO much to do and all three of us enjoyed it. This was a gigantic wall that she could chalk all over. She's very into lines these days. :)

There was also this car that the kids can paint. It is so crusted with paint, but was probably Maddie's very favorite activity.

Oh, they also give you a block of clay and a bunch of tools. Maddie and Mike made a cow, snake and pretzel. I made a baby. They get laid out to air dry in the sun. It should be perfect, right?

Unfortunately, every single piece cracked on our walk back to the hotel. It can all be glued... :)

This was the bubble station, where all the wands were shaped from pipe cleaners. It was fun to try the different shapes and sizes and Maddie enjoyed licking it off her face. Ha!

This was a really cool "rain house" where they do story times. Every thirty seconds or so, it totally sounds like rain is falling. For whatever reason, Maddie hated this one (but Mike and I loved it!).

I know these are loosely related to Tot School, but bear with me. This was another section of the museum where the entire room was stuffed with pillows and mattresses. Needless to say, it was a toddler's dream.

Finally, the shadow puppet wall was interesting (if not a little confusing, since she wanted to stick the puppet flat against the wall).

In the area of fine motor skills, stickers take the cake. I got the idea of peeling the backing off the sticker sheet from Shannon's blog and it's made a world of difference. This was one of the activity bags and kept her incredibly busy while I shopped. :)

And finally... Hungry Piggy. Again, I can't remember where I saw it (no, no! It's from Homeschool Madness, which is one of my faves!), but I cut out and glued a pig's head onto a giant container (I think this one held crackers, but the one I originally saw was an ice cream carton). She "feeds" the pig her play food. Sounds simple, but it is amazingly interesting and fun for her!

Thanks for sharing our week with us! Check out what other tots are up to by clicking here!

Tot School Time!

Another busy week! I hope you enjoy our learning activities; for even more, check out the Tot School blog!

I'm excited to share this because Maddie has loved doing it. I got the awesome template from RockerMom and added some counting dogs and cats (although, when we used it at the doctor's office, I used small erasers that I had in my purse). She loves putting the manipulative in the box and I love to hear her count (Blogger is just NOT cooperating with uploading the video I have of her "counting").

Maddie had her two year check up last week (yay for a good appointment!) and I brought a whole bag, full of new activities and games. This one was downloaded from here, but I can not, for the life of me, find it again. Anyway, she had to sort the M&Ms on the appropriate colored fish. It was fun and really came in handy because we let her the candy after her shots.

It's in my pile of things to be laminated, since the chocolate doesn't always melt in your mouth. :)

So, when I go shopping, I'm always picking up random odds and ends (usually because they're cheap or on clearance). I don't always know what I'm going to do with the item, but I'll stash it in my, "Waiting for Inspiration" drawer until something hits me.

Long story, I know. But, I bought these wooden pieces in the Lakeshore outlet and just recently got them out and glued magnets on the back. They're furniture pieces and she loves setting up her house. :)

Here's a better picture of the pieces. She uses them on her magnetic whiteboard. They're sturdy and fun (though I do wonder for what they were originally intended). I like how she's trying to grab it from me. Ha!

She also had a renewed interest in her magnet basket this week. It's filled with little disks and balls. I also added a wand, which was highly entertaining.

Sometimes magnets, when they snap together and make too much noise, are not so much fun.

I bought this (again, on clearance, at a teacher supply store) months and months ago and just recently got it out to show her. She loves sitting and lacing it and chose it several times this past week. I think it's really nicely made and she's able to do it pretty smoothly. I highly recommend this one.

I absolutely love reading blogs and gathering ideas; I can spend hours sifting through it all. I've recently found this amazing blog and was intrigued when I saw that she had her kids spear their grapes with toothpicks. Being as Maddie had stopped eating grapes, I thought it'd be a fun way to get her to try them again. Sure enough, it worked and she's been gobbling them down ever since. Next up will be small pieces of cheese and other finger foods. Thanks for the great idea (and a fine motor skills activity, too!)!

Maddie got to plant her first flowers in the front yard last week. She's been diligently drowning watering them ever since.

One of my favorite pictures to date. Michael was working on the sprinklers and stopped to show her how they work; she was fascinated. She later grabbed a screwdriver and went to work (I'm fairly certain I saw several very necessary pieces of plastic go flying).

This is another inspiration from RockerMom, and it sent me straight to the dollar store so that I could pick one up too. It's one of those wooden games with the pegs. She loves pushing them in the tiny holes. In this picture, she was taking them off. When she saw me get the camera, she threw a fit and refused to keep working. Oh well. She does like it.

On a (sorta) related note, she is really mastering the use of the fork. She fed herself eggs and pancakes when we went out for breakfast.

Not sure if this is a huge coincidence (or if we need to send the Magna Doodle to the MOMA), but a couple of days ago, she called me over to tell me that she drew a whale. I was shocked that, to me, it really looks like a whale! Am I crazy?! Ha! She pointed out the eyes and smile and said he was a "very happy whale." Neat, right?!

She also got her basket of tiny shells (which is plentiful, thanks to Uncle TT!) to sort in her pill container (dollar store!). She loves, loves, loves the little doors of the pill box and I like watching her categorize the shells. She told me that in one box, all the "little party hats were playin' together." :)

And finally, we had another fun play date with Miss Kylie (who is the proud owner of this much loved ball pit). I was sifting through pictures and found a shot of their very first play date together, about two years ago!

So, I think that was our week (or at least, what I could capture on camera! I recently realized that I take so many pictures everyday!). Check out the Tot School blog to see what everyone else was up to this week!