Using Alphabet Drawers

Back in 2009, I created Alphabet Drawers for Maddie.  You can read about the initial process HERE.

I used a box from Lowe's (or maybe it was Home Depot?  Regardless, I think pretty much all hardware stores carry these plastic boxes for about $20).

Then, in 2010 I wrote about ways that we were using the tiny objects and drawers (she looks so young in those pictures!  Wah!!).

In 2011, Time for Tots started selling Tiny Objects collections, which means that every letter was sure to get an object!

And now, in 2012... We are really finding new ways to put those tiny objects to good use!

 I created an alphabet mat with pictures and Maddie has to match the letter card up to the picture.

She also dug through her tiny objects to match an object with a picture.

 We're learning about initial blends, matching pictures and tiny objects to the correct sounds.

 She loves matching tiny objects to the letter, too.

She likes it when I "trick" her by handing her a tiny object.  Then, she'll search the board to match the letter sound.

We started out doing this with initial letter sounds and then challenged her by doing final sounds (tricky but she totally caught on!).

All these printables, mats, and cards are now for sale in the shop!

*By the way, excuse the crazy hair and Angry Birds pajamas (aka Mike's shirt!).  As soon as she woke up and saw the new mats sitting out, she had to do them immediately!

St. Patrick's Day Crafting

Maddie and I have had fun with some St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities so I thought I'd share!

She loved this one!

We got out the finger paints and I would paint her hand in each color.

Then, she'd make prints in the shape of a rainbow.

I cut out some pots and we cut out gold circles together.

She glued all of them on at the end.

It's such a colorful (and big!) decoration for our house. :)

Since we had the finger paints out, I showed her how to make shamrock thumb prints.

She added stems.

Use your imagination. :)

The following activities are all from HERE.

This was a cute book that has a fun little twist at the end.

It uses a lot of sight words that she knows so it was fun for her to read to me!

She colored this in and then added a yellow dot stamp marker to count 12 coins.

And finally, we did a phonics activity with the sounds /sh/ and /s/.

We had to finely tune our ears so that they were sensitive enough to hear the sound differences. :)

It's hard to see, but this paper is folded in half and she sorted/glued the pictures on the correct side.

She did so well with this and really didn't need me too much!

We have some more ideas but have yet to get to them. St. Patrick's Day falls on a preschool day and she is so excited! Nana even bought her a special green shirt! :)

Halloween Tot School!

Last week, we had our Halloween Tot School and, as always, it was a blast! I have pictures of the trays and the crafts!

Trays:

Open and Close

Each vessel had a Halloween trinket inside (fuzzy spiders, pumpkins, ect).

Tweezing plastic pumpkins (Dollar Tree) into paint tray

*These tweezers are from Lakeshore Learning, but other good places to look for tongs and tweezers are the Dollar Tree (think plastic serving tongs!), party stores (again, serving tongs) or dollar stores (even real tweezers are awesome!).

Tonging green glass rocks into paint tray

Tweezing itty bitty pom poms in ice cube mold

Make a Halloween bracelet with pipe cleaners and pony beads

Sorting acorns, skulls and bats into divided tray (99 Cent Store)

Tonging tiny acorns (Michaels) into pumpkin mold (Dollar Tree)

Sorting pumpkins and acorns (Dollar Tree) by either type or color

Halloween graphing with various trinkets

Dry pour between two pitchers (filled with lentils and beans)

Count and clip cards

Now, onto the sensory activities and crafts (all outdoor activities!):

Beans and rice table filled with spooky Halloween pieces (Dollar Tree)

Crepe paper collage and water play

Pumpkin Mosaics

Pumpkin painting on large, construction paper pumpkins (precut)

Spider web marble painting

The coolest flying ghosts

(found HERE)

Seriously, every single kid flipped for these. I highly recommend them!

Sensory box with beans and black-eyed peas, tiny pumpkins and tiny skulls (and tongs to search!)

And, dot stamping!

Look at these beautiful creations!!

For snack, we had Halloween cookies, apple slice and caramel dip.

During circle time, we worked in our journals and then painted and decorated real pumpkins.

What a fun, fun time!!

Tot School: Fall

We had another group Tot School today and, as always, had a blast. The kids are really getting into such a great rhythm and were just awesome in all their work!

Here were our outdoor centers and crafts:

Make a Fall Tree

I always put directions, as well as a completed example (thank you Maddie) up as a reference. All the necessary materials for each activity are right underneath.

My tiny model is totally blocking it, but there was a big box full of silk leaves, pumpkins and beads that the kids could explore.

Corn Cob Painting

Dot Stamping

Sensory table with pinto beans, rice, tiny pumpkins, leaves, scoops and measuring cups

Sink or Float Science Activity

(There was a big bucket of water underneath)

The kids loved this one.

Marble Painting

(also a huge hit)

Now, onto the tray work...

Dry pouring with lentils, peas and beans

Tonging acorns in a real/plastic pattern in the paint tray

Tonging pumpkins in a color pattern

(I realize that I own 7 different types of tongs; ha!)

Tweezing foam beads into the ice cube mold

Tweezing pompoms into pumpkin mold

Creating a number line with fall leaves and counting out the correct number of pebbles

Color sorting of tiny objects into a divided plate

Turkey math mat with foam dice and wood chips

Pattern strips with fall pieces and early phonemic awareness (listening for initial sounds)

Matching picture to word card to tiny object

Counting with pumpkins, leaves and acorns

Adding play dough berries to a pie :)

Scarecrow count and clip cards

Letter assessments with magnets

And, I think that was it! We had such a fun time. In circle time, we worked in our journals, learned a fall poem and decorated cupcakes. LOVE our Tot School days!