Friday, March 1, 2013

U is for Umbrella Bird- Tot School


Tot School- Cowboy is Currently 44 Months Old

Letter U is for Umbrella Bird


This Weeks Trays

Trays Include:
Sorting Tray with Utensils



Bible Memory Verse

Understanding is a Fountain of Life to One Who Has It. 
-PROVERBS 16:22


Instead of Using my Pocket Chart, I started using my Felt Board to make it a little easier since I am not using all of what I used to on a chart. It was super easy going over Numbers with Cowboy this week since they were right next to him and he could just point to the number :) This week since the theme is kind of about Umbrellas too... I put up a weather chart... to start learning more about the different types of Weather. 


Intro to Letter U using Starfall , Letter School and ABC's of God. 



 Finding letter U on our Alphabet Wall


Talking about this Crazy Bird... Umbrella Bird using the Discussion Page from Letter U Animal ABC's 
and matching Shapes in his Tot Book.  


Reading Alphatales Umbrella Birds Umbrella




Lou is Currently Learning about the Human Body, and so is Cowboy, Since he kinda has to listen to me teach it to her. This week, I traced her body for a project she is doing... So of Course he had to get his body traced too.... He is so excited about doing this Project along with his sissy! 



Playing a matching game Called Husker Du  It is so neat, its like the typical card game memory but on a wheel- It makes it kinda "new" when I pull this out since its on a wheel and looks different that regular old card Memory... which we love, but its nice to have a change up sometimes!  


Tiny Tot Butter.... Currently 22 months old!! 

I can not believe my baby is old enough for tot school... well sort of... I am taking a slow approach as I am trying to ease him into it since he is not 2 yet... he still gets a whole lot of Play! Which even at 2 it will be the same but I don't want to introduce him to too much "paper" stuff just yet... since hes still my baby... :) and there is no rush for this Momma!! This was the very first week I gave him his own Tray Set up- Right next to Cowboys... He didn't really care honestly, but Cowboy.... I'm not sure he is ready to share the spotlight just yet... and of course everything on Butters Trays, even though he has played with them a million times, are way more interesting in his! HA 


Butters Trays Include : 
My ABC Book
ABC FlashCards 

For Example... Here is Cowboy Being the First to play with the Fisher Price Nesting cars before Butter comes out to school.  



Trying to Figure out this Nesting Idea... I just want to roll the Cars Mom! 


Cowboy doing Umbrella Sequence Cards, Puzzle, and Shadow Matching 



Butter Exploring all the buttons and Animals on the LittleTouch LeapPad just love some of those faces!!


Cowboy Sorting with Utensils, and also using a plastic Clothespin for picking up and dropping into sort tray. I used Gems, Pinto Beans, and Spike Balls for this activity. He learned how easy it is to use a spoon for most things, but you cant pick up many things with a fork... and that it takes great skill to try to use a knife for anything other than cutting! 



Tracing in Tot Book and Letter U page in Dry Erase Center ... Look at that Umbrella he colored!! This kid hates coloring... and this is the first time I have seen him color a whole object, and in the lines--- Very exciting moment for me! Its so... Beeeyoouuuuteeeefuuullll....


Mid week we finished using Childs First Bible the bible we had been using, and started a new one called The Beginner's Bible  



Butter Loves this Animal Activity Puzzle, each piece makes a different sound or moves...



Weather Vocabulary Cards- We talked about different kinds of weather and then looked up videos of each kind to watch such as Blizzard, Hurricane, Tornado, Tidal Wave, Avalanche  His favorites to watch were the Tornado and Avalanche.. Hes such a boy...


He also Put together a Weather Puzzle



I tried something new this week, I guess it could be categorized into the Living Books Category... I am still confused on what that term actually means, but to me... here is my definition, we have a ton of books on tape which are just audio, but other times we can find a Youtube of someone reading the actual book while we see the pages.... Like you know... a Living Book.... I decided to do this with the Book The Ugly Duckling


He watched the Video, and then I found a lesson plan on Scholastic to give me a guide on questions to ask etc... you can find it HERE. It gives you ideas for Discussion, a worksheet, and you can also print your own mini book if you want to. 

My sweet mans picture of what the "Ugly Duckling" Looked like after it became a beautiful Swan... 

Butter Pointing to Pictures as I tell him the Letters


Lacing umbrella, and Coloring, cutting and gluing Umbrellas.





Cowboy making words using Boggle Junior  




Building with Cool Crazy Connectors  


Utensil Painting

This was super fun!!! I had some plastic utensils and thought it would be fun to paint his Letter Craft using them, Since its a Letter U word!! He thought this was the best thing ever!



It left such a cool Design but.... Boys will be boys... He of course had to rub it all in with his fingers :P




We also did another Living Book - Up, Up, Down by Robery Munsch. I followed this Lesson Plan from Scholastic. We also have a copy of this Book, I read it first, then had him watch it and listen to it online. He really liked this book, and the activities. After we read and watched, I had him look and study the objects on a page, then I closed the book and asked him a question like the ones listed below- and he would give me his answer... I was totally amazed at what he remembered !! I will be using this same approach in the future!



  • How many cats are under the carpet?
  • How many cats are watching Anna climb?
  • How many boxes of cereal are on the kitchen table?
  • Where is the ball of red yarn?



  • After I asked him all the questions on the lesson plan... I gave him the book, and let him quiz me :P He remembered a LOT more than mommy!



    We Ended our week watching Peter Pan and having a Pizza Party in the Schoolhouse.... we never have lunch in the Schoolhouse... So this was a First and they loved it...




    Thanks for Stopping By!! We would love for you to leave a comment!!





      


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    Linking Up With:

      Tot School I Can Teach My Child

    Tot School Tuesday Link @ seevanessacraft.com

    2 comments:

    1. Incredible! I love everything and how you documented it. I loved even more how you compared and contrasted the difference in what was age appropriate for one was not necessarily age appropriate for the other. WONDERFUL! I could not agree more about choking a child with academic related paper activities more! Play is so over looked as the essential building block to learning that it is. I am a big believer in allowing a child to develop his own natural inquisitiveness and by not forcing him just allowing him to shadow and observe Cowboy is the so awesome! What a great learning environment you have created. :)

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    2. Thank you so much Kristi !! You are such a Blessing :)I love that You follow us and always encourage me! I am STRONG believer that play and following the lead of each individual child is an essential part of each ones learning expierience. Sometimes we dont even do paper work (including Lou) we just play! And when I sit back and look back on the day I can see that they learned so much just by using their own imagination and developing new skills and ideas. I feel so blessed to be in this season of my life and so thankful God is allowing me to be home with them as they grow.... Thanks so much for commenting and keeping "TABBS" on us :P

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