Tot School

Lucas is 35 months. Gwendolyn is 12 months.

We went with a 'p' theme again this week. Since we had Plenty of ideas leftover from last week :)

::Popbeads

Gwendolyn got a little tangled up in the long string of beads :)









































A Pile of recyclables makes everything more fun! The kids loved filling up the box with the beads and dumping it out.



And filling oatmeal jars up with beads and trying to put the lids on.
Once they got the lids on, they shook the containers and rolled them around on the floor. Gwendolyn really enjoyed all of the noise.
Lucas and I talked about how different amounts of beads in the jar made different amounts of noise.


































Lucas made lots of necklaces for Gwendolyn to wear, which she LOVED!
He also strung all of the beads together into a big circle to make a house. I used this as an opportunity to work on some vocabulary words for both kids. We used a little plastic person and talked about whether he was in the house or outside of the house. Then one of the kids would get in the house, while the little person stayed outside of the house. Or both could be inside the house. Or everyone outside of the house. Etc. It was a fun way to work on opposites and comparisons. Lucas LOVED being inside the house with the little person or having the little person outside of the house looking at him :) He laughed and laughed the whole time we played.








::Peeling oranges


Lucas has been more and more involved in meal preparation. He loves helping in the kitchen!





















::Puzzles Gwendolyn played with this matching farm puzzle. She really likes if because when you press the pieces in, it sings a song.


::Pieces of Paper Lucas enjoyed ripping up another magazine. I got an issue of Parents in the mail a couple of weeks ago. As soon as Lucas saw it, he came and pet the magazine with one finger and said 'Me wait so patient to rip that up.' And he did.. Every time he saw me reading it, he would come and remind me how patiently he was waiting and then wander off to play. He was delighted when I finally gave it to him.

::Pink and Purple





















I set out lots on pink, purple and 'p' letter beads for Lucas to transfer into this bag. Then I gave him a bottle of lotion to squeeze in. It was supposed to be for tracing letters on the outside of it or just for a fun sensory activity. But Lucas didn't care about it at all.

::Plastic vs. wood





















We sorted toys into two categories: plastic and wood. We talked about where wood comes (trees), what it feels like, what it looks like, and what it sounds like when tapped against another piece of wood. We examined the plastic things in the same way. Lucas wanted to do this over and over again - it was a big hit!
Gwendolyn came and randomly took things out of each pile and carried them off to another room. But I maintain she's learning just by hearing Lucas and I talk :)































::People





Little wooden people, an abstract wooden puzzle and a wooden shape sorting cube set out on the kids art table. They have really enjoyed having activities set out on their table for them lately.



















::Pouring eggs





















I set out a few eggs and two cups with lids for the kids to practice pouring and putting lids on.
It was great color practice for Gwendolyn - we named each color of egg she picked up.
Lucas used his imagination and made me coffee and soda to drink in each cup. I love when he uses his imagination in such a thoughtful way!



























::Play





















































































::'P' activities not pictured
We went to lots of Parks this week.
We went on a field trip to the Police station. Lucas loved seeing all of the police cars parked in the lot.
We talked more about Pigs. And watched Pig videos on-line.
We played the Starfall game and did 'p' many times.
I know we did more than this, but I can't think of anything else right now.


::Counting we read a construction equipment counting book. One of the pages had eight hard hats on it. Lucas told us how he remembered men we saw working wearing hardhats to protect their heads. And then he pretended to put on his own hardhat. I love seeing the connection that he makes between things! As far as actually counting: Lucas can count to four and knows the one to one ration up to four. He knows the other number up to ten, but doesn't seem to know their actual value and doesn't necessarilly put them in the right order. He usually randomly lists numbers once he gets past four (1,2,3,4,8,1,9,4,3,7 etc) But I'm not entirely sure that he isn't just being silly. He likes to play funny little games, pretending he doesn't know things that he really does. Although, I'm happy as could be that he can count to four :)