Constructing a tower

A made a tower using her two sippies and a waffle in between.  Just before this photo, she'd put the pacifier on top and made the tower tumble.  When she'd made the tower again, I asked her to smile and this is what she did.  

Happy Weekend!

Tot School: Summer Edition

Putting marbles onto fish suction cups

Matching pom pom magnets to circles
I made the magnets by attaching pom poms to peel-n-stick circle magnets from Lakeshore Learning.  They didn't stick too well, so I'll have to reattach them with a glue gun

(free printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Matching lowercase and uppercase letters

(This photo and the one under are the same puzzle pieces..two-sided.  I only put out five so as not to overwhelm her.  She LOVES this activity!)

Matching beginning letter sounds to pictures

(I got the puzzle from a thrift store.)

Ice cube relay

-cubes stay in a bin and the egg plate goes across the room.  A runs to the bin of ice cubes and chooses some ice cubes, runs back and places them into the ovals.  When she is done, she practices carefully bringing the plate of cubes back to the bin.  You can switch this up by calling out colors or having your child make patterns with the cubes.

Number matching

-I just traced the numbers 0-9 onto a sheet of paper and she matches the magnets to the paper on a cookie sheet (purchased for a few dollars at Walmart)

Linking up here:

1+1=1.blogspot.com

We've got a drummer on our hands...

A turns EVERYTHING into a drum.  

 She started with spinning the Lazy Susan cupboard to find the salt canisters to play bongo drums...

Next was Gramma and Dziadzia's coffee canister with wooden spoons...

and today she uses zucchini from Auntie's garden.   What will be next?

Watch a plant grow.

I recently purchased this little ceramic dog grass growing kit at CVS on clearance for 75 cents.  One of the things on our Summer Fun list is to watch something grow.  We put the dirt and seeds inside the puppy and then watered it.

A day or two later, we had grass!  We check it every day to see how long the grass has grown and to water it again.  It's a fun, and very simple activity.

More flowers!

Every now and then I purchase one of these wooden coloring pieces from JoAnn fabrics for a dollar.  It's an easy project and is something just a little different from coloring on paper.

A wanted Muno to watch her color...

The wooden pieces often times come with four tiny markers to use.  This one didn't, but we used our own.  Putting the caps on make for great fine motor practice.

Now we have two beautiful bouquets!

Preschool Corner

Park buddy

Whenever I say to A, "would you like to go to the park?" she immediately says, "Elmo go?  Elmo go?"  She takes him with her and shows him around, swings with him, goes on the slide with him, etc.  I love how she narrates, "This is big park, step up, go on slide!"

Here she is with her park buddy.  She's letting him walk with her rather than simply toting him around.  I love this girl.

Beautiful bouquet

I finally pulled out some old tot school things for A to do again.  In one of the bins was an old reproducible page from a Bible lesson we'd done a while back.
A used do-a-dots to color the flowers, I cut them out and she helped me tape them to straws.  When she saw what they made, she wanted, "more flowers!"  I took one of her many many pieces of artwork she'd done and cut out more flowers.  We taped those to the back of straws, arranged the flowers and sang the "I Obey" song from the Bible lesson.  Super easy craft and A really enjoyed herself.  She even sniffs the flowers!

Art shelf

About a week or so ago, I decided to try and keep art supplies out for A so she could use them whenever she chose to.  I made sure to have a piece of paper taped down (with painter's tape) to her small table as well as one on the easel.  She's been doing a great job!

The containers are just mini-cans of veggies covered with scrapbook paper.  I had the white base from a candle display.  We've had a lot more masterpieces around here lately, and I no longer have to get markers or crayons out when A feels like using them.

Free Activity Calendar

(banner from QuirkyMomma.com)

We have been traveling and enjoying time with family over the holiday weekend.  We are just getting back into the swing of things.  Visit Quirky Momma for her July activity calendar.  It's a printable calendar with simple activities you can do every day with your kids.  It's such a great tool.  I love it!

Fourth of July: U.S.A. Flag!

A and I made a flag using construction paper and contact paper.  Here are the materials I had ready before we began:

-2 plain white pieces of paper

-two blue rectangles cut from construction paper

-red strips of paper cut from construction paper

-white stars cut from toddler to toddler

-a piece of contact paper cut a bit larger than the white piece of paper

-blue painter's tape

First, I put glue on the stars and A stuck them to her blue rectangle.

Next, I had the contact paper taped (sticky side up) with a white piece of paper underneath.  I had my white piece of paper so she could see where to place the blue rectangle. She placed her blue rectangle on her contact paper.  (It was totally in the wrong spot, but I left it)

*When doing this, you must do it in reverse (mirror image), since you are going to be flipping it at the end of the project.

I showed her how to put the strips of red paper on and let her do her own.

When she was finished, I pulled the white paper from beneath the contact paper and placed it on top.  I folded the contact paper over and it stuck to the back of the paper.  I even used a bit of tape to make sure it really held well.

The final product!  It may not look "right" but it's more about the process than the final product.  :)

Linking up here:

Preschool Corner