The Iowa Farmer's Wife: totschool

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Valentine Tot Preschool: Trays

Here are a few of our Valentine tray activities:

Counting/Opening and Closing/Sorting Activity: We started with blank hearts and I handed her stickers to stick on the lids of each heart container. We counted them, then talked about putting the appropriate number of eraser into each container. She did the number 3 first because she had 3 erasers in her hand, then she seemed done with it. I showed her how to shake the container to hear the erasers and she wanted to do more. After she did another one, I told her to shake both at the same time and she felt how they were different. She really felt/heard the difference when she shook 1 with another number.

One to one correspondence: She started out with tweezers, but quickly left them aside and did it with her hands instead.

Counting bears sort: Sweet P actually came up with this tray on her own and filled half the tray with red bears and the other half with red. She called it a cake and came around asking the Farmer and I if we wanted a piece. Too funny!

Sorting: I bought this tray at the $ store this week for this exact purpose. The foam pieces are also from the $ store. Sweet P wanted something in each section so we added erasers and sparkly 3D hearts as well. After she sorted the items, we did a few patterns. I did one for her and then she did one for me!

Broken heart puzzles: I used textured paper that I have a TON of and some crafting scissors for these puzzles. I cut each heart with a different pair of scissors and she matched up each broken heart. I thought it'd be more challenging for her, but she figured it out pretty quickly!

A lot of the activities were completed alongside playing with our Valentine Sensory Bin (all the objects we needed were in it!).

Linking to:

Party Favor Painting

We brought home some party favor horns from our outing on New Year's Eve and Gammie asked if I wanted them before she tossed them. I said, "We'll find something to do with them." And I'm so excited I did!

It took me awhile to come up with something, but then I realized these would be AWESOME paint brushes! And they were! Sweet P also used them in snow play dough after she painted with them.

I mixed up some paint based on the color of the horns and then placed the corresponding horn in its color of paint. She had a lot of fun, but the strands did tend to stick together. She used each color, then said she was done so we hung it up to admire it. I love the way it turned out!

Looks a lot like fireworks, doncha think?

What random items have YOU painted with? Leave a link in the comments!

Coffee Filter Snowman

This might just be the simplest art project we've ever done! And you probably have all the supplies around the house! I think it came out super cute!

The Craft: Coffee Filter Snowman

What you need:
large or small coffee filter
small piece of black construction paper/cardstock
small piece of orange construction paper/cardstock
1 piece of blue construction paper/cardstock
gluestick

Cut 7 small circles from the black construction paper for eyes and the mouth. Cut a triangle from the orange paper. Use a gluestick to adhere all pieces to the blue construction paper and WAH-LA! Coffee filter snowman. So simple!

Glitter Rice Snowflakes

This was our first experience with glitter and now I know why I've never used it! Glitter gets EVERYWHERE! Oh well, she still had a blast with the rice and the glitter (and could've done without the snowflakes!). I think they came out super cute!

The Craft: Glitter Rice Snowflakes

What you need:
Blue construction paper (we used 2 colors)
White rice
Glitter (we had a pack of several options)
Glue
Scissors
Trays to contain the mess (which sorta worked!)

If your child is scissor-aged have him/her cut out the snowflake. I cut it out for Sweet P and then laid it on the tray. Squeeze glue all over the snowflake, then sprinkle (or dump) the rice and glitter on top! Shake excess off on to the tray and allow snowflake to dry. Then hang in the window!

You could also make these into ornaments, but I love the way they look in the window.

I'm linking up to these parties.

Felt Rudolph Activity

I saw this Rudolph on Pinterest and KNEW I had to make something similar for Sweet P. As you know, I.LOVE.Felt. LOVE it! But enough about that! This was super easy (took about 5 minutes) and Sweet P was too cute when we played with it! I added the pompons later for a variation.

The Craft: Felt Rudolph

What you need:
Light brown, dark brown, orange, blue, yellow, green, black, gray, purple, red, pink (and any other color you want) pieces of felt
Black sharpie
Scissors
Colored pompons (optional)

Cut a head out of the light brown felt. Cut one circle out of each piece of colored felt including the dark brown. Trace your child's hand on the brown felt and cut out (these are the antlers). Draw black eyes on the light brown felt. Place on a felt board or other surface and play!

This is how we played, but there is also a Rudolph, Rudolph rhyme you can use as well.

We laid out Rudolph's head and antlers, but I kept the circles in my hand.

Me: Does Rudolph have an orange nose? (while placing the orange nose on the reindeer)
Sweet P: Noooooo. (while picking the orange nose off)
This continued through all the colors until red was all I had left.

Me: What color IS Rudolph's nose?
Sweet P thought for a second, then sang: Rudolph the RED-nosed reindeer!!!!! (and I handed her the red nose to place on his face)

So fun and such a great way for her to talk about colors.

Use pompons for a variation.

I'm linking up to these parties.

Tot Preschool: Nativity & Gingerbread

The first week of December we focused on the Nativity and Gingerbread People. We started our Advent tradition and readings on Monday evening of that week (TK was still here with us!).

Verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

Bible figures: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the angel Gabriel

We used Homeschool Creations' Gingerbread Baby printables and 1+1+1's Nativity printables.

Tot Trays:

Felt Gingerbread People: I got these last year and was excited to use them for this unit. We had SO much fun with these. We counted them and then did a song similar to 5 Little Pumpkins, then we did 10 little gingerbread and I made up a song about one going away.

10 little gingerbread standing in a line, 1 walked away and then there were 9.

9 little gingerbread walking through a gate, 1 stayed behind and then there were 8.

8 little gingerbread praying up to heaven, 1 fell asleep and then there were 7.

7 little gingerbread picking up some sticks, 1 went to play and then there were 6.

6 little gingerbread playing near a hive, 1 ran away and then there were 5.

5 little gingerbread standing at the door, 1 went in and then there were 4.

4 little gingerbread climbing in a tree, 1 fell out and then there were 3.

3 little gingerbread going to the zoo, 1 got lost and then there were 2.

2 little gingerbread out to have some fun, 1 went home and then there was 1.

1 little gingerbread just for me, lying on a plate he looks good enough to eat!

What Color Are The Buttons? Each gingerbread baby had different colored buttons (there were 8). I asked "What color are the buttons?" And she'd say the color and put the appropriate colored pompon on the card. She even wanted to put a pompon on the gingerbread baby on the front!

Advent Wreath: I found a huge bag of craft supplies at a garage sale this summer and this was one of them. It's from Oriental Trading and although it was a little old for her, she helped glue on all the pieces. We use it for our Advent readings each week.

Size sequencing: We did smallest to largest and largest to smallest.

Sensory: I can't remember what this stuff is called and it has recently been all mixed together, but she LOVED it for 2 weeks. She would play with this stuff all day! I added popsicle sticks and a couple of other tools for her to use with it.

J is for Jesus and Playdoh: I helped her roll the playdoh into J's, but she was really more interested in just playing than J-ing.

Animal/People Sort:

Prewriting Practice: She LOVES these and loves to color on them after she traces the lines. Her lines aren't perfect, of course, but she does a great job.

Gingerbread Baby Letter Match: We only did A-H because she wasn't too into this. She did enjoy the fact that there was a boy on the uppercase and girl on the lowercase letters.

Felt Gingerbread Dress-Up Doll: See link for details

Activities:

Gingerbread Man Puzzle: I laminated, cut out and glue the puzzle to magnets. Sometimes these puzzles are hard to put and keep together so the magnets really helped.

Gingerbread Man coloring sheet: Sweet P was all about coloring this week. I'd say "Can you color his buttons orange" and she'd color that area.

Gingerbread number dot: I traced our foam gingerbread boy and created this. Sweet P lost interested after number 10, but we walked through the rest of the numbers since we have just started doing and recognizing teens. She also traced around him with the dot marker!

Christmas collage: She'd been asking to do the Christmas collage ever since she saw me cut out the pictures for it and then wasn't really interested when we did it. She did like putting on the Christmas stickers.

Gingerbread house coloring sheet: She did this with the Farmer one afternoon.

Gingerbread Man stickers: I traced this gingerbread man too. I held the sticker book and asked her "What sticker do you want for his eyes, his buttons, his mouth, etc." We had so much fun with this and she put all the stickers on! I was so impressed with the mouth!

Gingerbread Coloring poster: This was an advent gift that week.

Mary & Joseph wooden figures: She also colored this with the Farmer while Baby Brother and I went to MOPS.

Other Activities:

Christmas Sensory Bucket: We did a lot of matching pairs and sorting in a muffin tin with the items in her sensory bucket. I found several pairs of awesome tongs at Hobby Lobby in the holiday section for 99cents!