Monday, March 13, 2017

Confessions from Toddler School: Colors!

This week was so much fun that I wish we had gotten to more of our activities! However the activities that we did do were so much fun Cohen just wanted to do them over and over again. So I'll call that a win! AND Cohen really knows his colors now! He's a master sorter!

Here's what we did this week:

You can get my blank thematic planner here.

High Five Colors: 
This was a super simple activity that got a lot of use! My little one loooooves high fives! Seriously, it's his jam. So I traced my hands on different colored paper and posted them around the house. I would say "Cohen can you high five the ____ hand?" and he would high five that color. We've been playing this all week and it's been really fun!



Color Sensory Table:
Our sensory table this week turned out a little different than I had anticipated but was still a big hit! When I was dyeing the beans they turned out a little bit speckled and not as vibrant as I had hoped. They looked really pretty though! And as a bonus they will double nicely for an Easter themed sensory table!

We used the colored toilet paper tubes to sort the beans into! 


What you need:
- White beans
- Food coloring or liquid water colors
 (liquid water colors tend to stain hands less)
- TP rolls
- Colored construction paper to cover TP rolls 
- Tweezers, scoops, anything to pick up the beans

Sticker Color Sorting:
We used the left over stickers from our body unit and the stoplight from our car unit (that is still hanging up in our living room) to practice color sorting stickers! If you follow me on IG you may have seen how efficient Cohen is at this now! Proud mama moment for sure. 😄


Lego Color Sorting:
This was another fun, simple and super easy to set up activity! I pulled out pieces of construction paper and dumped out all of his Legos. I modeled putting the colored Legos on the matching paper saying "This Lego is _____ so it goes here". Then he would grab a Lego and I would say "That Lego is ____. Where does _____ go?"


Rainbow Ooblek:
Oh. My. Lanta. 

This was by far the coolest thing I have ever done! I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it went perfectly with our color unit so I decided to give it a whirl. Just look at how pretty this is! Almost too pretty to mess with right!? This was so much fun to play with that even my teenage sister sat down and played with us! 

Cohen was not sure about the changing from a solid to a liquid but he loved squishing the colors!


What you need:
- Cornstarch
- Water
 ** I never actually measure out ingredients (this is how I cook too and it drives my husband crazy). I've made oobleck so many times that I just add water until it's the right consistency.**
- These amazing color Bath Drops

Outings this week:

Ceramic Shop - We took a little trip to my parents ceramic shop this week to do some painting! One, because we could play with colors and two, because we've had our car mobile "in progress" for months now. So you know, 2 birds. 



📙📘📗 Our favorite books this week ðŸ“—📘📙


Cohen wasn't super impressed with any of the books this week. Oh, except for Sneak-a-Peek: Colors because it had a mirror in it and he is pretty full of himself! 

But on the plus side, these rainbow color books will work perfectly with next weeks St. Patrick's Day theme also!


Up next week: St. Patrick's Day ☘

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Confessions from Toddler School: Dr. Seuss Fail

As I'm sure many of you know, this past week was Read Across America week! And despite my best planning efforts and my love of all things Dr. Seuss it just didn't happen for us. I don't even have a good excuse! 

I just lacked all motivation this week. Originally I had planned to have each day focus on a book and an activity to go with that book but I swear every activity I tried this week was a big fat fail. So if you'd like a good laugh, keep on reading! 😂

Here's what we did planned to do this week:

You can get my blank thematic planner here.

Noise Makers: 
We read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? This is one of Cohen's favorite books. He likes it so much that this was our "mysteriously disappearing" book of the week! After reading the book we made our own little noise shakers.


What You Need:
- Toilet paper or paper towel roll 
- Foil (to cover ends)
- Tape 
- Filler
- Something to decorate with!

After I got one end taped up, we used beans and coins to fill up our shaker. Cohen then colored with marker and decorated with Dr. Seuss stickers that we found in the Target Dollar Spot!

Stacking Egg Carton Hats: 
This was probably the most successful activity of the week! Which is a little depressing but, you know, it is what it is. After reading Cat in the Hat I used egg carton cups (that we painted together) as stacking practice to make the cat's hat. Cohen really liked this activity and it kept him busy for quite awhile. 


Color Hop: 
We did not do this activity, mostly because when I set it up, Cohen took that as an invitation to go full on destructo-baby and throw the color spots all over the room. 😒 We did however read Hop on Pop and that was a big hit!

Feed the ABC Monster:
So I bought these cute little foam alphabet pieces awhile back at the Target Dollar Spot (yes, I have a problem) and couldn't wait to use them! They were kind of whimsical and Dr. Seuss-esque so I thought they would be perfect for this weeks activities. 

We read the ABC Book and then we fed the letters to our wipe container monster! Have you seen those cute little wipe container monsters on Pinterest? Well ours did not turn out like that. I'm not even going to post a picture, it is that embarrassing and I'd really rather not end up on pinterestfail.


Feet Painting: 
Nope. Just Nope. 

Given our track record this week, we decided to skip the messy art project. 

Goldfish Color Sorting:
After reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish we attempted to color sort our rainbow goldfish. Well let me tell you...Cohen did not try to eat a single goldfish. He sorted them all perfectly on his own. And then afterwards he cleaned the entire living room and cooked a 4 course meal. 

Or he shoved all the goldfish into his mouth at the same time and then proceeded to scream for more while his mouth was still full.

You know, one of those two.



📙📘📗 Our favorite books this week ðŸ“—📘📙



     



                   



Up next week: Colors 🌈