Confessions from Toddler School: Money!

 This was a quick and easy week. I tried to keep it light so that I could focus on getting my first subscription box out the door. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely try one out! Next months theme is dinosaurs and you can't go wrong there!

Anyways, enough about that, if you want to know more you can check the link above! ☝

This week was all about Money, money, money! MONEY! 💰 
I'm sorry, I had to! And if you didn't sing along, I'm not sure we can be friends. 

Here's what we did this week:

You can get my blank thematic planner here.

Books:

I have been searching for some fun and simple money books to introduce coins and money concepts to young toddlers but I haven't really found any that I like! Do you have any you like!? I would love recommendations! 

Activities:

Identifying Coins:

I think it’s really important to teach kids about money young so they learn the importance of it and practice healthy saving and spending habits as they grow up. And this all starts with being able to identify money and understanding that we use money to buy things!

I set up this simple anchor chart and printed out the coins on label paper (so no tape necessary👌). We worked on identifying the different names, heads and tails, value and terminology (cents). Cohen then put the stickers in the correct places! Throughout the day I’ll ask him to go point to a coin by name or by value to help him practice and retain the new information 💰

Sorting Coins:

We loved this little activity! I took the same coin stickers from the previous activity and put them in a muffin tin. In retrospect I really should have shrank them down to fit into the muffin tin but I didn't want to have to reprint and recut. But don't worry, they're the right size in the downloadable packet!

As we sorted we talked about heads and tails and identifying the names as well - he's getting really good at sorting out the differences between the silver coins after only a couple of days of practice!

Coin Rubbings and Matching:

This activity did NOT go as planned. I showed Cohen how to do it and he couldn't care less. You win some, you lose some. 🤣All he wanted to do was sort the coins and practice their names which was fine by me!

The rest of this week was more about real life application! We sorted his piggy bank and then took it to be deposited into his savings. He loved talking with the bank teller and asking them to put it into his savings. He looked so proud! We also had him "work" to earn some spending money to get a feel for earning, buying and saving. He loved it! He loves helping so it was just icing on the cake to actually earn something while doing it. His favorites were helping with the dishes and helping dada with his work. He earned a whopping $2 (one dime a time haha) and spent it on a new hotwheel car (shocker!🤣) and a pack of honey teddies! The rest went into his savings. 

Want any of this week's printables?  You can grab them here!

Up next week: The 5 Senses!👁👃👄👂✋  

Confessions from Toddler School: Penguins

Penguins were one of Cohen's first loves and they are still definitely a favorite around here! Fun fact: Cohen's love of penguins was what inspired this toddler school journey of mine and it was our very first theme ever! 🐧

Unfortunately we didn't get to do all of our activities this week due to a rousing emergency room visit (everyone is fine but this sick season is no joke!) We've been resting and reading a lot of books instead. 💙📕💙

Here's what we did this week:

You can get my blank thematic planner here.

Books:

We did a lot of book reading this week due to this lovely illness! There are so many amazing penguin books out there and it is really hard to pick a favorite but these two get the most laughs and repeats!

Penguin Gets the Hiccups - This book is beyond adorable! If you haven't read it, it's about a cute little penguin who gets the hiccups from eating chili. He tries all kinds of tricks to get rid of them but nothing works. The book elicits child participation to help scare the hiccups away too! Super cute.  But make sure you have your fake hiccup sound ready to go because you're going to need it!

Personal Penguin - Who doesn't want a personal penguin!? I mean seriously, how adorable woult hat be? Almost as adorable as this penguin book by Sandra Boynton! It's actually a song! So we sing it all the time. And I mean ALL the time. It's about a little penguin that just wants to be a hippos personal penguin! 💕

Activities:

Penguin Habitats

I always love how this sensory table turns out! The pictures really don't do it justice. We use instant snow and lots of ice! Every night I let the boys collect cups/tupperware/bowls, hollow toys (anything that can hold water) and we will with water to freeze for the morning! Then all we do is throw in these little penguin figurines.

Feed the Penguin

I love how adaptable this activity is from the variety of containers and penguin shapes to the skill on the fish!

First choose any empty container and turn it into a penguin! This time I used an empty cracker box but I've used cereal boxes, shoe boxes, milk jugs and even an empty cottage cheese container! They always turn out super cute. Just use construction paper and voila! Penguin 🐧

**Tip: Don't forget to think through an emptying strategy once the penguin has eaten all the fish...I learned this the hard way the first time I made one. Don't be like me. **

Next print out your fish and choose your skill! You can get these fish in the printable activity pack below or find your own! I like to laminate my fish so I can switch up the targeted skill as much as I want! These bad boys have lasted me 3 years if you can believe it! The activity pack includes the colored fish as well as a blank white set for you to write your own skill on!

**Tip: Bend the fish tails up so they're easier to pick up off the ground. There's nothing worse than watching your little one struggle and then get frustrated and give up before it even starts!**

Penguin Movements Obstacle Course

This was so much fun! We really needed some fun body movement activities after being cooped up for so long. This did not disappoint! Turns out his love of penguins perfectly translated into the love of being a penguin. 

I used black masking tape to mark off the obstacle course and then these cards to label the activities! See my IG highlights to see how we set them up!

Want any of this week's printables?  You can grab them here!

Up next week: Money! 💰