Tot School: Purple cat

This is Purple Cat week from our Brown Bear Brown Bear unit.  We did this several months ago and I'm finally getting it published! I don't It was a fun week!

 



 

When Raelynn was learning to spell her name I would give her lots of letters and tell her to pick out the letters of her name.  Even today, now that she can write her name, she still does it backward sometimes.

We have Three Little Kittens!

 

We watched and read The Three Little Kittens a lot this week and then the kids loved acting it out themselves and singing the song

 

Fun trip to Grandma's to feed the cat and drink purple kool aid

I had Declan stamp the dot marker on top of little marks I made on the paper then he was to put the little plastic animals on the dots.  He did great!

covered Barney the purple dinosaur with stickers

 

Red bird

Week 2 of our Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? unit.  This week's focus was "red bird" and was another great week!

 

The six categories I hope to help direct our activities each week:

 

1. Bible verse/story:

 

Genesis 1:21 "So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

 

Psalm 50:11 "I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine."

 

 

2. Color focus:

Red- red bird and red apples

So many red items! This entertained them for so long!

One extension activity I did with Raelynn was in that foam tray (which I clean and save from meat purchases) is giving her a bunch of letters, making sure the letters of her name are included.  She find the letters and spells her name.

 

3. Hands On Craft:

Apple Tree

First the kids glued the tree on the paper with the pre cut parts.  They each had some red modeling clay and were instructed to make apples.  They did really well!

Then I had the sudden idea of making more 'permanent' apples than just play dough and modeling clay.  They each ripped red paper to make apples (ripping paper is great for motor development and actually a pre-cutting skill)

 

But just paper apples is not enough! Then they did some dot marker apples

And finally, we added in some thumbprint apples with red ink.

 

 

Other Craft:

Paper Plate Red Bird
Just a paper plate painted red, folded in half and the hand is the wing.
 


4. Memorable experience:

Lipstick Kisses and Homemade Birdfeeder

What little girl doesn't love playing in mommy's makeup? I usually don't wear lipstick, so Raelynn was confused why my lips were so red, haha.  She had a lot of fun with this activity and didn't want to stop.

 

 

LOVE this one! Shows her excitement:)

The bird feeder is an activity everyone participated in.  It was a sticky icky mess, but it was worth it.  The kids have been getting so excited when they see birds eating the treats we made them!  The reviews on the recipe I used were very mixed, so I was a bit skeptical, but they have held up together just fine and the bird love them!

5. Sensory Activity:

We didn't have a specific sensory bin this week.  I have dyed red rice but never got around to getting it out.  They did have the bird seed they pressed into cookie cutters, corn flakes they crushed, and red play dough they made into apples though!

6. Food Experience:

Bird Nest Cookies
This was the highlight of the week! I saw the idea here but didn't follow that recipe.  I didn't save the link I used for the recipe, but the ingredients I used were corn flakes, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and red m&ms.  I didn't even have cupcake liners on hand, so I just stuffed some wax paper down in the cups.

The kids stuffing their 'eggs' into the nests

Other pintables and activities:

a fun maze by identifying letters

This week we did stickers into the circles

 

sorting brown and red

 

 

lacing red beads

I had these red bird stickers that Declan played with. I love how things will just pop up that I have around the house to use!

 

Tot School: Brown bear

Week 1 for our theme unit in Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?

 

It was A LOT of fun! The kids loved it.  Their favorite part was probably the bear masks and wearing them all week (and for the following week too!)

 

There are six areas I want to focus on each week to help me decide what to limit the activities to:

 

1. Bible verse/story

2. color focus
3. hands-on craft
4. memorable experience
5. sensory experience
6. food activity

 

 

1. Bible story and verse:

Genesis 1:25

"God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."

 

2 Kings 2:23-24  

"From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys."

 

 

2. Color Focus:

 

Brown

 

To introduce the color, I showed items in our color box of all brown items.  Also used some of the printables I printed and the book. 

The kids colored with brown crayons, colored pencils, and markers. 

 

3. Hands-On Craft

 

Painting a paper plate bear mask

 

 

 

 

4. Memorable Experience:

 

Tea Party with Stuffed Bears

(no pictures)

 

Brown King Size Pillow Cases (totally impromptu as I was folding laundry!)

These provided all sorts of fun! Sack races, pretending they were bears, stuffing the stuffed bears inside, sitting inside and having us swing them around

 

5. Sensory Experience:

 

Pinto Bean sensory bin with brown objects.  Twins like to scoop, Raelynn liked to make "soup"

 

Find the hidden objects in the shredded brown paper (and there is white mixed in too, but I didn't care!)

 

 

 

6. Food Experience:

 

Teddy Grahams and Chocolate Cheerios as snacks and part of activities

Each bear has a number on his belly. She had to count them out before eating them

"feeding" the bear

Printables to practice lowercase and capital letter recognition

Little brother wants to do all that big sister does, so he sorted the magnets because he can't match lower to capital letters

printables to practice counting

We have this printable for each animal in the book, so I hope to do something different with it each week.  This week was placing the magnets in the circle

Raelynn loves to cut and glue.  I printed a variety of bears off in a word document.  She cut them out and glued to a brown paper