Tot Trays: Dr. Seuss

Early March means celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  B and I made a trip to the library, but of course most of the books were already checked out.  We managed to get Cat in the Hat, which is one of B's new favorites.  I also mentioned this to a friend and she had extra copies of 4-5 Dr. Seuss books so she let us keep them.  So of course Green Eggs and Ham has become a frequent read in this house as well!  

I found so many different activities through Pinterest.

Cutting Practice
I purchased scissors specifically designed to help teach little ones how to cut/use them properly.  They are not safety scissors however, so B can only use them when I am with him and helping.  For this activity he cut white & red strips.  Then worked on gluing them in place to create the Cat in the Hat.

Puzzle Time

I used popsicle sticks to create a puzzle using the cover photo from Green Eggs and Ham.  B needed some help the first time, but after that he did really well matching the pieces together.

Letter Recognition

B is doing really well with recognizing capital letters, so I decided to create a little Green Eggs & Ham matching game based on this blog.  I printed 26 fried green eggs and 26 green ham pieces.  On the back of all of the eggs I wrote all capital letters and on the ham I did lower case.  Then I put the upper & lower case letters on paper plates.  B would choose an egg, state what it was and then go run to the correct paper plate and place it.  We only did the egg version of the game a few times and did not get around to trying lower case letters, so I am not sure how he would do with them.  

Tracing/Writing practice

Again I had a tracing activity for B to practice holding a pen/marker and writing the letter S for Seuss.  I also brought out the letter S magnetic board and the Ss book.  

Again he loved using the dry erase crayons

There were a few activities that we did not get to during the week.  One was a Cat in the Hat play dough mat.  I did not get around to coloring & laminating it, so that B could use play dough to match the colors.  I also found an opposites activity based on The Foot Book. 

Finally there was a pattern activity sheet.  The patterns were given and then individual card pieces were cut out.  The idea is for the child to recreate the correct pattern using the individual cards.  

Tot Trays: Dinosaurs

After returning from our trip south I decided to try Dinosaur week.  We had some dinosaur toys and other activities from our theme last year.  This time I planned just enough activities to fit in one week and I changed the activities in the middle of the week.  So B had access to some of them from Monday - Thursday and then the others from Thursday to Sunday.

Dinosaur Prints

We used some of the dinosaur toys and a little bit of play-dough to create "fossils".  

Grow Capsules

I had bought some dinosaur grow capsules at the Dollar Tree, but we didn't use them last time.  So I brought them out for one of the tot trays.  B and I worked together to put them in a bowl of warm water.  It took a little while for the capsules to dissolve, so we worked on a Letter Dd dot page while we were waiting.  

Then we found out why the capsules were from the dollar store - only 1-2 of them were actually dinosaurs!

Puzzle Time

B has shown that he is ready for more difficult puzzles, so I found a Dinosaur learning pack online and printed the 9 piece puzzle.  He did well with a little bit of help.  It was difficult because the pieces don't actually fit together, so they would move anytime he tried to place a new piece.  The puzzle was part of the tot pack!

Pre-writing

B worked on some Dd tracing practice and then colored the dinosaur.  I decided to give dry erase crayons a try, because they seem to be less messy than markers.  They are great, because all colors are available, and they came with a cloth to erase.  They are of course really light, so it is difficult getting B to press down a little harder, but he doesn't seem to mind.  

Learning to Cut

I also bought some scissors designed for teaching toddlers how to cut.  B was really excited to use them, but we also had to talk about being careful, because they are not "safety scissors".  He kept wanting to use both hands one to hold them and the other to push the blades down.  So, we have a little work to do, but he enjoyed cutting up the dinosaur shapes.  This activity also came from the Dinosaur learning pack.  

Counting

Based on a few cards I saw online I created a dinosaur counting version.  I printed pictures of different dinosaurs numbers 0-10.  Then I printed the numeral and the written number name cards.  B of course is not ready for the written name, so I spread the numerals out on the floor.  He would count the dinosaurs on a card and then go jump on the matching number.  

Colors

B worked on following directions and his colors with the following coloring sheets.  I would read the statements to him and he would follow the directions using the correct colors.  

Georgia Visit

I originally had a plan for early February for a Groundhog's Day tot tray.  But, between illness and preparing for our trip to Georgia it didn't happen.  Maybe eventually I will at least type up the plans and use them next year!  

While we were away in Georgia the activities and learning did not end.  Auntie Ashlea has an on base daycare in her home.  During the week that we were there she had an Olympic theme going.  So, B did participate in one of the painting activities.  

Olympic Ring Painting

Each child picked out a colored piece of paper.  Then using toilet paper rolls they dipped each one in the olympic ring colors and dabbed them on their paper.  It created the look of the olympic rings.  All of the kids did surprisingly well keeping the correct toilet paper rolls in the correct colors.  

She also had a ring toss game prepared, but that was for later in the week.  I think B would have enjoyed that activity.  

We also enjoyed plenty of play time outside during the second half of the week, when the weather was gorgeous.  

Tot Trays: Arctic Animals Week 2

Well for week 2 I guess I did not take many photos of the different activities through out the week.  But, here are a few ideas based on the tray activities we used.

Tracing & Writing
I used the alphabet tracing pages again and B worked on the letter "H".  Again I put the paper inside a sheet protector and he used a dry erase marker to write/color.  The tracing pages were found through a toddler learning notebook.

Animal Tracks
This activity was a little too easy for B, since he is getting really good at different types of puzzles.  The idea was to match the type of animal to the tracks it would make in the snow.  He was able to match them based on the designs and how they fit together.  The activity can be found here.

Counting

I printed a penguin sheet designed for counting.  I worked with B on counting the number of penguins in each box and then I would write the number down.  

Snowball Toss

Finally I needed something a little more interactive and "fun", so I designed a snowball toss based on a snowman bowling game from Pinterest.  B had fun with this activity.

I had hoped to do a little bit of ice play and a polar bear craft, but we did not get to either of those activities this week.