Teach Your Tot

Nursery Ryhmes

2012-01-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

Nursery Rhymes: Touch and Feel by Roger Priddy
Nursery Rhymes by Trace Moroney
A Pop Up Book of Nursery Rhymes by Matthew Reinhart
Favorite Rhymes From Mother Goose by Scott Gustafson
Best Mother Goose Ever by Richard Scarry
Mother Goose illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa
Real Mother Goose by Wright
My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie

Activities:

Itsy Bitsy Spider:
Materials: Styrofoam ball, black paint, black pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue
Description: Read or recite The Itsy Bitsy Spider to your toddler. (Practice throughout the week so that your toddler can learn this nursery rhyme) Your toddler can make their own itsy bitsy spider by painting a Styrofoam ball black. Cut the black pipe cleaners in half and when the paint dries have your toddler stick 8 pipe cleaners into the Styrofoam ball for the spider’s legs. Count the legs with your toddler and talk to your little one about how spiders have 8 legs and insects only have 6. Have your little one glue on the googly eyes to complete their spider.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot nursery rhymes, teach your tot memory skills, teach your tot creativity, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to count

Little Miss Muffett:
Materials: oatmeal, pot, bowl, spoon
Description: Read and recite Little Miss Muffett to your toddler. (Continue to read this nursery rhyme to your toddler throughout the week so that they can learn it) Talk with your toddler about porridge. You and your little one can make curds and whey (oatmeal) together (according to packaging directions). Have your toddler add toppings such as sugar, brown sugar, milk, raisins etc. to their porridge before they eat it. As your toddler eats the curds and whey talk to them about whether they like it or not.
Skills targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot life skill development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot to develop memory skills

Mary Had a Little Lamb:
Materials: paper, marker, cotton balls, glue
Description: Read and recite Mary Had a Little Lamb with your toddler (continue to read this nursery rhyme to your little one throughout the week so that they learn it). Draw a picture of a lamb onto a piece of paper or print one here. Talk with your toddler about a sheep feels soft. Have them feel a cotton ball and talk about how it feels. Your toddler can glue cotton balls onto the lamb.
Skill targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot listening skills, teach your to memory skills, teach your tot language development

Old McDonald:
Materials: pictures of farm animals (draw or print from clip art), glue, Popsicle sticks
Description: Sing the nursery rhyme Old McDonald with your toddler (continue this throughout the week so that your little one will learn it). Draw or print pictures of farm animals and cut them out. Glue each animal to a Popsicle stick. Sing Old McDonald again with your toddler and have them hold up each animal as you sing about them. See if your toddler can identify each animal before you sing about it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot to identify farm animals, teach your tot language development, teach your tot memory skills, teach your tot nursery rhymes

Pat-a-Cake:
Materials: cake mix, icing
Description: Read and recite Pat-a-Cake with your toddler (continue to do this throughout the week). You and your toddler can bake a cake together, just like the nursery rhyme talks about. Have your toddler help you mix the ingredients (on the package) together and bake according to packaging directions. When the cake is baked and cooled, have your little one icing it. Your toddler can write letter B on the cake with their finger (or you can hold their finger and help them write letter B) in the icing.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language skill development, teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot writing letters, teach your tot to follow directions

A Fish For You:
There once was a fish.
What more could you wish?
He lived in the sea.
Where else would he be?
He was caught on a line.
Whose line if not mine?
So I brought him to you.
What else should I do?
Materials: construction paper, scissors, paper clips, magnet, string, pencil
Description: Read and recite A Fish for You with your toddler (continue to read it to them throughout the week so that they will learn it). Make a fishing pole by tying a piece of string onto the end of a pencil. Tie the other end of the string onto a magnet (you could also hot glue the string to the magnet). Cut fish shapes from construction paper and attach paper clip to the mouth of each fish. Put all the fish in a pile (pretend it is a pond) and have your toddler use the fishing pole to fish as you recite this nursery rhyme over and over! As your little catches each fish see if they can identify the color. When they have caught all the fish count them together.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot memory skills, teach your tot nursery rhymes

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe:
Materials: index cards, marker
Description: Read and recite One, Two, Buckle My Shoe with your toddler (continue to do this throughout the week). Write the numbers 1-10 on index cards. Turn the number cards face down in order. Read the nursery rhyme again and as you say each number turn the number card over for your toddler to see. Read the nursery rhyme again and have your toddler point to each number as you say it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot memory skills

Three Little Kittens:
Materials: construction paper, markers, stickers, scissors
Description: Prior to doing this activity cut several pairs of mittens from construction paper. Decorate each pair of mittens so that they match. Read and recite Three Little Kittens with your toddler (continue to do this throughout the week). Lay all the mittens out in front of your toddler and have your little one find the matching pairs.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot to match items that are the same, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot memory skills

Polly, Put the Kettle On:
Materials: tea kettle (toy or real), toast or muffins (toy or real), tea cups (toy or real)
Description: Read and recite Polly, Put the Kettle On with your toddler (continue to do this throughout the week). This nursery rhyme is all about a tea party. You and your toddler can have fun having a tea party together just as they do in this nursery rhyme. Whether you use real tea or pretend to have tea, you and your toddler will enjoy this special time together.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot nursery rhymes, teach your tot memory skills, teach your tot language development

Little Green House:
There was a little green house,
And in the little green house
There was a little brown house,
And in the little brown house
There was a little yellow house
And in the little yellow house
There was a little white house
And in the little white house
There was a little heart.
Materials: green, brown, yellow, white and red construction paper, scissors, glue
Description: Prior to doing this activity, cut out a house shape from green, brown, yellow and white construction paper. The green house should be biggest, then the brown house, then the yellow house and the white house needs to be the smallest. Also cut a small read heart from construction paper. Read and recite Little Green House with your toddler (continue to do this throughout the week). Show your toddler all the paper houses and see if they can identify each color. Talk with your toddler about what house is biggest and what house is smallest. See if your toddler can put the houses in order from biggest to smallest then from smallest to biggest. Recite this nursery rhyme again to your toddler and have them glue the houses on top of each other just as the nursery rhyme says. Last they will glue the heart on top of all the houses.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tottea memory skills, teach your tot to compare and contrast different sizes, teach your tot to understand the difference between biggest and smallest, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions.

Songs and Fingerplays:
All nursery rhymes are great examples of songs and fingerplays for toddlers. Throughout the week, sing or recite a variety of nursery rhymes with your toddler.

Online Fun:

Videos:
Visit www.sesamestreet.org to view nursery rhyme videos

Nursery Rhyme World
Mother Goose Jamboree
Hey Diddle Song
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/8befdd69-155c-11dd-a62f-919b98326687/news_jack_jumps_over

Recipes and Snack Ideas:

Little Miss Muffet: Make oatmeal or porridge with your toddler.

Hot Cross Bun: Make biscuits or buns with your toddler

Crayons

2012-01-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane Derolf
Wax to Crayons by Inez Snyder
The Crayon Counting Book by Pam Munoz Ryan
A Day with no Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch
My Imagination Kit by Jeffrey Fulmer

Activities:

Count Crayons:
Materials: box of crayons
Description: Have your toddler open a box of crayons and count each crayon as they take it out of the box. When they are finished counting have them name each color.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Broken Crayons:
Materials: old broken crayons (paper peeled off), muffin tins
Description: you and your toddler can turn old broken crayons into new ones. Simply divide all your old broken crayons (make sure that you take all the paper off the crayons) into muffin tins. You could do all of one color in each tin or mix the colors. Bake the crayons on about 350 until they look liquidity. Remove the muffin tin and put in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. They crayons should pop out and be ready to use again.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot tot reduce reuse recycle, each your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to sort by color

The Color of Things:
Materials: an 8 box of crayons, pictures of everyday objects
Description: Prior to doing this activity, print or draw pictures of everyday objects for your toddler to color. Show your toddler each picture and have them tell you what color it should be (for example, show them a picture of a tree and see if they can tell you that it should be green. Show them a picture of the sun and see if they can tell you that it should be yellow). Have your little one color each picture the correct colors.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to understand that different objects are different colors, teach your tot motor skill development (coloring), teach your tot language development

Wall Art:
Materials: crayons, large piece of paper (butcher paper or a roll of paper would work best)
Description: Crayons are a great tool to enhance your toddler's imagination and creativity. Even if they cannot draw objects that actually look like anything yet. Hang a large piece of paper over a wall in a room in your house and let your toddler's imagination run wild. Have them draw, using crayons, all over the paper, creating a huge mural in your house. As they draw and color ask them about their pictures. Have them tell you what they are drawing and why.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to create, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language development

Box of Crayons:
Materials: construction paper, glue, Popsicle sticks
Description: Cut out crayons shapes from a variety of different color construction paper. Show each one to your toddler and see if they can tell you what colors they are. Write each color onto each paper crayon. Have your little one help you glue Popsicle sticks onto each crayon. Sing the song Colors in My Crayon Box (found below in Songs and Fingerplay) and hold up each crayon (by the Popsicle stick) as you sing about it. When you have done this several times, have your toddler hold up the different crayons as you both sing about them.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color/color word association, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language development

Color Book:
Materials: white paper, crayons, a 4X6 mini album
Description: You and your toddler can make a cute color book together using an 8 count box of crayons and some paper. Cut paper into 4X6 pieces. Have your toddler close their eyes and pick a crayon from the box of crayons. Have your little one tell you what color it is. Have them color one of the pieces of paper using that crayon. Write the color word on the piece of paper also. Continue doing this until all the crayons have been picked. Slide all 8 sheets of paper into a 4X6 album and read the color book over and over to your toddler. (You could use more than just 8 crayons if you want)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color/color word association, teach your tot language development

Bathtub Crayons:
Materials: bathtub crayons
Description: Bath time can be a great learning time. Have your toddler get creative drawing all over the bathtub walls using bathtub crayons! As they are doing this, talk about each different color that they use. They can even practice writing their name while getting clean!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot pre-writing skills, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to create, teach your tot to use their imagination

Sort Crayons:
Materials: a variety of crayons (whole or broken pieces)
Description: Give your toddler a pile of crayons and help them sort them by color. Count each pile of crayon and talk about what color has the most and which one has the least.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort by color, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot to understand more and less, teach your tot language development

Songs and Fingerplays:

Colors in my Crayon Box:
Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

I had a box of crayons,
box of crayons,
box of crayons.
I had a box of crayons,
One of them was blue.

I had a box of crayons,
box of crayons
box of crayons.
I had a box of crayons
One of them was red.

I had a box of crayons,
box of crayons,
box of crayons,
I had a box of crayons
One of them was green.

Continue this song for different colors of your choice.

I see a Box full of Crayons:
sung to the tune of How Much is that Doggy in the Window

I see a box full of crayons.
I see colors green, red and blue
I see a box full of crayons
I love these colors don't you.

I see a pretty blue crayon.
I use it to color the sky.
I see a pretty blue crayon.
I can color a blue bird flying by.

I see a pretty red crayon.
I use it to color a rose.
I see a pretty red crayon.
It is the color I chose.

I see a pretty green crayon.
I use it to color a tree.
I see a pretty green crayon.
There's no other color for me.

I see a pretty yellow crayon.
I use it to color the sun.
I see a pretty yellow crayon.
I will put it back when I'm done.

I see a pretty orange crayon.
I use it to color a carrot.
I see a pretty orange crayon.
I can also color wings on a parrot.

Online Fun:

Coloring:
Check out http://www.coloring.ws/ for a free printable coloring page.

Crayola:
Check out http://www.crayola.com/ for coloring pages, craft ideas, games and more.

Videos:
Visit Sesame Street Online for awesome videos about crayons and more.

Making Crayons

Houses

2012-01-13T06:50:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

Home by Roger Priddy
My Very First Book of Animal Homes by Eric Carle
Animals at Home by David Lock
Houses and Homes by Ann Morris
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson
Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman

Activities:

Shape House:
Materials: construction paper, glue, scissors
Description: Prior to doing this activity, cut a large rectangle or square (for the house), a smaller rectangle (for the door), two small squares (for the windows), and a large triangle (for the roof). Show your toddler all these shapes and have them identify each one and their colors. Help your toddler arrange the shapes to make a house. Glue the pieces together and write the word house under the picture. Have your toddler see if they can name each part of the house. (Door, windows, roof)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to identify shapes, teach your tot to identify colors, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to recognize everyday objects

Count the Windows:
Description: Show your toddler one of the windows in your house. Talk about the window. (Windows let light in. You can see through a window etc). Take a walk around your house with your toddler and count each window. You could even carry a piece of paper around with you and write a tally mark each time you see a window. When you are all finished count the tally marks to see how many windows there are in your house. You could do this activity with doors also.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to Count, teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to recognize everyday objects

Trees are homes:
Materials: camera
Description: Take your toddler outside to look at a tree. Explain to your toddler that trees are homes to many different kinds of animals. Sit for awhile by the tree and see if you and you toddler can see any animals that might live in it. If you see any, take pictures of them. (Birds, squirrels, bugs, etc). You could print these pictures or show them to your toddler on the computer and see how many animals they can recognize.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to recall details or facts, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development

Water is a home:
Materials: pictures of animals that live in the water, popsicle sticks, glue, a cardboard box, blue paint
Description: Talk to your toddler about animals that live in the water. Explain that the ocean, river, or pond can also be a home to many animals. Cut the tops and bottoms off of a cardboard box and cut one of the long sides off of the box as well. (The box should look like tri-fold). Have your toddler help you paint the box blue for water. Show your toddler the pictures of animals that live in the water (have them color the pictures if necessary). Cut the pictures out and have your toddler help you glue them to Popsicle sticks. Your little one can use these animals on Popsicle sticks as puppets and make them swim across the water(cardboard box).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to play and use their imagination, teach your tot to recognize animals and where they live

Where do These Objects Belong:
Materials: a variety of different objects found around the house (taken from different rooms)
Descriptions: Talk to your toddler about the house that they live in. See how many different rooms your little one can name (ex. kitchen, bathroom, my room, playroom etc). Gather a variety of different objects from around the house (ex.spoon, cup, food, pillow, toy, your toddler's clothes, toilet paper, toothbrush etc) and lay these objects out in from of your toddler. Have your toddler pick up one object at a time, name the object and tell you what room it belongs in. See if your little one can bring the object to the correct room and maybe even put it in its correct place. Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot to recognize everyday objects, teach your tot to recall details

Label Objects in Your House:
Materials: index cards, marker, tape
Description: Labeling objects is a great pre-reading skill for toddlers. Talk to your toddler about their house and what kind of things you can find in it. (You could even read the book In A People House by Theo LeSeig) Walk with your little one around the house. As you enter each new room, have your toddler tell you what room they are in and what this room is used for. Point out some well known everyday objects in each room. Have your toddler say the name of each object as you write the word on an index card (you could also print out pictures of each object and hang the picture labels on the objects). Have your toddler tape the index card to the actual object. Leave these labels up, as long as possible, and throughout the week, month and year, read these labels with your toddler as you enter the different rooms in your house.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize everyday objects, teach your tot to develop pre-reading skills, teach your tot to correlate written words to actual objects, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development

Different Houses:
Description: Take a walk down your street or through your neighborhood and compare all the different houses. Talk with your toddler about how all the houses are alike and how they are different. See if your toddler can name the color of each different house that you pass. You could count the houses together as well.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to compare and contrast objects, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to count, teach your tot color recognition

Caves:
Materials: sheets or blankets
Description: Some animals live in caves. Ask your toddler if they know any animals that live in caves. The most common is a bear. Together you and your toddler can build a cave using blankets and sheets draped over furniture. Encourage your toddler to pretend that they were a bear living in a cave.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your to tot to play and use their imagination, teach your tot about animals and their habitats

In and Out:
Description: You can teach your child about the opposites in and out. Take your toddler to one of the doors in your house. Ask your child to tell you what it is and what shape it is. Tell your toddler that you are both "in" the house. Then open the door and walk outside. Now tell your toddler that you are "out" of the house. Repeat this over and over until your toddler can tell you whether they are "in" or "out."
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to recognize everyday objects, teach your tot to develop an understanding of opposites

Build a House:
Materials: blocks or legos
Description: Help your toddler build a house using blocks or legos. As you create the house, talk to you toddler about the different parts of a house.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to recognize everyday objects

Animals Live in Trees:
Materials: pictures of animals, large piece of paper, scissors, glue
Description: Draw a picture of a tree on the large piece of paper before doing this activity. Talk to your toddler about animals that live in trees. You could show your toddler the pictures that you took of animals in trees from the above activity. Show your toddler the pictures of animals that you have prepared for them. See if your toddler can name these animals. You or your toddler can cut these animals out. Have your toddler glue each animal in the tree.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about animals and their habitats, teach your tot to recall facts and details, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to recognize animals

Songs and Fingerplays:

I live in a little house:
Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

I live in a little house
Little house
Little house
I live in a little house
On a little street.

I have a little room
Little room
Little room
I have a little room
In my little house.

I have a kitchen too
Kitchen too
Kitchen too
I have a kitchen too
In my little house.

I have a bathroom too
Bathroom too
Bathroom too
I have a bathroom too
In my little house.

I live in a house:
Sung to the tune of Happy Birthday

I live in a house
I live in a house
My house has many windows
Windows are in my house

I live in a house
I live in a house
My house has many doors
Doors are in my house

I live in a house
I live in a house
My house has many rooms
Rooms are in my house.

I live in a house
I live in a house
My house has lots of furniture
Furniture is in my house.

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:
Check out http://www.coloring.ws/homes.htm for free printable coloring pages of houses.

Videos:
check out www.sesamestreet.org for videos about houses:

Homes Around the World
Copycat: Building Houses
Animals Houses

Recipes and Snacks:

Gingerbread Houses:
Ingredients: graham crackers, frosting, jellybeans, M&M's, sprinkles, gum drops, cheese-its
Directions: Break the graham crackers into several squares. (Ask your toddler to identify the shapes). Use the frosting to "glue" the graham cracker squares together to make a house box or house shape. Use two graham cracker squares to create the roof, using frosting to hold the crackers together. Have your toddler use frosting to glue on cheez-its for the windows and the door. Your little one can decorate the house using jellybeans, M&M's, sprinkles, gum drops, etc.

Chick-n-Fried Creations Discount!!!

2012-01-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

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Chick-n-Fried is one of our awesome blog sponsors and right now they are offering all the Teach Your Tot readers 30% for the entire month of January! This is a great time to starting thinking about Valentine's Day! Check out this adorable outfit...

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Legos

2012-01-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

Learn with Legos: Numbers by Lego
Learn with Legos: Colors by Lego
Learn with Legos: Trains by Lego
On the Farm by DK Publishing
Rescue by DK Publishing
Farm by DK Publishing
Lego Modelers: Amazing Animals by DK Publishing

Activities:

Sort Colors:
Materials: a variety of legos
Description: Place a variety of legos on the floor in front of your toddler. Have your toddler identify all the different colors in the group of legos. Help your toddler sort all the legos by color. Stack all the reds together, all the greens together, and all the blues together, etc. Have your toddler count the number of legos in each group when they are finished. Talk about what group has the most and the least.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot to sort by color, teach your tot color identification, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot to understand the concept of most and least, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development

Sort by Shape:
Materials: a variety of legos
Description: Legos vary in size and shape. Place a variety of square and rectangle legos in front of your toddler. Show them a square lego and have them identify the shape. Show them a rectangle lego and have them identify the shape. Help your toddler sort the legos by shape. Stack all the squares together and stack all the rectangles together. Have your toddler count the number of legos in each stack when they are finished. Talk with your toddler about what group has more and which has less.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast shape and size, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to develop an understanding of more and less, teach your tot shape identification, teach your tot to sort shape, teach your to language development, teach your tot motor skill development

Lego Stamps:
Materials: legos ( of different sizes), paint, paper
Description: Your toddler will enjoy painting with legos. Pour several color paints onto a paper plate. Have your toddler dip a lego into one color paint and stamp it onto a piece of paper. Ask your toddler what shape they see from the lego stamp. Continue doing this with different color paint and different size legos. Have your toddler count the circles from each lego stamp.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to enhance creativity, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot color recognition

Imagination:
Materials: legos
Description: Encourage your child to imagine something that they want to build out of legos. Help your toddler build their fantasy. Pretend and imagine being part of their lego land.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to enhance creativity and imagination, teach your tot language development

Counting:
Materials: 10 or 20 large legos, permanent marker
Description: Have your toddler stack 10 or 20 legos (depending how high they can count) on top of each other. Counting as they put each lego on the top. When they have stacked all the legos, write numbers 1-10 or 1-20 on the legos (one number on each lego). Count the legos again with your toddler looking at the numbers while counting. Take apart the legos and put them back together in the correct number order.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot one to one number correspondence, teach your tot to develop motor skills

Small, Medium, Large:
Materials: three legos of different sizes
Description: Lay the legos in front of your toddler. Have your toddler pick the smallest lego, then the medium lego and last the largest lego. Help your toddler put them in order from smallest to largest and from largest to smallest. Ask your toddler to name the shapes and colors of the legos too.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast sizes, teach your tot to develop an understanding of small, teach your tot medium and large, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot language development

Where is the Lego:
Materials: three large containers (not see threw), legos.
Description: Turn the three containers open side down. Place the lego under one of the containers and move them around so that your toddler does not know where the lego is. Ask your toddler to guess here the lego is. Keep guessing until they get it right. Have them name the color and shape of the lego when they find it. Continue this game, changing the lego each time.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to develop guessing and process of elimination skills, teach your tot language development

Life Size Legos:
Materials: diaper boxes, paint, glue, large yogurt containers
Description: You and your toddler can create life size legos together. Hot glue four yogurt containers to the side of a diaper box (or other large box). Do not let your toddler handle the hot glue. You and your toddler can choose a color to paint the lego. Paint the entire box and yogurt containers. You could make a smaller version of this by using shoe boxes and small yogurt containers.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to develop motor skills, teach your tot to enhance creativity

Letters and Numbers:
Materials: legos
Description: Most of the time when we build things with legos, we stack them together. However, we could use legos in different ways, placing them side by side to make letters and numbers. Together with your toddler build a letter and have your toddler identify it. Continue to do this with different letters or numbers. You could show your toddler a picture of a letter or number and see if they can build it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot to enhance creativity, teach your tot to develop motor skills

Simple Lego Patterns:
Materials: legos (several of two different colors)
Description: Place several red legos and several blue legos in front of your toddler. Tell your toddler that they are going to make a pattern. Have your toddler identify the two colors that they see. Help your toddler start the pattern by placing one read, one blue, one red, and one blue lego in a line. See if your toddler can tell you what comes next. Have your toddler continue to help you build the pattern. Have your toddler count the legos in the line. Mix all the legos up again and see if your toddler can build a simple pattern.
You could extend this activity for you toddler by drawing legos shapes onto a piece of paper (all in a row) and have your toddler color them in a pattern. Have your toddler count the legos on the paper also.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to understand simple patterns, teach your tot to build a simple pattern, teach your tot to count, teach your tot color recognition

Songs and Fingerplays:

Lego’s, Lego’s:
sung to the tune of Brother John

Lego’s, Lego’s
Lego’s, Lego’s
rectangle and square
rectangle and square
They are different colors
They are different sizes,
Lego’s everywhere
Lego’s everywhere

Lego’s are fun:
sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

Lego’s are fun to build and play
build and play
build and play
Lego’s are fun to build and play
I could play all day.

Lego’s are fun to stack and count
stack and count
stack and count
Lego’s are fun to stack and count
Count them 1,2,3

Lego’s are fun to sort by color
sort by color
sort by color
Lego’s are fun to sort by color
Blue, yellow, green, and red

10 Little Lego’s:
sung to the tune of 10 Little Indians

1 little 2 little 3 little legos
4 little 5 little 6 little legos
7 little 8 little 9 little legos
10 little legos stacked together

Lego Color Song:
sung to the tune of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

I see a lego, I see a lego,
I see a lego,
And it is blue.
And it is blue, and it is blue
B-l-u-e, b-l-u-e, b-l-u-e
The lego is blue

I see a lego, I see a lego
I see a lego
And it is red
And it is read, and it is red
R-e-d, R-e-d, R-e-d
The lego is red.

I see a lego, I see a lego
I see a lego
And it is green
And it is green, and it is green
G-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n,
The lego is green

I see a lego, I see a lego
I see a lego
and it is yellow
And it is yellow, and it is yellow
y-e-l-l-o-w, y-e-l-l-o-w, y-e-l-l-o-w
The lego is yellow

You can continue this song using different colors. This would be a great song to use your homemade felt board. Make legos out of different color felt and place each felt lego on the board as you sing about it.

Online Fun:

Lego online
You toddler will love playing Creative Builder at http://creative.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx

You and your toddler can get inspiration and ideas to build new lego creations at Lego.com

Check out these fun family activities on Lego’s website.

Happy 2012!

2012-01-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone!!!
I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday celebrating with the ones you love!

The New Year is always a time for fresh starts, new opportunities and sometimes change! Look forward to new changes coming to Teach Your Tot this year!

There is no new theme this week, due to the holidays! Next week's theme will be posted on Friday!

Music

2011-12-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:
The Story of the Orchestra by Robert T. Levine
Can You Hear It by William Lach
Meet The Orchestra by Ann Hayes
Tolee's Rhyme Time by Catherine Lukas
Tubby the Tuba by Paul Trip
Sesame Street Music Player by Farrah McDoogle
Mole Music by David McPhail
Let's Sing Together by Peter Yarrow

Activities:

Listen to Different Kinds of Music:
Materials: radio, computer or tv
Description: Throughout the week, play different types of music for you and your toddler to listen and dance to. Tell them whether it is classical, country, rock and roll, pop, etc. See what kind of music they like the best. It is fun to have dance parties with our little! ;-)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to become familiar with different types of music, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to enhance motor skills and movement through dance

Clap to the beat:
Materials: rhythm sticks, music
Description: Teach your child how to safely beat two rhythm sticks together. (if your don't have rhythm sticks, simply clap) You clap while your toddler beats the sticks together. See if your little one can hit the sticks at the same time that you clap. Next, turn on a simple songs and help your toddler hit the sticks or clap to the rhythm. Practice this throughout the week to different songs and tunes.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to clap to a beat, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development

Shakers:
Materials: empty water bottles, sand, rice, rocks etc.
Description: You and your toddler can use the shakers that you made during "ears/hearing" week or make new ones this week. Together, you and your child can fill several different water bottles with rocks, rice, sand etc. Your toddler can use these to make music or shake to the rhythm of a song. Have your toddler shake each different shaker that you make and see if they sound alike or different. Does one shaker sound louder than the others?
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to develop an understanding of rhythm, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot language development

Musical Shapes:
Materials: sidewalk chalk, music
Description: Before playing this game, with sidewalk chalk draw shapes on the ground to form a ring of shapes. Turn on some music and have your toddler run or jump from shape to shape. Have your toddler stop when the music stops and tell you the name of the shape that they land on.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to stop and go, teach your tot listening skills, teach your tot to follow directions

Hop, Skip, Jump:
Materials: a variety of different music (fast and slow)
Description: Play different songs for your toddler. Depending on the how fast or slow the song is, have your child run, walk, skip, jump, gallop, skate etc. to the beat. If it is a fast song you might want to have the run. If it a slow song have them walk. You could even ask your toddler what movement they would like to do for each new tune!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot listening skills, teach your tot to follow directions

Sing Songs:
Materials: ABC pictures, Farm Animal Pictures, glue Popsicle sticks
Description: Create visual props for your toddler as your sing some of your favorite songs together. For example, draw or print letters A-Z, cut them out and glue them to Popsicle sticks. As you sing the ABC's together, hold up each letter. You could even have your toddler pick up each letter or point to each letter as they sing.
Draw or Print pictures of different farm animals and glue them to Popsicle sticks. Hold up each farm animal as you sing Old McDonald. Your toddler could also choose an animal, hold it up and sing the song.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot word/picture association, teach your tot letter/picture association, teach your tot to recall songs,

Drums:
Materials: coffee can (or other kind of tin can) with lid, construction paper, markers, tape or glue, scissors
Description: measure and cut a piece (or two if one doesn't fit) of construction paper to fit around a tin can such as a coffee can. Give the construction paper to your toddler to decorate. They could use crayons, markers, paint etc. to decorate their drum. Glue (hot glue might work best) or tape the construction paper to fit around the can. Place the lid on and your toddler can use this as a hand drum. They could also use wooden spoons as drum sticks to play their drum.
Try some of these activities with your toddler and their drum:
Have your toddler hit the drum to the beat of a song
Have your toddler hit the drums as they say the alphabet. Hit it once for each letter.
Have your toddler count as high as they can and hit the drum once for each number.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to develop an understanding of rhythm and tapping to a beat, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development, letter development, counting, number development,

Tambourine:
Materials: cardboard, hole punch, yarn, jingle bells
Description: Trace a bowl or other Circle object onto a piece of cardboard. Cut out the circle and punch holes around the entire edge of the circle. Tie a piece of yarn through each hole and attach a jingle bells to each piece of yarn. Tie the bells close to the cardboard circle. Your toddler could also decorate the cardboard with markers and paint.
Try these activities with your toddler and their tambourine:
Have your toddler tap their tambourine to the beat of a song.
Have your toddler tap their tambourine as they sing the ABC's (tap once for each letter).
Have your toddler count and tap their tambourine once for each number.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter development, teach your tot to count, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to develop an understanding of rhythm and tapping to the beat, teach your tot language development

Instrument Book:
Materials: Draw or print pictures of different instruments, hole punch, construction paper, glue
Description: Print or draw pictures of different instruments. Show each picture to your toddler and see if your little one can name the instrument. Write the instruments' names on their pictures. Have your toddler decorate a cover for their instrument book. Put all the pages together and punch holes in them. Tie the holes together with yarn to create an instrument book. Read this homemade book over and over to your toddler throughout the week. (You could also use a small 4X6 photo album and cut the instrument pictures to fit in the photo slips to create your book.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to develop and understanding of musical instruments, teach your tot language development, teach your tot pre-reading skills

Songs and Fingerplays:

Instruments:
(sung to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)

The drum in the orchestra goes
rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat
The drum in the orchestra goes rat-a-tat-tat,
hear it's sound.

The cymbals in the orchestra goes
Clash-clash-clash, clash-clash-clash, clash-clash-clash,
The cymbals in orchestra goes clash-clash-clash
hear it's sound.

The trumpet in the orchestra goes
toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot
The trumpet in the orchestra goes toot-toot-toot
Hear it's sound.

The triangle in the orchestra goes
Clang-clang-clang, clang-clang-clang, clang-clang-clang
The triangle in the orchestra goes clang-clang-clang
Hear it's sound.

You and your toddler can continue this song by brainstorming different instruments and the sounds that they make.

Music:
(sung to the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb)

The sound of music makes me dance,
makes me dance, makes me dance.
The sound of music makes me dance,
All around the room. (dance with your toddler)

The beat of music makes me clap,
makes me clap, makes me clap.
The beat of music makes me clap.
Clap to the beat (clap with your toddler).

The tempo of music can be fast or slow,
fast or slow, fast or slow.
The tempo of music can be fast or slow.
Fast or slow.

I can Sing:
(sung to the tune of The Bear Went Over the Mountain)

I can sing a lot of songs,
I can sing a lot of songs,
I can sing a lot of songs,
Can you sing along?

I can sing my ABC's
I can sing my ABC's
I can sing my ABC's
Can you sing with me?

I can sing Old McDonald too.
I can sing Old McDonald too.
I can sing Old McDonald too.
What about you?

What is your favorite song?
What is your favorite song?
What is your favorite song?
I'd like to sing along.

Online Fun:
Coloring Pages:

Visit Coloring.ws for a variety of free printable coloring pages all about music.

Videos:
Check out Sesame Street for some fun music videos

Whoopi and Elmo: come and play
Abby and Miri play the violin
Color Tunes

Time Capsule Ornament

2011-12-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

I read about these last year and wanted to do them; however, Christmas came and went and these ornaments never got made! This year I put it on top of my priority list! (Promise to self...make these every year from now on!)

1. Gather materials: glass ornaments, little items that represent your toddler, two pictures of your little one, scissors, glue, ribbon, paint pen, and any other decorations (sequence, glitter, pom-poms etc) that you would like to use.

Some items that we chose for my kids were a fishing lore, a fish, Christmas lights, a princess (that ended up not fitting into the ornament), ballet shoes, a tiny diaper, a baby, and a little dress among other things.

2. Cut out the two pictures into the shape of circles. Both circles should be the same size and slightly smaller than the width of the ornament. Glue the pictures together and let the glue dry completely.

3. Take the top off of the ornament. Roll up the glued pictures and stuff them into the ornament. You may need to use a tweezers to unravel and straighten the picture once inside of the glass ball.

4. Have your toddler stuff all of the other items into the glass ornament. For an extra touch, they can add other decorations such as glitter sequence or pom-poms (if you use glitter be sure to only add a little bit!)

5. Put the lid back on, write your toddler's name and the year with a paint pen on the outside of the ornament and tie a bow around the lid using ribbon.

6. Hang from your Christmas tree!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to create

Red

2011-12-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

My First Colors Board Book by DK Publishing
How do Dinosaurs learn their Colors? by Jane Yolen
The 10 Color Book by William Accorsi
Red Train by Will Grace
Lemons are not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle
The Red Lemon by Bob Staake
Who Said Red? by Mary Serfozo

Activities:

Where is Red?
Materials: a box of crayons, paper
Description: Give your toddler an 8 pack box of crayons. Allow them to open the box and explore the different colors. Give them a piece of paper and let them color with each color. Once they have done this, ask them to pick out the red crayon. Help them find it if they are having trouble. Show them the name of the color on the crayon. On a different sheet of paper, draw several simple objects that are red (ex. An apple, a heart, a flower etc.). Have your little one color these objects. As they are doing this, talk about how each of these things is red.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to discover and explore, teach your tot motor skill development

Grocery Store:
Description: Let your little one accompany you to the grocery store this week. When you get to the produce section, have them find all of the fruits and vegetables that are red. (Maybe even buy a few of these red foods for snacks this week!)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to discover and explore, teach your tot about healthy foods

Fun Finger Paint:
Materials: shaving cream, red tempera paint, paper
Description: Mix shaving cream with red tempera paint to create unique finger-paint. Your toddler will build sensory development skills as they enjoy painting with this special paint as. Talk about the color red, while your little one is painting.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development skills, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development skills

Red Hunt:
Materials: red objects gathered from outside, glue, paper
Description: There are so many things in nature that are red. Take your toddler outside and see if they can find a variety of red objects in your own backyard. You could also do this inside your house. Collect several of these red objects and make a collage by gluing them to piece of paper. Count your objects and talk about the color red while you do this activity.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to explore the world around them, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to follow directions

Paint with Strawberries:
Materials: paper, strawberries, apple, cherries or other red foods
Description: Give your toddler several strawberries. Talk about what color they are. Help your little one use the strawberries to paint on a piece of paper. (You may have to help them press the strawberry onto the paper) This gets pretty messy, but it can be a unique way to create art with a non-traditional art supply.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to create, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot sensory development skills, teach your tot to create art by using non-tradition supplies, teach your tot motor skill development

Mixing Colors:
Materials: red, yellow, and blue paint, paper, paint brushes
Description: Put yellow and blue paint into a bowl. Squeeze some red paint into each bowl and have your toddler mix them up. Talk to your toddler about the colors that you mixed and the new colors that are made. Your little one can use their newly created colors to paint.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to mix colors, teach your tot to discover and explore, teach your tot to make new colors, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to create

Wear Red:
Materials: red clothes
Description: Choose a day this week for you and your toddler to dress all in red. Have your child help you pick out their red clothes and your red clothes from your closets. You could even have a Red Day party and invite your friends to dress in red and come over. You could serve red snacks and red juice!
Skills Targeted: Teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot to make choices

Find the Red Ball:
Materials: 3 cups, a small red ball
Description: Place three cups with their opening down on the ground. Show your toddler the red ball and place it under one of the red cups. Move the cups around for a few seconds. Have your child see if they can follow the cup with the red ball and guess what cup it is under. Once you do this several times, allow your toddler to put the ball under the cup and try to trick you!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to play games, teach your tot to make guesses

Red Water:
Materials: bucket or water table, red food coloring, toys to play in the water.
Description: Fill a bucket or water table with water and add several drops of red food coloring until you get the desired color. Provide a variety of toys (such as cups, spoons, measuring spoons, watering can etc) for your child to use to play in the water. Talk about the color of the water with your child.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to play, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language development

Red Balls:
Materials: different color cotton pom-poms (found the in the craft section at Wal-mart) or small red balls, cooking tongs, a big spoon, a bucket or bowl
Description: Throw a bunch of different color pom-poms or small balls across the floor. Have your toddler collect and gather only the red ones using cooking tongs and put them into a bowl. Count them with your toddler and talk about their color. Next have your toddler try to balance a red pompom or ball on a big kitchen spoon. They can even try to walk around the room without it falling.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to count, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development

Songs and Fingerplays:

I Had a Red Hat:
(sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I had a red hat,
a red hat, a red hat.
I had a red hat
and on my head it sat.

The wind blew my red hat,
my red hat, my red hat.
The wind blew my red hat
right off my head.

I ran after my red hat,
my red hat, my red hat.
I ran after my red hat.
I chased it down real fast.

My red hat, I put back,
I put back, I put back.
My red hat, I put back,
right on top my head.

5 Red Apples:

5 red apples, at the store.
I ate one,
Now there are 4.

4 red apples on the tree.
A squirrel at one,
Now there are 3.

3 red apples, shiny and new.
My sister ate one,
Now there are 2.

2 red apples, yum yum yum.
My brother ate one,
Now there is 1.

1 red apple in the sun.
My dog ate one,
Now there are none.

Red:
(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Red, red, red
Red, red, red
I like the color red.
I have a quilt that is red
right on top my bed.

Red, red, red,
Red, red, red
I like the color red.
I have a hat that is red
right on top my head.

Red, red, red
Red, red, red
I like the color red.
I'm holding an apple in my hand,
but I will eat it instead.

Red Can be:

Red can be a pretty flower.
Red can be a candy that is sour.
Red can a lovely heart.
Or it can be a Valentine's Day tart.
Red can be a ladybug flying around.
Red can be a rose planted in the ground.
Red can be an apple...yum.
Or it can be a balloon...fun!

Online Fun:

Classic Sesame Street Video:
Red and Blue

Games:
Color games at www.sesamestreet.org

Fisher Price Colors and Shapes

Fisher Price Tap and Color

Snacks and Recipes:

Red Snacks:
strawberries
raspberries
apples
watermelon

Cookies:
Simply make cookies according to packaging directions. Dye icing red, using food coloring. Have your toddler icing the cookies themselves!

Feet Christmas Tress

2011-12-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun Christmas tree that you and your toddler can make together!
Talk with your toddler about their Christmas tree. What color is it? What shape is it? Ask your toddler to show you their feet!
Trace both of their feet onto a green piece of paper. You or your little one can cut out the feet. Have your toddler glue the feet together to make a triangle shape. You can add a star to the top to make the Christmas tree.

Next your little one can have fun decorating their tree with "ornaments." Have your toddler glue, sequence, pompoms, glitter, etc to the tree.
My three and four year olds did this part by themselves...

And I helped my 15 month old. I would put a drop of glue and she would put the pompom or sequence on...not always in the right place but with some help she did just fine! ;-)

You can hang them up or punch a hole in the star and tie a piece of yarn through it to make these into ornaments!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot about holiday traditions, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to recognize body parts

Bells

2011-12-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Lucille Colandro
Jingle Bells A Pop Up Holiday Song by Eren Blanquet Unten
The Little Fire Engine by Lois Lenski
I Can't Wait for the Bell to Ring by Jennifer Rapp
Big Bell and the Little Bell by Martin Kalmanoff

Activities:

Bell Bracelet:
Materials: small jingle bells, pipe cleaner
Description: Give your toddler a handful of small jingle bells and have them count them. Help your toddler thread a pipe cleaner through all the jingle bells and wrap it around their wrist. To secure it, just twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together. Your toddler has a fun new bracelet.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot to count, teach your tot sensory development

Counting Bells:
Materials: empty egg carton, marker, 12 jingle bells
Description: Write the numbers 1-12 in each section of the egg carton. Give your toddler 12 jingle bells and have them place one in each section of the carton and count as they do this. Your little one can do this over and over again.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot one to one correspondence

Jingle Bells:
Materials: a large bell or your child's jingle bell bracelet
Description: Sing the song Jingle Bells with your toddler (or you can play it if you have it on cd). Show your little one how to jingle their bell to the beat. Practice this over and over. You could also clap to the beat or beat on a drum to beat etc.
skills Targeted: teach your tot music skills, teach your tot to listen to the beat in a song, teach your tot rhythm

Different Sounds:
Materials: a paper bag, a box (with a lid), a plastic container (with a lid), a bell
Description: Your child can see how putting their bell into different containers makes it sound different. Have your toddler ring their bell and listen to the sound that it makes. Now have your toddler place the bell inside a variety of different containers and shake it to hear the sound the bell makes now. Talk to your toddler about how the bell sounds different or the same in each container.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot language development, teach your tot sensory development

Big and Small Bell Prints:
Materials: paint, paper, several jingle bells of different sizes
Description: Your toddler can make bell stamps by placing the bottom of the bell in paint and stamping it on a piece of paper. Have your toddler use different size bells and make different size stamps. Talk to your toddler about what bell makes the biggest and smallest stamps.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to Compare and contrast, teach your tot the opposites big and small, teach your tot language development

Roll Art:
Materials: a shoe box, a piece of paper, several different size bells, paint
Description: Cut the piece of paper to fit into the bottom of the shoe box. Squirt several different colors of paint onto the piece of paper. Have your toddler place one or several bells into the box and shake the box back and forth, rolling the bells across the paper and the paint. See what kind of designs this makes and encourage your toddler to listen to the sound that the bells make as they do this.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot sensory development

Jingle Bell Hunt:
Materials: jingle bells, a stocking
Description: Hide several jingle bells all over a room in your house as your toddler closes their eyes. Your child can find the jingle bells and place them in a stocking as they find each one. Once they find all the jingle bells sit with your toddler and have your child count them.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot sensory development

Bell Cookies:
Materials: cookie dough, a bell shaped cookie cutter
Description: Have your toddler help you mix all the ingredients to make cookie dough and roll it out on the counter (using lots of flour so it doesn't stick). Your toddler can press the bell shaped cookie cutter into the dough and place the cookies on a cookie sheet to bake. When they have cooled, your child can decorate them with icing and sprinkles. Leave the cookies out for Santa or package them up and take them to a neighbor or friend as a little gift.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot life skills, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot to cook, teach your tot to give

Bell Necklace:
Materials: Rigatoni noodles (dry), red and green paint, small jingle bells, yarn
Description: You and your toddler can make a fun bell necklace together. First have your child paint the noodles red and green. Let them dry completely. Next, your toddler can string the noodles and the jingle bells onto a piece of yarn. Tie the ends together, but be sure it is big enough to fit over your toddler head. Now your child has a musical necklace! (You could talk to your toddler about making a pattern as they string their necklace. Encourage them to put a noodle on, then a bell. Continue this pattern throughout the necklace.) Shake the necklaces and listen to the sounds that it makes.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot simple patterns, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to listen

Sort Bells:
Materials: jingle bells of different sizes
Description: Give your toddler a pile of different size jingle bells. Help your child sort them by size. Put all the small bells in one pile, all the medium bells in another pile and the large bells in a third pile. Your child can count each pile of bells when they are finished. Count each pile and talk to your little one about which pile has the most and which pile has the least. Talk to your toddler about what bells are the smallest and biggest. They can also put the bells in order from smallest to biggest and biggest to smallest. Have your toddler jingle each bell and listen to hear if the smaller ones and bigger ones sound different.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to compare and contrast size, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot more and least, teach your tot opposites

Colorful Bells:
Materials: different color construction paper, scissors, a jingle bell
Description: Cut out several bell shapes from different colored construction paper. Write each color word on the coordinating bell. Lay all of the bells out on the floor. Encourage your toddler to toss a jingle bell at the paper bells. Pick up the paper bell that the jingle bell lands on (or comes closest to) and have your toddler tell you what color it is. Talk about the color word on each bell and see if you toddler can identify any letters in the words. Count the bells together when they are finished. Your toddler can pretend to ring each pretend bell, making the sound that bells make! Play over and over throughout the week.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color word recognition, teach your tot color/color word association, teach your tot to count, teach your tot letter identification, teach your tot to make sounds, teach your tot to recognize sounds, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skills

Different Kinds of Bells:
Materials: Play the Sesame Street video from sesamestreet.org found below in the Online Fun section. Listen throughout the video for different types of bells. Take your toddler on a walk through your house and see what bell type sounds they can find and listen to. (Alarm clock, kitchen timer, phone ringing, door bell etc.) You could also take a walk throughout your community and listen to other bells (church bells, bells in store doorways, clock towers etc).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development, teach your tot listening skills

Songs and Fingerplays:

Jingle Bells:

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.

I had a little bell:
(sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I had a little bell,
little bell, little bell.
I had a little bell
I rang it all day long.

The bell went ding, ding, ding
Ding, ding, ding,
Ding, ding, ding,
The bell went ding, ding, ding
all day long.

Ten Little Bells:

one little two little three little bells
four little five little six little bells
seven little eight little nine little bells
ten little bells ringing loudly.

Online Fun:

Coloring Fun:

Print these free coloring pages from coloring.ws.

Videos:

Watch "Listen to the Bells" at Sesamestreet.org.

Recipes and Snacks:

Bell Cookies:
Ingredients: package cookies dough or cookie dough mix, bell cookie cutters, icing and sprinkles to decorate.
Directions: Make cookie dough according to packaging directions. Have your toddler help you knead and roll out the dough. Cut the dough with the bell cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet. Cook according to packaging directions. When the cookies are done and cooled, your toddler can help you decorate them with icing and sprinkles.

5 Minutes For Mom

2011-12-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

Check out the Teach Your Tot interview at 5 Minutes For Mom!

This awesome website, created by two mommas, is a wonderful place to find loads of information about almost anything! Check it out and their entire mommy blog and website listings!

Milk N' Honey, Learn and Grow

2011-12-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Teacher, mommy, and blogger, Shonda Knowlton, is the author of the Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow Blog and our newest affiliate! She shares teaching ideas, food fun 4 kids, her monthly and weekly schedules, giveaways and much more!!! Head over and check out her blog!

Ears/Hearing

2011-12-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

The Ear Book by Al Perkins
My Five Senses by Aliki
The Ears by Beth Ferguson
Hearing by Maria Rius
I Hear by Helen Oxenbury
My Ears by Lloyd G. Douglas
Whose Ears Are These? by Peg Hall
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? by Eric Carle
Hearing by Helen Frost

Activities:

Loud and Soft:
Materials: radio
Description: Play some music for your toddler on the radio. Talk about the words loud and soft (or quiet) with your toddler. Demonstrate loud, by turning the radio up loud. Demonstrate the word quiet by turning the radio down quiet. After doing this several times, you and toddler to act out the words loud and quiet by yelling loud and whispering quietly.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to compare and contrast loud and quiet, teach your tot to develop and understanding of the opposites loud and quiet

Shape Face:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue
Description: Cut out several shapes from the construction paper (you will need a large shape for the face, two shapes for the eyes, a shape for the nose and mouth, and two shapes for the ears. Show your toddler all the different shapes and have them name the shapes and colors. Your toddler can create a face by gluing the shapes together. Talk about each body part (eyes, nose, mouth, ears) and what it does as they glue them on.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to develop an understanding of their different body parts

Shakers:
Materials: several empty water bottle, rocks, rice, pennies, jingle bells
Description: You and your toddler can create several different shakers together. Have your toddler fill and empty water bottles with rocks (count the rocks as they put them into the bottle). Your toddler can also fill a water bottle with rice, one with pennies, one with jingle bell etc. (You can hot glue the tops onto the bottles so that your toddler cannot take them off. Be sure to keep the hot glue away from your little one). When all the bottles are filled, your toddler can shake them. Talk about how each one sounds. Do they sound different? Do any of them sound the same?
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to compare and contrast

Whose Ears are Those?
Materials: pictures of animals, pictures of animals' ears
Description: Print or draw pictures of several different animals. Print of draw pictures of the same animals' ears. Show your toddler a picture of the ears and see if they can guess who the ears belong to. They can place the ears on the correct animal picture. Talk about the color and sizes of the different ears. You could make this into a file folder game by gluing the pictures of the animals to the inside of a file folder and giving your toddler a bag full of ears to match to each animal (as shown below).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to match pairs, teach you r tot sensory development, teach your tot language development, teach your tot color recognition

Outside Sounds:
Description: Go outside and sit with your toddler. Quietly listen to the sounds around you. Have your toddler tell you some of the sounds that they hear. You could even take pictures of some of the things that you hear. Show your toddler these pictures later and have them try to make their sounds.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development

Eyes, and EARS, and mouth and nose:
Description: Sing, with your toddler, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (words below under Songs and Fingerplays). Have your little one point to each body part as you sing it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize and name parts of their body, teach your tot language development

What Animal do you hear?
Description: Talk to your toddler about their ears and that we use our ears to hear. Tell your toddler that you will make some animal sounds and they need to use their ears to listen to the sounds. One by one, make different animal sounds for your toddler and see if your toddler can name the animal. You could place pictures of animals in a pile and have your toddler pick the correct animal to match the sound that you make.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot animal sounds, teach your tot language development

My senses:
Materials: draw or print a picture of an ear, eyes, nose, mouth, and hands, popsicle sticks, glue
Description: Draw or print from clip art pictures of an ear, eye, nose, mouth and hand. Cut out the pictures and glue a Popsicle stick to the back of each one. Sing the song My Senses found below under Songs and Fingerplays. As you sing about each different body part, have your toddler hold up the picture of that body part.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development, teach your tot about their body, teach your tot their 5 senses

Songs and Fingerplays:

My senses:
Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

I use my ears to hear,
ears to hear,
ears to hear.
I use my ears to hear many different sounds.

I use my mouth to taste,
mouth to taste,
mouth to taste.
I use my mouth to taste many different foods.

I use my nose to smell,
nose to smell,
nose to smell.
I use my nose to smell many different smells.

I use eyes to see,
eyes to see,
eyes to see.
I use my eyes to see many different sights.

I use my hands to touch,
hands to touch,
hands to touch.
I use my hands to touch many different things.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes:

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes
knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes
knees and toes.
Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose
Head, shoulders, knees and toes

Ears, Ears, Ears
Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells

Ears Ears Ears
Ears Ears Ears
My ears help me hear
things like bells
cars and trucks
cats, dogs, and ducks.

Ears ears ears
Ears ears ears
I have two ears
on my head
is where they rest
ears are the best.

2 Little Ears:
Sung to the tune of 10 Little Indians

1 little 2 little ears on my head
they help me hear, that's what my mom says.
I like my ears because I can hear
my mommy say, "I love you dear!"

Online Fun:

Sesame Street Videos:

Brian and Kermit's faces
Kermit and Chris Count Ears

Games:
The Music Instruments Game at Fisher Price

Recipes and Snacks:

Pancake Face:
Ingredients: pancake mix, banana slices, raisins, marshmallows, apple slices
Directions: Make pancake according to packaging directions. Place the pancake on a plate along with two banana slices (ears), one apple slice (mouth), two raisins (eyes) and a marshmallow (nose). Give the plate to your toddler and have them create a face using the fruits and marshmallow. As they place each piece of food on their pancake have them name the body part and what it does.

Popcorn:
Ingredients: popcorn
Directions: Pop popcorn according to packaging directions. As the popcorn is popping have your toddler listen to it pop. See if they can count the pops (in the beginning). Ask them to make the sound of popcorn popping.

Countdown 'til Christmas

2011-11-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

December is here! That means only 25 days until Christmas! (I'm not sure who is more excited, me or the kids!) Here are a few ideas to countdown the days until Christmas!

*Make a paper chain with 25 links

Advent is a time to wait and prepare for Christmas, and it is also a time to try to make improvements in ourselves and the way that we act. My kids and I brainstormed some "acts of kindness" or good things that we could do each day in December and wrote these ideas on the strips of paper. Each day we will tear off one link and focus on doing whatever it says! (If your toddler is a little young to do this, you could simply write a number and when you take each link down talk about the number and the color of the paper!)

*Make a homemade Christmas Countdown Calendar

I made this one several years ago and it has held up well. All it takes is one canvas, scrapbook paper, number and letter stickers and 25 little tins that you can find in the wedding craft section at Wal-mart! Here are the directions!
Each day we will take down a number. Inside each tin, there will be a small sticker, piece of candy or other little goodie for the kids!

*Read Books

Here are two of my favorite countdown until Christmas books! There is a little story and bible verse to read and a craft or activity for each day!!
Happy December!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot to count backwards, teach your tot to be paitient, teach your tot listen and follow directions, teach your tot kindness, teach your tot language development, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot number recognition

What makes me smile right now!

2011-11-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do, not only for my walls, but also for my mood!
These white walls make me smile!

Rain gutter bookshelves make me smile!
Home Depot will cut vinyl rain gutters any size that you want! I have been wanting to make these for years and couldn't be happier with how they turned out!
I have a feeling that Santa will be bringing my kids some beanbag chairs to go in their new reading corner!
You could also make bookshelves from Ikea Spice Racks.

Seeing my kids artwork displayed NEATLY makes me smile!

This wire rod and clips from Ikea

2011-11-28T03:54:00.000-08:00

Do you shop Black Friday sales? The thought of shopping all night all by myself or with friends actually sounds very fun and relaxing to me; however, with all the Thanksgiving excitement and company we had at our house this year, I wasn't able to hit the stores at the wee hours of the morning (or at any time for that matter!). So this year, Cyber Monday is more up my alley! One of the shops that I will be taking advantage of is Chick-N-Fried Creations!

I can't wait to order some adorable clothes from these talented ladies! They even have matching Mother/Daughter outfits! How cute is this?

Be sure to check out all of their Christmas outfits!

Mail

2011-11-25T05:04:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:
Mickey Flies the Christmas Mail by Annie North Bedford
Millie Waits for Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier
Owney the Mail-Pouch Pooch by Mona Kerby
Post Office Book: Mail and How it Moves by Gail Gibbons
Bunny Mail by Rosemary Wells
Delivering Your Mail: A Book About Mail Carriers by Ann Owen
A Day with a Mail Carrier by Jan Kottke

Activities:

Envelope Fun:
Materials: envelopes, a variety of paper shapes, letters, or colors
Description: Show your toddler and envelope and talk to them about what they are used for. Cut out shapes or letters from construction paper and put them inside envelopes. Have your toddler open one envelope at a time and name the shape, color or letter. Your little one can then take time to place each item back inside each envelope and do this activity over and over again. Throughout the week, your toddler could do shapes, colors, and letters.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development

Field Trip to the Post Office:
Description: Take your toddler to visit your local post office. Walk through the post office and point out the P.O. Boxes, stamps, mailing boxes and envelopes. Bring letters or packages to mail and have your toddler help you stamp each item and place it in the correct mailing slot.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot Language Development, teach your tot about community helpers, teach your tot to develop a sense of community, teach your tot about the world around them

Toy Package:
Materials: toy, box, mailing label, mailing wrapping paper, tape
Description: You and your toddler can pick out a toy or other items for a needy child or family. Have your toddler help you place the items in a box and talk with your toddler about why you are giving these things to needy people. Wrap up the box either with mailing paper or wrapping paper and your little one can help you deliver it to the post office or toy drop in your community. Skills Targeted: teach your tot to develop a sense of giving and helping, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skills

Write a Letter to someone special:
Materials: paper, pen, markers, crayons, envelope, stamp
Description: You and your toddler can write a letter to someone special together. Have your toddler choose someone that they would like to write to. Talk with your little one about how we start letters with the word Dear. Your little one can tell you what to write as you write. Have your toddler draw or color a special picture to include in the letter. Your toddler can even practice writing their name (if they are big enough). Your toddler can help you put the letter in the envelope and put a stamp on it. Address the envelope as your toddler watches, talking to them about everything you are doing!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot kindness, teach your tot motor skills

Remember Your Address:
Description: This would be a great week to teach your toddler their address. It is important for them to eventually learn their phone number and address. Take your toddler outside and show them the numbers on your house. You could even walk with your toddler and show them the street sign of the street that they live on. Write their address big on a piece of paper, chalk board, or white board and practice saying it over and over throughout the week with your little one.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to memorize address, teach your tot community development

Cards:
Materials: a card, envelope, pen
Description: Another type of mail that is common are greeting cards. Take your toddler to the store and browse with them through the card section. Talk with your toddler about all the reasons that we can send cards (thank you, birthdays, get well, congratulations etc.). While you are there, or before you go to the store, think of someone to send a card to. You and your toddler can choose a card together. When you get home you and your little one can read the card together again and sign it. This is a fun way for your little one to practice writing their name. If your toddler is still too young to write their name, they could color on it or draw a smiley face etc. Talk with your toddler as your address the envelope and together you can place it in the mailbox.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot kindness

Mailman:
Materials: a bag, envelopes, paper, crayons, shoes boxes
Description: Your toddler can pretend to be a mailman or mail woman! Together, make mailboxes for each person in your family. You can decorate them and write each person's name on them (get creative!). Place each mailbox outside of each person's room. Next your toddler can draw/write letters to everyone in your family and put the letters into envelopes. On the front of each envelope help your toddler by writing the name of who each letter is to. They can even glue a picture of the person on the envelope. Place all the letters into your toddler's mailbag and they can go from mailbox to mailbox delivering their letters.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to develop an understanding of community helpers

Envelopes are rectangles:
Materials: envelope, markers, crayons, paint
Description: Give your toddler an envelope. Ask them what shape the envelope is. Talk about rectangles and see if you can find other things that are rectangles in the house. Let your little one get creative decorating it. They can use markers, crayons paints etc. Write the word rectangle on the envelope.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to be creative

E is for Envelope:
Materials: envelope, marker
Description: Show your toddler an envelope and have them say it with you. Write a big letter E on the envelope and see if they can identify the letter. Talk about what sounds E makes and that envelope begins with E. Post the envelope somewhere where your toddler can see it all week and refer to it throughout the week, reminding them of the sound that E makes. (You could post it next to any other letter pictures that you have made for your toddler and review all of them.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition, teach your tot beginning phonemic awareness, teach your tot language development

Get the mail:
Description: Take your toddler outside to your mailbox and help your toddler get the mail (you could even wait for the mailman to come to your house and get your mail from him/her). Bring your mail inside and help your toddler count each piece. You and your little one can sort your mail by color or size of the envelopes. See if your toddler can find letters on the mail. Have your toddler tell you the shape of each envelopes. Last, you can help your toddler put the mail in order from biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to recognize small and large, teach your tot about community helpers, teach your tot language skills

Songs and Fingerplays:

Mail Mail Mail:
(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Mail mail mail
Mail mail mail
The mailman brings us mail.
Rain or Sun
Snow or Hail
The mailman brings us mail.

Mail mail mail
Mail mail mail
I can send mail.
I write a note
to a friend
Address and stamp the envelope!

Mail mail mail
Mail mail mail
Mail from here to there.
Mail is sent everyday
to places everywhere!

Santa Gets my Mail:
(sung to the tune of All Around the Mulberry Bush)

Every year in December
Children from all over the world,
Write letters to Santa Claus
In hopes that they'll be heard!

Begin the letter Dear Santa Claus
I've been good all year.
Ask him for the things you want
And be sure to say please.

When your letter is ready to go.
Address your envelope.
Put a stamp in the corner
And send it with love and hope!

Letters:
(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I write letters to my friends
to my friends, to my friends.
I write letters to my friends
To tell them they are special.

I put the letter in an envelope
Envelope, envelope
I put the letter in an envelope
To send to my friend.

On the envelope I write the address,
write the address, write the address.
On the envelope I write the address
So the mailman knows where it will go.

I put a stamp in the corner
In the corner, in the corner
I put a stamp in the corner
of the envelope.

I place my letter in the mailbox
in the mailbox, in the mailbox.
I place my letter in the mailbox
and the mailman will take it away.

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages at Coloring.ws:
Mailman
Videos at Sesame Street Online:
The Post Office
Draw a Mailman
Counting Mailbags

Family

2011-11-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Book Suggestions:

Family by Isabell Monk
The Family Book by Todd Parr
Just Shopping with Mom by Mercer Mayer
Where's My Mom by Julia Donaldson
Its the Best Day Ever Dad by Brooke Shields
Me and My Dad by Alison Richie
My Dad by Anthony Brown
What Sisters/Brothers do Best by Laura Numeroff
Grandparents by Anne-Laure Le-Ray
Grandpa's Little One by Billy Crystal
Spot Visits His Grandparents by Eric Hill

Activities:

Dinner place cards:
Materials: construction paper, colored card stock, glue, scissors, pictures of family members
Description: Your toddler can help you make name cards to put on the table at dinner, while learning about their family. Together, with your toddler make a list of everyone that will be at your dinner (friends or family) and find pictures of each person. (You may need to contact some of your family and have them email a picture of themselves!). Cut out enough strips of card stock for everyone that will be there(about 2 1/2 in. thick and about 5 in. long). Have your toddler help you fold these in half. They should stand up by themselves. Next cut out the pictures of each person and have your toddler glue one picture to each piece of paper. Talk about each person with your child (how are they related? etc) and write their name under their picture. Your toddler can decorate these with other craft items such as sequence, glitter or stickers.
Skill Targeted: teach your tot to recognize family members, teach your tot about people they love, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot motor skill development

You could also make napkin rings instead of place holders!

Family Tree:
Materials: poster board, pictures of family members, markers, glue, scissors
Description: If you did a family tree during grandparents week or tree week, bring it back out to reinforce this idea! Remember repetition is great for toddlers.
Draw a large tree on a poster board. Have your little one help you color it. Cut out pictures of family members. Show the pictures to your toddler and talk about the people in the pictures. Have your toddler glue the pictures on to create a family tree. You can get as detailed as you like or keep it simple. Write the names of all the family members under their pictures.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize family members, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot about people they love

Slide Show:
Materials: digital pictures of family members, computer
Description: Children love using the computer. Create a digital slide show of different family members. There are many websites that allow you to drop your pictures into a file and create a slide show (some even put it to music). Do this with pictures of family and friends and let your toddler watch it over and over. Talk to your child about each picture as it appears on the screen. (You could even use photo editing software and write the names of each family members on each picture)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize family members, teach your tot to develop a sense of family and belonging, teach your tot language development, teach your tot computer skills

Map:
Materials: map of the US (or world if you have relatives in other countries), pictures of family members, glue, scissors
Description: Toddlers have such a limited understanding of location and how large the world is around them. This is a great way to expand their knowledge of the world around them. Take out a map of the US and talk about it with your toddler. Show them where they live and have them glue a picture of themselves on their state. Show your toddler pictures of their family members and show them where each person lives on the map. Your little one can glue each family members picture on the state that they live in.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot beginning map skills, teach your tot to better understand the world around them, teach your tot language development

Hand in Hand:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue, paint (optional)
Description: Compare and contrast everyone’s hands in your family. Trace each person’s hand onto a piece of construction paper. Cut out each hand and have your toddler find the biggest and the smallest hand. Help your little one put the hands in order from biggest to smallest. Your toddler can glue each hand, starting with the biggest, on top of each other. (you could add a small heart to the top of the hands to show that everyone in your family loves each other.) You could also do this activity by painting each person in your family’s hands and stamping them onto a piece a paper, one on top of the other (use different colors).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot smallest and biggest, teach your tot to develop a sense of family belonging

Big, Bigger, Biggest:
Materials: paint, paper
Description: Have all the members of your family paint their feet and stamp their foot print onto a piece of paper. Take a look at all the feet with your toddler and see if they can find the biggest foot print and the smallest one. You can even write each person's name under their hand print.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot biggest and smallest,

Pretend Play:
Materials: toys such as little people, dolls, etc.
Description: Take some time this week and play family with your toddler. Role playing and pretending are so good for a child's imagination. Your toddler can pretend to be a mom or dad and take care of their babies (baby dolls) or play with Little People and have a mom, dad, children, cousins, etc.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to role play, teach your tot to use their imagination, teach your tot to develop a sense of family

Family Book:
Materials: small 4X6 photo album, camera
Description: Talk to your toddler about their family. See how many people, in your family, your toddler can name. Gather pictures of family members (you can keep this simple and only do immediate family or use extended family or friends as well). Show the pictures to your toddler and talk about each person and how they are related to your toddler. Write each person’s name on their picture. Put all the pictures into a small photo album and your toddler can read this homemade book over and over throughout the week.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to develop a sense of family belonging, teach your tot to recognize family members, teach your tot about people who they love

Family Memory:
Materials: photos of family members, wooden circles (optional) or heavy card stock
Description: Here is a wonderful idea for a game of memory using family photos, thanks for creative mom Elizabeth Kartchner! Your toddler can play this over and over throughout the week. As they get pairs, have them tell you each person’s name and something about that person!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize family members, teach your tot to develop a sense of belonging, teach your tot memory skills, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to recall details about someone

Songs and Fingerplays:

Family:
(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I have a family
family, family.
I have a family
And I love them so.

I have a daddy,
a daddy, a daddy
and he loves me so.

I have a mommy,
a mommy, a mommy.
I have a mommy
and she loves me so.

continue with different members of your family. You could also hold up a picture of each person as you sing this song.

Who are the People in Your Family:
(sung to the tune of Who are the People in your Neighborhood)

Who are the people in your family?
In your family? In your family?
Tell me who are the people in your family.
The people that love each day.

A mommy is a person in your family.
In your family. In your family.
A mommy is a person in your family.
A person that you love each day.

A daddy is a person in your family.
In your family. In your family.
A daddy is a person in your family.
A person that you love each day.

Continue with different members of your family. Hold up pictures of each person as you sing this song.

Online Fun:

Videos:
Al Roker: Talks about Family at Sesame Street online.

Sorting a Family at Sesame Street online.
Recipes:

Bake Cookies:
Bake your favorite cookie recipe and wrap it up to deliver to members of your family.

Have your toddler help you cook dinner for their family

Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys

2011-11-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of turkey crafts to get your toddler in the Thanksgiving spirit! We made these Thanksgiving cards several years ago before our third baby was born. I want to do them again this year with three hand prints!

These turkeys make cute Thanksgiving decorations! And of course, anything with hand and footprints make great keepsakes!

The gobbler is a thumbprint and we painted on the eyes and beak. You could glue on googly eyes!

I am dieing to make these adorable edible turkeys this year too!

This week would also be a great week to do Teach Your Tot's turkey theme also!

Corn Activity

2011-11-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

This corn activity goes great with Teach Your Tot's vegetable theme, or if you are looking for some Thanksgiving activities to do with your little one!

*Draw two ovals, one on white paper and one on green construction paper.
*Cut out the green oval and have your toddler glue the bottom 1/3 onto the white oval.

*You or your toddler can cut about 3 or 4 slits in the green oval (stop at the glue...don't go all the way to the bottom of the oval).

*Your toddler can roll each slit around a pencil

*Your toddler can dab a Q-tip in yellow paint and then onto the white oval, to make corn.

Here is the final product!

This would be great as a follow up activity after reading books about corn or about what the Pilgrims and Indians ate at the first Thanksgiving!

Vegetables

2011-11-11T03:07:00.000-08:00

Suggested Books:
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
Vegetable Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian
Oliver's Vegetables by Vivian French
I Eat Vegetables by Hannah Tofts
Vegetables by Sara Anderson

Activities:

Vegetable Tasting Party:
Materials: a variety of raw vegetables
Description: Talk about the different vegetables that you have chosen for your toddler. Have your child help you wash and dry the vegetables. Cut the vegetables into bit size pieces and put them on a plate. Before you eat the vegetables, talk about their colors and textures. Have your child taste each vegetable. They can tell you how the vegetable tastes, if they like it, if it is crunchy etc. (If your toddler is not ready for raw vegetables, use cook veggies instead.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to eat healthy, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot color recognition

Free Play:
Materials: toy vegetables (found at walmart and the dollar store)
Description: You and your toddler can explore vegetables together through play. As you manipulate the toy vegetables, talk about their color. Pretend to enjoy eating the vegetables. Get your toddler excited about vegetables!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to play, teach your tot to explore and imagine

Sponge Paint Broccoli:
Materials: paper, green marker, sponge cotton ball or piece of broccoli, green paint
Description: Show your child a picture of broccoli (or a piece of real broccoli). Talk about how broccoli looks and feels. Explain to your child that broccoli is a vegetable. You and your child can create a piece of broccoli. On a piece of paper you (or your child if they are old enough) can draw the green stem. To create the broccoli's head, cut a sponge into a circle (or you could use a cotton ball or even a piece of real broccoli). Dip it into green paint and blot it on top of the stem over and over until it resembles a piece of broccoli.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to recognize vegetables

Pretend Soup:
Materials: plastic toy vegetables, a pot, large spoon
Description: Tell your toddler that you are going too make pretend vegetable soup together. Allow your child to choose the vegetables and put them into the pot. Encourage them to stir the soup. As they are stirring, discuss the vegetables that they put into the soup. You can also provide bowls and spoons for pretend eating!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to play, teach your tot to explore and imagine, teach your tot to recognize vegetables

Vegetable Picnic:
Materials: picnic blanket (or large sheet), picnic basket, vegetables
Description: During snack time, go on a vegetable picnic with your child. In advance, pack the picnic basket full of fresh vegetables, cooked or uncooked, for you and your child to eat together. Put each different type of vegetable into a different container or ziplock bag. Spread out the picnic blanket in your backyard (or in your living room). Bring the picnic basket onto the picnic blanket and encourage your child to come sit with you. Have your child reach into the basket and take out one container or bag at a time. Open the container or bag and talk about the vegetable inside. Once all containers are open, eat the veggies! (You can also provide dips, such as salsa, hummus, or ranch dressing for the vegetables.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get outside, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to eat healthy

Vegetable Hunt:
Materials: Paper
Description: Before going to the grocery store this week, have your toddler help you write out your grocery list. Tell them that you need to buy vegetables and see which ones they can name. Write down the list of vegetables. Keep showing your toddler the list and remind them that they helped your write it. When you go to the grocery store go on a vegetable hunt through the produce section. Read the vegetables from the list and see if you toddler can spot them. Even if you do not buy some of the vegetables, you can still show your child the large variety of vegetables at the grocery store.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to make healthy choices, teach your tot about a grocery store, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot language development

Vegetable Book:
Materials: a 4X6 mini photo album, camera
Description: Go on a vegetable hunt at your grocery store with your toddler (see above activity). As your little one finds different vegetables, take a picture of each one. Print all of the pictures and write the names of each vegetable on the picture (you can do with a white sharpie or other photo type pen or you can use text and type the words onto the pictures before you print them). Place all the pictures into a small 4X6 album to create your very own vegetable book. Read it throughout the week and see how many vegetables your toddler can recognize.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to make healthy choices, teach your tot sensory development

Vegetable Face:
Materials: a variety of vegetables, a circle plate
Description: Arrange a variety of vegetables on a circle plate to look like a face. (for example: peas for eyes, avacado for a nose, green beans for a mouth, and shredded carrots for hair.) Have your child point to the eyes, nose, mouth, nose and ears. Ask them to eat each body part one at a time. As they eat the eyes, ears, nose, mouth etc. talk about each different vegetable.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to recognize body parts, teach your tot to create and imagine

Veggie Art:
Materials: raw vegetables of your choice, paint
Description: Dip the vegetables in paint and make vegetable prints on a piece of paper. Rolling corn on the cob in paint and then rolling it on paper makes a really neat design. Your toddler can use asparagus as a paint brush. Broccoli can be dipped in paint and brushed onto paper also. Cut potatoes in half and make potatoe prints.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to create, teach your tot motor skill development

Stone Soup:
Materials: a copy of the poem "Stone Soup" (this poem can be found under Songs and Finger Plays), a pot, water, beef cubes, salt, pepper, carrots, onions, cabbage, potatoes, green beans
Description:Read the "Stone Soup" poem to your child. Talk about the different vegetables that are mentioned in the poem and show each one to your child. Cut up the vegetables into bite sized pieces to add to the soup. Read the poem again and have your child put the ingredients into the pot as you read the poem. Use the beef cubes as pretend stones. Cook the soup until the vegetables are soft and read to eat. *Do not let your toddler near a hot stove. Do this activity before you put your soup on to cook!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot listening skills, teach your tot to recall a story or poem, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to make healthy choices, teach your tot sensory development

Vegetable Sorting:
Materials: a variety of real or plastic vegetables, paper plates, crayons
Description: Display a variety of vegetables for your toddler. Talk about the different vegetables (their names, colors, textures, size etc.). Have your toddler (or you can do this prior to doing this activity) color one paper plate for every color that they see (for example: color one plate green for all the green vegetables, color another plate orange if there are orange vegetables etc.) To sort the vegetables, have your child put all the green vegetables on the green plate, all the orange vegetables on the orange plate and so on.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot to make healthy choices, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot to compare and contrast

Songs and Finger Plays:

Vegetable Song
(Song to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")

Carrots, Peas, and Broccoli,
Vegetables are good for me.
For my snack and in my lunch,
Veggie sticks are great to munch.
Carrots, peas, and broccoli.
Vegetables are good for me.

The Good Food Song
(Sung to the tune of "Old McDonald Had A Farm")

Vegetables are good for me
EIEIO
And so I eat them happily
EIEIO
With a carrot carrot here
And a carrot carrot there,
Here a carrot, there a carrot,
Everywhere a carrot carrot.
Vegetables are good for me
EIEIO

Replace the word carrot with different vegetables

I Like Veggies
(sung to the tune of "Are you Sleeping?")

I like veggies, I like veggies.
Do you too? Do you too?
I like corn and carrots,
I like peas and brussell sprouts,
Cauliflower too,
Asparagus too.

You can replace the names of the vegetables for different ones and sing again.

Oh, Do You Eat Your Vegetables?
(Sung to the tune of "Do You Know The Muffin Man?"

Oh, do you eat your vegetables, vegetables, vegetables?
Oh, do you eat your vegetables,
Each and every day?

Oh, yes I eat my vegetables, vegetables, vegetables.
Oh, yes I eat my vegetables,
Each and every day.

(Have your child name a vegetable then sing using the vegetable that your child named. For example use broccoli.)
Oh, _______ (your child's name) eats her/his broccoli, broccoli, broccoli
Oh, _______ (your child's name) eats her/his broccoli
Each and Every day.

Continue this song with different vegetables.

Stone Soup Poem:

Heat some water in a pot,
Add a stone that you have scrubbed a lot.
Sprinkle pepper, salt, and herbs.
Let it boil undisturbed.
Drop in carrots, onions too.
Let the soup heat through and through.
Stir in cabbage for some fun.
Add potatoes. Yum, yum, yum!
Toss in green beans. Let is stew.
Let it bubble. Let it brew.
Taste the soup, when its done.
Share "Stone Soup" with everyone!

Online Fun:

Coloring:
Browse through the "Fruits and vegetables" coloring section at http://www.coloring.ws/fruit.htm.

Videos:
Check out the vegetable videos at Sesame Street online.

Games:
Family Food
Grow your colors

Recipes:

Since our theme is vegetables this week, (and there are thousands of vegetable recipes out there) I thought it would be fun for all of you to share some of your favorite vegetable recipes. If you have a yummy vegetable recipe just leave it in the "comments" under this post!

Thankful Tree

2011-11-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes life gets so hectic...there is not enough time in the day to do laundry, clean the house, cook breakfast lunch and dinner, play princess dress up and trains, read books, run errands...I could go on and on! Our busy schedules make it easy to forget that we are so blessed. So, for at least this month, we are trying to make a conscious effort to stop and focus on all the many many things in our lives that we are thankful for!
One of our activities this week was to create a Thankful Tree:

Draw a picture of a tree on butcher paper and have your toddlers help you color it.

Trace your little ones' hands onto construction paper and cut each one out (you can always add more hand prints as you need them).
Glue the hands onto the tree, as leaves.
Throughout the month, whenever someone in your family thinks of something that they are thankful for, write it on a hand/leaf (you could even add photos or pictures if you want)!
My kids have actually gotten really into this. So far, we are thankful for frogs, sippy cups, lizards, baby dolls, and coffee!

Chick-n-Fried Creations

2011-11-07T03:09:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to introduce you to my favorite new kids clothing shop and our latest sponsor, Chick-n-Fried Creations!

Two talented mommies (and friends!) started this shop after trying for years to find the "perfect" outfit for their kids! Here's what they have to say:

We are two best friends whose children are also best friends. Since we met, we have coordinated and ordered countless matching clothes, holiday outfits, costumes,birthday party wear and brother/sister get-ups. After years of searching for that "perfect" outfit, we decided we could do it ourselves!

Welcome: Chick n Fried!

Here you will ...find a handmade childrens (and other goodies too) clothing line. Because of our kids and their ever changing styles and now opinions of their own, we are inspired to make things that can grow with them, be it classic or simply to take them thru their latest phase.....i.e. superheros and purple princesses. We are so excited to share our designs and ideas with you. We hope you will consider our shop for those special pieces you want for your own children, friends and family.

Chick-n-fried's holiday outfits are now available! I'm going to order mine now so that my kids will have a lot of time to wear them over the holiday season!

I just love these!

My kids in their Chick-n-fried Halloween outfits, which are now 25% off...check them out!

Be sure to visit Chick-n-Fried on facebook and check out their ad button on our sidebar!

Wheels

2011-11-03T17:07:00.001-07:00

Book Suggestions:

What Do Wheels Do All Day by April Jones Prince
The Wheels on the Bus by Paul O. Zelinsky
Big Wheels by Anne Rockwell
Wheels by Beth Dvergsten Stevens
Hard Working Wheels by Debora Pearson
Rough Tough Wheels by Debora Pearson
Spinning Wheels: Diggers and Dumpers by Margaret Wang
Spinning Wheels: Race Cars by Margaret Wang

Activities:

Paint With Wheels:
Materials: paper, paint, matchbox car or truck
Description: Squirt some paint on a piece of paper (have your toddler tell you what color it is). Your child can drive their matchbox car or truck through the paint and make tire marks all over their paper. The car or truck's wheels make neat patterns. You can add different color paint and use different cars with different size wheels to make a variety of patterns and colors on the paper.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot that wheels are round

Pin the Wheels on the Truck:
Materials: large poster board, markers or crayons, scissors, paper
Description: Draw a large picture of a truck or car onto a piece of poster board. Do not draw the wheels on the picture. On a separate sheet of paper, draw and cut out two wheels. Put double sided tape on the back of each wheel. Give the wheels to your toddler and have them tell you what shape they are. You can blind fold them and have them try to place the wheels on the picture. (If your child is young or does not want to be blindfolded, have them put the wheels on where they belong on the car or truck without a blindfold.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize shapes, teach your tot that wheels are round, teach your tot that wheels belong on cars and trucks

Count the Wheels:
Description: Take your toddler outside and show them the wheels on your car or truck. (for safety reason, do not let your toddler touch the wheels). Ask your toddler to tell you what shape the wheels are. Together you and your toddler can walk around the car or truck and count the wheels. If you would rather, you could also do this simple activity using a wagon.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize shapes, teach your tot to count, teach your tot that wheels are round, teach your tot that cars and trucks have wheels

Cardboard Train, with Wheels:
Materials: cardboard box, heavy cardstock or cardboard, glue, scissors, markers
Description: You and your toddler will have fun together making a cardboard box train. If your cardboard box has writing on it, you may want to cover it with white wrapping paper or packaging paper. Your toddler can decorate their train using paint, crayons or markers. Using cardstock or extra cardboard, cut four circles and glue on the sides of the cardboard box for the wheels. Have your toddler tell you what shape the wheels are and count them together as your glue them on. Your little one can sit in the cardboard box and pretend that they are an engine conductor and that the wheels are making them go!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to use their imagination, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot that wheels rolls, teach your tot that trains have wheels

Shape Truck:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue
Description: cut a rectangle, a square and two circles out of construction paper. Show the shapes too your toddler and have them tell you what shape and color they are. Glue the shapes together to create a truck. Have your toddler glue the wheels on last. Talk about the wheels and what they do (go round and round and help the truck move).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your to that wheels are round, teach your tot language development

The Wheels on the ______:
Materials: draw or print pictures of a bus, car, truck, train, plane, bike, wagon, popsicle sticks, glue, scissors
Description: Draw or print (from clip art on your computer) pictures of a bus, car, truck, train, plane, bike and wagon. Cut out the pictures and glue them onto popsicle sticks. Sing The Wheels on the _______ song found below under Songs and Finger plays. Hold up each vehicle as you sing about them. Or you could have your toddler hold each vehicle as you sing the song together. Skills Targeted: teach your tot to identify objects that have wheels, teach your tot that wheels are round, teach your tot language development

Toy Trucks, Cars, and Trains:
Materials: small toy trucks, cars, trains or other things with wheels, sand, rocks
Description: Create a variety of different terrains for your toddler to drive their toy cars over. Use a sand table or create your own sand table by putting sand in a shallow dish. Place rocks in another shallow dish. You could also put a small amount of water in a third shallow dish. Have you toddler play with their toys in these different terrains. Talk to your toddler as you play. Is it harder to drive the toys through sand, water, or rocks?
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to use their imagination, teach your tot language development, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot that wheels help objects move, teach your tot to play

Circle Collage:
Materials: a variety of circle objects (ex: a coin, a pinwheel pasta, a poker chip, buttons, paper circles etc), a variety of other shaped objects (stickers, stamps, magnets etc), glue, paper
Description: Show your toddler a picture of a wheel. Ask you toddler to tell you what shape the wheel is. Lay out a variety of different shaped objects (including circles). Have your toddler choose all the shapes that are the same as the wheel (circles) and glue them to a piece of paper creating a circle collage. Write the word circle on the top of the paper. Count all the circles when they are done.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to match, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot word/shape association

Wheel Pasta:
Materials: pinwheel pasta, pictures of bikes, cars, trucks, wagons etc.
Description: Draw or print from clip art pictures of vehicles with wheels. Show the pictures to your toddler and have them identify the wheels. Have them glue pinwheel pasta on top of each wheel. Count all the wheels when they are finished. You do an extension of this activity and give your toddler pictures of the vehicles but leave off the wheels. They can glue the pinwheel pasta where the wheels should go. I used coins instead of pinwheel pasta (you could use anything that is round for this activity).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to match shapes, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot motor skill development.

Songs and Fingerplays:

The Wheels on the ______:
Sung to the tune of the Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round
round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round
all through the town.

The wheels on the car go round and round,
round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the car go round the round
all through the town.

The wheels on the truck go round and round,
round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the truck go round and round
all through the town.

Continue song with train, plane, bike and wagon.

Wheels:
Sung to the tune of Brother John

Wheels are circles
Wheels are circles
They are round,
They are round.
They have no beginning
and no end.
Wheels are circles.
They are round.

Wheels Wheels Wheels:
Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells

Wheels wheels wheels
Wheels wheels wheels
On a car
Trucks have wheels
Bikes do too
I like wheels don't you.

Wheels wheels wheels
Wheels wheels wheels
Go round and round.
They move forward
and backwards too.
I like wheels don't you.

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:

Check out all the "Transportaion" coloring pages at http://www.coloring.ws/transportation.htm. Choose some of the vehicles with wheels and print them for your toddler to color or paint.

Videos:

The Wheels Go Round
Twiddlebug Outing
Learning to Ride a Bike

Games:

The Wheels on the Bus at Sesame Street Online.

Snacks and Recipes:

Snack Ideas:

pinwheel crackers
Pinwheel pasta

Orange

2011-10-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:
Colors by Christine Coirault
Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
One by Kathryn Otoshi
Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown
Pumpkins by Ken Robbins
Pumpkins by Jacqueline Farmer
Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson
The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

Activities:

Sort Colors:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue
Description: * If you are not doing this activity around Halloween, you can sort any shapes or objects that you want! Just be sure to include something orange!
(This activity can be found under the cat theme! Remember, repetition is great for toddlers!) Cut out several orange pumpkin shapes from construction paper. Also cut out other Halloween shapes such as white ghosts, yellow moons, red candy, black bats, etc. Lay the shapes out in front of your toddler and have them sort all the different color shapes by putting them in seperate piles. Your little one can glue all these shapes onto a piece of paper when you are finished to create a Halloween Collage.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to count

Pumpkin Hunt:
Materials: small real or plastic pumpkins (or construction paper), a basket or bucket
Description: (You could also do an orange hunt using the fruit if you are not doing this activity when pumpkins are available) Hide several small pumpkins, real or plastic, (or you could cut your own from construction paper) around your house or backyard. Have your toddler go find the pumpkins and place them in their basket or bucket. When they have collected them all, have your toddler count the pumpkins that they found. Talk about their color as you are doing this activity.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to get moving, teach your tot to count

Color Song:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, a copy of The Halloween Color Song (found below in songs and fingerplays), marker
Description: (This activity can also be found under the cat theme! Repetition is great for toddlers!!) Using The Halloween Color Song, draw and cut out each object mentioned in the song. For example: Cut out an orange pumpkin, a white ghost etc. Write the color word across each object. This is great for color word recognition. Sing the song with your toddler and hold up each object as you sing about it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color word recognition, teach your tot listening skills

Carve A Pumpkin:
Materials: pumpkin, carving knife (do not let your toddler use the knife), bowl, newspaper
Description: (This is a great activity to do before or after Halloween, but would be great to do anytime to reinforce color recognition) After choosing the perfect pumpkin, lay it on newspaper, cut off the top and let your toddler help you scrape out the insides. Talk with your toddler about how the inside of a pumpkin looks and feels. Save the seeds in the bowl to roast later. Talk with your toddler about what kind of face you want to give you pumpkin. Practice making happy, sad, mad, scary faces with your toddler. Carve a face in your pumpkin. As you are doing this, talk with your toddler about the color of the pumpkin.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to explore and observe

Mix Colors:
Materials: red and yellow paint, paper, paintbrush
Description: Squirt some red and yellow paint onto a piece of paper. Ask your toddler to name both of these colors and then to mix them together using a paintbrush. As they are mixing, ask them what color the paint is turning. (orange!) You could also draw a pumpkin shape or print out a pumpkin coloring page and your toddler could use the orange paint to paint the pumpkin.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to mix and make new colors, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to observe

Orange Pumpkin Wreath:
Materials: orange yarn, cardboard or other heavy paper such as a paper plate, scissors
Description: Cut a large ring out of construction paper or other heavy paper. Cut a long piece of orange yarn. Help your toddler get started by wrapping the yarn around the paper ring. Once your little one gets the hang of this they can continue on their own. When they have wrapped the whole paper ring with yarn either glue or staple the end of it so that it doesn’t come undone. (You can use this as a wreath. Your toddler can even glue orange leaves or other decorations to it and hang it on their door or your front door!)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to follow directions

Paper Plate Pumpkin:
Materials: orange paint, paper plate, green and black construction paper, glue, scissors
Description: Talk to your toddler about the color of a pumpkin. Explain to them that they will make a paper plate pumpkin. Have your toddler paint a paper plate orange. Cut out two triangles and one oval from black construction paper and a rectangle from brown construction paper and another oval from green construction paper. Ask your toddler to identify these shapes and colors. When the paper plate dries, have your child glue the triangles onto the pumpkin for eyes and the black oval for the mouth. Next they can glue the brown rectangle and green oval to the top of the pumpkin as the stem and a leaf.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to follow directions

Orange Leaves:
Materials: several orange leaves, newspaper, wax paper, iron
Description: Take a nature walk with your toddler in your backyard or around your neighborhood. As you walk, talk about how leaves change color during the fall. Talk with your toddler about things that they see that are orange. Have your toddler collect several orange leaves. When you get home have your toddler place the leaves between two pieces of newspaper and place a heavy book on top of them. Let them dry like this for 24 hours. Your toddler can keep these leaves and use them for art projects, collages, cards, or simply just to hang on their wall.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to love nature, teach your tot to get outdoors

Sort Candy:
Materials: a bag of mixed mini candy bars (such as hershey's, Reeses, Snickers, Milky Way etc), or candy from Trick-or-Treating
Description: Pour out the bag of candy in a pile for your toddler. Ask your toddler to find all the orange candies. Then have them sort the rest of the candies by making several piles. Count the candy in each pile. When they have sorted all the candy, ask your little one to tell you the color of each group's wrapper. The mini-candy bars are great for letter recognition b/c of the large print on the wrappers. See how many letters your toddler can identify on each candy wrapper.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count

Carrot Painting:
Materials: carrot, orange paint, paper
Description: Your toddler will love painting with a carrot! Instead of using a paint brush, let your toddler get creative using a carrot to paint with orange paint on a piece of paper. Have your little one hold the carrot. Talk about how it feels and what it looks like. Also, talk about the color of the carrot and the color of the paint as they do this activity!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to recognize vegetables, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to be creative

Orange Painting:
Materials: an orange, a box, paper, orange paint
Description: Cut a piece of paper to fit inside of your box. Show your little one the orange. Have them hold it, feel it, tell you what color and shape it is. Have your toddler help you squeeze several drops of orange paint onto the paper in the box. Drop the orange in the box and your little one can move the box back and forth and side to side, moving the paint all around.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot about fruits, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative

Songs and Fingerplays:

The Halloween Color Song:
(sung to the tune of Bingo)

On Halloween I saw a pumpkin
And it was orange.
O-r-a-n-g-e
O-r-a-n-g-e
O-r-a-n-g-e
The pumpkin was Orange.

On Halloween I saw a ghost
And it was white.
W-h-i-t-e
W-h-i-t-e
W-h-i-t-e
The ghost was white.

On Halloween I saw a cat
And it was black
B-l-a-c-k
B-l-a-c-k
B-l-a-c-k
The cat was black.

On Halloween I saw a moon
And it was yellow.
Y-e-l-l-o-w
Y-e-l-l-o-w
Y-e-l-l-o-w
The moon was yellow.

On Halloween I saw a spider
And it was brown.
B-r-o-w-n
B-r-o-w-n
B-r-o-w-n
The spider was brown.

On Halloween I saw some leaves
And they were red.
R (pause)-E-D
R (pause)-E-D
R (pause)-E-D
The fall leaves were red.

Orange Orange Orange:
Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells

Orange Orange Orange
Orange orange Orange
I love orange
Orange is bright
Orange is happy
Orange is alright!

Orange Orange Orange
Orange Orange Orange
What is Orange?
Pumpkins are orange
Carrots are too
I love orange, do you?

Orange Tree:
(sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I see an orange tree
orange tree, orange tree
I see an orange tree
Oranges....yummy!

Count the oranges
1,2,3...4,5,6
7,8,9
And one more,
That makes 10.
Lets go pick them!

Online Fun:

Games:
Tap the Color by Fisherprice
Colors and Shapes by Fisherprice

Find pumpkin fun at:

Recipes and Snacks:

Orange Snack Ideas:
oranges, cheez-its, goldfish

Pumpkin Cookies:
Ingredients: cookie dough, pumpkin cookie cutter, orange food coloring (or mix red and yellow), icing
Directions: Roll out cookie dough and have your toddler press the pumpkin cookie cutter into the dough to cut the cookies. Place cookies on cookie sheet and bake according to packaging directions. Mix orange food coloring and icing. When the cookies cool, your toddler can icing the pumpkin cookies. Talk about what color pumpkins are as you are doing this.

Pumpkin Dip:
Ingredients: 8 oz. cream cheese, 15 oz. can pumpkin pie filling, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. cinnamon
Directions: Have your toddler help you combine and mix all of the ingredients. Serve with gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, apple slices, crackers etc.

Cats

2011-10-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:
If you Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff
Cat by Matthew Van Fleet
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Moonlight: the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
Black Cat Creeping by Teddy Slater
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
Angus and the Cat by Marjorie Flack
Have you Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle
Scary Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting

Activities:

Paper Plate Cats:
Materials: paper plate, paint, scissors, construction paper
Description: Talk to your toddler about cats or read your little one a book about cats. Tell them that they will make a cat. Have them paint a paper plate whatever color they want their cat to be (if you are doing this around Halloween, you and your toddler could make the cat black). As they are doing this ask them what shape the plate is and what color they are painting it. Cut out two triangles from black paper, one triangle from white paper, two circles from white paper, and one rectangle from white paper. Show these shapes to your toddler and ask them to name each shape. Help them glue the two black triangles to the top of the plate for ears, the two white cirlces for eyes, the white triangle for a nose and the white rectangle for the cat's mouth. (or you could cut out two circles for the eyes)
Sklls Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development
Soft and Hard:
Materials: a box or bag, several soft objects (cotton balls, felt, feathers), several hard objects (block, book etc)
Description: Talk with your toddler about how a cat feels. If you have a pet cat take a few minutes and pet your cat (or you could pet a stuffed animal cat). Talk with your toddler about how a cat feels soft. Place all the soft and hard objects in a bag or box. Have your little one stick their hand in the bag and take out one object at a time. Ask them if the object is hard or soft. Sort all the objects into hard or soft.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot the opposites hard and soft, teach your tot sensory development,

Taking Care of a cat:
Description: Talk with your toddler about how to take care of a pet. What do pets need everyday? If you have a pet cat, have your little one help you give your cat fresh water and food and brush your pet all week. If you do not have a pet cat, you could pretend to feed and brush a stuffed animal cat.
skills Targeted: teach your tot responsibility, teach your tot to care for a pet, teach your tot that animals need food and water to survive, teach your tot life skills

Pin the Tail on the Cat:
Materials: large piece of paper, black marker or crayon, scissors, tape, black construction paper
Description: Draw a large cat on a big piece of paper. You and your little one can color it together. (Since it is Halloween week, it might be fun to make a black cat). Draw and cut out several tail shapes from black construction paper. Double up tape and put a piece of each tail. Pin the cat picture on the wall. Have your toddler close their eyes or blindfold them and see if they can pin the tail on the cat. This might be a fun game to play with friends too!
Skill Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to learn through play, teach your tot to follow directions
Sorting:
Materials: construction paper (orange, white, yellow, black, red), scissors
Description: This activity is a great activity to prepare for Halloween. Cut out several orange pumpkins, white ghosts, yellow moons, black cats and red candy from construction paper (you could also print these shapes using clipart form you computer). Lay them in front of your toddler and have your toddler sort each colored object. When they are finished, have them identify each color and count the objects in each group.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition
Halloween Color Song:
Materials: construction paper, marker, glue
Description: This activity will also help your toddler get in the Halloween spirit! Cut out a large orange pumpkin, white ghost, black cat, brown spider, yellow moon, red leaf from construction paper. Glue each one to a popsicle stick and write the color word on each shape. You or your toddler can hold up the correct colored object as you sing The Halloween Color Song from below!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color word recognition, teach your tot language development
The three little Kittens:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, or real mittens
Description: Read The Three Little Kittens to your toddlers. Explain to them that kittens are baby cats. When you have finished reading the book, see if your toddler can recall parts of the book. (What happened, first, next and last) Lay several pairs of mittens (or you can cut your own mitten shapes from construction paper. Be sure to use different colors for each pair). Have your toddler match each pair of mittens.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot story recollection, teach your tot to match, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot language development
Pretend to be a Kitty:
Description: Your toddler can crawl around the house meowing as they pretend to be a kitty. You could even paint their nose black and add some whiskers for extra fun.

Styrofoam Cat Cup:
Materials: styrofoam cup, black paint, googly eyes, popsicle sticks, black and pink construction paper, pipe cleaners, glue
Description: Your toddler can make a cute black cat for Halloween. Have them paint he cut black and set it upside down. As it is drying cut out two triangles from black construction paper for ears and glue each one to a small popsicle stick. Stick the popsicle sticks completely into the bottom of the cup so that you can only see the ears. Glue on the googly eyes and a pink nose from construction paper. Cut black pipe cleaners in half and stick them into the cup under the nose, as whiskers. These would make cute place holders at a Halloween Party.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Letter C:
Materials: Construction paper, scissors, marker
Description: Cut out a large cat shape from construction paper or print one from clipart. Show it to your toddler and talk about how Cat begins with letter C. Ask them to make the C sound several times. Write a large letter C on the cat and refer to this throughout the week, reviewing letter C. You could also try to find other things around your house that begin with letter C.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition.
Sand Paper C:
Materials: sand paper, scissors, glue, paper
Description: Continue building your sand paper letter book this week by making letter C. Cut letter C from sandpaper and glue it onto a piece of paper. Punch a hole in it and attach it to the rest of your letters. Throughout the week, trace letter C with your child's finger saying the letter and the sound. Review the other letters as well.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition, teach your tot sensory development
Check out this post for directions on how to make these sandpaper letters

Songs and Fingerplays:

Cats:
(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Cats, Cats, Cats,
Cats, Cats, Cats
Cats are soft.
They have four paws
One long tail,
And say Meow.

Cats, Cats, Cats,
Cats, Cats, Cats,
Have pointy ears.
One wet nose,
long whiskers too
I love cats don't you!

Black Cat:

Black Cat, Black Cat
I see you
On Halloween Night.
Black Cat, Black Cat
I see you
Creeping out of sight.
Black Cat, Black Cat,
I see you
with whiskers and gold eyes.
Black Cat, Black Cat,
I see you
hissing at trick or treaters walking by.

The Halloween Color Song:
(sung to the tune of Bingo)

On Halloween I saw a pumpkin
And it was orange.
O-r-a-n-g-e
O-r-a-n-g-e
O-r-a-n-g-e
The pumpkin was Orange.

On Halloween I saw a ghost
And it was white.
W-h-i-t-e
W-h-i-t-e
W-h-i-t-e
The ghost was white.

On Halloween I saw a cat
And it was black
B-l-a-c-k
B-l-a-c-k
B-l-a-c-k
The cat was black.

On Halloween I saw a moon
And it was yellow.
Y-e-l-l-o-w
Y-e-l-l-o-w
Y-e-l-l-o-w
The moon was yellow.

On Halloween I saw a spider
And it was brown.
B-r-o-w-n
B-r-o-w-n
B-r-o-w-n
The spider was brown.

On Halloween I saw some leaves
And they were red.
R (pause)-E-D
R (pause)-E-D
R (pause)-E-D
The fall leaves were red.

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:
Check out Coloring.ws for a couple of Halloween Cat coloring sheets:
Cat 1
Cat 2
Here are a lot of different cat coloring sheets (non-Halloween).
Cats
Videos:
Check out www.SesameStreet.org for some fun cat videos:
Elmo's World: All about cats
My Cat
Seven Cats :You could make 7 construction paper cats and write the numbers 1-7 on them. Practice Counting to 7 with your toddler using the cats.

Recipes:
Black Cat Cookies:
Ingredients: cookie dough, cat cookie cutter (wal-mart has a great one), black icing, yellow icing
Directions: Prepare dough and roll it out according to packaging directions. Cut the dough using the cat cookie cutter. Bake the cookies and when they cool use black icing to decorate them. You can add yellow dots for eyes. These are fun for Halloween festivities coming up this weekend!

Night Sky

2011-10-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

The Night Sky by Donald M. Silver
How To Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers
Constellations: A Glow in the Dark Guide to the Night Sky by Chris Sasaki
The Moon by Seymour Simon
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Papa Please get the Moon for me by Eric Carle
The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons
Stars by Seymour Simon

Activities:

Lay under the stars:
Materials: blanket
Description: Take your toddler outside after dark, lay a blanket on the ground, and you can lie on your backs and look at the moon and stars together. Talk with your toddler about the night sky, the shape of the moon etc. They can try to count stars.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot language development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to appreciate nature

Sorting Shapes:
Materials: yellow or white construction paper, 2 pieces of black construction paper, scissors
Description: Prior to doing this activity with your toddler, cut out several moon shapes from yellow or white construction paper and several star shapes from the same color construction paper. Lay out these shapes in front of your toddler and ask them to name the shapes. Your little one can sort them by putting all the moons onto one piece of black construction paper and all the stars onto another piece of black construction paper. Do this over and over again throughout the week or your toddler can glue the shapes onto the two pieces of paper. Count the moons and the stars.
Skills targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot to count, teach your tot math skills, teach your tot motor skills

Stamp Shapes:
Materials: sponges, scissors, white or yellow paint, black paper
Description: Make your own star and moon stamps by cutting sponges into these shapes. Your toddler can dip the sponge stamps into yellow or white paint and make moon and star stamps onto a black piece of paper.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Night Sky Mobile:
Materials: two wooden rods (or sticks), string, construction paper, glitter, markers, glue, scissors Description: Lay two wooden sticks on top of each other perpendicular and tie together in the middle. Hang a piece of string from the center of the sticks (to tie onto the ceiling, fan, hook etc.). Tie several pieces of string from the wooden rods (to hang the moon and stars). Draw a moon shape and a star shape on a piece of paper and help your toddler cut out each shape. They can decorate each shape using markers, glitter, or any other craft item. Hang the moon and star from the mobile. Throughout the week, add any other night sky items to the mobile.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot all about the night sky, teach your tot to be creative

Phases of the Moon:
Materials: camera or paper and pencil
Description: Talk with your toddler or read a book about how the moon changes. At the beginning of the week, take your toddler outside to look at the shape of the moon. Take a picture of the moon or draw a picture of what it looks like. Take your little one back outside, later in the week and talk about the shape of the moon. Take or draw another picture of what the moon now looks like. Compare and contrast the two pictures of the moon. How has it changed? Did it get bigger of smaller?
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot big, bigger, biggest, teach your tot language development

The Moon Changes:
Materials: construction paper (white or yellow and black), glue
Description: Talk or read a book about the moon changes. Cut out two crescent moons, two half moons, and one full moon from yellow or black construction paper. Show these shapes to your toddler. Talk about each shape, what they look like, which ones are bigger etc. Help your toddler glue the shapes in order from crescent, half, full, half, and crescent. Talk about how the moon starts off small and gets bigger than gets small again.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot big and small

Make Your Own Night Sky:
Materials: flashlight, black construction paper, scissors, a dark room
Description: place a black piece of construction paper over the lighted part of a flashlight. Secure it in place with tape. Poke small holes into the black construction paper and cut a small moon shape into it as well. Take your toddler into a dark room and turn on the flashlight. Point it at the ceiling and pretend that you are looking at stars and the moon in the sky. Talk with your toddler about what you see in the night sky.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to use their imagination, teach your tot all about the night sky, teach your tot to observe, teach your tot shape recognition

Small, Medium, Large:
Materials: yellow or white construction paper, scissors
Description: Cut out three different stars from yellow or white construction paper, making each one bigger than the last one. Show the stars to your toddler and see if your little one can identify the shape. Talk about small, medium, and large with your child and see if they can put the stars in order from smallest to biggest. Next, see if they can reverse the order and arrange them biggest to smallest. Your little one can decorate these stars when you are finished and add them to their mobile.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot big and small, teach your tot math skills, teach your tot that stars can be found in the sky

Count the Stars:
Materials: construction paper or craft foam, scissors, markers, string
Description: Cut out ten stars from construction paper or craft foam. Write the numbers 1-10 on each star. Hang the stars from the ceiling by punching a hole in each star and tying a piece of yarn to the hole. You could use thumb tacks or ticky-tack to attach the yarn to the ceiling. Throughout the week, count the stars with your toddler taking time to look at each number.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot that stars can be found in the sky, teach your tot count, teach your tot number recognition, teach your tot shape recognition

Letter S and Letter M:
Materials: marker, construction paper
Description: This is a great week to introduce to review letter S (for star) and letter M (for moon). Write the letter S for your toddler and talk about the sound that it makes. Draw a star, cut it out, and write a big "S" on the star. Throughout the week, refer to this star and see if your toddler can identify letter S and the sound that it makes. Do the same with the letter M. Draw and cut out a moon. Write letter "M" on the moon and refer to it throughout the week.
You can keep these pictures for your toddler and review them each week or hang them on your mobile.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition, teach your tot shape recognition

Songs and Fingerplays:

Do you know what's in the sky at night?
(Sung to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?)

Do you know what's in the sky
in the sky, in the sky?
Do you know what's in the sky,
In the sky at night?

Yes, I know what's in the sky,
in the sky, in the sky.
Yes, I know what's in the sky,
In the sky at night!

A moon shines bright up in the sky,
in the sky, in the sky.
A moon shines bright up in the sky.
The moon shines bright.

The stars twinkle up in the sky,
in the sky, in the sky.
The stars twinkle up in the sky.
The stars pour out their light.

There are meteors, comets, constellations too,
constellations too, constellations too.
There are meteors, comets, constellations too,
In the sky at night.

Look Up:
(Sung to the tune of On Top of Old Smokey)

When the sun sets
everyday
The sky turns dark
Daylight fades away.
That is when
The moon shines bright.
The stars glow too
Every night.

5 Little Stars:

5 little stars glowing outdoors
One shoots by
Now there are 4.

4 little stars bright as can be
Another whizzes by
Now there are 3.

3 little stars playing peek-a-boo
One zooms away
Now there are 2.

2 little stars searching for the sun
One zips by
Now there is 1.

1 little star having lots of fun.
He scoots away
Now there are none.

Twinkle Twinkle:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:
Check out Coloring.ws for some fun moon and star coloring pages.

Videos:
Visit SesameStreet.org to watch some fun videos about the night sky:
I don't want to live on the mooon
Trip to the Moon
If the Moon were a Cookie

Recipes:

Cookies:
Ingredients: Cookie dough, star and moon cookies cutters, sprinkles, icing
Description: Roll cookie dough out according to packaging directions. Have your toddler help you press star and moon cookie cutters into the dough, place them onto a cookie sheet, and bake according to the directions. When the cookies cool, your toddler can icing them and top with sprinkles (yellow sprinkles would make the stars and moon sparkle!)

Q/A: Where to begin?

2011-10-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

I have received several emails recently asking where and when to start the activities at Teach Your Tot. Before I try to answer this question, please remember that every child is different. They all have different interests, ability levels, and attention spans. Therefore, if you try one activity and your toddler doesn't seem "into it", try a different one or maybe wait a month or so and try again!
I would suggest starting some of the Teach Your Tot activities when your toddler is between the ages of 12-18 months (again, you know your toddler best). All of the books, songs and fingerplays are the best place to start! Some of my favorite activities to begin with young toddlers with are the ones that target motor and sensory development skills (which includes a lot of the activities). At first, it may be best for you to actually make some of the crafts and have your toddler simply play with them (popsicle stick puppets, shown below and which are featured in several different themes, would be a great example of this).

This week my kids and I are doing the Tree Theme. Today, we painted our fall trees using Q-tips. I put my 13 month old in her high chair, in only a diaper, gave her her own paint, tree and Q-tip and let her get after it! Sure she made one big mess, but she was smiling the whole time. Even after three kids, it amazes me how they can catch on at such a young age!
Here are our fall trees...Remember...trial and error, it may be messy, and your little one may only be engaged in the activity for 20 seconds! But it will be a meaningful 20 seconds!!!

Thank you for your questions...I hope this helps! If you have any other questions or comments please feel free to email me at teachyourtot@gmail.com!

Trees

2011-10-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry
Curious George Plants a Tree by H.A. Rey
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
A Tree for all Seasons by Robin Bernard
Winter Trees by Carole Gerber
Sky Tree by Thomas Locker
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
Red Sings from Tree-Tops by Joyce Sidman

Activities:

Nature Walk:
Materials: a bag
Description: Go on a nature walk with your toddler around your neighborhood or yard. Take time to look at and touch several different trees. Talk about their size, how they feel, and the different parts of a tree. (trunk, branches, leaves, roots) As you and your toddler walk, have them collect different items from trees and put them in their bag. (bark, small brances, leaves, acorns, pine cones etc.) Your toddler can make a collage of all the tree items that they collected.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to appreciate the world around them, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot the parts of a tree, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to compare and contrast

Trees of every different season:
Materials: construction paper, white paint, q-tip, markers, glue, cotton ball, clothes pin,
Description: Draw 4 bare trees on seperate sheets of paper. At different times throughout the week you and your toddler can create a fall, winter, spring, and summer tree.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the seasons of the year, teach your tot how trees changes, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot language development

Here are some ways that you and your toddler can create fun trees for all the different season:
Fall Tree: Talk to your toddler, show them pictures or read them a book about what a fall tree looks like and the colors of a fall tree. They can create a fall tree by dipping their fingers into red, brown, yellow and red paint. Have your toddler stamp their fingerprints onto the bare tree to create fall leaves.

Winter Tree: Talk to your toddler, show them pictures or read them a story about what a winter tree looks like. They can create a winter tree by tearing small pieces of white paper and gluing them onto a bare tree.

Spring Tree: Talk to your toddler, show them pictures or read them a story about what a spring tree looks like. Your toddler can create a spring tree by painting pink and purple dots onto a bare tree using a q-tip. The dots represent the flower blossoms that you might see in the spring.

Summer Tree: Talk to your toddler, show them pictures or read them a story about what a tree looks like during the summer. They can create a summer tree by dipping a cotton ball into green paint and stamping it all over a bare tree.

At the end of the week, hang all four trees up next to each and label each one: fall, winter, spring, summer

Animals Live in Trees:
Materials: pictures of animals, glue, scissors, paper, crayons, markers
Description: Prior to doing this activity, cut out pictures of animals that live in trees from magazines or print them from clip art. Draw a picture of a large tree on piece of paper. Your child can color the tree. Talk with your little one about what kind of animals live in trees. Show your toddler the pictures that you cut out and have them glue the animals in their tree.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about animal habitats, teach your tot to appreciate nature and the world around them

Tree with real leaves:
Materials: paper, brown crayon, leaves, glue
Description: Take your toddler outside to collect leaves. Now that fall is here, the leaves are starting to change colors (depending on where you live!). Have your little one gather leaves of all different colors. As they collect leaves from the ground talk to them about how leaves fall from trees when it starts getting cool outside. Once you are back inside draw a large bare tree shape on a large piece of paper. Have your little one color the trunk and branches brown. They can then glue their leaves onto the tree branches and on the ground around the tree picture. (you can also collect green leaves, like we did for our collage if the leaves around you haven't started changing colors.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the parts of a tree, teach your tot to appreciate nature and world around them, teach your tot to get outside

Confetti Tree:
Materials: construction paper, hole punch, white paper, brown crayon or marker
Description: Talk to your toddler about trees and how they look different during each season. Have your toddler decide what kind of tree they would like to make. In the example below, we made a fall tree. Gather yellow, orange, brown and red construction paper and punch a lot of hole using a hole punch. Gather all the confetti that comes out of the hole punch. Draw a picture of a bare tree onto a piece of white paper, have your toddler rub glue onto the tree’s branches and sprinkle the confetti from the hole punch onto the glue.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot how trees change, teach your tot all about seasons, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative

Bird Feeder:
Materials: Pine Cone, peanut butter, bird seed, string, popsicle stick
Description: Take a walk outside with your toddler and find a pine cone that has fallen from tree. Talk about how birds live in trees. You and your little one can make a bird feeder. Simply have your toddler spread peanut butter all over the pine cone using a popsicle stick. Next sprinkle bird seed all over the pine cone. It will stick to the peanut butter. Attach a piece of string to the smaller end of the pine cone and hang it from a tree branch. (You could hot glue a stick to the bottom of the pine cone as a perch for the birds to stand on also). Throughout the week, watch to see if birds visit your toddler's feeder.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to appreciate nature, teach your tot to be kind to animals, teach your tot that animals live in trees, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development

Coffee Filter Fall Tree:
Materials: red, orange, yellow, brown food coloring, brown construction paper, paper
Description: Cut a tree trunk from brown constrution paper. Your toddler can glue the trunk to a large piece of paper. Talk with your toddler about leaves changing colors during the fall. Brainstorm the different colors that leaves change with your toddler. Fill several cups with water and add yellow, red, orange or/and brown food coloring to each cup. Using a water dropper, have your toddler drop each colored water onto the coffee filter (if you want the colors more vivid, your little one could simple squeeze the food coloring onto the coffee filter straight from the container). When it dries, glue the coffee filter to the top of the tree trunk.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot your tot that trees change colors, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative

Family Tree:
Materials: paper, markers, pictures of family members, glue
Description: You and your toddler can create a family tree this week. Simply draw or print a picture of a tree onto a piece of paper. Have your toddler color the tree. Glue pictures of family members onto the tree. As your do this have your little one tell you the names of each person.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize loved ones, teach your tot language development, teach your tot motor skill development

Compare leaves:
Materials: three different size leaves
Description: Take your toddler outside. Talk about the trees that you see. Have your toddler pick three different leaves. Let your toddler touch and look at the leaves. Have them put them in order from biggest to smallest and then from smallest to biggest. Talk with your toddler about the colors of the leaves and count them together.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot compare and contrast, teach your tot smallest and biggest, teach your tot language development, teach your tot sensory development

Songs and Fingerplays:

Trees Trees Trees:
Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells

Trees Trees Trees
Trees Trees Trees
Most trees are tall.
Trees have branches
and leaves on them all.

Trees Trees Trees
Trees Trees Trees
Have big trunks
That are covered with bark.
I see trees at the park.

Trees Trees Trees
Trees Trees Trees
Squirrels live in trees.
Owls live in trees too.
Lots of birds do.

Seasons
Sung to the tune of All Around the Mulberry Bush

All around our town
I see lots of trees.
When its hot
during the summer
The trees are green.

All around our town
I see lots of trees.
They turn orange, red,
yellow and brown
With the cool fall breeze.

All around our town
I see lots of trees.
When it gets cold
in the winter
The trees lose their leaves.

All around our town
I see lots of trees.
They bloom buds
and flowers too
In the warmth of spring.

10 Little Trees:

1 little 2 little 3 little trees
4 little 5 little 6 little trees
7 little 8 little 9 little trees
10 little trees in the woods.

Online Fun:

Coloring Trees:
Check out coloring.ws for a variety of tree coloring pages.

Recipes and Snacks:
Bird Nest Treats:
Ingredients: La Choy chow mein noodles, one bag of butterscotch chips or chocolate chips (your choice!)
Directions: Heat the butterscotch or chocolate chips in a saucepain until melted. Poor over chow mein noodles and mix gently. Have your toddler help you spoon onto wax paper. Your little can press a candy egg into the middle of each one. While you are making these talk with your little one about how birds build their nests in trees.

Diamonds

2011-09-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Curious George: Shapes by HA Rey
My Very First Book of Shapes by Eric Carle
Shapes by Christine Coirault
Shapes by Colin Petty
All Around Us: A First Shapes Book by Julie Clough
Diamond in the Snow by Jonathon Emmett
Colors and Shapes by Maureen Roffey

Activities:

Sorting Shapes:
Materials: construction paper, scissors
Description: Cut out several squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, ovals and diamonds from construction paper. Show them to your toddler and see if your child can identify each shape (and color). Help your child sort the shapes into different piles. Count each pile when you are finished. Repeat this activity throughout the week.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to sort, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot more and less

Fly a Kite:
Materials: a diamond shaped kite
Description: Take your toddler outside, this week, to fly a kite. With the great fall breeze, it is a perfect time for flying a kite. Show the kite to your toddler and ask them to identify its shape.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get moving, teach your tot to enjoy the outdoors, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Make a Kite:
Materials: construction paper, yarn, glue, scissors
Description: Cut out a diamond shape from construction paper and a piece of string for your toddler. Ask your little one to identify the shape (and color). Show them a picture of or read a book about a kite. Your toddler can make their own kite picture by gluing the diamond to a piece of paper and gluing the yarn to it also.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Stamp Diamonds:
Materials: sponge, scissors, paint, paper
Description: Cut a diamond shape from a sponge. Have your toddler dip the sponge into paint, covering the entire diamond and stamp it onto their paper, making diamond prints. Talk about the shape (how many sides does it have? How many corners does it have?).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot find corners, teach your tot to count

Pattern:
Materials: construction paper (2 different colors), scissors
Description: Cut out several diamond shapes from two different colors of construction paper. Start teaching your little one about simple patterns by having them put the diamonds in a row, alternating colors (Also known as an A B pattern...Ex: red, blue, red, blue etc). Once you have done this together, see if your toddler can put the diamonds in an A B pattern by themselves. Talk about the shape and colors as well.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot simple patterns, teach your tot math skills, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition

Lace a Diamond:
Materials: cardstock or other heavy paper, hole punch, yarn, tape
Description: Cut out a large diamond shape from heavy paper. Punch holes all around the outside of the diamond. Cut a piece of yarn and tape the ends so that they do not come unraveled. Show your toddler how to thread the yarn through the holes. Have your toddler practice this motor development skill on their own, as you talk about the shape of a diamond. (You could also take out threading shapes from past shape themes and have your toddler practice threading a variety of shapes. See if they can identify each shapes as they do this)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot shape recognition

Diamond Fun:
Materials: craft foam (or construction paper), scissors, empty clean large yogurt container
Description: Cut diamonds from different colors of craft foam (you can use construction paper also. The foam is sturdier but either one will work). Cut a slit in the yogurt container lid. Your toddler will have fun putting the foam diamonds into the slit. Have them count the diamonds as they do this. As they play, see if your toddler can identify the shape and colors of the diamonds. Your child can do this over and over again. See if they can also take the lid off to get the diamonds out and put it back on.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

D is for Diamond:
Materials: construction paper, marker
Description: Cut a large diamond shape from construction paper and write the letter D on it. Show the diamond to your toddler. Talk about the shape. Have your child practice saying the word Diamond over and over again, emphasizing the D sound at the beginning of the word. See if your little one can tell you what sound D makes. Show them the letter D on the diamond. Practice making the D sound with your little one. Hang the diamond up on your refrigerator or somewhere around your house to refer to throughout the week. (As you make these letter/picture cards, keep them. You can hang them up next to each other, or get them all out a few times a week to review and practice letters)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot beginning sounds

Crown for a King or Queen:
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue, glitter, sequences
Description: Cut a strip of construction paper about 3 inches wide and long enough to fit around your toddler's head (You may need to cut two strips and staple them together). Cut a variety of different color diamond shapes from construction paper. Lay the strip of paper flat on the table and have your toddler glue the diamonds onto it. Talk about the shape and color of the diamonds as they are gluing. They can decorate the diamonds by adding glitter or sequences to them also. When all the glue dries, staple the ends together, so that it fits around your toddler's head (you may need to overlap the ends).
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to imagine

Shaving Cream Shapes:
Materials: shaving cream
Description: This is a fun way for your toddler to practice drawing shapes. Squirt some shaving cream on a table top or the tile wall in a shower. Spread it around so that a large portion of the surface is completely covered in shaving cream. You and your toddler and use your fingers to draw each shape. You can wipe the shapes off and practice over and over again. Focus on diamonds, but review all the other shapes as well.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to make shapes, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot motor skill development

Songs and Fingerplays:

Diamonds Diamonds Diamonds:
(Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Diamonds diamonds diamonds
Diamonds diamonds diamonds
Have four sides
Diamonds have
four corners too
I like diamonds, do you?

Diamonds diamonds diamonds
Diamonds diamonds diamonds
Lets name diamond things.
Kites are diamonds.
And they can be
found in crowns and rings.

Shapes:
(sung to the tune of Bingo)

There are a lot of shapes I know
Let me name some for you
Square, circle, triangle
Rectangle, oval, diamond too
Shapes are so much fun
for me and you.

Diamond:
(Sung to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)
Hold up a picture of a diamond as you sing this song.

What shape has four corners,
four corners, four corners,
What shape has four corners,
but is NOT a square.

What shape has four sides,
four sides, four sides,
What shape has four sides
But is NOT a square.

What shape is a kite in the sky
kite in the sky, kite in the sky.
What shape is a kite in the sky,
That is flying high?

The shape is a diamond,
a diamond, a diamond.
The shape is a diamond.
Diamonds are so much fun!

Online Fun:

Coloring Fun:
Print this free diamond coloring page from www.Coloring.ws for you toddler to color and decorate. You could also print this and use it to make the kite and lacing diamond (see above in Activities section)

Letter D:

Review Letter D with your toddler here:

Recipes and Snacks:

Simple ideas:
Cut cheese into diamonds for a fun snack.
Cut your toddler's favorite sandwich into a diamond for an interesting lunch.

Raising a Child Who Loves to Read

2011-09-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

This article was written and presented to me by Dan Gilbert, Communications Cooridinator for Primrose Schools. Whether your toddler is in pre-school or not, spending time with them reading at home is key to helping them become life long readers. Gilbert emphasizes this and provides useful information, helping us teach your children to love reading.

Raising a Child Who Loves Reading
by Dan Gilbert

According to decades of research, children who grow up around books and have parents who read to them are more likely to be successful in their academic pursuits. In fact, some experts believe that reading to children before their birth helps to instill a love of learning. Showing babies colorful pictures and reading in an exaggerated voice may help to pique their interest, and it is not always necessary to “read” the written words. Sometimes changing the words to suit the interest and needs of the child can be more engaging than a literal interpretation.

Primrose Schools balanced learning programs are designed to help teach your preschool child begin to love reading. However, in order to raise a child who loves to read, making time to read together at home is essential. Going over the materials your toddler is learning and reading in preschool are prerequisites for success. Medical doctor and author of “Dr. Spock’s Baby Basics,” Robert Needleman expresses the importance of reading to children from an early age. Needleman also a member of the Primrose Schools Education Advisory Board and says, “there’s no prescription for this, the only prescription is to allow some time each day that you can sit down, connect with your child, and read together. The main thing is to allow it to occur in a way that’s joyful, that conveys enjoyment to the child – from enjoyment the rest will follow.”

Choosing appropriate books is a key component to making sure time spent reading to a child is beneficial and enjoyable. The best choices are those that have colorful illustrations, simple language and rhythmic flow. If adults enjoy the stories they read to children, they are more likely to encourage interactions and establish personal connections. Besides, there is comfort in the ritual of repeating the same story. Hearing classics again and again helps to establish a love of literature that will last a lifetime.

Five Tips to Create a Family Environment that Encourages a Love for Literature and Reading

1. Expose children to age-appropriate reading materials that cover a wide range of interests.
2. Begin reading to children every day during infancy and let them interact with the stories.
3. Keep a supply of favorites on hand for traveling, appointments, and long waits.
4. Enlist the help of teachers in finding books that complement school studies. Use libraries to broaden the possibilities.
5. Children like to “read” aloud books that have been read to them. Allow them to retell the story in their own words while turning pages and showing pictures. They may even create their own stories to fit the illustrations. The idea is to make reading a rewarding and pleasurable experience.

Through the centuries, parents have sung and cooed to their babies to form bonds and teach communication, and reading aloud to children enables them to grasp the idea of the written word. In an age of technology, the ancient art of reading is more important than ever for successful cognitive development. Nothing is quite as effective as reading to a child.

Apples

2011-09-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Apples by Gail Gibbons
Apples by Inez Snyder
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
Apples by Jacqueline Farmer
I Am An Apple by Jean Marzollo
How Do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro
Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell
Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss

Activities:

Field Trip:
Description: As a great start to this week's theme, take a trip to your local grocery store with your toddler. Let them help you pick a variety of different apples. Talk about all the apples while you are there. They can help you count apples and name the colors, as you put them in a bag too. Skills Targeted: teach your tot about your community, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to make healthy choices at the grocery store

Compare and Contrast:
Materials: a variety of apples of different colors
Description: Place a variety of different types of apples in front of your toddler. Talk about the similarities and differences between all of these apples. (What color are they? Which ones are big and which ones are small? How do they feel? Etc.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot opposites, teach your tot big and small, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to observe

Apple Tasting Party:
Materials: a variety of different types of apples
Description: Cut up several different types of apples. (You could do one apple of each color...red, yellow, and green). Have your toddler take time and eat a piece of each different apple. After they eat it, talk about how it tastes. Is it sweet or sour? Is it crunchy or soft? Print an apple coloring sheet (see Online Fun) and have your toddler color the apple the same color as the one that they liked the best.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to make healthy snack choices, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your to observe and discover

Applesauce:
Materials: apples, red-hot’s, Crockpot
Description: You and your toddler can make homemade applesauce together. There are many recipes for making delicious applesauce. The easiest one that I used as a teacher, was to simply cut up about 10 peeled apples. Put them in a Crockpot or an electric skillet and add a bag of red-hot’s to it. Let it cook until the apples turn mushy. Talk to your toddler about how the apples are different before and after they cooked. We would love for everyone to share any other applesauce recipes with us. Leave a comment or email me and I will share your ideas with everyone.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to cook, teach your tot to make healthy choices in the kitchen, teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot to observe, teach your tot sensory development

Apple Prints:
Materials: apples, paint (red, yellow, green), paper
Description: Cut an apple in half so that you can see the star shape that the seeds make. Show your toddler the seeds. Count them and talk about how apples grow from seeds. Your little one can dip the apple in the paint and stamp the apple print onto a piece of paper over and over again.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to discover, teach your tot be creative

Ten Apples Up on Top:
Materials: Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg, a picture of your toddler, apples cut from paper, headband, plastic apples
Description: Read the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg to your toddler. Count out 10 paper apples. Let your toddler glue a picture of them to a long piece of paper. Explain to them that they will put 10 apples on top of their head, just like in the book. Let your toddler put paper apple on top of another, counting as they do this. When all 10 apples are on top of their head, count them again with your little one and write the numbers 1-10 on each apple.
Another fun activity to do with this book is to hot glue 10 plastic apples (found at any craft store) to the top of a thick plastic headband. Your toddler will have fun counting the apples and wearing all 10 of them on top of their head.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recall a story, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to be creative

Parts of an Apple:
Materials: Red, white, brown and black construction paper, glue, scissors
Description: Before doing this activity with your toddler, cut out a large apple shape from red construction paper, a smaller apple shape from white construction paper, a brown stem and several black apple seeds. Show each of these cut-outs to your toddler and tell them you are going to put them together to make an apple. Your toddler can glue the white apple shape on top of the red one. Ask your toddler to name the colors as they are doing this. Next glue on the black seeds and the brown stem. Again, talk to your toddler about the colors. When they are finished talk about each different part of the apple and label them while you are talking to your toddler. The red is the skin, the white is the flesh, the black are the seeds and the brown is the stem.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the parts of an apples, teach your tot to observe and discover, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot color recognition

A is for Apple:
Materials: sand paper, cardstock paper, glue
Description: If you haven't already, start creating your sandpaper letter book for your toddler. Here are directions for making these. Since Apple starts with A, this is a great week to make letter A. Simply trace an "A" stencil onto sandpaper and cut it out. Glue it to a piece of cardstock or other heavy paper. Punch a hole in the left corner and put a metal ring through it. As you continue to make each letter, you can attach it to the ring to create a little book. When working with the sandpaper letter books, trace your child's finger over the sandpaper letters while saying the letter's name and sound.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot letter recognition, teach your tot letter sound recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot pre-reading skills

Sort Apples:
Materials: a variety of real apples or yellow, red, and green paper apples
Description: If you use paper apples for this activity, cut out several apple shapes from red, yellow and green paper. Show these to your toddler and have them name each color. They can sort the apples by color, putting all the yellow ones in a pile, all the red ones in another pile and all the green ones in another pile. Count the apples in each pile. Which has more? Which has less? Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot math skills, teach your tot to count, teach your tot more and less

Dissect an Apple:
Description: You and your toddler can dissect an apple together (do not let your toddler use or touch a knife for this activity). Give an apple to your toddler and let them touch the outside of it. Show them the stem. How does it feel? Explain to your child that the outside of an apple is called the skin. Peel the apple. Your toddler and taste the skin as you peel it. Show your toddle the flesh of an apple. This is the part that you can eat. Talk about how it feels and tastes. Cut the apple in half and have your toddler take out the seeds. Count them together.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to observe and discover, teach your tot the parts of an apples, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot math skills

Apple Seed Collage:
Materials: apple seeds, glue, paper
Description: Throughout the week, you and your toddler can save all the apple seeds from the apples that you use to do various activities. At the end of the week, your toddler can make an apple seed collage by gluing all these seeds onto a piece of paper. Count them together and see how many seeds they collected throughout the week.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot that apples have seeds, teach your tot to count, teach your tot motor skill development

Songs and Fingerplays:

Apples in a Tree:
(Sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy)

I saw an apple tree
Standing in an orchard.
There were apples that were red
hanging from its branches.
Count them with me
1, 2, 3
4, 5 and 6.
7, 8, 9, and 10,
red apples I can pick.

I saw an apple tree
standing in an orchard.
There were apples that were yellow
hanging from its branches.
Count them with me
1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6.
7, 8, 9, and 10
yellow apples I can pick.

I saw an apple tree
standing in an orchard.
There were apples that were green
hanging from its branches.
Count them with me
1, 2, 3,
4, 5 and 6
7, 8, 9, and 10
green apples I can pick.

I love Apples
Sung to the tune of I Love You, You Love Me

I love apples
Can't you see.
They're as yummy as they can be.
I take a big bite,
Then I crunch crunch crunch.
Apples are so much fun to munch.

5 Little Apples:

5 little apples in a grocery store.
Someone bought one.
Now there are 4.

4 little apples in an apple tree.
Someone picked one.
Now there are 3.

3 little apples not knowing what to do.
One got lost.
Now there are 2.

2 little apples having lots of fun.
One rolled away.
Now there's only 1.

1 little apple out in the sun.
A squirrel came along and ate it.
Now there are none.

Online Fun:

Coloring:
Check out www.coloring.ws for some free apple coloring pages.

Letter A:

Snacks and Recipes:

Apple Dipping:
Ingredients: apples, yogurt, caramel, peanut butter, honey
Directions: Apples are such a fun dipping snack. There are so many fun dipping options too. Put several dips, such as yogurt, melted caramel, peanut butter, and honey into small bowls. Slice an apple for your toddler and they will have fun dipping their apple pieces! Talk to them about which dip they like the most. This is a fun healthy snack.

Apple Pie:
Check out Kids Cooking Activities for a fun apple pie recipe and other yummy apple treats!

Color Cake!

2011-09-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to try it! My kids and their cousins made this today for their grandma's 60th birthday! I wanted to share this as a great way to teach or reinforce color recognition! We mixed colors and added more or less food coloring to make new colors and change their shade. It was so much fun to make and more fun to eat!

Ingredients:

2 boxes of yellow cake (and the ingredients that the package requires)

3 containers of white icing

food coloring

circle pans

Combine the box cake mix and the other ingredients to make the cake batter (we used 2 boxes and doubled the ingredients to have enough batter for a 6 layer cake). Divide the cake batter into 6 bowls and add the food coloring of your choice to each bowl. Bake the cake until it is cooked throughout.

While the cakes are baking, divide the icing into 6 different bowls. Add food

coloring to the bowls to make the icing the same colors as the cakes.

When all the cakes are baked and cooled, lay one down on a cake plate and icing it (top and sides) with the same color icing. Continue to layer and icing until all 6 layers are complete. (The cake was a little wobbly but still came out good! I would suggest to flip every other layer upside down)

Since there were 4 kids that "helped" make this colorful cake, it was a little messy, but that was part of the fun! :-)

Talk about each color as you make the cake batter and icing and when you eat it!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to cook, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot to mix colors, teach your tot different shades of colors

Farm Animals

2011-09-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Farm Animals by DK Publishing
Pop Up Farm Animals by Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff
The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Farm Peekaboo by Charlie Gardner
Touch and Feel: Farm by Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff
Color Farm by Lois Ehlert

Activities:

Old McDonald:
Materials: Pictures of farm animals (optional), felt board farm animals (optional)
Description: Old McDonald is a toddler classic and a great way to learn about farm animals! Sing Old McDonald with your toddler throughout the week. Let them help you pick the next farm animal on Old McDonald's farm as you sing. You can also sing the song and show your toddler pictures of farm animals as you go. Another fun activity to do with Old McDonald is to make felt farm animals and display them on your homemade felt board as you sing. (Check out our blog to learn how to make your own felt board.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot animal sounds, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot nursery rhymes and songs

Paper Plate Farm Animals Masks:
Materials: Paper Plates, paint or markers, construction paper, stapler, ribbon, scissors
Description: You and your toddler can make a variety of farm animals masks throughout the week. Have your toddler decide what farm animal they would like to make. Paint or color the paper plate according to the animal your toddler chooses (ex. paint the plate pink if you are making a pig mask). Talk about the different features of the farm animal (what does it's nose, mouth, and ears look like?). Cut out circles in the paper plate for the eyes. Make a nose, mouth and ears from construction paper and glue them onto the plate. Last staple ribbon or elastic to the back of the paper plate and tie it to fit around your child's head! Have them wear the mask and practice making the correct farm animal sounds.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot animal sounds, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to imagine, teach your tot motor skill development

Pretend Play:
Description: Simply pretend to be different farm animals and encourage your toddler to join in the fun! Have your little one make the sounds that different farm animals make as they pretend. Skills Targeted: teach your tot to play, teach your tot to imagine, teach your tot to recognize animals sounds, teach your tot sensory development

Sheep:
Materials: construction paper, glue, cotton balls
Description: Talk to your toddler about sheep (how they look and feel.). Show them a picture of a sheep. You and your toddler can make your own sheep together. Draw a sheep shape on a piece of construction paper and have your toddler fill the sheep with cotton balls. Talk about how sheep feel.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development

Nursery Rhymes:
Description: Nursery rhymes are great for toddlers! Recite these farm themed nursery rhymes to your toddler throughout the week. You could also make felt board animals to go along with these nursery rhymes:
Ba-Ba Black Sheep
Little Boy Blue
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Little Bo Peep
Hickety, Pickety My Black Hen
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to learn through music and nursery rhymes, teach your tot nursery rhymes, teach your tot pre-reading skills

Feed the ducks:
Materials: bread
Description: Ducks are common farm animals. Take your toddler to a local pond or river to feed some ducks. Bring a long a loaf of bread. Your toddler will love seeing the ducks close-up. Talk about the ducks while you are feeding them. Maybe your toddler will even find a feather!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot animals sounds, teach your tot about the world around them, teach your tot to get outdoors

Eggs:
Materials: empty egg carton, construction paper or plastic eggs
Description: Before beginning this activity cut out several eggs from construction paper or use plastic eggs and put them inside an egg carton. Talk with your toddler about how chickens and ducks lay eggs. Write the numbers 1-12 in each section of the egg carton. Your child can put each egg into the egg carton to count the eggs and name the colors of each egg.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to count, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot number recognition

Farm Animals Charades:
Description: You can have fun acting out different farm animals and having your toddler guess what animal you are. Your child can also act out different farm animals and you can guess.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot animal sounds, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your to imagine

Pin the Tail on the Donkey:
Materials: large paper, construction paper, tape, scissors
Description: Before playing this game, draw a large donkey shape on a piece of paper and a donkey's tail on separate sheet of paper. Cut out the donkey's tail and put a piece of double sided tape on it. Tape or tack the picture of the donkey to the wall and have your toddler pin the tail on the donkey. Talk with your toddler about how donkeys live on a farm. You could play this game with any other farm animal also.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to recognize animals, teach your tot sensory development

Duck Duck Goose:
Description: Invite some of your toddlers friends over for a game of Duck, Duck, Goose!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get moving, teach your tot to play, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to follow directions

Songs and Fingerplays:

Old McDonald:
Old McDonald had a farm
EIEIO
And on that farm he had a _________ (animal name).
EIEIO.
With a _____ ______ here and a ______ ______ there.
Here a _____ there a ______, everywhere a ______ ______.
Old McDonald had a farm.
EIEIO.

In the Barn:
(sung to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)

The cow in the barn goes moo moo moo
moo moo moo, moo moo moo.
The cow in the barn goes moo moo moo
All day on the farm.

Continue with different farm animals such as:
The pig in the pen
The ducks on the pond
The hen in the coop
The horse in the field

I'm a little piggy.
(tune of I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little piggy
Short and stout
Here are my ears
Here is my snout
When I see
my food
Then I shout
Oink Oink
Oink Oink
Oink Oink
Oink!

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:
Check out www.coloring.ws to print off a variety of different farm animal coloring pages.

Nursery Rhymes:
Check out Enchanted Learning to read a variety of rhymes and nursery rhymes about farm animals.

A Trip to the Farm:
Check out this online PowerPoint story about farm animals.

Virtual Farm:
Check out Toddler Toddler's awesome virtual farm.

Pictures:
View a variety of pictures of farm animals at Yahoo! Images.

Yellow

2011-09-09T03:19:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Yellow by Sarah L. Schuette
Little Blue Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings: Fold out Fun with Textures, Colors, Shapes, Animals by Matthew Van Fleet
Purple, Green, Yellow by Robert Munsch
Yellow Square by David A. Carter
Yellow by Patricia Stockland
Big Yellow Trucks and Diggers by Caterpillar

Activities:

Yellow Collage:
Materials: poster board (or large piece of paper), glue, scissors
Description: Throughout the week, find and keep yellow objects that you and your toddler come across. Keep a poster board in sight and as your toddler finds a yellow object have them glue it to the poster board. (Check the mail, wrappers, magazines, etc for yellow objects)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize colors, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot color word recognition, teach your tot sensory development

Yellow Nature Walk:
Description: Take a walk outside with our toddler and have them find everything yellow. (You could also take pictures of these objects and start a yellow collage on a poster board.)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to appreciate nature, teach your tot to get outdoors, teach your tot sensory development

Yellow Shapes:
Materials: construction paper, scissors
Description: Cut out each different shape in a variety of colors. Spread these shapes out in front of your toddler. See if your little one can identify the different shapes and colors. Next have your toddler pick out only the yellow shapes. As an extension to this activity, have your little one pick out only the yellow triangles. Then find only the yellow rectangles. Then only the yellow circles, etc. (Your toddler could even glue these yellow shapes onto their yellow collage when they are finished working with them)
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to follow directions

Yellow Art:
Materials: yellow paint, yellow markers, yellow crayon, yellow colored pencil, yellow crafts, paper
Description: Have your toddler create using a variety of different yellow art supplies. They can paint with yellow paint, draw with a yellow marker, crayon, and colored pencil. They can also glue on yellow crafts such as pom-poms, sequences, ribbon, felt etc. They will have fun getting creative.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development

Mixing Yellow:
materials: blue, yellow, red paint, paper, paint brushes
Description: Squirt some yellow paint and some red paint next to each other on a piece of paper. Your toddler can mix these two colors together using a paintbrush. Let them identify the color that yellow and red make. Next, squirt some yellow and blue paint next to each other on a different piece of paper and have your toddler mix these colors together using a different paintbrush. See if your little one can identify the color that is made from mixing yellow and blue.
* You can sing The Mixing Color song as you do this activity with your toddler. The words are found below under Songs and Fingerplays.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to make new colors, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development

Yellow sunshine hands:
Materials: yellow construction paper, glue
Description: Talk with your toddler about the sun. Show them a picture of the sun and ask them what color it is. Trace your toddlers hand several times on a piece of yellow construction paper and cut them out. Glue the palm part of each hand on top of one another, turning each hand slightly so that the fingers create the sunshine rays. You can write the word sun on it.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot motor skill development

Make Lemonade:
Materials: lemonade mix, a pitcher, cups, lemons, water
Description: You and your toddler can make lemonade together either using a mix or make a homemade recipe. Cut up lemons for your toddler and let them squeeze the lemons into the lemonade. Talk to your toddler about the color of the lemons. Have a lemonade party and drink it together. You and your toddler could even set up a lemonade stand and offer it to your neighbors.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to cook, teach your tot follow directions, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot life skills

Fun with Yellow Paint:
Materials: yellow paint, paper, a box, a golf ball or other small ball
Description: Your toddler can create a fun art design. Lay a piece of paper at the bottom of a box (the top of a shoe box would work well). Squirt a little paint on the paper and place a golf ball into the box. Let your toddler shake the box around so that the ping pong rolls all over the paper moving the yellow paint around. When they are finished take the piece of paper out of the box, let it dry, and write the word yellow on it for your toddler to see.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot color word recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to be creative

Paint with corn:
Materials: yellow corn (on the cob), yellow paint, paper
Description: Corn is a yellow food and can be a great painting tool! Give your toddler some yellow paint and a piece of corn and see what they create. Encourage them to roll the corn across their paper and see the shapes it makes. They can also stamp the corn on the paper for a fun design.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to be creative

Wear Yellow:
Materials: Yellow clothes
Description: This is a great end of the week activity for yellow week! But any day will work! Let your toddler pick out yellow clothes from their closet and from yours! Dress in all yellow that day.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot sensory development
Sun:
Materials: Styrofoam ball, yellow paint, yellow pipe cleaners (cut in half)
Description: Give your toddler some yellow paint and see if they can tell you what color it is. Explain that the sun is yellow and you will make a sun. Have your toddler paint the Styrofoam ball yellow. When it dries help your toddler stick the yellow pipe cleaners around the Styrofoam ball to make a sun.
Skills targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative

Songs and Fingerplays:

Yellow is the Color of the Sun:
(sung to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It)

Yellow is the color of the sun.
(Clap clap clap)
Yellow is the color of the sun.
(clap clap clap)
There is so much to see
That is yellow, just listen to me.
Yellow is the color of the sun.

Yellow is the color of a flower.
(clap clap clap)
Yellow is the color of a flower.
(clap, clap, clap)
There is so much to see
That is yellow, just listen to me.
Yellow is the color of a flower.

Yellow is the color of a duckling.
(clap clap clap)
Yellow is the color of a duckling.
(clap, clap, clap)
There is so much to see
That is yellow, just listen to me.
Yellow is the color of a duckling.

You and your toddler can brainstorm more yellow objects and continue this song!

I Love Yellow
(Sung to the tune of the Barney Theme Song)

I love yellow
Can't you see?
The color yellow is so pretty.
Just take a look at a flower or the sun.
Yellow can be so much fun.

Mixing Colors Song:
(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Yellow and Red
Yellow and Red
Mixing yellow and red
Stir them together.
What color do you see?
Orange in front of me.

Yellow and blue
Yellow and blue
Mixing yellow and blue.
Stir them together.
What color do you see?
Green in front of me.

Yellow Is...:

Yellow is the color of the sun.
Yellow is so much fun.
Yellow is a banana peel.
Yellow is squash, my mom made me eat with my meal.
Yellow is a baby chick.
Yellow is a Popsicle to lick.
Yellow is a sign on the road.
Yellow is clay to mold.
Yellow is a bus that goes to school.
I think Yellow is pretty cool!

Online Fun:

Coloring Pages:
Here are some fun coloring pages of things that are yellow from www.coloring.ws.

School Bus
Popcorn
Sun
Banana
Recipes and Snacks:

Yellow Taste Test:
Ingredients: squash (cooked), banana, lemon, yellow Popsicle, corn, other yellow foods
Lay these foods out for your toddler to see. Ask your little one what color all of these foods are. Explain to your toddler that some foods have skin or peels on them that we can't eat. Teach your toddler how to peel a banana. Cut the lemon and squash for them. Your toddler can taste each of these yellow foods and tell you how they taste (sweet, sour, salty etc.) and which ones they did and didn't like. To make this more fun, you could put all the yellow foods into a muffin tin!

Sunshine Cookies:
Ingredients: cookie dough, icing, yellow food coloring, pretzel sticks
Directions: Bake cookies according to packaging directions. As the cookies are cooling, have your toddler help you make yellow icing by squirting several drops of yellow food coloring into a bowl of icing and mixing it up. Let them help you dip several pretzel sticks into the yellow icing to coat them (this will get messy!). Poke the pretzel sticks around the side of the cookies to make the sunshine's rays. Icing the cookie yellow! YUMMY!

Sand Paper Letters

2011-09-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

Since summer is winding down and a new school year has begun, my kids and I have gotten back into the routine of incorporating some learning time into our day. I made these sandpaper letters for my daughter when she was younger. I posted them here awhile ago, but since we are using them again now with my 3-year-old son, I wanted to share this idea again!

Sandpaper letters help your toddler associate the letter name or sound with the symbol. While your toddler traces the letter with their finger and says the letter name or sound out loud, they are stimulating their sense of touch, sight and sound.

To make these, simply trace and cut out each letter of the alphabet onto sand paper. Glue the letters to cardstock, punch a hole in the corner and attach them together with a metal ring.

Grandparents

2011-08-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Grandparents by Leon Read
Grandpa's Little One by Billy Crystal
Little Bear's Visit by Else Holmelund Minarik
Just Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer
Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco
The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr
Spot Visits His Grandparents by Eric Hill
The Grandma Book by Todd Parr
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

Activities:

Photo Book:
Materials: pictures of grandparents and other relatives, small photo album, white marker
Description: Small photo albums with pictures of loved ones are fun for kids to look at and help them remember names and faces. You and your toddler can start one of these special photo albums this week. Print a picture of all of your child's grandparents (if they do not have any grandparents, print pictures of yourself and other friends or relatives). Show the pictures of your child and see if they can identify the person in the photo. Write the name of each person on their picture and slide it into the album. You can keep this album with your child's favorite books for them to look at again and again.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about family, teach your tot to recognize people, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot to hold a book correctly

Picture Frame:
materials: 4 popsicle sticks, yarn (or ribbon), a piece of cardboard or heavy cardstock, glue, a picture of your toddler's grandparents
Description: Many of us have seen and probably even made popsicle stick picture frames. This idea is similar; however, your toddler will also get some motor skill development by making this frame. To begin, show your toddler how to wrap a Popsicle stick with yarn and let them do the other three. To attach the yarn simply use a dot of glue or a staple to the back of the Popsicle stick. Glue all four Popsicle sticks to each other, making a square or rectangle. Last, glue a piece of cardboard or cardstock to the back of the frame on three sides only. Make the cardboard or cardstock bigger than the picture, so that the picture of your child's grandparents will slide in-between the frame and the cardboard.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative, teach your tot to give, teach your tot

Old and Young:
Materials: a picture of your child's grandparents, a picture of your child
Description: Show your toddler a picture of one of their grandparents and a picture of themselves. Talk about the similarities and differences of both people in the pictures. Which is old, which is young?
Skills Targeted: teach your tot opposites, teach your tot the difference between old and young, teach your tot to pay attention to detail, teach your tot to observe

Write and Mail a Letter:
Materials: paper, envelope, stamp, pen, crayons
Description: Whether or not your child's grandparents live close by or far away, you and your toddler can write them a letter. Sit with your toddler and tell them that you will write a letter to grandma or grandpa (or other relative or friend). Start with Dear _______, . Your toddler can tell you what to write. Explain the greeting and closing of a letter to your toddler. Have your toddler draw a picture to enclose in the letter. Your toddler can help you seal the envelope. Talk to them about the address as you write it on the letter. Your toddler can put the stamp on the envelope. Take your toddler to the post office with you. Show your toddler all around the post office and have them help you put the letter in the right mail slip.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to write and mail a letter, teach your tot about their community, teach your tot pre-writing skills, teach your tot about where people live

Letter G:
Materials: sand paper, paper, glue
Description: Since grandma and grandpa begin with letter G, you and your toddler can learn about letter G this week. You can start a sandpaper letter book together. Simply trace letter G onto a piece of sandpaper and cut it out. Glue it to a piece of heavy paper such as cardstock. Through the week, show it to your toddler and have them trace the letter while they say its name and sound. You can punch a hole in the corner and add a metal ring and as you make other letters, you can keep them all together. Check out the sandpaper letter book on the Teach Your Tot blog.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the alphabet, teach your tot pre-reading skills, teach your tot to recognize letters, teach your tot letter sounds

Family Tree:
materials: pictures of grandparents, parents, and your children, glue, a piece of paper
Description: You and your toddler can make a family tree together. First draw a picture of a big tree onto a piece of paper. Have your toddler help you color it. Show your toddler all the pictures for the family tree and have them identify each person. Your child can help you glue the pictures of all of their grandparents across the top of the tree. Write the names of each grandparent under their picture. Next, glue the picture of your toddler's parents under the correct set of grandparents and write your names. Last, your toddler can glue the picture of themselves at the bottom of the tree. Write your toddler's name under their picture.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about their family, teach your tot to recognize people, teach your tot how they are related to their grandparents

Grandma's Cookies:
Materials: The book The Doorbell Rang, cookie dough or ingredients for making homemade cookies
Description: Read the Doorbell Rang to your toddler. In this story the kids eat and share cookies that are "as good as Grandma's." After reading the story, make cookies with your toddler. (If your child's grandma lives close invite them over to make cookies with them or bring some cookies over). When the cookies cool, count the cookies with your toddler. You could also invite some friends over to share the cookies. Give each person three cookies and count them together.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to cook, teach your tot to share, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to count

Family Map:
Materials: a map, small photos of grandparents and your little ones (and other relatives or friends)
Description: Show your toddler a map and talk about what it is and what it is used for. Show your toddler where they live and have them glue the picture of themselves to the state that they live in. Do this same thing for grandparents and other family or friends. You can hang this map up and talk about all these different places each day.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about a map, teach your tot where they live, teach your tot to find places on a map, teach your tot where their family lives

Songs and Fingerplays:

I Love Grandma and Grandpa:
(Sung to the tune of the Barney Theme Song)

I love grandma.
She loves me.
Grandma's as fun as she can be.
She reads me lots of books
And plays with me all day,
I think Grandma is A-Okay!

I love Grandpa.
He loves me.
Grandpa's as fun as he can be.
He takes me to the park
And swings me in the air.
But why doesn't grandpa have any hair!

Grandma's house:
(sung to the tune of All Round the Mulberry Bush)

Here we go to grandma's house.
I can't wait.
We'll bake cookies and play games
And stay up so late.

Here we go to grandma's house.
We can't get there fast enough.
We'll sing all kinds of songs,
and do lots of really fun stuff.

Here we go to grandma's house.
Grandpa will be there too.
He'll chase me around and swing me in the air,
There's so much we will do.

Things Around Grandma's/Grandpa's House:
(Sung to the tune of These are the People in Your Neighborhood)

A hat is something I find at Grandpa's house
at Grandpa's House
at Grandpa's House.
A hat is something I find at Grandpa's house
There are many fun things for me.

Cookies are something I find at Grandma's house,
at grandma's house,
at grandma's house.
Cookies are something I find at Grandma's house.
There are so many fun things there for me.

Books are something I find at Grandpa's house,
at Grandpa's house,
at Grandpa's house.
Books are something I find at Grandpa's house.
There are so many fun things there for me.

Online Fun:

Letter G:
Since grandma, grandpa, and grandparent all start with letter G you can your toddler can watch letter G here...

Printable Checklist for staying at grandma’s house:
If possible, have your toddler plan a special sleepover or visit with their grandparents this week. Print this checklist and have your toddler find these items to take with them.

Videos:
Check out www.sesamestreet.org for some cute videos about grandparents:

Fishing with Abuelo

We're a family

Recipes:

Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies:
Simply Recipes has a yummy recipe for Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies!
Ingredients:
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 cups oats (we use Quaker Quick or Old Fashioned. Do NOT use instant.)
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (use 1/2 cup if using raisins)
• 1 cup raisins (optional

Visit Simply Recipes for directions!

Getting Dressed

2011-08-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Book Suggestions:

Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathon London
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems
Dress Maisy by Lucy Cousins
Princess Bess Gets Dressed by Margery Cuyler
Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch
Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Ruby's Rainy Day by Rosemary Wells
Clothes by Liesbet Slegers
Animals Should definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett

Activities:

Sort Clothes:
Materials: several shirts, shorts, socks, bathing suits, underwear
Description: Place all the clothes into a pile. Have your toddler pick one article of clothing at a time and put it in the correct pile or basket. Shirts go together, shorts go together etc.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot math skills, teach your tot to sort, teach your tot to follow directions

Dress Themselves:
Description: Each morning allow your toddler to pick out their own clothes. Help them dress themselves. You can sing songs with them as they put on each article of clothing. (See I Can Dress Myself in songs and fingerplays). You could print this song and tape it somewhere in your child's room so that you can sing it everyday as you help them dress themselves.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to dress themselves, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot life skills

Draw and Dress:
Materials: large piece of paper, markers, crayons, construction paper.
Description: Have your toddler lay down (on their back) on a large piece of paper. Trace their body onto the paper. Cut a shirt, pants, socks, and shoes from construction paper. Your toddler can decorate or color these if they want. Have your toddler glue each article of clothing onto the paper drawing of them. They can also add eyes, nose, mouth, and hair to the drawing. Label each article of clothing when they are finished.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot about their own body, teach your tot how to dress themselves

Label Drawers:
Materials: index cards, makers or crayons
Description: With your toddler, open each drawer in your toddler's dresser. Have your toddler name the article of clothes that are in each drawer. Write the name and draw a picture of each article of clothing on index cards. Tape or tack the correct index card to the appropriate drawer. This way your child knows what drawer their clothes are in.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot life skills, teach your tot to recognize pictures, teach your tot language development

Dress a Doll:
Materials: baby doll, baby doll clothes
Description: Have your toddler practice dressing a baby doll. As they do this, talk about each article of clothing and where it goes on the doll.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get dressed, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot language development

Paper Dolls:
Materials: cardboard or foam, scissors, paper, Velcro, glue
Description: Cut out a doll shape from a piece of cardboard or craft foam. Cut out several shirts, shorts, pants, skirts, socks and shoes from construction paper or craft foam. Glue a piece of Velcro to the dolls chest, legs and feet. Glue the other side of the Velcro to each piece of clothing so that when you put it against the doll it sticks. (You could also use small magnets or tape). As your toddler plays with their paper doll, talk about the different articles of clothing.
I found this foam doll kit at Joann Fabric
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get dressed, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot to play

Decorate your own shirt:
Materials: shirt, fabric art supplies (puffy paint, iron-ons, etc)
Description: Place a piece of cardboard in the middle of the shirt. Have your toddler decorate the shirt using fabric art supplies such as puffy paint. You can add an iron-on to the shirt as well. Your toddler will love wearing their own designer shirt!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to create, teach your tot motor skills

Dress for the Occasion:
Materials: Clothes
Description: We all wear different clothes for different occasions and different weather. Throughout the week, you and your toddler can dress for a real or pretend occasion. For example, if your little one is involved in dance have them pick out their tights, leotard, and tutu and put it on. If it is raining outside, see if your toddler can pick out the appropriate clothes. Help them put on their raincoats and rain boots. Even if it is not cold where you live yet, you can pretend, and have your toddler pick out winter clothes. Help them put on their pants, jackets, hats and gloves. You could even dress for your favorite sporting event. You could dress for a different occasion or weather each day.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to get dressed, teach your tot life skills, teach your tot about the weather, teach your tot to problem solve

Dress up Party:
Description: Invite some of your toddler's friends over for a dress up party. You can come up with a theme (such as rainy day clothes or dressy clothes) and everyone can dress accordingly. You could provide a basket of dress-up play clothes for the children to play with at the party as well.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be a friend, teach your tot motor skills, teach your tot to play, teach your tot to share

Count the Clothes:
Materials: at least 10 shirts or other article of clothes (you could also cut clothes out of construction paper), string, clothes pins.
Description: String a clothes line either outside or inside your house. Have your toddler help you hang up at least 10 articles of clothes or construction paper clothes on the clothes line using clothes pins. Help your toddler count the clothes each day. You could even write the numbers on index cards and pin them to each article of clothing so that your toddler can also practice number recognition as they count.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to count, teach your tot to get dressed, teach your tot to recognize articles of clothing, teach your tot number recognition

Wash Clothes:
Description: Have your toddler help you wash your laundry during the week. They can hand you clothes to put into the washing machine (count each piece as they hand it to you). They can even help you measure and pour the detergent. Explain to them that clothes get dirty so they need to be washed. Your toddler could help you fold the laundry and put it away, into their newly labeled dressers drawers.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot life skills, teach your tot math skills, teach your tot to count, teach your tot to measure, teach your tot motor skills

Dress Alike:
Description: Your kids or you and your little one can pick out clothes that are similar and dress alike one day this week. Talk about the things that are the same and the things that are different about your outfits.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to compare and contrast, teach your tot the opposites same and different, teach your tot to match

Dress in Colors:
Description: You and your toddler can pick a different color each day and dress in that color! Have your little one go through their closet and find clothes that are the “color of the day.” While they are putting on their color clothes, teach them how to dress themselves.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to recognize colors, teach your tot to match colors, teach your tot to get dressed, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to make choices

Songs and Fingerplays:

I Can Dress Myself:
sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

I pull my shirt over my head,
over my head, over my head.
I pull my shirt over my head
with the tag in back.

I put my arms through each hole
through each hole, through each hole.
I put my arms through each hole.
I can dress myself.

I put one leg into my pants (or you can sing shorts)
into my pants, into my pants.
I put one leg into my pants.
Then I put the other leg.

I pull my pants up to my waist,
to my waist, to my waist.
I pull my pants up to my waist.
Then I zip and button (or snap) them.

I pull one sock on then the other,
then the other, then the other.
I pull one sock on then the other.
Now I have on two socks.

I slip my right foot into my right shoe,
into my right shoe, into my right shoe.
I slip my right foot into my right shoe.
My mom (or dad, grandma, grandpa etc) helps me tie (or Velcro) them.

I slip my left foot into my left shoe,
into my left shoe, into my left shoe.
I slip my left foot into my left shoe.
My mom helps me tie (or Velcro) them.

I can get dressed by myself,
by myself, by myself.
I can get dressed by myself.
I am a big girl/boy!

Dress for the season:
Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells

Hats and gloves
pants and coats
is what I wear
In the winter
when it’s cold
and snow is everywhere.

Shorts and shirts
rain boots too
I wear in the spring.
When it gets warmer
and rains a lot
I like to dance and sing.

Bathing suits
and sun hats,
I wear when it’s hot.
In the summer
I keep cool
by swimming a lot.

Long sleeve shirts
and blue jeans
I wear in the fall.
The cool breezes
blow my way
when autumn calls.

I have a little hat:

I have a little hat
that I wear on head
to keep the sun out of my eyes.
I also have a hat
that I wear on my head
to keep me warm and dry.

I have two mittens
that I wear on my hands to play,
When it’s cold outside
and snows all day.

I have two boots
that I wear to keep my toes dry.
When it rains all day
but I still want to play outside.

I have a scarf
that I wear to help keep me warm.
I wrap around and around my neck
when the cold winds swarm.

I have a coat
that I wear on really cold days.
It’s soft and big and keeps me warm
when I go outside to play.

I have a bathing suit
that I wear on many summer days.
To keep cool when it’s hot,
in a pool is where I stay.

Online Fun:

Dress-up:
Nick Jr. has some fun dress up games for you and your toddler to play together!

Dress Elmo for Fall. Play this game at www.Sesamestreet.org.

Videos:
Watch "I Put My Legs in My Pants" at SesameStreet.org.

Recipes:

Gingerbread Cookies:
Ingredients: gingerbread cookies (homemade or store bought), icing, zip lock bag
Directions: Your toddler can draw clothes onto a gingerbread cookie using icing and a zip lock bag. Cut off one of the corners of the zip lock bag, add icing to the bag and close. Squeeze the icing into the cut corner and it will come out of the opening. Your toddler can use it to add a shirt, pants, socks, and a hat to their gingerbread man. You can make different color icing by adding food coloring to the icing in each zip lock bag.

Homemade Chalk

2011-08-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Our take on homemade chalk...

Ingredients:
Plaster of Paris
Water
Icing Coloring
Bowls
Spoons
Molds of your choice
Cooking Spray

1. Mix the plaster and water together. 2 parts plaster to 1 part water. For each bowl, we mixed 1/2 cup of plaster with 1/4 cup of water. You don't want it chunky but not too watery either!

2. Next, we mixed in the icing coloring (we used this because it is more concentrated and won't water down the plaster mixture). I have read that Tempera Paint works well or you could even try food coloring. Keep adding the coloring until you get the desired brightness that you and your toddler like!
3. Spray your molds with cooking spray and pour in the plaster mixture! We used this heart ice cube tray and...

...this flower mold that I actually bought to make white chocolate covered pretzel sticks. Both molds worked great!

4. Let them dry over night!

Chalk is wonderful to help our little ones develop so many skills! Have them practice writing letters, numbers or shapes. Draw shapes for them and have them jump from shape to shape. Play hopscotch or four square. Have them simply create their own drawings!

Here are some of the Teach Your Tot themes with activities that include chalk:

If you have already done some of these activities with your toddlers, don't worry..do them again! Remember repetition is GREAT for our little ones!

Eyes and Seeing

2011-08-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

Eyes and Seeing

Book Suggestions:

Eyes by Simona Sideri
The Eye Book by Dr. Seuss
Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert
I Spy by Jean Marzolla
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? By Eric Carle
Peek-a-boo, I See You by Wendy Lewison
Can You See What I See? by Walter Wick
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you See? By Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

Activities:

I Spy:
Description: Find a favorite spot outside or inside to sit with your toddler. Explain to them how to play the game "I Spy." You can start by saying "I spy something...". Have your toddler look all around them and try to guess what you are spying. Keep giving more and more clues about what the object looks like. As you are playing, ask them what part of their body they are using to see.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot to observe and discover, teach your tot language skills

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (eyes too):
Description: Sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (words found below under Songs and Fingerplays). Point to each body part as you sing this song.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the parts of their body, teach your tot motor skill development

I see a _______.
Materials: large pictures of animals, shapes, colors or anything that your toddler is interested in.
Description: Provide several pictures for your toddler (these pictures can be of animals, shapes, colors, ABCs, etc). Hold up one picture at a time and have your toddler identify the picture. When they have completed all of the pictures, talk with your child about what body part they had to use to see these pictures.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to observe, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot parts of their body, teach your tot language development
Nature Color Hunt:
Materials: paper, glue, items from your nature walk, a bucket
Description: Take your toddler on a walk around your neighborhood or even just through your own backyard (bring a bucket). As you walk around, ask your toddler to tell you some of the things that they see. Now ask your toddler to find something green. Have your collect something green. Now ask your toddler to find something brown and have them put it in their bucket. Do this again and again for a variety of different colors. When you return home, have your toddler empty their bucket and recall all the things that they found. Glue the items on a piece of paper and have your little one tell you what color each item is. Write the color words under each item.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to appreciate nature, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot listening skills, teach your tot to follow directions
Draw a Smiley Face:
Materials: paper, pencil
Description: This would be a great week to teach your toddler how to draw a simple smiley face.
Here is a little poem to help your toddler remember the parts of a face:
Draw a circle, around and around.
Make two dots, your face can see now.
One more dot makes a nose to smell.
Draw a smile, to show you're happy and well.

When you and your toddler draw a face, point to the eyes and ask your child to identify them. Talk with your child about what our eyes are used for.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the parts of the body, teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot to be creative

Find Matches:
Materials: construction paper, scissors
Description: Cut out two red circles, two blue squares, two green triangles, two yellow rectangles, two orange ovals, two white diamonds. Hold in your hand, one of each of the shapes and lay the other shapes out on the ground across a room inside or across your yard. Hold up one shape and have your toddler look at it carefully and identify the shape and color. Now they will run over to the other shapes and choose the matching shape. Continue doing this with all the shapes.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to be active, teach your tot shape recognition, teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot sensory development, teach your tot motor skill development
Play dough Face:
Materials: play dough
Description: Help your toddler make a face out of play dough. As you work together, talk about each part of the face. When you get to the eyes spend extra time talking about what our eyes are used for. You could even take a minute and ask your toddler what things they see around them at that moment.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot motor skill development, teach your tot the parts of the body
Silly Pictures:
Materials: photographs, glue, googly eyes
Description: Take several photos of you toddler or use some that you already have printed. You could also have your toddler take pictures of you. As they are doing this, ask them what body part they are using to look through the camera. Show the pictures to your toddler and have them point out everyone's eyes in the photo. Your toddler can emphasize the eyes by gluing googly eyes on top of each eye in the picture. This is fun and the pictures look silly!
Skills Targeted: teach your tot the parts of the body, teach your tot sensory development
Take Pictures:
Materials: Camera
Description: Take your child outside. Take a few minutes to look around and talk about the things that your child sees. Ask your toddler what part of their body helps them see. Next help your toddler take pictures of some of the things that they see (they can point out objects to take pictures and you can take the pictures, or show them how to use the camera). Print the pictures on your home printer or at your local photo center. Show the pictures to your toddler and talk about the things that they see in the pictures. You could glue the pictures onto a piece of poster board and label each picture.
Skills Targeted: teach your tot to observe and discover, teach your tot to retell, teach your tot sensory development
For younger toddlers:
*Have your little one point to their eyes.
*Take your toddler outside and have them point to different objects. (Example: Where is the tree? Where is the sky?)
*Make a photo book of family members or friends that your toddler loves. Put photos into a small 4X6 album. Look at the album with your toddler telling them the names of everyone in the pictures.
*Put your toddler in front of a mirror. Have them look at different parts of their body in the mirror.

Songs and Fingerplays:

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes:

Head shoulders knees and toes
knees and toes
Head shoulders knees and toes
knees and toes.
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose
Head shoulders knees and toes
knees and toes

5 Senses:
(sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

On my face, I have two eyes,
have two eyes, have two eyes.
On my face, I have two eyes.
My eyes help me see.

On my face, I have a nose,
have a nose, have a nose.
On my face, I have a nose.
My nose helps me smell.

On my face, I have a mouth,
Have a mouth, have a mouth.
On my face, I have a mouth.
My mouth helps me taste.

On my head, I have two ears.
Have two ears, have two ears.
On my head, I have two ears.
My ears help me hear.

On my body I have two hands,
have two hands, have to hands.
On my body I have two hands.
My hands help me touch.

My Eyes:
(Sung to the tune of How Much is that Doggy in the Window)

My eyes help to see the world around me.
The beautiful trees and the sky.
I love to look at all the flowers.
And watch all the cars passing by.

My eyes help to see the world around me.
The tiniest bug on the tree.
I can watch the sun setting.
Because of my eyes, I can see.

Do you Know What Eyes can do?
(Sung to the tune of Do you Know the Muffin Man?)

Do you know what your eyes do?
What your eyes do? What your eyes do?
Do you know what your eyes do?
Your eyes help you see.

What do you see in your room?
In your room? In your room?
What do you see in your room?
Tell me what you see.
(Have your toddler name several things that they see in their room or the room you are in)

(Look out the window)
What do you see outside?
Outside? Outside?
What do you see outside?
Tell me what you see.
(Have your child tell you things that they see looking outside)

Online Fun:

Videos:
Here are some fun videos found at http://www.sesamestreet.org/
Picasso's Face
Grover's Body Parts
Eye Examination

Make your own Face:
Print this fun wacky face from http://www.crayola.com/. Your toddler can pick the eyes, nose and mouth they want to create their own silly face.

Recipes and Snacks:

Pancake Face:

Ingredients: Pancake mix, banana, raisins, Cheerios, apple
Directions: Make pancakes according to directions on the box of pancake mix. Slice a banana and have your toddler place the banana circles for the eyes (talk about your eyes and what they do). Use a cheerio for the nose and have your toddler put it in place (talk about your nose and what it does). Line up raisins to make a smiley face (talk about your mouth and what it does). Last, slice an apple and have your toddler place the apple onto the pancake for ears (talk about your ears and what they do).