stART: Rainbow Fish

E just loves the Rainbow Fish books.  So this morning, we did a sparkly rainbow fish craft!  I used the fish stamp I made, and she stamped glue fishes all over the paper.  Then we used all different colors of glitter to make the fish sparkle just like Rainbow Fish.  The result doesn't really look like fish, but E had a great time and loves her picture anyhow.  :)  It's all about the process, right??

A Day at the Garden

This past week we visited the botanic gardens in our city.  I took the opportunity and made it into a learning game for E.

I found these great flower three-part cards at The Adventures of Bear.  And while E is not ready for three-part card work yet, she loves the pictures.  She calls them her "flower keys" because they remind her of keys on a ring after I laminated them and put them on a ring clip.  She took them with her all over the gardens and we found almost every flower.  She was so excited when she found a match!  We even found a dandelion, which I'm sure the gardeners just love.  ;)

Ugh!  Sorry these pictures are not the best.  I'm still getting used to my digital camera outside in the sunshine!

The flowers we were looking for were: dandelion, phlox, cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, sunflower, daisy, magnolia, and daffodil.  We found everything but a daisy and a sunflower - they are not blooming yet in our part of the world.  We also found many tulips, grasses, lettuce, onions, and a few ducks and geese in the ponds.  Oh - and koi, E LOVED the koi pond.

Tot School: Ocean Animals

E is 27 months old

For Tot School this week, we learned about different animals that live in the ocean.  I used this Tot Book for many of the activities.

E sorted seashells.  I had several different kinds and sizes, so she sorted into four cups.  She tried SO HARD to use tongs for this, but it turned out to be too difficult and she resorted to using her fingers.

We worked on counting from 1 to 5 with the ocean animal counting cards.  We used more seashells for counters.  E can count pretty well, at least through 11.  She has trouble knowing when to stop, though.  I'm hoping these cards will help with that.

I made cards with pictures of ocean life on them and their labels.  When she's ready, I'll turn them into three-part cards, but for now she is working on matching her plastic animals with their picture.  The different sharks and whales can be tricky for her, but she's doing well with the activity as a whole!

Letter matching with ocean animal ABC cards.  I used our wooden magnetic letters for her to match with the cards.  She LOVES this activity.  I will have to find some lowercase letters for her to match to the uppercase as well.

 

I put out a tub of water and all of her animals that live or spend time in the water for her to play with.  I also included some rocks and her little mermaid dolls.  She has had great fun swimming all the animals around, and even went down to the playroom for some additional animals.  She said the monkey needed to go to the swimming pool.  Um . . . ok??

Our non-theme activities this week included a car matching puzzle, stacking/nesting blocks, and her farm lacing beads.

We made some fish sun catchers for art this week.  I still have to get them hung in the window, but I think they are beautiful, and E had a blast making them.

Our other art activity this week was a color lesson, E had to color each animal the color of the words.  I worked with her on it, as she didn't notice the different colored words right away.  But she told me what each animal was and what color the words with it were, found the correct color, and did some scribbling.  :)

Outdoor Challenge: Week 2

Here's what we've been doing in the great outdoors (or our backyard) this past week.  This is part of the Outdoor Challenge from 5 Orange Potatoes.

Wednesday we went out to swing.  Well, to push the swing.  E put rocks and stick in her swing and gave them a ride.

Thursday was a BEAUTIFUL day!  We played in the sandbox and ate ice cream outside.  And dripped some on the ants.  E stayed miraculously clean, even with her chocolate mustache and beard!

Friday was a park play day with some friends.  And I FORGOT my camera!!!  I wish I had brought it, E found some cute, fat robins and wanted to "pet them."  She spent a good 20 minutes chasing the birds around.  They never flew away, just ran out of reach of her.  I think they were looking for a treat.

Saturday and Sunday we worked in our backyard.  Grandpa came over and helped us plant two trees.  E decided she would help dig, too!

Monday was Grandma day, and while I was at work, they collected rocks and drew with sidewalk chalk on the patio.

And Tuesday, I finally got to work in my garden!  It's almost ready to go. 

Now I just have to get to work on the huge pile of weeds in the corner - that's going to be E's play area once we get it cleaned out.

Wordless Wednesday: A Little Bookworm

Toddler Tuesday

 E is 27 months old

I thought I'd write a Toddler Tuesday post this week instead of Tot School.   E did a lot of fine motor practice this week.

She sorted buttons by heart and square shape using tongs.

Stacked towers of different colored pegs - then we counted them and she knocked them down!

Sorted some Noah's Ark beads into their different shapes.

Put ladybug push pins into a styrofoam ball.

Practiced her scissor skills by cutting straws.

We also did some letter and number work this week.  E did her number puzzle.  It was so cute to hear her work.  "Where's the 2?  There it is!  4 goes here."   And so on.

E did a new letter activity this week.  I took her magnetic wooden letters and had her match them to the ocean animal alphabet cards I printed out.  She did great with it, and wanted to do it several times in a row.