Tot School: Aa and Apples

written by Dakotapam on July 13, 2011 in life as we know it and Tot School with 4 comments

Theme: Apples

Letter: Aa

Color: Red

The twins continue to really enjoy Tot School. As a matter of fact, the mere mention of the word “Tot School” sends them right to their little table and chair in their bedroom. As a matter of fact, they know where I keep all of their Tot School materials and have been known to go in their room and try to set things up themselves. I may have to set up a shelf or two on their bookshelf for some Montessori type activities that they can start and finish on their own.

I did not make a new sensory bin for the girls this week, but they continue to play with all of the items in the July 4 sensory bin I made them a few weeks ago. Look what I found in the bin!

Now, while I acknowledge that dragonflies DO eat mosquitos, and since we have a ton of mosquitos due to the flood situation, I do not mind the many, many dragonflies in our yard. However, this particular dragonfly was in my living room! I’ll give him bonus points for fitting in with the blue theme. Look at Emily though, she did not even notice him!

For our apple theme we used some printables from Tot School Printables, and some cute apple printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I ordered the girls some Do-A-Dot Markers and they have really loved working with them. The insist on some “painting” every day.

I like to introduce a song or two each week to help with language development, and, since we almost always dance when we sing, also encourages some gross motor development. This week we used two songs from Kiboomu. (we tried three of their apps out this week too. . .check back tomorrow for Techie Thursday for a full review!) The girls giggle their way through “Apples and Bananas” and worked on some marching skills with “The Ands Go Marching”.  I like that the singing on the recordings is clear, and at a comfortable pitch for children AND adults, and I appreciated a non-cluttered accompaniment. So many recordings of kids songs are actually too engineered for kids or parents to sing along with. Give the Kiboomu recordings a try, I think you’ll agree!

We try to have some story time every day, and I’ve listed some of the books from our collection and the library’s collection below.  Some days they sit better than others, and sometimes they just sit and look at the books on their own!

We’ve snacked on apples and peanut butter, I hope to make some apple pie, and do some apple printing.

We’ve also gotten out my well worn Melissa and Doug Alphabet Train Floor Puzzle. I’ve had it since I homeschooled Andrew for kindergarten! For now I think we’ll use some sticky tac to add the pieces to the wall each week.

I also got out these cute little connecting figures that I bought in the Dollar Spot at Target a few weeks ago. This is two packages worth, so $2. They had fun stacking them and watching me connect them, and sorting by color and learning to count, and some of us threw them on the floor, over, and over, and over (not me).It has been a fun learning week so far!

 http://re.pn/b/ixEU

 

tags: apple theme apples and bananas books children dragonflies gross motor development homeschooler kids language development printables school materials toddlers Tot School twins

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