Tot School: Independence Day

written by Dakotapam on June 28, 2011 in Tot School with one Comment

Elizabeth and Emily are 17.5 months old.

Theme: Independence Day

Letter: Ff

Colors: Red, White and Blue

This week in Tot School we are focusing on one of my very favorite holidays! Don’t get me wrong, I love the church year holidays. We are a family that pretty much gets into ALL holidays, however, with a pastor husband, sometimes the secular holidays are just a little more laid back! Add in parades, messy picnic foods and fireworks after dark and I am a happy girl!

 

This week I made up a sensory bin for the girls (you’ll see that the boys joined in too!) I dyed some rice red and blue using this rice dying tutorial. I then dumped it, along with some plain white rice into a large bin(like the kid used to bus tables in restaurants. . .I got mine at Sam’s Club.) Ethan went and sorted out all of the red and blue duplos and we put those in the bin along with some bead necklaces that I picked up at CVS (Emily picked up the jewelry first), some mugs, some spoons to scoop and some patriotic pinwheels from Hobby Lobby.

I set the bin in the middle of a sheet that I spread out on the front lawn.  (Please excuse the overly long grass. . .we have gotten more than our fair share of rain. . .we can almost see the grass grow!) The girls and their brothers spent the better part of yesterday afternoon playing in the bin, then climbing in the boxes that their new “big girl” car seats came in, touching my flowers, and noticing the gorgeous, puffy, white clouds in the sky!

 

Today Emily sat at her little table right after breakfast, which is my signal to find something for her to do! I pulled out the printables I printed out for this unit, which I got from 2 Teaching Mommies. I let the girls color with markers again today, and they did much better than last time. We did get some on the table, and some on the neck line of Emily’s dress, but it does wash out very easily.

 

We also spent some time inside with the sensory bin. . .since I hate sweeping, I think we’ll keep it outside during the warmer months. I think ideally I’d love to have something like an actual sand/water table that they could stand at to work with. (Anyone have one they want to give me?)

We’ve continued to have fun reading stories, many of the books are from our home library or the public library and I listed them below. (*Just a note. . .if you click on my links and happen to purchase anything, I do get a small percentage back. It won’t make me rich, but it does help pay for web hosting. . .and coffee!)

The girls have also discovered how much fun my iPad is! I have several apps that I have downloaded and have saved up for them. I like to focus on just a few each week. Here are some that have been fun this week!

 

tags: babies books duplos Family hobby lobby Holidays ipad kids pinwheels printables Tot School white rice

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