Language - Tuesday

I LOVE the fun language-boosting activities we have planned for today. Likely because I love nursery rhymes and recognize their importance in helping language development. Consider this advice from ParentsConnect.com:

Recite nursery rhymes to your kid regularly. Nursery rhymes aren't just silly little ditties; they actually help your Little Miss Muffet learn to talk (and eventually read) by acquainting her with the rhythm and flow of language. Research shows they also sharpen spatial reasoning skills, which lay the groundwork for success in math and science later on.

Today's language play centers around nursery rhymes, with lots of chance for artistic expression as well. 

All the activities come from this amazing site: Preschool Plan It

A huge hats tipped to them, and if you aren't feeling the example of nursery rhyme activities I've copied and pasted below, visit their site to peruse a few more.  

Language Acquisition

PBS Skill Targeted: From 24 to 36 months, pronunciation improves considerably, although certain sounds in certain positions in words are still hard for many children. Parents and caregivers may need to "translate" for others. Children at this age often enjoy chanting, repeating syllables over and over in a sing-song way to explore language sounds.

Activity:

Ba, Ba, Ba Black Sheep & Hey Diddle Diddle

Directions:

Recite the rhymes several times and choose one or some of the supporting activities below:

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full;

One for my master

And one for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.

ART

COTTON BALL PAINTING

Materials Needed: black paint, white contruction paper, cotton balls, pincher clothes pins, googly eyes, glue

The children use the clothes pins to hold the cotton balls. Dip the cotton in the paint to use on the white paper. Add googly eyes with glue.

You can, if you like, precut the paper into sheep shapes! I have the children use scissors to cut the paper into their best oval shape (possibly predrawn on the paper with a white crayon) for the children to practice their cutting skills. They then use the scraps to cut out four legs and glue them onto their sheep shape.

EXTENSION: Glue a large craft stick on the back and use them while reciting Baa Baa Black sheep! *** Miss I LOVES to do this extension activity. It provides a great way to show off her craftin' skills and also let's us keep her creations for later play use (puppet shows, story times, etc)

BLOCKS

Add cotton balls and straws to your block area. The children can build a farm for their sheep or sheep pens with blocks and then use the straws to blow their cotton ball sheep around their farm!

CIRCLE TIME

SHEEP SONGS!

What songs do we know about sheep? Sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, Mary Had a Little Lamb and any others you may know!

DRAMATIC PLAY

Add sheep costumes (or white shirts and sheep masks) and farmer costumes.

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Add cotton balls, colored pompoms, cotton batting, spoons and cups for the children to try and scoop up! Different weights will eventually sink...add some science questions! Why did some of the cotton sink but not the pompoms?!

WRITING TABLE

Sheep Shapes: Add sheep shape paper to your writing table. Encourage the children to write notes or draw pictures for one another about their sheep!

Hey Diddle Diddle Nursery Rhyme Activities

Hey Diddle Diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed

To see such a sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

ART

DISH AND SPOON PAINTING

Materials needed: Paper plates, paint, googly eyes

The children paint their plate and plastic spoon how they want. Add googly eyes to each. When dry, glue them together.

CHARACTER PAPER BAG PUPPETS

Have eyes, ears and paws precut along with brown or white lunch bags; markers; glue

Encourage the children to make a puppet from the nursery rhyme such as a cow, cat, dog

BLOCKS

Add cows, cats and dogs to your block area today.

MATH & MANIPULATIVES

Provide different colors of paper plates, plastic spoons and plastic forks. Encourage the children to think of ways they could be sorted (by color, by type, one of each for a group).

Set up a few patterns for them to copy. For instance, have 3 place settings: a plate, spoon and 2 forks; a plate a spoon and a fork; a plate and 2 spoons--have them copy what they see.

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Add small plastic bowls and spoons to the water table. How many spoons of water does it take to fill the bowl?

Creative Arts - Monday

We have the best readers. Know why? Because they are constantly feeding me cool stuff to add to this site. I love getting emails from other proud mamas (and daddys!) who have discovered wonderful play sites chuck full of great activities. Also very cool is when another mom who happens to also know me in real life drops by a stack of amazing books full of learning games for toddlers! A HUGE thanks and hats tipped to J.M.

I have been devouring these books ever since they came into my possession, and I hope everyone is feeling like a little music today, because that is where this creative arts Monday takes us! Love the ideas that come from The Toddler's Busy Book series? If you don't have a fabulous friend in your life to gift you the books (seriously, how lucky am I?) they are completely worth picking up via Amazon.

Today we are MAKING instruments and then, of course, making a lot of noise with them. 

Music

PBS SKill Targeted:

• Can compare and contrast sounds made by different instruments (e.g., says, "The triangle makes a tingly sound when you hit it.").
•  Plays with a variety of musical instruments, often in a unique way (e.g., may shake an instrument that is typically pounded).

Activity:
Button Tap

Materials

*If your laundry room looks like mine & has a bin with assorted lost buttons, single socks and single knit gloves leftover from winter this activity is also an excellent recycled junk buster! 

Buttons

Glove

Thread & Needle OR Hot Glue


Directions: 
Take a knit glove and sew buttons onto the bottom of the finger tips. ***Or if you are totally lazy (see ME) you can hot glue them! then turn a few pots upside down and show your child how to drum out different rhythms on them using their fingers. ***This also boosts dexterity and coordination for little hands

Music

PBS SKill Targeted:

• Can compare and contrast sounds made by different instruments (e.g., says, "The triangle makes a tingly sound when you hit it.").
•  Plays with a variety of musical instruments, often in a unique way (e.g., may shake an instrument that is typically pounded).

Activity:
Simple Shaker

Materials:
Tupperware, small bottles or jars, empty film canisters, spice jars etc.
dried beans, popcorn kernels, small rocks, dried noodles, marbles, paper clips, pennies (anything you have in your cupboards that will rattle)

Directions:
Fill up your container with your desired shaking material (beans etc.) Seal the lid tight and then get to shaking. Point out the ways that different shakers might sound, and get some extra movement out of this activity by shaking your instruments creatively (shake' em high, shake 'em low, shake 'em behind your back, shake 'em with your eyes closed). You can also explore different rhythms.

Music

PBS Skill Targeted:

• Can compare and contrast sounds made by different instruments (e.g., says, "The triangle makes a tingly sound when you hit it.").
•  Plays with a variety of musical instruments, often in a unique way (e.g., may shake an instrument that is typically pounded).

Activity:


Tiny Tambourine

Materials:
2 small aluminium tart or pie pans
dried beans, pennies, corn, etc.
tape


Directions:
 Fill one pie pan with your shaking materials, inert the other pie pan and place on top. Tape the pie pans together so they stay sealed, you now have a homemade tambourine. Cha, Cha, Cha!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Sometimes in researching ideas for activities I come across websites that are simply AWESOME! Other times I have readers email me cool sites with incredible ideas. I love this and hope that if you see something you think any of us MillionWays Mamas would appreciate send it to us. It can be something that inspires us, concerns us or even makes us laugh so hard we pee out pants. Heaven knows that as mothers we need all of these kinds of moments!

I came across this list today and thought it was a keeper. Especially useful for moms of tots who are headed to kindergarten very soon.

Preparing Your Child For Kindergarten

Many of the skills on this list are similar to those that we focus on via the PBS development tracker, but this format is a little more succinct and manageable. Print one off and keep it on your fridge, or somewhere that it can visually register on your radar.

Enjoy! 

Science - Thursday

We visited the Nature Park 'round our parts yesterday and we saw some of these!

Little I was VERY interested in them, and so today's science activity was born.

Life Sciences

PBS Skill Targeted: May know that pets need food or plants need water because he or she helps with these tasks. Begins to understand some personal needs (e.g., food for hunger, clothing or blankets for warmth).

Activity:

Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Materials:

• Heavy duty string or yarn
• Pine cone
• Peanut butter
• Small plastic knife
• Birdseed
• Small paper bowl or plate

Directions:

1. Tie the string around the top of the shoelace and knot it, leaving enough string to hang it up from a tree branch.
2. Give your child the plastic knife and have her spread peanut butter over the pine cone, until it’s completely covered.
3. Pour the bird seed into the disposable plate or bowl, then let your child roll the pine cone in it.

Hang your new creation on a tree branch near a window, and wait for some birds! As you observe your visitors, talk to your child about what’s the same about each of them, and what’s different. You may just seed yourself a birdwatcher for life!

Mathematics - Wednesday

This week's math activity is all about shapes! It is a simple activity, but you can really step it up for those with bigger kids.

Geometry

PBS Skill Targeted: Throughout this year, some two-year-olds will be able to match shapes, first with same size and orientation, then with different sizes and orientation (e.g., matches simple shapes in form boards and puzzles, sorts simple shapes in a sorter box, etc.).


Activity:
Matching Halves - Hats Tipped To Education.Com - this activity comes word for word from them!


If your child is just learning about shapes, this matching activity is a great way to introduce her to the concept of puzzles. Each craft stick will have only half a shape. She'll have to find the stick with the missing half and place the sticks side by side to complete each one.

Materials:
Craft sticks ( 16)  * MillionWays Note - I didn't have craft sticks on hand, so I used index cards!)
Markers

Directions:

1. Take one pair of sticks and line them up vertically side by side. Draw a large shape on the top half of the stick, so that one half is on each stick. Then, draw a smaller version of the shape on the bottom of each stick, half on each one. Some different shapes you can use include circles, squares, hearts, diamonds, ovals, etc.
2. Repeat with each pair so that you have 8 pairs that match up to make a full shape.
3. Mix up the sticks and give them to your child. Challenge her to pair up the sticks to make shapes.
4. While she's working, start a discussion with her about shapes. Help her name the shapes she sees, and talk about the differences between each one.

When she's all done, suggest a game of "Find the Shape." How many different circles can she find in your house? What about squares? As she plays games like this, it will become easier and easier for her to recognize different shapes and their special characteristics.


***MillionWaysMama Note: You can let older kids get in on this activity while upping their mathematics skills as well! Have them create the shape cars/sticks for younger sibs using a ruler or a compass to make the shapes. 

Language - Tuesday

Tuesday Textures

I was stumped last night trying to think of a language activity for today (yet another reason I need some volunteer guest bloggers ASAP). We sat down to dinner and I was excited to have Miss I try the Jell-O beans we'd made yesterday during one of our creative arts moments (I didn't post hat activity on the blog because it requires these rad, vintage jell-o trays, but if you can find some they are a party to make jell-o with). I thought she'd be ecstatic to try our jell-o creations.

That's what I get for thinking a toddler is predictable.

She picked up one Jell-O bean, dropped it. Informed me she HATED it and whimpered if anymore even got near her plate. When I asked her why she didn't want to try the Jell-o she responded with "I'm full." This is my toddler's code for: "There is no way in heck I'm gonna eat that." Pressing her a little more she finally started saying "yucky." Which, of course, I told her was ridiculous since she hadn't even tried to taste it yet.

Then it dawned on me - the texture of the jell-o was yucky to her. She defaulted to the word "yucky" because she didn't yet have the vocabulary for "slimy."

Thus, today's texture-vocabulary building activities were inspired. And our Hats Tipped to PreSchool Express.Com for their amazing assortment of texture activity ideas. Check out their page for lots more texture activities.

Receptive Vocabulary

PBS Skill Targeted:

 The average child has the capacity to acquire one or two words per day, given access to new words in his or her daily experiences.

***Multiple activities are listed to support this skill. Do one or two that suit your day and play or try them all! 

Activity:

Texture Match Up

Directions:

TEXTURE MATCH-UPS

	Cut 3” x 3” squares of fabric.
	Cut out three different colors of corduroy; velveteen, fake fur, wool, leather, etc.
	Mix up the squares.
	Have your children take turns sorting the fabrics by texture.

Activity:

Texture Hunt

Directions:

TEXTURE HUNT
This is a good game with one or two children.

	Go on a walk around your house or classroom and have your children touch various objects.
	Ask each child to describe the texture.
	Can they find two objects that feel the same.
	How many different kinds of textures can they find?

 

Activity:

 Guess the Object

Directions:

 GUESS THE OBJECT (BY TEXTURE)
This is also a good game with one or two children.

	Have a child close her eyes and try to tell what an object is by touching it to her arm.
	Take turns using different objects, such as; feathers, cotton balls, pencil, spoon, crayon, etc.

Activity:

Simple Texture Sorts

Directions:

Example of a texture sort bowl - sea shells = bumpy, marbles=smooth, Noodle=hard, Cotton balls = soft Paperclips = sharp etc.

  Let your children take turns playing this game.

Place 5 objects in a basket that have a rough finish.

Place 5 objects in the basket that have a smooth finish.

Set the basket on a table.

Mix up the objects and have the child make two piles of objects on the table, one rough and one smooth.

Variation: You can also play this game using soft and hard

Creative Arts - Monday

Nothing like starting off the week with a little art!

My only problem with art projects becomes displaying all the creations Little Miss I makes. I need help from all of you readers. Outside of the classic place of pride  the refrigerator, where do you let your little ones show off their mad artistic skills?  Leave me a comment with ideas for display!

Now, on to today's craft!

Art

PBS Skill Targeted:

Uses art media to manage feelings (e.g., enjoys making holes in clay when frustrated, scribbles on paper and part of the table top when excited).

Uses a variety of art tools to draw, paint, sculpt and make collages, concentrating on the process rather than the product (e.g., scribble paints on butcher paper).

Activity:
Cardboard Tube People

Hats Tipped To:
Fun Family Crafts

Directions:
We've been saving old toilet paper and paper towel tube around here for awhile for some great project, so I was delighted to find this awesome - and kid-fun-friendly- activity. PLUS - using materials that would normally just end up in the garbage can sends great messages to our kids about rediscovery and recycling!

You can find the original tutorial here:

Materials:
Anything and everything! Gather up the odds and ends you have lying around, some googley eyes, craft foam, paper products, and scraps of material are a good place to start.

Using your bar toilet paper tube positioned upright, you will create the body for your cardboard tube people. You can paint the tubes to emulate skin color first if you like, or draw your faces right on the cardboard itself.Wrap the tube in foam, paper or material to create clothing. Create hats and hair from yarn, cotton balls, tape  or leave your tube bald as can be.

The pictures below give you an idea of the possibilities!

Music

PBS Skill Targeted: Enjoys singing aloud (e.g., hums simple tunes, initiates singing with an adult).

Activity:
Old McDonald Had A Farm

Directions:
Does your kiddo have a MILLION stuffed animals? Mine does.

Round up some of the stuffed animals today to use as props when singing Old McDonald.

These are some of Miss I's animals that we plan to use today.

Sing Old McDonald, but instead of saying the name of the animal in each verse, hold up a stuffed animal and let your child identify it.

Mamma: "Old McDonald had a farm, E I E I O. And on that farm he had a ___( hold up as snake)____
Kiddo: "Snake!"
Mamma: "E I E I O With a sssssss here and a sssssss there..."

You get the idea, while making the animal sound you can tickle your singing partners with the animal, or pass the stuffed animal back and forth.

Movement

PBS Skill Targeted:  Responds with body movements to changes in music's tempo, loudness, and style (e.g., starts flapping arms and stomping feet as music increases in loudness and pace).

Activity:
See Me Run

Directions:
This activity suggestion is also a bit o a product plug. We love music in this house and own lots of toddle friendly CD's, but the See Me Sing collection by Brite is my hand-down-favorite. Trouble is that it is a bugger to find!

The collection has lots of great songs that promote learning and movement.  Our favorite is Watch Me Sing Volume 1

Miss I's favorite right now is See Me Run -really, we do this multiple times a day. I love it because she loves it (k, so I also love it because it really wears her out and promises an awesome afternoon nap)

Check out this YouTube video posted by another mom whose kiddos love this collection.

  You can also preview the other songs on the collection visiting this site. If you like what you hear and think it might resonate with your child and get them moving and dancing, you can purchase the MP3 download of the collection for approximately 10 dollars. In my opinion? Completely worth it.

Science - Thursday

Science activities are some of my very favorite, which means that every now and then you have to indulge me in a little bit of an experiment update.

Remember last week's science activities posted here? Little Miss I loved the potting soil, and especially loved planting her seeds. And I am thrilled to report that her seeds have been growing like mad! Check out my proud baby girl below, that little sprout coming out of the cup in her hand is hopefully well on its way to becoming a full-fledged sunflower.

Hmmmm----I really did try to rotate this a bunch of times, just tilt your head to the right and imagine you are oriented correctly. That little orange arrow points to Miss I's plant!

I've been so thrilled with how fast this seed germinated and grew. Miss I has loved checking in on it every day, and if there is something any of us know about kids it is that patience is a continual work in progress, so the fact that this was a fast-growing plant was perfect...so perfect it deserves a product plug:

And this picture turned out completely upside down = awesome!

We ended up picking this little baby up at Home Depot for a whopping 95 cents! SCORE. I was a little skeptical, but our plant has really taken off - plus it was super easy to use the mini cup and greenhouse to get the plant off to healthy start, and when we transplant it into a bigger pot next week it sets us up for another great science activity.

Now, on to today's {AWESOME} science experiment!

knowledge of Earth and Science

PBS Skill Targeted:

• Typically enjoys playing with sand, dirt and water. Begins building vocabulary for talking about their properties (e.g., soft, heavy, wet).
• Experiences changes in weather, and may develop associations with particular weather conditions (e.g., needs boots when there is snow on the ground).
  
  Activity:
  Volcano
  
  **Remember this movie from when we were kids? Miss I has recently discovered The Land Before Time series, and she is fascinated (maybe a little terrified) by the volcanoes constantly erupting in the background.  Thus the inspiration for this activity.
  
  
  
  Directions:
    Place an empty baby food jar on a tray. Surround the jar with playdough. Form the dough to look like a mountain. Put a drop of red food coloring and a tablespoon of baking soda in the jar. Then add some vinegar to it to make it erupt.
  
  
  
  **I am really looking forward to this today - I made these sort of volcanoes with my dad all the time as a kid, and still remember many of those moments today! 
   
   

Mathematics - Wednesday

Today's activity takes a little more prep, so I'll just be posting one math game today. However, it is one that I think is a really good learning tool, and I encourage you to use it not just on Wednesdays, but throughout the week whenever you have a kid with some down time who needs directed to a good activity before they find a crayon and color on your walls...not that that has ever happened around here...

My hats are tipped on this idea to my mother and my little sister, the concept for this game emerged out of conversation with them.

Numbers

PBS Skill Targeted: "On average, an older two-year-old understands the words "one" and "two" (e.g., distinguishes "one" or "two" from many; can identify pairs of items as "two"; identifies three or more items as "many" rather than as "one" or "two"; asks for "one" or "two" of something; knows age; responds appropriately to the request, "Take just one," or "Give me two."). A few two-year-olds may also begin to understand the word "three," and a very few may grasp the concept of "four."

Activity:
The Counting Buckets

Description:
  There's a lot going on with numbers. We have symbols for our numbers (1,2,3,4,etc). They represent quantity. There are specific words associated with them. In this sense, numbers are a lot bigger than most of the things that kids have to learn that have one association or one meaning, (ie - the letter A is just the letter A).

And to build a strong foundation for success in mathematical critical thinking it is important that children make he connection about all the different representations and ways numbers are used as soon as possible. 

Enter the counting buckets.

This game assigns a given number to a bucket. Then your child will go around the house finding X amount of items to add to their bucket.

The trick is that it isn't just enough to have your given number represented numerically, like in the picture below.

Rather, you number bucket should show the literate for of the number and a quantity representation of the number.

So  your bucket will actually have all of these symbols on it:

One  1   *                Two   2    * *            Three   3   * * *

To access a Google Doc with these symbols made for you for the numbers one through ten, CLICK HERE

Remember, the specific numbers young children will be able to understand varies by their age. Visit the PBS Child Development Tracker to learn more about the average mathematical concepts children understand at various ages!

Enjoy your counting day!

Language - Tuesday

Remember, kids develop language at their own pace - but there are things, fun things, that we can do to help encourage that development! 

Conversational Skills

Age - 2-3

PBS Skill Targeted: "Takes turn in conversations when slot is left open by an adult's question. Child answers more readily now, but adult still must answer some of the questions asked."

Activity:
Who's In There?

Directions: 
  Materials:
• File folders
• Pictures
• Scissors
• Glue

What to do:
1. Glue a large picture of a familiar character inside a file folder.
2. Cut little doors in strategic places on the cover.
3. Let the child open the doors one at a time to reveal parts of the picture
underneath. Have him guess who it is.
4. Provide some language: “Who could this be? Let’s see. Yellow feathers! Who has
yellow feathers? What is behind this door? Orange feet! Who do you think it is?”

***MillionWaysMama note: There are a million ways to step this up or down for various ages. Maybe your older child is into dinosaurs or bugs right now, print off pictures of specific types of dinosaurs and do this same activity with the goal of learning the specific names of species. Maybe you smaller baby lights up when they see familiar faces, use photos in your folders of immediate and extended family members and model more langauge: 'Who is this? They have love hair. They have a smile. Look! It's Uncle Clark.'

Hats Tipped To: Best Beginnings Alaska

Receptive Vocabulary

Age - 2 and up

PBS Skill Targeted:  "The average child has the capacity to acquire one or two words per day, given access to new words in his or her daily experiences."

Activity:
All about the Mail! (or any other dramatic play that makes sense in your day)

 Directions:
For this activity you should choose to build vocabulary in a daily activity that you must do today. For instance, Little Miss I has been very interested in mail and email this week and I have Father's Day presents to mail out to friends and family, so it is a natural fit for us to do some dramatic play around mail, visit the post office  and write letters...talking about what we are doing all the while.  Our target vocabulary words will include:

Mail man/lady
Post Office

Envelope

Stamp   **Envelope and Stamp are the two I'm hoping she can acquire

The rest is easy  - first, at some point this morning we might play mail man, where I deliver her some mail and vice versa. Then we will write letters to people we love. We will put out letters in envelopes and paste stamps to them. Then comes the visit to the post office, with all of sights and sounds and vocabulary building opportunities.

Creative Arts - Monday

Music and Movement

PBS Skill Targeted: " Responds with body movements to changes in music's tempo, loudness, and style (e.g., starts flapping arms and stomping feet as music increases in loudness and pace)."

Activity:
Dance Baby Dance

Directions:
We do a lot of dancing around here, but until today I'd never thought of adding another, interpretive element to our dancing.

Hats Tipped to PBS Parenting for the great idea to incorporate a scarf or ribbons into our dance fest today:

Materials:

• Music on CD, tape or radio (musical suggestions: Saint-Seans' "Carnival of the Animals," Fantasia Soundtrack, Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite," Vivaldi's "Four Seasons")
• Streamer, scarf, or towel

Play music on a CD, tape or radio and ask your child to listen and think about what kind of animal or feeling the music sounds like. Ask your child to move or dance the way he or she thinks the music sounds. Your child might want to pretend about these ideas with the streamer or scarf:

• an elephant with a long trunk
• the blowing wind
• a butterfly
• a tightrope walker

Play music with a different tempo and feeling and invite your child to dance in a way that matches the new music. Music can sound like romping animals or a soft breeze.

Art

 
PBS Skill Targeted: "Uses a variety of art tools to draw, paint, sculpt and make collages, concentrating on the process rather than the product (e.g., scribble paints on butcher paper)."

Activity:
Paint in a Bag

Directions:
  I can't remember where I first saw this activity, but it has become one of our favorites around here. Ivie loves it because it involves paint and colors. I love it because it involves paint and colors with NO mess!

Too lazy to type it out myself, I lifted the following instructions from OT Activity Ideas and the pictures come from one of our past painting days.

Purpose

This activity promotes the child visual motor skills and improves finger isolation. In addition, the child also works on processing of tactile input as he moves his fingers along the paint.

Materials

Food Coloring, Shaving Cream , Tempera Paint, Ziplock Bag

Skills

Finger Isolation, Pre writing, Sensory Processing, and Visual Motor

Description

For this activity, use a gallon size Ziplock bag.

Place approximately 1/2 cup of tempera paint in the ziplock bag, remove air and seal. Work the paint around until it fill the bag. Have child make lines, shapes or letters by moving his finger along outside of bag.

As an alternative, you can use shaving cream mixed with food coloring instead of the tempera paint.


***MillionWaysMama notes: I prefer to tape the bag to the table so it doesn't slide all around. I also like to slip a white piece of paper in behind the bag, so it can feel more like Little I is painting on an actual piece of paper. 

Dramatic Play

PBS Skill Targeted: " Extends doll play with props representative of daily life (e.g., puts doll in high chair and feeds her with a spoon)."

Activity:
Your Inner Actor

Directions:
  For this activity you simply choose a book your child or children love and help them to act out the story or a scene.

I find that the books that usually work the very best for this have few characters and lots of repetition. Favorites around here include: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Caps for Sale and Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Simply assign parts and prompt your child to mimc the story through acting.

For example, in acting out Caps for Sale Little Miss I and I start by stacking a bunch of Daddy's baseball caps on our head and wandering through the house calling "Caps for Sale!" We pretend to fall asleep - and while she "sleeps" I steal all the caps off her head (like the monkeys in the story) we then make our way through the song and dance about "You Monkeys you, you give me back my caps!" She is little, so we don't act out the ENTIRE sequence in the story, but we do play the exchange about 3 times before she gets the caps back and then we do it all again, switching roles.

You really have to prompt a toddler through this, don't be afraid to feed them the words. It also helps to keep the book open beside you. And they may even be a little lost if this is the first time you act out a book. However, I hope you will keep trying. I believe this is an extremely important (and FUN) activity once kids get the idea. It not only supports reading, but helps them make connections outside of an immediate reading expereince, something that is crucial to their ability to enjoy reading later.

Physical Health - Saturday

Physical Health is all about body movement. What better day for this then Saturday when the whole family can get out and move. Really, there are an endless amount of activities you ca do here, and you should definitely do what works best for your family.

Today - we are building tunnels and forts at our house, then heading to the local park and swimming pool!

Body Movement

PBS Skill Targeted: "Rolls, crawls, creeps, walks, jumps, runs, and climbs. Can crawl through tunnels, go over and under low obstacles, and move swiftly up and down ramps. Climbs low steps, pushes boxes and pulls toys."

Activity:
Tunneling

Directions:  

Just like the forts we all built from blankets and furniture when we were kids, this tunnel is constructed from anything and everything right in your living or play room. The goal is the make the tunnel as long as possible, and include some obstacles in in (IE - a stack of pillows at mid point, a towel hanging down in the way at another.

After the tunnel is constructed you can see how many different ways you can crawl through it. This is all about developing fine motor skills. Can you crawl backwards? Can you slither like a snake? Can you hop like a frog?

To extend play time and tap into that toddler imagination, you can also turn this into dramatic play, maybe you are animals that live in the tunnel, maybe your toddler is a tunnel monster that emerges only to try and steal cookies.

Have fun and happy tunneling!

Literacy - Friday

In many ways our world is made up of words, so it is crucial we provide a strong foundation for our little ones when it comes to reading and writing.

To be honest, the very best way to do this with your kid (in my opinion) is to read and read and read and read some more. I try my best to read with Little Miss I for 30 minutes each day - usually broken into two 15 minute chunks at naptime and bedtime.

Because providing access to quality books is so important, I decided that each Thursday I'd start with a quick book recommendation in the list of our literacy activities. 

book knowledge and appreciation

PBS Skill(s) Targeted:

• "By the end of this year, many children label pictures when asked, "What's that?" Some children may comment when asked, "What happened?" or "What is _______ doing?"
• "Interest and enjoyment of books is highly variable, depending on availability of books and whether adults spend time sharing these with children in positive ways."
  
  Book Reccomendation:
  
  Llama Llama Books - by Anne Dewdney
  
  
  
  
  We love the llama, llama books. With darling rhymes, a focus on family relationships and lots of discussion about emotional and social growth, these books are perfect for toddlers and must-have for your library.
  
  PLUS - Anney Dewdney has an awesome site with interactive activities to go along with each of her books.
  
  

   Alphabet Knowledge

  PBS Skill: " Has no specific knowledge of alphabet letters as a distinct group of graphic patterns. How quickly a child acquires this knowledge is influenced greatly by how much experience the child has with looking at and examining graphic patterns in the world around him or her. This experience lays the foundation for learning later that some of these patterns have symbolic functions that communicate meaning."
  
  Activity:
   Find the Letters
   
  Directions: 
  For this activity you'll need some sort of alphabet letters - fridge magnets, foam pop-outs, printed paper letters, etc. all work for this game. You can also often find pop-out paper letters (like those used for bulletin boards) at the dollar store or teacher education materials stores.
  
  Pick a room in the house and "hide" the letters around the room.
  
  Bring your little ones in and let them "find" the letters. Young toddlers can't be expected yet to identify many (or any) letters, but this sort of activity helps build their awareness. As they discover each letter be sure and name the letter: "You found a B!"
  
  

  writing

  PBS Skill: "Has an emerging understanding of the uses and formats of writing. By the end of the year some children make marks, present these to an adult and say "A letter for you" or "My name.""
  
  Activity:
  Dramatic Play
  
  Description:
  Kids love dramatic play activities, and they are an excellent opportunity to foster imagination and storytelling skills. Today's dramatic play suggestion also seeks to interweave writing into pretending.
  
  Hats Tipped To Livestrong.Org (yes, Lance Armstrong's website) for these great suggestions, copy and pasted below.
  
  
  Dramatic play allows a child to pretend she is someone else. Writing fits in well with many dramatic play situations. You might set up a pretend restaurant and provide your child with a small notepad so she can write down the order. The small notepad also works for a police officer scenario so your child can write tickets for traffic offenders. A chalkboard works well as a dramatic play prop for a school situation.
  
  

Science - Thursday

Alright - it may be my inner-nerd, but I am SO EXCITED for all this science stuff! I remember as a kid (ok, and often as a right-brained adult) thinking science was magical.

And really the science behind what I perceived to be magic is incredible. One of the skills I truly hope I can instill in Little Miss I is a sense of both wonder and inquiry. Science-based games and activities are the perfect way to start doing so.

Inquiry Skills

PBS Skill Targeted: "Uses all five senses (touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, and smelling) to collect information about the world."

Activity:
Spring Sensory Tub(s) This Hat is Tipped to my sweet childhood friend Shalee Brown. When we went out to dinner a few weeks ago she mentioned how her son loved sensory experiments at his preschool, and that potting soil made a great sensory tub base!

Directions:
 Fill a container with potting soil. Bury different objects from around the house in the potting soil and then gather up your kids and dig away! Your little one will marvel at the feel of the potting soil in their hands and love finding the surprises buried within. This is a great OUTSIDE activity, with a nice follow up posted below.

Materials:
A container you don't mind getting dirty
A bag of potting soil
small toys and objects

Parenting Pointers:
Other great sensory fillers include birdseed, dried beans and sand.

Knowledge of Life Sciences:

PBS Skill Targeted: "Learns to identify some plants and animals. Can name some parts of animal bodies and some parts of plants."

Activity:
Planting Seeds

Directions:
It only makes sense to plant something in all that potting soil we have left over from our first science activity of the day - and potted flowers or flower seeds will be perfect.

Plant the seed, water it and leave it in a nice sunny spot.

The best part of this activity is that it can continue over the next several weeks as you and your little ones check on the potted plant each day to see how it grows. You can measure the first sprouts and watch it grow bigger and bigger.

Materials:
A small pot
Seeds
Soil
Water

Knowledge of Physical Science

PBS Skill Targeted: "Identifies various properties (EG hard v. soft) of objects and materials while exploring the immediate environment."

Activity:
Frozen in Ice

Hats Tipped To Creekside Learning for this activity.

Directions:
This takes a little bit of preparation that can be done with or without your little ones.

Fill a pie pan with water, and drop objects into the water that your child is interested in or working on. Little Miss I has some plastic letters we often string on shoelaces, she loves them dearly, so I used them in setting this activity up tonight. After putting together my letter pie pan, I decided to make a second one using some plastic shapes from a Candy Land Game, since we have also been working on shapes around here as of late.

After your pie pan is loaded with water and objects, set it in the freezer and let it harden over night.

When you pull the pan out the next day your kids will be so excited to see their objects inside the ice. The challenge then becomes getting them out of the ice, and this is where the science comes in.

With your kid(s) experiment with different ways to remove the objects from the ice - chipping, salt, warm water etc.

Mathematics - Wednesday

Perhaps it is my own lack of passion when it comes to math that makes me so desperately want my daughter to have a different relationship with all those numbers, patterns and formulas. So much of our world is made up of pattern recognition, spatial concepts and deductive reasoning that you don't have to look far to see that math--in its most basic elements--is something we use everyday (despite the many times that I whined "I'll never use this!" in nearly every math class I ever took). 

Lucky for me, PBS PARENTS has TONS of ideas for Mathematics at all ages. Fun ideas...so fun I don't even realize we are doing or thinking about mathematical concepts at times. 

All of our information and activities come from their site today. A very big Hat Tipped To them :)

Patterns, Reasoning & Algebra

PBS Skill Targeted: "Between 30-36 months, some children can classify, label and sort familiar objects by a known group (e.g., hard v. soft, large v. small, heavy v. light). The average child logically sorts and classifies during the second half of this year."

Activity:
Match 'Em Up

Directions: 
 

Figuring out which items go together helps your toddler develop early reasoning skills.

Note: To access these materials in PDF format, you can visit the original site here. 

Materials:

several household items that have a match or a corresponding part such as:

• a cooking pot and lid
• a pair of socks or slippers
• a fork and a spoon
• a comb and a hairbrush

Directions:

1. Separate the matching items into two groups. To play the game, choose an item from one of the groups and invite your toddler to find its match in the other group.
2. When you see that your child has grasped the concept, switch roles and you find the match to the item your child picks.
3. Continue in this way until all the items are matched.

Parent Pointers:

• You can play a similar matching game when you are folding the laundry (invite your toddler to help you match up all the socks, for example).
• When you go grocery shopping, your child can match one kind of food with another, such as cookies with milk or fruit with cereal, and explain the match.

Measurement

PBS Skill Targeted: "Throughout this year, a few two-year-olds will recognize, informally discuss, and develop language to describe attributes such as "big" or "small" (height/area/volume), "long" and "tall" or "short" (length/height), "heavy" or "light" (weight), and "fast" or "slow" (speed)."

Activity:
Bath Time! Math Time!

Directions: 

The next time you fill up the tub, make bath time math time as you explore "empty" and "full" and compare volumes.

Materials:

household containers such as:

• small pots
• plastic bowls
• measuring cups
• deli containers

1. Allow your child to play with containers during bath time. Join in, or set the example, by using your own container. Fill your container with water and explain what you're doing ("Look! My cup is full! No more water can fit in my cup."). Pour out the water to show empty ("I'm pouring out all the water. Now the cup is empty!") Invite your child to copy what you do. Encourage your child to use the words "full" and "empty" to describe what is happening.
2. Choose two containers, one smaller than the other, and give the smaller to your child. Wonder aloud whether the containers hold the same amount of water. Does yours hold more than, the same amount as, or less than your child's? Pour the water from your container into your child's and talk about what happens. ("Oops! There's not going to be enough room. My container isn't empty yet and yours is already full!").
3. You can do this several times and then give your child a container larger than yours for you to pour into. Discuss what happens. ("Hmm. My water is all gone but your container isn't full."). Take turns pouring and holding the different-size containers.
4. Another bath time, invite your child to be the leader, choose a container, and then tell you to find either a smaller or bigger one to pour into. Repeat the activity as long as your child enjoys it. Talk about what's happening each time ("Look, I'm filling your container. Uh-ohhh ... your container isn't full yet and mine is already empty!").

Parent Pointers:

• This activity helps with volume measurement.
• Adaptation for infants: Allow your child to play with containers as described in step 1. Add additional steps as soon as your child can participate.
• Extension for older children: Include different-shaped containers that present more of a challenge in anticipating volume. With increasing experience, introduce the standard measuring tools such as a cup, a half cup, and a tablespoon for further experimentation.

Geometry & Spatial Sense

PBS Skill Targeted: "Help youngsters explore their place in their environment. The ability to locate and change positions in space is an important first step in understanding geometry."

Activity:
Walk The Line

Directions: 

These balancing and movement activities are a great way to help youngsters explore their place in their environment. The ability to locate and change positions in space is an important first step in understanding geometry.

Materials:

• 3" x 5" cards
• black marker
• length of rope about 8 feet long   (OR Sidewalk Chalk - Little Miss I and I will do this outside today!)
• an open space for movement
• bean bag (older kids can hold this on their head throughout the game)

1. Invite your child to help you make a list of different ways to move your body, using the rope as your guide. Write the movements on 3" x 5" cards, one movement per card. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
   • walk slowly (or fast) on the rope
   • walk on tippy-toes
   • balance on left foot (or right foot) for 5 seconds
   • walk with one foot on the rope, the other on the floor
   • walk with a beanbag on your head
2. Lay the rope on the floor in a straight line. Place the pile of cards face down and invite your child to join you. Explain that you will take turns turning over the cards one at a time and doing whatever the top card says.
3. Have your child turn over the first card, and read it together. Then, YOU DO what the card says. Next, turn over a card, and YOUR CHILD DOES what it says. Take turns in this way until all the cards have been tried at least once

Parent Pointers:

• Playing background music adds to the fun.
• For older children, expand the movements to include running and jumping, and walking backward on the rope. You can also use the above movements in a game of Simon Says.