The Letter 'T'

Here Levi is doing a shape activity, I just traced popsicle sticks so he could match them up. We counted corners, and sides and compared the two shapes.
I also did a similar activity where I put colored dots on the end of the popsicle sticks, matching colors would make a shape!

Brushing teeth! We used an old toothbrush to brush 'teeth' to make them white and clean! We talked about WHY it is important to brush your teeth, and how to make sure to brush them all.

Outdoor time - we looked at all the different trees around our house, did some tree rubbings (which we later made into a little book), and pretended to be a tree!

Arts and crafts tree - popsicle stick for the trunk, strip of paper for the grass and crumpled tissue paper for leaves. Discussed the parts of a tree as well (he already knew them though)

Another activity Levi initiated was with his trains. He took my small ironing board and made a ramp to race them down. I found some poker chips that we used to mark where the trains landed, and compared different trains, and then different angles of the ramp. This kept him entertained for a looong time, but because he was using my ironing board I couldnt get much sewing done without it!

T is for:
trees
toes
teeth
ten
tomato
tiger
train
triangle
tractor

The Letter S

S is for:
snake
sweep
sleep
sing
sand
sun
star
sorting



Here Levi is practicing sweeping. He is to sweep the beans into the blue square, and then carefuly pour them into the black container. This is quite a challange!

I got Levi some dot markers, and this is the first time he used them. He got the idea right away and compleated the task in a very short time. Next time I am going to try to encourage him to start from the top of the letter and work his way down, because this time he did the middle first, then the top, then the bottom.

Sand play - here he is filling an ice cube tray with sand. He also has a letter 's' stencil which he used to practice tracing the shape of an 's' in the sand.

This is a snake cutting activity. First he decorated it, and then Levi had to concentrate in order to cut the spiral shape to make his snake. Once cut out, we glued a tounge and googly eyes on where I had drawn the dots, and attached a string to the center for hanging.

I'm not sure what these pegs are called, but they look similar to thumbtacks only they are plastic. They can be placed into the plastic board which is full of holes. To get them out, you push them from the other side (and it helps to hold it over the storage box so they don't go flying!). I simply drew the letter 'S' onto the board with a whiteboard marker, which wiped off when he was done.

I've had this peg set sense I was a little kid!

The Letter 'M'

The letter M!

Words that start with M
moon
muffin
magnets
magnifying glass
marbles
moose
mouse
monkey
moonsand
manatee

Books:
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie
Moon Cake (little bear book)

Covering the Letter M with marbles. This can be done with other letters, and other objects - stickers are great too!

Moon muffins! These were made with the basic muffin recipie from a previous post, and chocolate chips added! We used a 'muffie topper' pan to make the moon shape. We also ate them trying to make the different shapes of the moon (half moon, 'toenail' etc.) MMMMM moon!

Here is the finished moon painting project

Playing with magnets (do NOT use magnets if your child might eat them!). I tried to get him to make an 'M' with them, but he just made lines.

Moon Paint

Shaving cream

white glue

Mix in equal portions. Paint all over paper and let dry overnight. Then cut out a moon shape and an 'm' and glue onto darker paper. This 'paint' is a really strange texture and fun to play with. It cleans up easily (wet or dry) as well. You can also add color for variation (mix it with the glue before adding to the shaving cream)

Some other activites:

Saw some real manatees in the river

Made a monkey puppet (folding paper accordian style for limbs)

Played with moon sand

Played a matching game

read books with the letter M

Looked at stuff with the magifying glass (see 'adventure walk' post for more on this)

Played music with instruments

More for the letter B

B is for boat!
Levi decorated the letter b, the waves and the sail, and then helped to cut them out. Then we glued them onto the background paper. Another idea would be to make an little boat and float it in the bath/pool (talk about sink vs. float too!).
If you are lucky enough to live by the water like we are, go look at some real boats!


Buttons:
We put buttons in the sensory box, fun to look at, touch, count, sort, name colors, thread onto string....

The Letter B

A simple bear project, just cut the shapes out of paper and have the child glue them together! Older kids can cut the shapes out themselves. We used sticky dots for the eyes too, and read a book about a bear.

Here is Levi rolling out some dough to make bugs. This is model magic (crayola), which is very light weight, and easy to clean up! He stuck pipe-cleaners in for the legs.

Our new bread machine! We got this at the thrift store for $10, it looked new! Found the manual for it online and tried it out! Make sure to use actual bread flour, otherwise you end up with brick-like bread. This was our first attempt, we have sense made other types of bread and some yummy cinnomon rolls.

Levi loves to help bake, and this one is easy because you just dump everything in and push the button. Great for math skills as well (count the scoops!)

Here is the pipe-cleaner part. I wish I could figure out the pics better on blogger.... I am not that skilled.

The bird project - Draw a simple bird shape on paper and glue feathers on!

Please use cruelty free feathers: http://www.crueltyfreevegan.com/ OR just cut some feather shapes out of paper instead!

We also went outside to listen for bird sounds, there are a lot of different birds you can hear when you are paying attention!

B is for:

-bear
-balloon

-ball

-bus

-button

-beads

-bread

-bug

- bird

- boat

The Letter 'V'

V is for:

-volcano

-vacuum

- van

-vest

-vase

- valentine!

We made valentine cards (and sent them to all of the grandparents of course)

I made Levi a Valentines Vest as well!

Thats about it for the letter V.

Another idea would be to make a 'volcano' with baking soda/vinegar for the lava... this is a really fun experiment! We didnt do it b/c Levi is allergic to vinegar and food coloring...and knowing him he would have his hands right in the middle of everything, and then in his mouth.

The Letter 'L'

The past week we have been working on the letter 'L' - L for 'Levi'!

We are not doing the letter of the week in any order, just going with what Levi is interested in. Next up is the letter 'v' which we started today and will probably finish tomorow (Valentines day is why we chose this one), its not a common letter and there arent a whole lot of words that start with 'v'!

L is for:
Levi
leaf
ladybug
lizzard
lion
lamb
lacing
lemon/lemonaid




This isnt an 'l' activity, but it has been done many many times over the past few days!



Hole punching - Levi loves this activity. We have two hole punches, this one takes some effort to push down, and the other is easier to push, but harder to get the paper into. This activity works on fine and gross motor skills. The holes that come out of the hole punch are great for collages, like the one at the bottom of this post (sorry I still dont know how to get pictures right on blogger!)

Leaf rubbings:

We went on a nature walk (in the cold!), and collected leaves. We talked about size (small, big, medium, tiny!), and color (yellow, brown, green, red), and then brought them inside!

I showed Levi the veins on the leaves and explained that water and 'leaf food' goes into the veins to make the leaf grow. Then I had him arrange them (vein side up) on his desk. Taped a peice of paper down and let him rub with chunky recycled crayons I had made. This made the veins show up better on the paper!

Here is Levi lacing his letter 'L', which he punched holes in. Because the holes are in random places, I let him lace through whichever hole he chose. For valentines day he got a little gift from his Great grandparents, and he used it to buy a lacing card set, so we are working on lacing in a neater way.... more on that in a later post.

We made lemonaid! Yum!

Levi squeezed (he says 'queesed') all of the lemons on his own (this electric juicer really helps).

Recipie:

1 part lemon juice to 1 part water and 1 part ice. Squeese lemons, strain if desired (we didnt), make sure their are no seads in it! Add an equal amount of water, and then ice. Sweeten until it tastes good! (we used Agave nector, but you could use honey, or simple syrup)

Simple Syrup-

1 cup water + 1 cup sugar, mix in saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully disolved. Cook for 5 more min and let cool before adding to lemonaid.

Lamb collage:

We used the holes from the hole punch to make this little lamb!

1. trace child's hand and have them color it black OR use black paint to make a handprint

2. cut out, you can cut the thumb part off, glue to another peice of paper.

3. cut a 'wool' shaped peice, and have child glue 'holes' all over it (you could also use cotton balls)

4. glue onto sheep legs

5. cut head and ear shapes from black/white paper. Glue onto body. Add face. (we used google eyes)

More activites for the Letter L that we did

Sensory tray filled with lentils (great for pouring activites)

lion books, practice roaring like a lion

play leap frog

read lizzard book, 'walk' plastic and beanie baby lizards on the letter L (tape on floor)

practice writing the letter 'l' (lower case one is easy!)

used an ink pad w/one finger to make 'lady bugs', add details w/pen

looked at photos of Levi!

made a collage with Levi photos (on top of a letter L shape)

more lacing cards

The letter A

A fork stuck into a cut apple peice makes it easy for toddlers to use it as a stamp, Levi at the other parts of the apple!

Here is Levi tracing the A with an airplane

Very excited with his apple printing! (sorry these pics arent in order)

This is our 'A' shelf set up, Levi learned to read all of these words this week

Levi is gluing teeth/googly eyes on the letter A to make it into an alligator. This is a yoga mat from target ($2.50), it wipes of easily, and even glitter shakes off of it! Great for small projects like this on the floor.

Last week, we focused on the letter A

Here are some of the activites we did:
- outline of 'A' on the floor to trace/drive airplane on/walk on,
- outline of 'a' on the wall as well
- checked out our amarylis more
- dropped Buddy and Nai Nai at the airport (where airplanes are)
- played with wooden airplane, alligator beanie
- set up an ant farm
- made an 'ant farm' w/moonsand/plastic ants in sensory tray
- looked at alligators at the zoo
- did apple lacing
- ate apples
- made apple prints
- made an 'a' into an apple
- made an 'A' into an alligator
- went on a walk to find sticks, made a 'ants go marching' pic
- sang and acted out 'ants go marching' song