Tot-School

Another tot-school week has come and gone and it seems like the weeks are passing faster and faster. I think with all the Christmas preparations, tot-school has not been abandoned, but instead has been carried out at non-traditional times--like 8:00 at night or while we are eating breakfast. No matter what the time though, learning is definitely going on around here.
A favorite activity is peeling stickers off a sticker sheet and sticking them onto paper. It takes as much work for the kids to get the stickers off the sheet as to manipulate them into their "proper" position on a piece of paper.

This day I started out with a pattern for Kim and Luke to copy. Kimberly (2 1/2) is very happy to do this and is very successful. Luke (3 1/2) doesn't like to do this activity. He enjoys peeling the stickers and putting them on the paper, but he doesn't like to follow a pre-made pattern. He actually took the patterned stickers off the paper and rearranged them to his own liking.

Kim and Luke had a lot of fun helping make these Christmas treats. We used small pretzels, Hershey kisses and M&M's. I have also seen these made with the little square waffle type pretzels.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees

Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Kim and Luke first put pretzels on the parchment paper and then put a Hershey kiss on each pretzel.

I put them in the oven at 150 degrees for about 6 minutes.

After the kisses began to soften, I took them out of the oven and then slid the parchment paper onto the kitchen table. (the cookie sheet was hot-150 degrees-but the kisses are not hot enough to burn little fingers-that is why I get rid of the metal cookie sheet-the parchment is cool.

We then took M&M's and pushed them onto the top of the kisses.

Very easy

very child friendly

very yummy!!
Our highlighted book this week was The Mitten, by Jan Brett. The Homeschool Share website has a wonderful unit to use with this book.

I found these printables at Kidsclub. I simply printed and laminated all the pieces. Luke helped "sew" up the mitten. The kids then used the animals and mitten to act out the story as I read it aloud. We did this many-MANY-times. It was real fun. They were both able to tell the story and act it out on their own after a few readings.

Luke also discovered that he enjoys wearing the mitten.

I found this fun foam mitten and stocking sticker kit at Michael's craft store a while back. We got it out this week.
It was hard to get the paper off the back of the foam, but I helped them do this, and then they decorated on their own.

We put magnet backs on these and now they proudly hang on the refrigerator.

For number practice this week we used our Lauri puzzle Number Fun. I like this puzzle because you can use each number individually. Both kids have been working on the numbers 1-5. Luke recognizes and can name these five numbers, and Kimberly is good at the numbers 1-3 and is beginning to know 4 and 5.

Luke also really enjoys the pounding aspect of Lauri puzzles. It definitely adds to the fun to be able to pound the pieces into place.

Make sure you go and visit other great tot-school ideas at 1+1+1=1. It would also be great that if you have a "tot" at home (or a few tots) please consider joining in the fun, and sharing your ideas with fellow t0t-schoolers.