Tot School 3/6-3/11

Super Tot is 25 1/2 months old

I decided to try a couple new activities with Super Tot this week.  He loves matching colors, counters, etc., so I thought it would be fun to have him match real life items.  This week, we tried shoes.  I put 6 pair into a basket and asked him to match them up.  

He had a fun time matching them, but kept wanting to put them on!  He was very proud of himself with each match.

We enjoyed our St. Patrick's Day Size Sorting Mat again this week.  I printed it from Musings of Me, along with some other fun activities.  We've done several of them, but I haven't taken pictures of the others.

Another new activity we did this week was a "Does Not Belong" tray.  I started small and had 4 groups of 3 items each.  One of the items in each group did not go with the others.  I had all the items in the blue bowl on the tray, which made it look very colorful and fun!  

When Super Tot was ready to do this tray, I separated them into groups and gave him instructions.  Then, I removed all but one group at a time, so as not to confuse him since this was a new concept.  He LOVED this activity and immediately put the item that didn't belong with each group into the yellow cup.  Next week, I think I will try making it a little more challenging with maybe some bigger groups and less obvious items.

Super Tot really loves clothes pins and is really getting good at opening them.  With this activity, I just had him clip them around the yellow cup.  It was very easy for him, but he still enjoyed it.  

I also tried an activity this week where he used a clothes pin to transfer pompoms from a bowl into a divided palette.  I don't have pictures, but it didn't really work, anyway.  He is great with transferring, and also great with clipping the clothes pins onto something, so I thought this would be a great activity.  However, he did not get the concept of picking up the pompoms with the pin and then releasing them into the palette.  We'll try that one again soon!

We also enjoyed one last week using our St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin.  You can read all about it here.  I changed our bin yesterday to a rainbow theme (still to go along with St. Patrick's Day) and will post about it this week.

We did several activities this week that went along with a book using our various Matryroshka sets.  Matryoshkas are Russian nesting dolls, and are a great Tot Tool!

I printed off this coloring sheet and Super Tot had fun coloring the dolls. 

I had one tray set up for Super Tot to sort the dolls by size graduation.  He did it well, but was much more interested in just playing with the dolls.

He got a lot of fine motor work in by opening and closing the dolls over and over.

He also worked spacial recognition by putting the dolls inside of each other.  They only fit one way.

We did some matching by taking apart one set of Matryoshkas and having him match up each top with the correct bottom.  He not only had to match by size, but he also worked to match up the patterns on each doll once he had the correct top and bottom - not to mention more fine motor work putting them together!

I thought both Princess and Super Tot would enjoy designing their own Matryoshka, so I drew this simple doll on a sheet of paper and photo copied it for them.  Super Tot used stickers and pencils, while Princess drew her design.  They both really enjoyed this activity. 

You can click on the doll below and print out your own Matryoshka to design!

I did a fun activity with Princess using one of our Matryoshka sets, as well.  We estimated how many pompoms would fit inside of each individual doll.  Then, we tested our hypothesis and discovered that we were WAY off!  We couldn't believe how many fit into the largest doll!  This would be an easy activity to do with nesting boxes, too.

Our week was super fun!  To see what other moms are doing with their tots, click the buttons below!