Spring has Sprung! Activities for 10 Books

Super Tot is 3 years old.

What's on the Tray?

Building Butterflies with The Crunching Munching Caterpillar

In this book, Caterpillar meets a bird, dragonfly, bee & butterfly.  He wishes he could fly like them.  Of course, at the end, his wish comes true. 

Super Tot will be locating the shapes listed on each blue card and building a butterfly using those shapes (see example).

Being Fruitful w/ Secrets of the Vine

Secrets of the Vine for Little Ones is a perfect companion for teaching young children the significance of John 15, and for helping them understand the symbolism of the Gardener, Vine, branches & fruit in this parable.

Under each grape is the name of a person that Super Tot told me he wanted to pray purposefully for this week.  Each day, he will remove one grape, and we will pray for that person throughout the day.  He will also send a little note to each person, letting that person know that he prayed for them.

Sound Matching with Bunny

In Bunny's Noisy Book, little Bunny experiences the many sounds of spring as he ventures out.

Each green egg is filled with a different item, and each has a matching yellow egg.  Super Tot is to shake each of the eggs and match the sounds.  

This is my inexpensive homemade version of sound cylinders!

Finding a "Home for A Bunny"

In this sweet book, Bunny is searching for a new home.  He finds many options, but they are all taken by other animals, and wrong for various reasons.

Super Tot will help each bunny find it's appropriate home by using the chopsticks to place each one in the "home" of the same color.

Matching Fruits

How a Seed Grows teaches children what happens when we plant a seed - the life cycle of a plant.

Because many plants bear fruit, Super Tot will be matching photographs of whole fruit with photographs of each type of fruit cut in half.  Some will be obvious, but others less so.  I found these printables here.

Letter Matching with Ten Little Ladybugs

We'll be working on counting as we read this fun book, but we'll move on to letters once we are done.

Each 2-piece letter puzzle matches the uppercase letter with the lowercase and builds a ladybug.  The puzzles are self checking when you turn them over, as each one also builds an item that begins with that letter. 

Nature Walk in God's Forest of Dreams

This is a sweet book that goes through various things that God created & using our senses as we experience the end of winter and beginning of spring.

We will take a nature walk after reading this book, collecting nature items in our egg carton to match each color that I painted in the cups.  I got this idea from Family Fun.

Counting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Our little caterpillars are hungry, just like the one in the book!

There are 8 cards, each with a different number of holes that the caterpillar has eaten through the leaf.  Super Tot is to count the holes and place the stone with the correct number on each card.

Little Quack Math

This is one of Super Tot's favorite books.  

We will use the mat to count and do early math as we read the book.

One of this week's journal ideas:

In Don't Worry About Tomorrow, the little girl faces her fears and realizes she is having so much fun that she has forgotten them altogether.

I will be asking Super Tot to draw or write about one of his fears (I am sure it will be the dark).

I find tons of inspiration at these sites, and I know you will, too:

1+1+1=1

Sun Scholars

No Time for Flashcards

Homeschool Creations

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

ABC & 123

Living Life Intentionally

Read, Explore, Learn

Living Montessori Now

Homeschooling on the Cheap

Homemade Piggy Banks

Super Tot loves the gold coins in our St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin.  They are the first thing he plays with when we get it out, so I thought I would make him a little bank to go with them. I started off making a standard pink pig.  

I used an empty plastic container I had on hand and simply glued on a button nose, google eyes, and some ears & a tail cut out of pink craft foam.  I glued the same foam around little wooden blocks (I only had primary colors, so paint wouldn't work), then glued them onto the bottom.  Lastly (though I should have done this first), I cut a slit using a craft knife.  I wasn't being careful, so the plastic actually split, but I put a dab of glue over the split and it was fine.  

Super Tot was having so much fun with it, when Princess asked if I would make one for her, too.  I decided I would make another, but that I would make this one green, to go along with our St. Patrick's Day bin! 

For the green pig, I found another empty container that just happened to have a green lid!  It was perfect!  I used a green button for the nose, the same google eyes as the first pig, green craft foam ears/tail, and blocks for the legs that were already green.  I was more careful cutting this slit, so it was perfect.  

I love that the green pig has a twist off lid for Super Tot to open and close!  The pink pig's just presses into place.  Super Tot really enjoyed it, too!  I now have the green pig in our Sensory Bin, but will keep it with our regular Tot Tools once we switch out the Sensory Bin.

These were super easy to make and only took me a few minutes each.  

For more fun ideas, click on the button below!

Super Tot's First Valentines

We are having a Valentine's Party this weekend, so I thought it would be fun for Super Tot to make his own Valentines.  I saw this little kit on sale for $2 at Michael's and thought it was cute.  The price was right and I knew it would be perfect for him!  

I didn't get any pictures of him making them, but he did all the work himself.  The bears are made of craft foam, and the pieces are all foam stickers, so all he had to do was stick them on.  I took the backing off of each piece, handed it to him and told him what it was (nose, eye, ear, etc.).  He did the rest all by himself!  All I did was draw the mouths on when he was finished.  We worked on one part at a time (all the noses, all the eyes, all the hearts, etc.).  It was so much fun and I was so proud of him.  All on his own, he gave each one of them a kiss when he was done!!  It was very sweet and I think they turned out so cute!  

Valentine Sensory Bin

Super Tot is 24 months old.  

I have been wanting to put together a Sensory Bin for awhile now, and finally got one done for February.  I plan to use this as part of Tot School 3 days/week, and to change the Sensory Bin theme once a month.  

Super Tot LOVED the bin and explored the contents for almost an hour.  He was not happy when we finally put it away!  This is a good sign!  Super Tot usually has a very short attention span, so he must have truly loved it.  

Princess took a break from her school work to explore with him.  She even had fun with it!

My only regret is that I waited so long to do this.  I have done "Color Boxes" in the past, but this is way more fun, and provides so many wonderful learning and exploring opportunities.  From sorting, patterning and math to just plain sensory play, these boxes have it all!  

Here are a few other Sensory Bins I found that other Tot Moms have blogged about:

1plus1plus1equals1

No Time for Flashcards

The Picky Apple

Lessons from the Boys

Shining Our Lights

To see what other moms are doing for Tot School, click here or on the button below:

Year of the Rabbit Tot Book

I am so excited to have made my first Tot Book!  A Tot Book is basically a small lapbook made especially for a Tot!  I have seen lots of other Tot Moms make them, but this was my first attempt.  I thought it would be fun to do a "Year of the Rabbit" theme to honor Super Tot's Korean heritage.  Basically, it's just a rabbit theme, and it turned out very cute. 

Here are some photos of the finished product: 

The "How Many Rabbits?" section is a small counting book that goes up to the number 10.  Each page has a number with the corresponding number of rabbits.  

There is an alphabet, accordion-style pull-out book.

I included a coloring book for Super Tot to color on his own.  There is a separate page for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink!  Each page has a different rabbit with instructions to color in the correct color.

I included a pocket labeled "Rabbit Puzzles."  Inside, there are six, two-piece rabbit puzzles.  

There is a shape book that includes circle, square, triangle, rectangle, heart, star and rectangle.

This Tot Book was a lot of fun to make and I look forward to making many more of them in the future!

Click here to see some other really neat Tot Books other moms have put together!

Thankful Turkeys

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Christmas.  It is my favorite holiday and I love everything about it.  We take December off of school and spend the entire month focused on celebrating Christ and living out His example to love others.  We are intentional about doing that all year, but it is distinctly special as we celebrate Advent.

That being said, I try to be very deliberate about not skipping over Thanksgiving.  Not only do we spend November talking about what we are thankful for and the many incredible blessings the Lord has granted us, but we also do specific Thanksgiving or thankful crafts as a concrete way of remembering those blessings.  Yesterday, we made our Thankful Turkeys.  It was a fun project that both children loved, and I think the finished products are adorable.  Princess named them "Petunia" and "Picasso."  I'll bet you can figure out why!  

Let's start with Super Tot's "Picasso."  I had everything laid out for him and sat with him to complete his craft.  First, I put a dab of glue on each foot and pointed to where he should place them.  I think he did a fantastic job!  Next, he picked out his turkey's eyes from a sheet of adhesive eyes I picked up over the summer.    

Although he put them both on sideways, I was impressed at his placement.   

I put the glue on the beak and waddle for him, and he placed them on his turkey.

Next, we moved on to the feathers.  We were writing one thing on each feather that he was thankful for. I would ask him if he wanted me to write a specific item and he would say yes or no.  He ended up saying yes to:

1 - Mommy

2 - Daddy

3 - Sissy

4 - Zeppy (one of our cats)

5 - Minky (our other cat)

6 - Trains

I wrote one on each feather and gave him markers and stickers to decorate them.  He loves to use both of these, so he was thrilled.

Once he was done decorating each feather, I put some glue on a small piece of poster board and let him place the feathers on.

After each feather was in place, I pointed to the "middle" and asked him to glue the turkey's body there.  He did a pretty good job!

It's a little cubist in style, but I love it!

Princess was also excited to do her Thankful Turkey.  I had her supplies ready in one of her snack workboxes.

She put red glitter glue "toenail polish" on her turkey's feet.

Then she made a red bow for her head.

She even used a little gold to make a ring for her turkey.  

This was a very simple, yet super fun craft for both Princess and Super Tot.  Here are the finished products!

For more fun fall craft ideas, click here.  

For more Tot School ideas, click here.

Rainbow Train

TRAIN DAY

Super Tot is 21 months old

Trains are Super Tot's absolute favorite thing, so when Princess and I were reading about the Transcontinental Railroad in American History this week, I decided it would be fun to have a "Train Day!"    I had a few ideas in mind, but I knew it was going to be a lot of work, so I got Princess to help.

While searching for "train crafts" online, I found this idea to make an Animal Train.  I printed the directions and animals, and got Princess to help me color them.  While we were working, she asked if she could color the monkey purple.  A lightbulb went off in my head to make this a color matching activity, rather than just a fun train.  So, we colored the remaining animals to go with that idea, and they turned out really cute.  I made each train car in the color to match it's respective animal and did the engine as a rainbow.  I laminated everything and tacked it to the wall on a long piece of butcher paper from our easel.    

So what did Super Tot think???  Well, he LOVED it!  This will stay up in our schoolroom indefinitely.  He spent hours playing with it over the course of the day.  He loves to take the animals out and play with them, to put them back in the train (usually even in the right train car), and just to look at it.  He even tried to climb into it himself, and had to run and get his blankie to show it the train.  This is probably the best thing I have made for Tot School thus far!