Tot School: Week 5 at 15 1/2 months

Luke and I were blessed this week and able to go outside and enjoy some sunshine and warmth.  It. was. amazing.  That being said, some of our planned Tot School activities this week were put on the back burner because we were exploring and enjoying the outdoors.  Flexibility, people.  I'm working on it.  Here is what we were up to this week:

Blue Poems

Blue Sensory Basket

Rating: 3/5

Skills:

Sensory development

Colors: blue

Activity:

I am trying to have a 'theme' every week and this week was the color blue.  His sensory basket consisted of his blue sensory bottle, some blue fabric, blue cups, blue bows, and dice.  His favorite items were the dice.  He put them in the cups, took them out of the cups.  He really enjoyed them.  We talked about how all the items were blue and how they felt, tasted, smelled, etc.

Blue Dot Painting

Rating: 4/5

Skills:

Colors: blue

Fine motor development

Pre-writing

Activity:

Since he enjoyed the chalkboard so much last week, I decided to take it a step further and try dot painting.  He really liked the dot paint marker.  He liked putting the marker on his fingers and watching them turn blue.  Thank goodness they are washable!  He can't quite figure out how to get the end on the paper, that's why the chalkboard and chalk are so awesome.  Any side of the chalk will get him a mark.  I also put a glob of finger paint on his paper and he touched it (on accident) for half a second and he was done.

   

Dominos

***Luke's favorite of the week

Rating 5/5

Skills:

Fine motor development

Number recognition

Activity:

When I was teaching we used lots and lots of dot cards to teach number recognition.  If a child is able to recognize a pattern of dots and how many there are, the numbers are more cemented to memory and they are able to count, add, subtract, etc. with more precision, consistency, and speed.  Dominos are a perfect way to expose Luke to dots.  I counted the dots with him and he loved putting his fingers on the indents.  He also made about thirty piles around the house with them.  (Piles are his thing.)  

Outside Play

Rating: 4/5

Skills:

Gross motor development

Sensory development

Activity:

Luke and I explored outside a little on our nice days.  Luke went swinging and we watched Abel as he got Luke and himself completely, utterly, covered in mud.  We talked about how the wind felt, the leaves felt, the mud felt on his nose.  It was so pleasant, I can't wait to do it more this spring.

  

Linked up at:

www.icanteachmychild.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.net