Evan is 39 months old.This week at Tot School, we did a variety of things with no particular theme and, as always, it was very much led by Evan. Here's a sampling of what he's been up to for the past week or so (in addition to a trip to see my dad and his wife for a few days).
Evan sorted pom poms into matching colored cups.
Then he used tweezers to put the pom poms into the egg carton. He likes using the tweezers.
I'm trying to teach Evan to recognize his name. So I traced some puzzle piece letters and he did it like a puzzle. I named each letter for him and had him repeat it.
I set out a plastic dish with some sudsy water for Evan to play in. I also gave him some plastic spoons and cups, too. This usually occupies him for a while.
He always enjoys this! Sometimes he'll add dinosaurs or cars to it to give them a "bath".
Evan got out the Candyland game.
I didn't think he was ready, but I'm glad I followed his lead and gave it a shot. He did really well and we had fun! And this will help teach him about following rules and taking turns.
We got out these number discs. Evan had to match the right number of clothespins to the right number disc. There were little squares to help him. This helps number recognition, one to one correspondence (because one clothespin to one square), counting and fine motor skills. These are very simple to make, too.
He worked hard on this.
All done!
Evan's sister Alexa, was using our Upwards game to practice her spelling words. So I had Evan use the same Upwords letter tiles to match to his alphabet flashcards.
Then he enjoyed stacking them to make tall towers.
Hope you enjoyed a wonderful week with your little tot! Thanks for stopping by! For more Tot School posts, check out1plus1plus1equals1
Have a great week!
TTFN
~Tina
They would have worked fine, but Evan just has his own way of doing things. I can't seem to find the link to this page. I'll post it later if I do.
He loved them so much, he didn't want to paint them at first. Eventually he painted the rowboat........black of course. :-)
I set up a "rails, road, water and air scene" (it's hard to see) on construction paper. Evan picked up foam transportation pieces and we discussed where each vehicle would go. I did have to create for him (by cutting and piecing together) a Diesel 10 for his railroad.....with his "crushing, crushing claw", as Evan says. I would have made this more visible, but Evan chose black paper....of course.
I found a set of 3 part automobile puzzle cards that I purchased a while ago. He enjoyed these. I'm pretty sure I bought these at the dollar section of Target. It was either there or the Dollar Store.
These are actual photographs, so that's another bonus.
We discussed the "job" of each vehicle. 
I'm trying to get him familiar with the alphabet, just basically working on letter recognition for now. So I try to incorporate that in some way each week. This week I made a large black B out of construction paper, then he glued vehicles that start with B to it (boat, bicycle, bus). I found the images 
He loves to glue, but sometimes gets carried away with it. Oh, yeah, and he still is "Batman" sometimes during school. Although most of the time he opts for Bruce Wayne. ;-)
There are many other ideas for doing a Transportation theme with your child at 
doing some simple foam color and number puzzles....
and working on a story together as we built a scene using a Fairy Tale sticker set I purchased at 
At first he wasn't too thrilled, but then he saw the knight. That sparked his interest and so we began a story. Each time he added a sticker/character to the scene, we added another part to the story. It ended up being really cute. The end went something like this...
This week at Tot School, we played with the
We made a 
Concentrating.....
Beautiful job, Evan.
We used these cards to match upper and lower case letters. These are so cute and fun because they also make a picture, when matched up correctly.
The weather has been so nice lately. We love to be outside in the cool Autumn air. And Evan loves to play with his sisters on the swingset!
I really wish I could remember where I found this idea. I think it was
You print out the template for the strips onto cardstock. Then fill in each square with a circle sticky in different patterns. Next, you provide your child with colored clothespins that match the circles. This activity really works the little muscles in their hands.
Next it was.......Apple Time! Evan made a paper bag apple. He loves to paint, so this was really fun for him. 
Then he cut out (with help) and glued some apples to an apple tree. I let him use markers for this. I find that if I mix up the mediums for coloring activities, it helps hold his interest. Lately he is loving markers.
I used
He counted them and stacked them and put them on the tree, then we'd go "apple picking" together. We also did a few apple rhymes as we worked with the feltboard.
More painting...
I punched out some apple shapes for Evan to glue onto a letter A.
He used those shapes again to make apple patterns with me.
