Tot School - February 2 - 6, 2009

No pictures this week...I know...I'm a total slacker! We were actually painting (all week) and my house was a complete MESS!! Being a former scrapbooker, I am severely bothered by photos where the backgrounds show my messy house. So I didn't take them. There...the truth has come out....why do I not feel "set free?" Could it be all the dust bunnies holding me prisoner? Ha!

Theme: Opposites

Letter: Y

Shape: Diamond

Color: Yellow

Pre-Math: Opposite Matching Game. For this activity, I printed out clip art pictures of different actions and their opposites onto some of my old scrapbooking cardstock and cut them out into squares. I laid out the pieces face up. I used sit/stand, tall/short, rain/shine, run/wallk, fat/thin (not my favorite one), big/little, etc. Then we matched them up! We had a lot of fun with this game. After she got the hang of the matching, we turned the cards face down and played a memory game with them.

Pre-Science: Sink/Float Sensory Table. We don't have a sensory table (so-to-speak), so I filled the kitchen sink with water and collected different items that would sink and float. We experimented with these items and guessed which items would sink or float. Then we talked about why our guesses were right or wrong. Lindsay had sooooo much fun with this! I wish I had gotten pictures of it!!

Large Motor Focus: Simon Says with Opposites. This one took a little time to master. She caught on quickly to the idea of doing the opposite action from what I suggested, but didn't catch the idea of only doing it when I said "Simon Says." Go figure.

More Large Motor Focus: Leap Frog. (Crouch/Leap). LOTS of fun!!

Arts and Crafts: Accordion Weiner Dog: I drew a picture (if you could call it that) of a weiner dog onto a piece of brown construction paper and helped Lindsay cut it out. Then we cut it in half. We then cut another long strip of brown construction paper and taped it to either side of the dog and folded it up to demonstrate a "long" weiner dog, and a "short" weiner dog. I wrote the word "short" in really skinny letters on the dog's front half. Then when it was unfolded, I wrote the word "long" in a way that took up the entire length of the dog's belly.

*This project was not my idea...I actually remembered doing this craft when I taught Pre-K years ago, but I've seen it done different ways on several websites recently as well, although I couldn't begin to recall which ones. So if you or someone you know should take credit for this cute idea, please, by all means do so in the comment section. :)

Sadly, our weiner dog didn't last long. Lindsay dragged this poor animal all over the house until he fell apart. He was taken to the weiner dog infirmary (a baby doll cradle in her play closet) and given several Dora and Sponge Bob band-aids. We're hoping for a full recovery. ;-)

Books: Slide and Seek by Chuck Murphy; Opposites by Sandra Boynton.

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