Tot School: Farm 2 and Halloween

Month: October
Theme: Farm
Dates: 10//9 to 10/15

Weekly Board

The Letter of the Week was "C". We played with the words cow for Farm and cat for Halloween. Bobo even made his own letter Cs, which always turned into circles. We missed most of the What is the Weather? category. We need to make it a nightly ritual to keep up. We are still learning about Creation, and are keeping with God created animals. The Number of the Week was 2. We used some worksheets with numbers as well. The Color of the Week was black and really easy as it is a favorite. Our Nursery Rhyme was "Hey Diddle, Diddle."

The Lessons

Stacking and Sorting. Bobo learned about Big and Small using cups from Discount School Supply and pom poms. He also used imaginative play to transform the cups into suuperheroes and the pom poms into villains.


We've had the Vtech Learning Station since Bobo was learning to walk. It is on wheels and has a nice high handle. Our Farm theme gave it a new life in the classroom. It has activities for shapes, numbers and animal sounds. Not only was it used for its intended purpose, but after we exhausted all the learning fun, it became a spaceship. I, of course, had to ride in the back.


Bobo had so much fun matching with our Toddler Pack all about the Farm. He matched animal heads with tails. He also drew lines from the animal to match it with food. Then, he colored all the food green and asked me, "Would a mouse eat GREEN cheese?"

It was such a beautiful week that we had to spend time outside. So, we brought school to our back yard. We have a filled inground pool with lots of writing space for my sidewalk chalk enthusiast. He wants to draw every day. I drew the letters we have studied so far and he helped draw things that start with that letter. Then, we jumped on them. We also ran laps around the pool, but that was just for fun.


Art

Bobo worked on many projects this week. I pull up my Pinterest and let him choose what he wants to make. Some of the projects need more of my help than what I usually come up with, but we need variety and Halloween decorations. He has trouble using school glue. Does anyone else have this problem? I wonder if the little 2 ounce bottles would be easier to use.


He drew straight lines to make his pumpkin patch. I've seen marked improvement with drawing lines and circles just in the past month. I drew the tree for his pumpkin seed mosaic in glue and let him go wild with the seeds.



I found a cute idea for a Q-tip skeleton from Busy Bee Kid's Crafts. This was one of the harder projects. We tried stick glue, but Bobo didn't quite understand what we were doing. After I drew a line and asked him to add a leg (for example), he began to enjoy it. He said his skeleton was the headless specter.


We made Mator from Cars into a zombie using juice boxes. They turned out really cute, but were very difficult to make. I had to use tape and school glue. It was a mess, but Bobo likes playing with them. Here are a couple of the finished products...




The Books

We read lots of books this week. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle. I love the large illustrations which would be wonderful for reading out loud to a large group. From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer, Who Says Moo? by Jui Ishida, Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea has adorable illustrations. I Like Vegetables by Lorena Siminovich is a touch and feel book. Happy Halloween, Mittens by Lola Schaefer would be great for older siblings who have to work with others. H is for Haunted House: The Halloween Alphabet by Tanya Stone, A trick or a Treat by Keith Faulker has shadows that turn out to be not so scary. I want to shine a flashlight through this one to make the shadows on the wall, so maybe next week. My favorite this week was without a doubt Mo Willems new book Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator! Mo Willems makes the best children's books!