Tot School: Fall

Month: November
Theme: Fall
Dates: 11/6 to 11/12

The Lessons

Our new theme for November is Fall. We will focus on Thanksgiving the week of and following. Please see my sidebar for the blogs I follow. I get all the printables from those sites, but when I prepare them (i.e. cut them up and cover them with contact paper), I often lose the source. It is not intentional, but I thought I'd mention their links. Bobo needed some extra work on shapes, so I got out his toddler toy shape find. He is doing better with the names of things.

Activities

Bobo worked on his fine motor skills by lacing foam beads. They were different colors and shapes, so he worked on those while lacing. Of course, once all the beads were laced, Bobo used his imagination to make a lasso weapon.

I used a print-out of a "naked" tree and gummi bears for counting and colors. Bobo put different colors of gummi bears on each tree branch to make changing leaves. He asked if he could eat some bears, and I told him he could eat as many as he could count. He got to four! He also used the new magnetic numbers I found at the Dollar Tree to work on number identification.


I didn't get any pictures of stamping this week, but you can assume we stamp every week. It is a favorite activity. I set out the F, A and L to spell F.A.L.L. I taught Bobo the letter "L" this week. I bought some Target $1 bin stickers, but I think they were supposed to be used for scrapbooking. They were hard to peel even after I took off all the trim. Bobo put the Fall stickers on his Fall sheet. He counted foxes, turkeys and mice.

Art

Bobo made a sensory turkey by tracing his hand, then using corn kernals, split peas and lentils to decorate it. The products I've seen on Pinterest had each finger a different color. Bobo enjoyed taking all the items in his hands and sprinkling them all over his turkey handprint.

Books

Luckily, I found some Thanksgiving books before they were all checked out at the Library this time. I'm usually too late before I think about pulling some and the teachers have snatched up all the good ones. We read What is Thanksgiving? by Harriet Ziefert, Thanksgiving Words by Jane Moncure, Fall is Here! Counting 1 to 10 by Pamela Jane and 10 Turkeys in the Road by Brenda Reeves Sturgis. Please beware of the last book if you are afraid of clowns. My son loves to tease me about my fear and thought it was hilarious that I chose this book. That will teach me to choose a book without looking inside!

Sensory Bin

I put away the Halloween Bin and it has been missed ever since. I love the Fall Bin I made, though. It is so colorful and lends itself to lots of activities. I found some wonderful wooden food from Treasure Mart (antique store). Bobo enjoyed hiding those like a squirrel, counting up and down and rolling them. I purchased the fabric leaves from the Dollar General. The magnifying glass I found at the Dollar Tree and is Bobo's favorite homeschool toy thus far. He uses if for lots of identification, now. The pinecones are from our yard. I took the gems out of a Halloween set I bought from Meijers after the holiday. Last, I added the magnetic letters he's learned so far for review.