Tot School: Fall 3 and an AWESOME Turkey Craft

Month: November
Theme: Fall
Dates: 11/20 to 11/26

The Lessons

We finished up a few Fall activities from last week. We only had a few trays left and were planning on being away for the holidays, so I didn't make any new ones. I did "make" a new weekly board. I had a photo board I don't use and put it on our desk in our room. I can easily switch letters, numbers and words. This week Bobo learned the Letter "T", Number "5" and some Thanksgiving words. I also made a travel pack to take with us for the long car ride. We visited the IUK Center for Early Childhood Education. I think we were there for about four hours. I packed some worksheets to work on there as well. I don't think I'll do that again, though because there is so much to do there already.

The Activities

Bobo worked on sorting Food and people. When he understands an activity and wants to make it more interesting, he'll take on the role of "teacher." This was such an activity. "Mama, the people goes here. Listen to your teacher."

One of the activites I brought to IUK was the Do-a-Dot worksheet for the letter T. We do not yet own any dotters, so we used the ones at the center.


I used a Color By Word sheet into a Color By Letter worksheet for Bobo. He liked this activity and was able to identify all the letters and the number 5. It seems like he only gets confused when 5 and 2 are both options.


In the car, Bobo worked on drawing lines. He did great, especially with the turbulence. We tried a same and different worksheet, but he just didn't get it. I think we'll revisit that in a few months. In our Early Literacy Kit this month, we have a magnetic fishing game. I believe it is a Melissa & Doug product. It has about 20 sea creatures with a sturdy, small fishing pole perfect for little hands. Bobo worked on his fine motor skills by catching the fish and vocabulary by naming the catches. He worked on a dolphin puzzle. It is the type where all the pieces come out, so it was a first for him. He put it together with greater dexterity and reasoning each time. Finally, he matched flannel pumpkins with lots of enthusiasm and skill.


The Art

I read Setting the Turkeys Free by W. Nikola-Lisa to my storytime class this week. I loved the illustrations and let the children make their own turkey handprints with glitter, sequins and feathers for embellishment. I didn't want Bobo to miss out on the fun, so we made some at home, too. He is getting more comfortable with paint and likes to paint his body. He had no problem painting his hand for the print.


He added glitter.


After he was done making the turkey, Bobo made lots of handprints on a scrap piece of paper. Then, he painted circles.


Finally, he asked to paint the gourds and pumpkins we received at the Punkin' Chunkin' at Ivy Tech. They were giving them out at the hay maze. This was the first step of a long process that ended with some crazy looking Fall foliage.


And a final look at the turkeys. Please check out the book from the library for more inspiration.