WMCIR: Very Veggie

If you haven't read Night of the Pumpkinheads by Michael Rosen, you have to check it out! I have only seen jack-o-lanterns like these in Better Homes and Gardens. Bobo immediately asked to make some. Do you think Martha Stewart will make a house call? I'm more of a square and triangle gal.

This is our first shared experience with the Berenstain Bears. I'm happy to say, Bobo loved it! In this book, Papa Bear chooses all the misshapen pumpkins to make the scariest jack-o-lanterns. I can definitely jump on board with that project.

Creepy carrots! by Aaron Reynolds is so funny. It is fun to look for the creepy carrots in all the illustrations. Look for the surprise ending.

We linked up with the Children's Bookshelf this week, via Mouse Learns, Mouse Grows.

Tot School: Birthday Bonanza

Click to enlarge, so you can see better. Sorry so dark!

This is the first Tot School post with birthday presents from this year! Bobo received some wonderful educational toys. We also added our Totes for Tots to the mix.

Pictured above (from left to right, top to bottom)

Superhero stamping and stickers

Haunted house with gems and skeletons

Science experiment- Color Mixing

Linking Patterns (TFT)

Counting Bears

Superhero pre-writing

I also brought the workbench out of retirement, aka Bobo's closet. Bobo's BFF joined us for school this day. Momo was a fantastic student!

Bobo's favorite gift was a Wolverine costume. I think he's worn it everyday.

Momo is a serious sorter and organizer. I was very impressed, especially when she gave each skeleton a gem heart.

Then, we headed outside for some water bead play. Momo played how I always wish Bobo would play. What was my little guy doing for the 20 minutes Momo was absorbed with the beads? Rolling around in the grass fighting sentinels, LOL.

The science experiments are a huge hit! I'm so happy with this purchase. The tools are just the right size for little hands. 

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how the kids worked together. Bobo was a little reluctant to share the spotlight. He told me in the evening, "Mama, I just didn't feel special today." Awww... I guess we'll keep school one-on-one for a little while longer.

Linked with TGIF

Books: Mixing Colors

I had a stumper question today from a kindergarten teacher. She needed stories that showed mixing colors. At first, I couldn't think of any. Then, I started thinking about all my favorite color books and came up with a few. 

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri is one of my favorite books to share with babies and toddlers. When Farmer Gray is away, Blue Goose gets into mischief with colors. 

The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown is my second favorite book from childhood, after Cinderella. They mix all the colors of the world. This one is wordy, so it would be best shared one-on-one, unless you have a mature group.

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh is the simplest book of the three. It is straight forward color mixing and would be a great introduction to the concept.

Please leave a comment with any other color mixing books. I like to be prepared for anything!

Water Table Activity

I added water to our mirror box to use some of our ocean theme figures.

Glitchy pic- It demands this odd rotation!

Setting up the temporary water table was so easy. The tote fit perfectly on Bobo's picnic bench. I put out a colander of rocks and gems, a small pitcher, a squirt bottle with blue water and a bucket. Bobo is working on cutting out the dissolving dinosaurs to put in the water. He insisted on using scissors, so he could do it himself. Those scissor skills are getting pretty good!

I took this activity outside, but it wasn't that messy. I would feel fine taking everything to the basement for the winter or colder weather. I originally wanted to leave the table outside, but Bobo loves it too much and prefers it in the living room. Surprisingly, or maybe not, it matches the decor.

Shared with TGIF

Tot School: Halloween 2012

Bobo has been choosing lots of monster and Halloween books during our weekly library visits. I've been sorting and organizing our school supplies. Add those two things together and we've been learning with Halloween type activities for the past month. 

Pictured above (from left to right, top to bottom)

Haunted house sort with black and orange jewels and bone stones
Skeleton magnetic game from last year
Coloring books with Sesame Street Halloween
Linking toys
Alien and Robot Stickers

Bobo's greatest strength at the moment is his imaginative play. Anything can become a world full of rich characters. So when I set up activities, I'm never really sure what is going to happen. Our simple sorting activity became a battle against evil with Batman as the hero.

The linking toys became a quiver for his arrows.

Bobo's other great strength is his Jedi mind trick. This kid can talk me into anything. After looking at the Halloween book, we needed to buy white body paint. Sure! Just look how happy he is, though.

Linked up with:
Read.Learn.Explore.
Taming the Goblin's Halloween Blog Hop

Tot School: Super Hero Squad

I've been following Bobo's lead in school this year. What has it led to? Lots and lots of superheroes! We've used several preschool packs I found online, Royal Baloo's and Over the Big Moon.

Matching symbols to their hero

After independent play, while I'm making breakfast, Bobo and I make our way to his room for our version of circle time. Bobo loves using the Learning Resources pocket chart for superhero matching.

Puzzles fit too!

Super hero lair

We keep the building toys in Bobo's room. He built a super hero lair and used the paper pieces from the matching game to play. NOTE: He used the paper figures for lots of play this week as his other toys were in time out for not being put away.

Writing center- pre-writing

After we play outside, Bobo works at his writing center. This time, he helped the super hero catch the bad guy with pre-writing worksheets. We use the dry-erase center, so he can do it over and over. Plus, if it's not just right, Bobo likes to start over. I can see a huge difference with his writing skills from before summer break.

Cutting & sorting

His scissor skills are still a work in progress. Thumbs up, Bobo! He's asked for the hero and villain cut and sort sheet several times.

Bobo has colored these types of sheets before. The text is written in the color each figure should be, as directions. I'm a bit behind on the blogging from being away, so he did this activity weeks ago. Today, he looked at his work and "read" the colors. Yay, those symbols are beginning to mean something!