Play Date: Easter

Pom matching with egg and puzzle.

Painting coffee filter flowers with watercolors.

Orange scented play dough with green glitter.

Cloud in a jar with liquid watercolors and shaving cream.

Bobo asked me to keep his play dough man. Since the dough was several weeks old, I let his creation dry out. Now, I have an adorable sculpture for my office!

Play Date: The Letter "F"

Theme: Letter "F"

Imaginative Play

We played peek-a-boo with the puppet stage and jungle animals. The children who came were under 2, so we did not sing or act out (except making animal noises). The boys enjoyed hiding behind the stage and peeking out at their mothers.

Logical Thinking

Put your hard hat on to play at the construction site. I put out the construction set I purchased for the library from Discount School Supply, cones and Duplos. The cones became hats for one child, which gives a new meaning to "put your thinking cap on."

Matching

I put four sets of felt pumpkins for "Fall" matching. You could also practice patterns with older children, counting, adding and subtracting. B, age 1, liked putting them on the flannel board because he only gets one turn during storytime. Our play group lasts for two hours, so you can have lots of turns in that time!

Art
"F" is for Fish. Discount School Supply has some cute, moveable fish for a reasonable price for small groups. Depending on the age of the artist, you can use tempera, water colors, markers or crayons to decorate them. Some children will paint each stripe a different color, while others will make them all one color. They all love the wiggle!

Music
What do you need for music class with preschoolers? Easy: lots of percussion instruments and Whaddaya think of that? by Laurie Berkner. Lead a parade or simply play along to the music. Dancing is REQUIRED.

Sorting and Counting

Did I mention I LOVE Discount School Supply? I found this wonderful hopscotch carpet with bean bags for indoor play. Today, we practiced sorting and counting by using ladybug bean bags with spots and numbers on them. You can match by color or number. The boys had fun throwing the bean bags, too.

Educational Toys

The favorite toy this week was the sensory puzzle from, you guessed it, Discount School Supply. Instead of setting out the tub of toys as usual, I only set out a few toys on each mat. I did allow a couple of noise makers this time, because the children love them. One was a See and Say for farm animals, and the other was a light and sound station taken from a table toy (Goodwill find).

Play Date: Valentine's Day

Month: February
Theme: Valentine's Day

This week at our playgroup...

Valentine-making invitation.

"I love my mommy" riddles and animal identification.

Edible bracelets. I don't know how many of these will actually become gifts, but the kids had fun making and eating them.

Large Motor Sort. I've set this out the past couple of weeks as it's a favorite.

I modified the Winter Tot Pack penguins. I always have a matching game in storytime. Instead of doing colors, I tried matching the number of spots on each penguin with the numerical penguins. I pasted spots onto the penguins, laminated them and pasted magnets on the backs. The game accompanied my flannel story of Pippa's Penguin.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Play Date: Halloween

Theme: Halloween Potluck
Date: 11/4/11

I'm bringing the idea of Tot Trays to the library for our weekly play dates. Since I have a whole room to set up in and tables available, I put up Tot Tables. I also attached signs with the skills highlighted for each activity.

Large Motor: Throwing
Since Halloween was Monday, I still had all the activities from our annual party out. I put out the Jack-O'-Lantern toss and Spider toss. The children could work on throwing and aiming.


Sorting & Counting
What do you do with all that Trick-or-Treating candy your child acquired? Sort it and count it, of course. I put out the candy bucket with 2 different types of candy and 6 different colors. The children can sort it into different cups and count the pieces. Under the table, I strung a clothesline and attached different colored flannel pumpkins to sort and count.


Arts & Crafts
I had the scratch-a-design pumpkins left, so I put those out. The little ones don't necessarily understand making different shapes or designs, but they love to scratch the black off the pumpkin to find what is underneath. These are great for pre-writing and logical thinking.


Fine Motor
Stamping? I bought Halloween stampers from Oriental Trading to put in the treat bags for our party on Monday. I'm sure the extras won't last until next year, because the ink will dry. These work with Fine Motor because the children have to pull off the top of each stamper, before commencing to stamp.


Language Building
Books, of course! I put out all my story hour board books with simple words in them. I set out the magnetic board with letters on it. I intended the children to copy words out of the books with the letters. I think they came up with their own words, though. I saw several names on there!

Sensory Station


I made my first sensory bin for the library! I made a "Buried Treasure" bin, and I used sand (don't tell the custodians). I found some beautiful white rocks/beads left from a teen program and started hunting for other things to put in there. I found a treasure box, a telescope and sparkly jewels. I put in some clay tools to draw in the sand with or to dig and scoop.


Music
It's xylophone time! I have two real xylophone sets with drum sticks. I heard lots of happy music coming from the children's area, today. I put out the sheet music to "Three Blind Mice" with the note letters written in (thanks, Deb). If I practice, I may add a performance piece to story time.


Just for Fun


I set out the mats in the middle of the room with our customary box of toys. I think everyone gravitated there first before branching out to the stations. Everyone had lots of fun and hopefully met some new friends. Next week, the library will be closed for training, but come the following week (11/18) to try out some new activities!