Tot School: Week 8 Fall/Autumn

For week 8 of Tot School our theme was Fall/Autumn.  Here are the activities we did throughout the week:

Day 1- We made an apple stamp pumpkin painting, did some prewriting practice with some pumpkin vine printables I stuck in a sheet protector so Claire could write on them with a dry erase marker, and we made pumpkin cloud dough!
Day 2- Claire did some fall dot paintings in the morning, on our walk we collected leaves and then made some leaf art.  We made an apple stamp fall tree painting and lastly made caramel apple slices.
Day 3- I printed off a simple fall puzzle for Claire to put together, I also printed a few shape worksheets that I stuck in a sheet protector for Claire to practice drawing her shapes.  Claire wanted to find leaves again on our walk so we did a Fall scavenger hunt and collected a bunch of fall items and made a nature collage.  We also watched this Autumn Leaves are Falling Down song on youtube.
Day 4- We painted 5 cardboard TP rolls in fall colors to use later in a few "5 little leaves Rhymes".  We did a large, medium, and small leaf sort that Claire loved.  She always loves sorting things!  After our painted TP rolls were dry we glued a leaf on each of them and used to do 5 Little Leaves rhymes found here.
Day 5- We made knuckle pumpkin patch patch painting.  We played a pumpkin letter match game.  i wrote 5 different letters (some that Claire knows) on pumpkins and had Claire jump on the letter I called out.  We also made some pumpkin spice chex mix for movie night (recipe here) that was super yummy! There were a few other activities I wanted to do that we weren't able to fit in but I think we will do them during our Halloween week instead!  
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Oktoberfirst

Two years ago I decided to create a little holiday for our family on the first day of my favorite month, Oktoberfirst!  I love getting everyone in the spirit for all things fall and Halloween.  This year October 1st fell on General Conference so we had to simply our celebrating a bit since we'd only be home for part of the day (and most of that would be spent listening to conference).  I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and surprised Claire and Peter with a couple of new Halloween books.  I also gave them Halloween jammies but I gave those to them at the beginning of September because I was so excited about them :).  

Claire reading the new books to Peter.  Both books have quickly become favorites around here and we've had to read them at least once a day since we gave them to the kids.
In between conference sessions Claire dressed up in her witch hat and ran around outside to get her wiggles out!  After conference we went to Morgan, Bryce went to the priesthood session of conference with his dad and Claire, Peter, and I went to my sister-in-law's baby shower.  It was a pretty busy day but we still got a little celebrating in at least!

Tot School Week 7: Bodies

For Week 7 of Tot School we learned about bodies and how they move.  Here are our activities from the week:

Day 1- We learned about the letter B.  I printed off pictures of body parts and had Claire glue them on the letter B while we talked about what each part was and what it did.  I also printed off a worksheet of different body parts with their names and put it in a sheet protector and had Claire practice tracing the letters.  We played a matching game with her white board and letter magnets.  I'd have claire find all of the Bs out of the letters I put up.
Day 2- I printed off a body part matching game for Claire.  I told her what the body parts were and talked about what they did (in toddler terms) but I didn't really expect her to remember much from this part :).  Next I had her color a picture of herself and watch this video about bodies on youtube.  Her self portrait turned out quite darling, apparently she is wearing a red dress!

Day 3- We focused on our mouths and teeth.  I drew a tooth on a yellow piece of construction paper and had Claire "brush" it with white paint to get it all clean.  Next I taught Claire about flossing and had her practice flossing playdoh out of an upside down ice cube tray.  For a snack we made a mouth with apple slices, peanut butter, and marshmallows!
Day 4: We learned about how our bodies move.  I had Claire do a painting with her feet.  This was such a fun activity, she loved it.  I love how her painting turned out.  We are going to save it and use it for wrapping paper!  Next we sang the hokey pokey a few times putting our body parts in and out of a circle out of string on the ground (not pictured).  I made a toddler tight rope with a piece of tape on the ground and had Claire practice balancing, walking, and running on the line.  I also made a line of pillows and had Claire jump from pillow to pillow, which turned into her just running on them :).
Day 5- I printed off a a blank face and put in a sheet protector and had Clair make a face on it with playdoh.  I printed off a picture of a girl split into sections (head, shoulders, knees, and toes) had Claire color it and then we sang the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" while holding up the corresponding picture.  We also learned this little rhyme about loving our bodies that we did while making up actions.