Tot-School Yellow Day

Read:  

Song: 

YELLOW SUN


Yellow sun, oh what fun.
Now we all can play.
I will wear my yellow suit
And swim out in the bay.

Yellow sun, in the sky
Shinning down on me.
I will play out in the sun,
Then rest beneath a tree.

–Jean Warren

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is yellow).  Have the child point to the yellow car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Yellow paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something yellow? Sunshine, bumble bee, cheese, etc…
  • “I spy something yellow…”

Snack:  Bananas, Lemonade, Lemon pudding, Pineapple, Corn, Kix, Eggs

Yellow Playdough

Get out any yellow play dough and yellow play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Yellow Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are YELLOW (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and yellow paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the yellow paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Yellow Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a yellow one for her to play with today.

YELLOW word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the yellow pictures onto the YELLOW word.

Cornmeal Sunshine

Materials:

  • Paper
  • Glue
  • Cornmeal

Directions:

  1. Make a sunshine with glue on the paper.
  2. Let the child sprinkle cornmeal over the glue.
  3. Shake off any extra. Then she drew in the cornmeal with his finger.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions

YELLOW Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with yellow toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Red Day

Read:  

Song: 

I LOVE RED
Tune: “Three Blind Mice”

I love red, I love red.
That’s what I said, that’s what I said.
Firetrucks, wagons and strawberries piled high.
Stop signs, hearts and pizza pies.
Roses, tomatoes and apples, oh my.
I love red.
That’s what I said.
–Jean Warren

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is red).  Have the child point to the red car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Red paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something red?  Apples, fire trucks, ladybugs, etc…
  • “I spy something red…”

Snack:  Strawberries, Red Apples, Red Juice, Red Jello, Radishes, Watermelon, Licorice, Pepperoni, Tomato

Red Playdough

Get out any red play dough and red play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Red Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are RED (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and red paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the red paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Red Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a red one for her to play with today.

RED word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the red pictures onto the RED word.

Find the Red Ball

Materials: 3 red solo cups, a small red ball

Description: Place three cups with their opening down on the ground. Show your toddler the red ball and place it under one of the red cups. Move the cups around for a few seconds. Have your child see if they can follow the cup with the red ball and guess what cup it is under. Once you do this several times, allow your toddler to put the ball under the cup and try to trick you!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to play games, teach your tot to make guesses.

RED Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with red toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Colors Tot-School

We are learning colors this month. We spent a couple days on each color, basically however long she needed to remember the new color. Storm is 2 years old, but you could use most of these activities for 3 and 4 year old children as well. I also have a few activities for babies; we included my granddaughter in some of the lessons. You can click the links at the bottom of this post to see what we did for each individual color.

Preschool Colors Book List

Tot-School Colors Book List

  • Red by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Yellow  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Blue by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Green by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Purple  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Orange by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Black  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Brown  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • White by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Gray by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Pink by Patricia M. Stockland

Baby Colors Book List

Color Music Songs:

Color Activities:

  • I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  I punched out the pieces and laid them on the floor for her to match up. 

Color Busy Book:

I made Storm a busy book to match up colors. I printed all of these pages from free resources that I have found. Then I laminated them and 3 hole punched them and placed them in a binder. I cut out the matches and added velcro dots to them so that she could place them in the appropriate spot.

  • Paint Brush Colors

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

“The Wheels on the Bus” Tot School

One of her favorite songs is “The Wheels on the Bus”. She loves to see school busses while we are driving around town.

“The Wheels on the Bus”

Color: Yellow

Shape: Circle

Number: 4

Letter: B

Verse 1: wheels go round

  • Look at the wheels on our van.
  • Show the wheels on the toy bus and push it on the floor to see them go round and round.
  • Roll a ball to go round and round.

Verse 2: people go up and down

  • Jump up and down on a trampoline.
  • Hold a baby doll up then down.

Verse 3: horn goes toot

  • Sit in the van and honk the horn.
  • Show child some other types of horns.

Verse 4: money goes clink

  • Drop coins in a jar or piggy bank to go clink.

Verse 5: wipers go swish

  • Wash the van window.
  • Turn on the window wipers in the van.

Book List:

Dramatic Play:

Music/ Poems:

Foods:

  • Graham Cracker
  • Cinnamon Toast Crunch
  • Cheese
  • Mini Oreo

Fine Motor:

  • Paint a Shape Bus then glue on square windows and use a dot dauber to make circle wheels.
  • Free The Bears on the Bus from Teachers Pay Teachers. Count the bears and match them to the number on the bus.
  • This free Hands on Bus with movable parts. Color, then cut and glue the pieces together.
  • Free Match the Wheels from Teachers Pay Teachers. Cut out the wheels for the child to match to the bus.

Trips:

  • Take a bus ride.

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Christmas Fireside Family Photos

Merry Christmas!

Lots of teens and tots in our family photo this year! The toughest part of family time these days, is matching the schedule of these kids going every which way. They are all involved in so many activities, I am sososososo proud of them all.

I set up my props in the backyard by our firepit and picnic table. I used vintage sleds, firewood, checkered tablecloth, my son’s guitar, and some evergreenery. We all dressed in denim, red, and black. I also tried to add as much red and black gingham that I could.

The Tots

These girls did very well for being so young. I had this vintage baby sled that I had found at a garage sale a while back. It fit well with my red, wooden, vintage fireside Christmas scene.

I also place a couple artificial Christmas trees because we don’t have real evergreens in this part of our yard. My dad will collect these after Christmas on the curb in his neighborhood.

The Picnic Table

Our picnic table became the center of our photos despite my efforts to include all of the props that I set out and the fireplace.

The Tree

The big kids leaned against the tree by the woodpile for some of our photos.

The Guitar

I love that he plays guitar and enjoys music so much. He enjoys playing for fun, but also gets to play his bass in church on Sunday mornings.

The Storm

She is so beautiful and loved sitting in this little seat at the woodpile. She wore her little red and black checkered jacket and canvas shoes.

Merry Christmas to all!

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Fall Sensory Tot Tub

I put together some small fall items that I found at our local dollar store to create a fall themed Tot Sensory Tub. She liked sorting and using the toddler tweezer.

This tub kept her happy for a long time and we could practice sorting and counting all the objects. We sorted by color and by item, then we counted each pile. We had orange pumpkins, leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; yellow corn, leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; red leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; and brown acorns, leaves, and fall jewels.

Happy Fall!

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Family Thanksgiving Minute-to-Win-it

We visited some family for Thanksgiving. We played a few Minute-to-Win-it challenges together. Our family has a large age difference, so we tried to choose games that would be equally challenging for each of all.

Corn Cob Roll

Corn Cob Roll

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Make straight lines with your masking tape that are at least 12 feet long and 1 foot apart.
  2. In less than 1 minute…
  3. Players should slowly roll the corn cob down the lane
  4. If the corn cob rolls out of the lane, players have to roll it back to where it left the line and keep going
  5. No sliding the corn cob with the spoon

Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up

Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Player needs 2 plates with 10 Pumpkin Seeds on one plate.
  2. In less than 1 minute…
  3. Use the straw to suck up the seeds, one at a time and place them on the second plate.
  4. Try to get all of the seeds to the second plate in less than a minute.
  5. You can adjust the difficulty of this challenge by adding or taking seeds.
Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up
Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up
Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up
Pumpkin Seed Suck It Up

Thankful Plate Stack

Thankful Plate Stack

Materials:

Directions:

  1. In less than 1 minute…
  2. have players stack the cups starting with 1, then a plate, 2 more cups, plate, 1 cup, plate, 2 cups!
Thankful Plate Stack

Match Maker

Match Maker

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Place a pumpkin under each cup and an acorn under each cup… and spread them out on the table.
  2. Place an empty cup several feet away.
  3. You have just 1 minute to…
  4. uncover 1 pumpkin and acorn at a time and run it to the empty cups across the room
  5. Sort the pumpkins and acorns into the appropriate cups.

Candy Corn Shake!

Candy Corn Shake!

Materials:

Directions:

  1. place candy corn into cups with 1 in a cup, 2 in the next cup, 3 in the next cup, 4, then 5
  2. Cover the opening with card stock and glue – write a little number of how many candy corns are inside for your eyes only
  3. In under a minute…
  4. Players should shake the cups and order them in order 1-5 candy corns.
Candy Corn Shake!
Candy Corn Shake!

 Shake Your Tail Feather

Shake Your Tail Feather

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Tie the hose through the tissue box with the legs for the hose extending out of the backside
  2. Fill the tissue box with feathers
  3. In under a minute…
  4. players should shake their tail feathers – emptying feathers out of the box
Shake Your Tail Feather
Shake Your Tail Feather

Inertia Yank

Inertia Yank

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Place a cup with a piece of card stock on top of it.  Then a cup on top of that with another piece of card stock on top. Place 1 more cup on top.
  2. In under a minute…
  1. Players should yank the card stock out from between the cups
  2. If they are quick enough the cups should stack up without toppling over.

Pumpkin Bop

Pumpkin Bop

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Players keep one hand in their pocket and try to keep two orange balloons up in the air for one minute.
  2. You can adjust the difficulty of this challenge by adding or taking away a balloon.
Pumpkin Bop

Leaf Blower

Leaf Blower

Materials:

  • 1 minute Timer
  • leaves, they can be real leaves that are dried out or fake leaves
  • straws (or turkey basters)

Instructions:

  1. In less that 1 minute…
  2. Player will use a new straw (or turkey baster) to blow/race the leaf to the other end of the table.
Leaf Blower
Leaf Blower
Leaf Blower

Turkey Trot

Turkey Trot

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. Place one candy pumpkin on a spoon and stand at the beginning of the obstacle course.
  2. In less than a minute…
  3. Have players race holding onto their spoon with one hand (you can allow younger kids to use both hands).
  4. If their candy drops off, they have to start back at the beginning.
  5. To make this game more challenging for adults, you can create a bit of an obstacle course.
Turkey Trot
Turkey Trot
Turkey Trot
Turkey Trot

Acorn/ Pumpkin Toss

Acorn/ Pumpkin Toss

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. Place the bucket on the floor 10 feet from where the player will be standing.
  2. In under a minute…
  3. The person with the acorns needs to throw all of the acorns into the bucket.   
Acorn/ Pumpkin Toss
Acorn/ Pumpkin Toss

Turkeys of a Feather

Materials:

Directions:

  1. The object of the game is to keep your feather in the air without touching the ground or any other surface by blowing on them.
  2. players need to attempt to keep their feather in the air for a full minute by blowing it up.

Buckets of Acorns

Buckets of Acorns

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. 2 bowls side by side.  All of the acorns in 1 of the bowls.
  2. In under a minute…
  3. Players will try and get all of the acorns into the empty bowl using only the tweezers.
Buckets of Acorns
Buckets of Acorns
Buckets of Acorns

Pumpkin Head

Pumpkin Head

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Give each player a mini pumpkin to balance on their head.
  2. In under a minute…
  3. The players must run from one end of the yard to the other without the pumpkin falling off their heads. If you want to make it more difficult, you can set up an obstacle course.
  4. (our pumpkins were too small and light for this one… I suggest an actual tiny pumpkin)

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2 Year Old Pocahontas Toddler Photos

We had been watching Disney Pocahontas this fall so she was excited to she herself as the “Pretty Princess”.

Pocahontas loves to explore the outdoors and nature. She’s an adventurous and curious girl who is looking for the right path to follow. She is wise enough to seek the advice of her elder grandmother tree, and stands up for what is right even if it goes against the norm.

Ever since she could walk, Storm also loves being outdoors. She loves to pick flowers and help me in the garden. We will always teach her to follow the ways of the Lord even though most people will disagree with it.

I found this Pocahontas dress at a local resale store after Halloween. I was so excited, it was just in time for her pictures. I just combed her hair straight after her bath and parted it on the side. She also has these turquoise earrings to wear. I placed my  blue sheet for the background with Christmas lights behind it to look like a water fall. I just crumpled brown packing paper to place on either side of the waterfall and a brown sheet on the ground. We also used fabric leaves these photos.

Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed”. 

Below she is Pocahontas 1 year apart in each photo…

You might enjoy Storm’s other Pocahontas photoshoots:

Or some of her other Princess Photoshoots:

Family Teen Halloween Festivities

The kids are growing up so we tried some more activities geared toward teens this year! We carved pumpkins, had chili and caramel dip, roasted hotdogs and smores, then we finished with a Candy vs. Chocolate bracket.

Campfire

We let the kids roast hot dogs and s’mores. Storm really loved meeting the “big kids” friends that came over for the evening.

Fall Foods

  • Roasted Hot Dogs
  • S’mores
  • Carmel Apples (red, green, yellow apples) with mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and sprinkles
  • Hot Cocoa & Apple Cider
  • Chili with cheese, crackers and corn chips

Homemade Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

  • Chili Brick
  • 2 lb. ground beef
  • 3 cans of kidney beans
  • 1 can tomato soup
  • 1 Cup water

Directions:

  1. Brown the beef and drain.
  2. Mix all of the ingredients in a big pot and bring to boil.
  3. Lower heat and simmer until chili brick is dissolved, at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

Pumpkin Carving

The kids carved their own pumpkins with our pumpkin carving tools. I helped Storm care a lightning bolt in her pumpkin while the baby watched.

Candy vs. Chocolate

This was one of the kids favorite activities this year! I purchased a bit of each kind of candy and the kids all tasted them one by one and filled out their brackets as they went. Then we looked at them all to find the winner “Kit Kat”.

Storm Trunk -or- Treat

We decided to participate in the kids school Trunk-or -Treat at the last minute. We decided to use a STORM theme because I still had the props that I had made for her STORM birthday party that we could use. She dressed in her rainboots, raincoat, lightning bolt earrings, and umbrella. I also put her hair in pigtails, parting it in a zig zag pattern to look like a lightning bolt. I wore my “Storm Chaser” tee shirt from her birthday party.

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Goodnight Moon Tot School

One of the favorite books for all of my toddlers over the years has been “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown. The simple rhyming and repetition is calming for my little ones. We took the book line by line and did some activities for each line. I used some of these FREE Goodnight Nursery Rhymes Over the Moon Preschool Toddler Printable from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Abeka Curriculum

I was able to incorporate several of our Abeka nursery lessons into this unit as well. Following are some of the specific books with links that are used in this Goodnight Moon Tot School Unit:

Goodnight Moon Sensory Tub

I put in the black beans for the dark night sky background. I also added some other things that I found around the house. A stuffed star, three stuffed teddy bears, moon shaped cookie cutter, a little toy cow, a tiny tea set, I made a button clock, a red pompom for the red balloon, some star beads, a felt pair of mittens that I made, and two little kitten toys.

Tot Tub

Color: Yellow

Shape: Crescent

Number: 2

Letter: M (moon)

Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“In the great green room”

Paint with green paint.

“There was a telephone”

Play with toy phone.
Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“And a red balloon”

Play with a red baloon.

“And a picture of—”

Paint a picture.

“The cow jumping over the moon”

“And there were three little bears sitting on chairs”

“And two little kittens”

Color 2 little kittens.

“And a pair of mittens”

Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“And a little toy house”

Play with a toy house.

“And a young mouse”

“And a comb and a brush”

Comb doll’s hair.
Brush doll’s hair.
  • She used the comb and the brush to comb her baby doll’s hair.

“and a bowl full of mush”

Play dough…
bowl of mush.

“And a quiet old lady who was whispering “hush””

Night night hugs
put baby to bed.
  • She rocked and hushed her baby dolls before she put them in her crib.

“Goodnight room”

“Goodnight moon”

“Goodnight cow jumping over the moon”

Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“Goodnight light”

“And the red balloon”

Red pom pom balloons in star ice tray.

“Goodnight bears”

Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“Goodnight chairs”

“Goodnight kittens”

Abeka Nursery Curriculum
3 Little Kittens

“And goodnight mittens”

  • I made these mittens out of felt for her to match with left and right.

“Goodnight clocks”

Toy wooden clock.
Hickory, Dickory, Dock

“And goodnight socks”

“Goodnight little house”

Abeka Nursery Curriculum

“And goodnight mouse”

  • I made a Color House Mouse game out of felt. I had the mouse behind a house and she flips over each colored house until she can find the house mouse.

“Goodnight comb And goodnight brush”

Paint with a comb or brush.
  • She dipped her comb in some paint on a white paper to make a different kind of print.

“Goodnight nobody”

“Goodnight mush”

  • She had oatmeal for breakfast.

“And goodnight to the old lady whispering “hush””

“Goodnight stars”

“Goodnight air”

  • I drew a moon and stars with a white crayon on white paper. Then she painted with watercolors over it to reveal the hidden pictures.

“Goodnight noises everywhere.”

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

  • 1 Cup Butter
  • 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1//2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cookie Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray
  3. Cream together the butter and sugar.
  4. Add the egg and mix well.
  5. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla.
  6. Form dough into a large ball and place in a bowl to refrigerate for a hour.
  7. Roll the cookie dough onto a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick.
  8. Cut out the dough with cookie cutters and place them on the pan.
  9. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
  10. Cool and add the buttercream.

Buttercream Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup Crisco
  • 4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Buttercream Directions:

  1. Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
  2. Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
  3. Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.
  4. Color with yellow food coloring.

We made star and moon sugar cookies with yellow icing and sprinkles.

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