Tot School week's review: April 20th-24th

This is a repost of an old post originally published on my wordpress blog. The xml files would not transfer to blogger so I will c&p here.

Originally posted 4/27/2009

We had a very busy week. I have a 4y9m girl, 2y4m boy. I also care for a 3y3m boy and a 22m old boy during many of our "school" hours. Here is how we occupied some of that time this week.

Rainbow in a bag color mixing & sensory activity as described by The Artful Parent. We created orange, purple, green through color mixing last Friday (failed to snap pics) and on Monday we took the white base and I let them mix the yellow, red, and blue colors into the white base. This reinforced 4yo's primary & secondary color understanding, promoted color identification with 2 y.o. and 3 y.o. and was a great sensory experience for everyone. But we weren't done there because we used the great cornstarch/sugar substance for fingerpainting later in the week!

[caption id="attachment_7" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The 6 colors."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Mixing yellow coloring into white base."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_8" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Fingerpainting with the Rainbow bag mixture"][/caption]

An Earth Day Field Trip to the Childrens Museum.

[caption id="attachment_28" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Plasma cars on the "street". "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_29" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Bouncing/deflection activity"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_30" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Playing in the dirt & water on the erosion table."][/caption]

A few activities that aren't as adult-directed, too

[caption id="attachment_5" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Musical Instruments"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Rice + animals in the sandtable"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_10" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Potato Heads "][/caption]

And activities for the 4y9m old that she initiates. I just follow her lead.

[caption id="attachment_14" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="4 y.o.'s obsession with weather reports, maps and graphs of all sorts. Thankful for DVR so we can pause and discuss them on her demand."][/caption]

Dictated book for counting sounds in her home. We used photos. Started as an activity for her music class and quickly became a book.

Using her Estimation Jar w/corks that she saw modeled on Sid the Science Kid

We have been doing kind of a "Sid the Science Kid" science curriculum because of her high level of interest/motivation. Read more in this post.



Other activities (no pics):

*Birthday party w/all 4 kids at a local park w/bubbles and playground play

*picking dandelions and collecting rocks in the backyard

*painting (projects that will be completed next week)

*painting on paper for fun and color identification practice

*lunch at the picnic table outside

*making cupcakes w/ 4y9m old ended up turning this activity into a counting sounds book.

Goals for next week:

*delve back into my Montessori background and create some activities

*finish transportation vehicles we started painting this week w/3y.o. and 4 y.o.

*make some form of a bell for music class assignment

*use charts with 4y.o. per her request

*Spanish body part words w/Potato heads w/4 y.o. per her desire to learn Spanish

*pull out some great books to try starting lapbooks for all ages

To return to 1+1=1 blog and view more Tot School activities from this week posted by others click here.