H is for House Shape Review

Today, we learned about the letter h as well as shapes by making a shape house.

I cut out lots of shapes, and Mr. T glued them on the paper to construct his house.

Gold Fish Sorting

This snack time activity took a whole 30 seconds to prepare, and Mr. T loved it!

Supplies needed: 2 fish cut from construction paper and colored goldfish.



I cut two different colored fish from construction paper and then dug out some goldfish to match.



Tuck sorted the goldfish before enjoying his mid morning snack. As he gets older and masters sorting two colors, we'll add an additional color to the fun.

Earth Day Goop Bag

Well this was supposed to be posted last night, but the OKC Thunder game was just too exciting! I had made these bags before when I was introduced to them while working on my teaching degree as well as in my years in the classroom. We would use them as a fun way to practice writing letters and words. A non-cooking method for the classrooms that I often used involves putting hairgel in a ziplock bag before adding glitter. I was reminded of the fun when reading this blog. Since we were at home, I opted for the true goop. Tuck kept saying "Tis is so cool!"

Supplies needed: cornstarch, water, sugar, and plastic bag with a large circle drawn on it.

In a large pot, mix 1 cup of cornstarch with 4 cups of water and 1/3 cup sugar. Stir over low/medium heat until the mixture thickens into goop. I then added it to two bowls before adding a few drops of blue and green food coloring.



Tuck and daddy mixed the goop with the food coloring. We then added the goop to the bag and squished away!



Note: In the classroom, I always taped the seal of the bag with clear packing tape so little fingers couldn't open the bag spilling the contents.

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! I meant to post this yesterday, but we had a busy day/evening hanging out as a family enjoying the beautiful weather and working in the yard.



Supplies needed: paper towel, blue and green food coloring, eye dropper, 2 cups of water, and scissors.

I had originally planned for us to dye a coffee filter, but the colors didn't show up very well so we scratched that plan.



Tuck dropped drops of blue and green water onto Viva paper towels before we cut it out to symbolize the earth.



We are doing another Earch Day activity with daddy tonight, so check back later for more fun!

I Spy Something Yellow

Today we focused on the color yellow. During our library time, I spotted the book In My New Yellow Shirt by Eileen Spinelli that's all about the color yellow. We read the book before going on a hunt throughout our house for yellow objects. Tuck found lots of blocks, a ball, a hard hat, and a stuffed chick. Tuck loved searching throughout the house, but I had to remind him a few times that we were looking only for yellow things. He really wanted to just collect balls in his tub!

E is for Egg

Pardon our little break from creating...we've been loving on Mr. T's new baby sister, Miss A.

Easter is this weekend, and we just happened to be on the letter E. So E is for Egg!

Supplies needed: construction paper, markers, scissors, and glue



Before starting, I cut out a large E and an egg from construction paper. Then I allowed Mr. T to decorate the egg with markers. We reviewed color names while doing this.



After he had finished decorating the egg, he glued the E to the Egg and we were finished.

Color Clips

This was a fun activity working on fine motor skills while also focusing on color recognition and matching that we can do over and over again.



Supplies needed: construction paper, scissors, clothespins, and magic markers.

During nap time, I cut squares from construction paper and colored the ends of clothespins to match. I then modeled the activity for Mr. T before letting him loose matching the colored squares to the clothespins.



Tuck loved this activity, but he had some problems figuring out how to pinch the end of the clothespins to attach to the squares. After lots of modeling and practice, he seems to be grasping the concept better.

Just a little side note...My child does own pants, but we are potty training and he does much better when we're at home without pants on.

Muffin Tin Monday: Red

Today we began Muffin Tin Monday at our house to try to spice up our boring lunchtime routine as well as implement some learning fun. Today's theme was red.



We had spaghetti o's with weiners, strawberry jello with diced peaches, heart toast with strawberry jam, and red goldfish crackers all served up in a heart muffin tin.

Colors, Shapes, and Trucks

Tucker is into cars and trucks right now. He lines all of his cars up and drives and crashes them on his road rug. While at the library last week, he picked out a new book that is part of the Jon Scieszka Trucktown Series, Smash! Crash!. It is a very cute book about two trucks that like to smash and crash into things...very little boyish! After reading it, we decided that during our "school time" we would make a truck.

Supplies needed: colorful construction paper, scissors (for mommy), glue stick, and crayons.




I started by cutting shapes from different colored paper. I cut a small square for the cab of the truck, a rectangle, 2 circles for tires, and a circle for the sun. We then talked about each of the shapes and the colors of them.



Let the gluing begin! Tuck loves using a glue stick! I had to show him where to place each shape, but other than that, he did it all on his own. We finished off our piece by adding some more color.

Heart Run

Today we worked on color recognition again.

Supplies needed: different colored hearts cut from paper



I cut various colors of hearts and layed them around the living room floor.



As I called a color, Tucker would go jump on the heart and bring it to me.



Tuck loved this activity, and it was a great way to burn some energy from being cooped up inside the house from the recent Winter storm.

Color Pom Pom Sort

We are currently working with Tucker on his colors. Tucker sat and sorted the pom pom balls over and over for almost 30 minutes (which is a long time for a very active 2-year-old). We also practiced counting the pom poms.

Supplies Needed:

• Egg Carton


• Markers


• Pom Poms

1. Cut the egg carton to provide the number of squares for the number of pom poms that you are using.

2. Color the circle in the bottom of the carton to correspond with the pom poms.

3. Model sorting with your little one.

4. Let the fun begin! Correcting as needed.

Tucker really enjoyed this project, and it is one that we can keep and do often. We counted pom poms as well as practiced saying the color names.