TOT SCHOOL- WEEK SIXEEN 33 MONTHS

We did lots of great activities this week...I have capped the pictures at 24...you are welcome;)

Granny and Ryleigh playing with a Melissa and Doug Puzzle

While Aunt Laura was visiting, she and Ryleigh worked on some puzzles... did lots of dancing... and worked on colors& shapes...

This week for our stART project we made pretzels...

Braeden and Anna watching the girls play projects...

The girls did the dot paintings with the bingo markers again...they did these a couple of times this week...but I am just including a picture of one...mainly because it looks pretty much the same...:)

The Letter of the Week for us was "K" (is for Kite). I had the girls color on the kites, then glue some decorative tissue paper on...and added some ribbon for the string...I think they came out much cuter than last weeks "J's"....

Ryleigh sharing with Elena...Red is Elena's favorite color...

We used tweezers to transfer tiny pom poms from a baby food container to the suction cup part of those "tub things"... a great fine motor activity.

Braeden playing with one of his Christmas gifts from Bubbe... (Ryleigh is finding Braeden lots of fun these days as he starts playing with more things..)

I made Ryleigh a button snake...I have seen them on many blogs and I knew she would like it...and she does.... I will make a few more with different size buttons....I sewed a button onto a piece of ribbon and then cut many pieces of felt for her to use....
My Grandparents got her these adorable beads for Christmas...they have different colors and the alphabet on them...she had fun calling out the letter and putting it on the pipe-cleaner.
She is really enjoying her new scissors... and can now hold the piece of paper and cut all the way across it...YAY!!!!
I put some of the pages of Ryleigh's Kumon tracing book in page protectors, gave her a dry-erase marker and let her do the pages...over and over again....
Unfortunately Sir Braeden has gotten too big (heavy) for his swing...this is making nap time a little difficult...luckily he has fallen in love with a new chair...and this one goes up to 40 pounds...
Being the outdoorsy person that I am...I brought the snow from our blizzard inside for Ryleigh to play with.... she totally enjoyed this and played with the snow for quite some time... we did a few experiments with it...one of which is pictured below...the other had to do with food coloring...fun..but messy...

Ryleigh pouring warm water over the snow to watch it disappear....

Ryleigh's friend Emily turned 3 last week and at her party Michelle had the girls color on fabric bags...so fun!!! They used fabric markers...I didn't get a picture of Ryleigh's finished bag- but it came out looking tie-dyed....very cute.
We ended our week with a trip to the Dentist (a Ryleigh and Elmo first)... She did great and apparently Elmo had a great time and is looking forward to going again. They counted Ryleigh's teeth-she has 20..and Elmo's- he has 0.

Ryleigh (and Elmo) working on her button snake while we waited in the waiting room...

Elmo took a ride in the chair first...

Ryleigh sat on Mommy's lap and got her teeth counted

Braeden...watching...thrilled to be there...

Ryleigh and Elmo with their "goody bag" watching Daddy get his teeth checked...

Marc...super excited that I now document these fun filled field trips for my blog...

To see what others are doing in their Tot Schools go here...

stART - Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine

A Story + Art = A great stART!

For our project this week, we read Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine. The story goes something like this---for those who have not read it----The Valentine for a dog is a bone, for an ant eater some ants, for a horse some hay, for a cat some cream.... Anyway...to go with the story Ryleigh made some soft pretzels...

What do Pretzels have to do with the story? Not a thing.... however...I suppose one could argue that since Daddy likes soft Pretzels... as in...it is his favorite food...that Ryleigh helped make a Valentine for Daddy... If one was to argue that...they would probably lose since he is the one who was making them with her...oh well....cute story and yummy food....YAY!!!

Twisting the pretzels....

Ryleigh opted to make "nuggets" instead of the full-sized pretzel...

Watching the pretzels take their "bath"......

The finished product...and the little pretzel nuggets were very yummy!
(and thank you Aunt Lissa [Melissa] for the apron...)

To see what others are doing for their stART projects head over to A Mommy's Adventures.

Musical Mondays - Finger Castanet

One of the instruments the kids really like is the finger castanet.... I have had them using them since they were about 18 months...at first they use their whole hand to play them and gradually switch over to playing them correctly with two fingers. I try and have the finger castanets in the lesson rotation every month or so. ... They like to sing B-I-N-G-O with them....

The girls dancing to "What I like about U"...a fisher price song about the letter U....

Playing B-I-N-G-O

The girls holding hands for our Train Song...

TOT SCHOOL - WEEK FIFTEEN 33 MONTHS

This week we got back on schedule and we were very productive! We had Musical Monday, did a stART project, did "tot school", had a playdate and went to dance...it definitely felt good to get out of the house after being sequestered for 2 1/2 weeks! We did lots of writing practice and puzzles...but I didn't get pictures for most of them...I'm sure you can imagine what happened though :)

We always start our weeks with Music...and Ryleigh really likes Elmo to participate (or watch)... so here Elmo is...watching Music class...safely behind glass to keep lots of little fingers from touching him.... please ignore the pink dress....

This week the Letter of the Week was "J" is for Jellyfish... I had the girls paint with toilet paper rolls on the tops of the J and then glue ribbon on them... not my cutest idea ever.... but next week is a new week and we are on to "K"....

Here is Braeden..with his friend "A"...he very much enjoys her company...

Elmo has brought a friend...her name is funshine bear...to watch project time with Ryleigh...

My friend Dawn brought over some paint dot activity hearts. The paint dots are bingo markers from the dollartree. Ryleigh really liked this activity...so I guess we will have to go get our own "markers"...

Recently I won a pegboard and pegs from Shannon's blog. Ryleigh loves to play with it and there are so many fun things that can be done with it...from stacking to pattern work... thank you so much Shannon!!!

Ryleigh playing with her new pegboard.

So...we got the Melissa and Doug scissors...pretty much the best things that have ever been invented....I am only sorry that we did not get them sooner.... she was able to use them right away..they are easy to hold, open and operate....YAY!!!!!

Ryleigh using her new scissors...

We played Memory with I Spy cards...the matches were not identical..which I thought might be harder for her...but she really liked this game and we have played it over...and over...and over...(and over)...again...

One of Ryleigh's favorite activities is doing puzzles. Here are pictures of her doing her clock puzzle and a Melissa and Doug Puzzle. She pretty much does several puzzles a day...

Check out what others are doing for their Tot School at 1+1+1=1.

stART- Corduroy's Valentine's Day

stART- A Story + Art = A great stART!

For our stART project this week we read Corduroy's Valentine's Day...in which Corduroy makes Valentines for his friends. So I had the girls do hand-print hearts...and then Ryleigh made a Valentine out of it. We cut out the hand-print heart and glued it onto some paper...easy and cute!

To see what others are doing for their stART projects this week check out
A Mommy's Adventures