The Name Game

I wanted to find a way to help MC learn the letters in her name, but since she is still a one-year-old, I wanted to keep her moving. I came up with a name game that does both.

First, I cut out some paper squares (about 5"x5") and wrote one letter from her name on each square. I taped each letter on the floor, in order. Since I will not be sharing her real name, let's just use "Name" as the example:

Then, I gathered magnet letters, foam letters, letter toys etc. These will be used for letter matching. My plan is to teach MC to match the letter I hand her to the letter on the floor, verbally emphasizing the sound the letter makes as she does so. To make this more challenging in the future, I will place the letter manipulatives around the room, so she'll have to find them before matching.

I then created letter sticks, by putting foam letter stickers onto large popsicle sticks. I am going to keep these in a cup, pulling one out at a time, and asking MC to stand/hop on the matching floor letter. At first, I will say the letter out loud, hop on it myself, and then ask her to do the same. My hope is that she will eventually be able to look at the letter stick and hop onto the correct matching floor letter without my help.

Lastly, I created a die out of cardstock and wrote one letter from her name on each side. Since there are six sides, you may have to write some letters more than once or leave some sides blank. Or, if your child's name is longer than six letters, you may have to create two dice. MC will get to roll the die, and whichever letter lands up, she will get to hop/stand on the matching letter. When she gets older, I will have her say the letter and sound it makes out loud before hopping. For now, I will say it. 

I also pulled out some letter flashcards that I keep nearby. When I hold up a flash card, she will have to stand/hop on the matching letter. Another way to use the floor letters is a simple hop scotch game. Start at the beginning and hop onto each letter, saying it's name and/or sound at the same time. Also, your child could roll a ball or toss a bean bag onto the floor letters and say or hop onto the letter it lands on. 

There are many ways to play this simple name game! And for active kiddos, it makes learning the letters of their name a lot more fun!

Tot School, Letter P

Our week of the letter P lasted more than a week, because of holiday parties, shopping, appointments, etc. We read lots of books about pigs, penguins, parties, pancakes, and more. She played the piano and painted. She used pink and purple crayons, markers, and paint, and even got to draw with pens and pencils. We attended many Christmas parties...6, I think. So P dragged out, Christmas flew by, and we are ready to start the letter C. 

Before we do, here is a review of some of our letter P activities. I would like to point out that I emphasize the sound that the letter P makes over and over throughout each activity and give her examples that she can hear and repeat ("The letter P says /p/. What sound does the letter P make? Right, /p/, like /p/ penguin. Now you try."). 

My one year old, MC and I read Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. Then, I drew a penguin on a piece of paper and gave her a variety of art supplies (including glue, scrap paper, tissue paper, paint, and glitter) to decorate him with. She made her own one-of-a-kind penguin!

We read Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere! by Bob Barner. Then, MC and I made a penguin puppet together. We used a black paper bag, orange construction paper, black felt (wings), glue, wiggle eyes, orange markers, and some white stickers. 

We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. I drew a pig on a pink piece of construction paper, and cut out five circles (pancakes) from brown construction paper. First, she painted some maple syrup onto each pancake with a brush and brown paint. After the paint dried, I helped her glue the pancakes onto the pig. While she did this, we counted the pancakes. She insisted on putting one on the pig's eye...sure, why not?

The next morning, we re-read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. Then, I made us both pancakes for breakfast. I surprised her with a pancake shaped like a pig. He had a banana nose and chocolate chip eyes. She loved it!

One of the letter P activities I made for her was a P dot to dot made from a Bingo dot marker. I gave her purple and pink markers to trace it with. Some of the tracing was done hand-over-hand and some she did by herself. 

I would also like to mention that we read...a lot! At the beginning of each week, I collect all the books she has on the letter we will be working on, and put them into their own bin (for example, this week I collected all of her books about penguins, pancakes, ponies, the piano, pink, purple, pigs, etc. and put them into their own bin). I keep this bin in the living room, so throughout the day when she wants to read a book, I can easily pull one out and continue to emphasize the sound the letter makes. We also keep another book bin handy filled with books that I rotate depending on the season and holidays that are near (for example, it is now filled with books about snow, Christmas, hibernation, polar bears, snowmen,  and soon, Valentine's Day, etc.). We read out of both book bins throughout the day. 

Tot School, Letter D

We started learning about the letter D this week. Our D week consisted of dogs, donuts, dinosaurs, drums, decorating, daddy, dump trucks, diamonds, dresses, dancing, and much more. Here are some of our letter D activities:

We read Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boynton. I had a dinosaur and some winter clothes already cut out out of construction paper. MC studied my dinosaur, then we took it apart, and she made hers. She helped me glue the dinosaur down, then I put a dab of glue on the back of each piece of his winter clothing. I said what it was (for example: "hat") and then asked her where it goes. She placed each piece down herself. 

We read If You Give A Dog A Donut by Laura Numeroff. I cut a donut out of construction paper and MC helped me glue it down. Then I handed her a paint brush and a cup of pink paint mixed with some glue. I asked her to paint the donut. She helped me dump some sprinkles onto the wet paint/glue mixture, and then proceded to eat the left over sprinkles!

We read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins. She helped me glue the construction paper drum down. Then we flipped the paper, I painted her hands, and she put her hand prints on the drum. We washed her hands. Then I added a foam D sticker to the drum and had MC trace it several times with her finger asking her to repeat the /d/ sound. 

We read Snowmen At Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, since it is December. I drew a tree, topped with the letter D on the back of some contact paper and taped it sticky side out on our sliding glass door. I gave MC some bows and some construction paper diamonds (a good way to learn a shape that begins with D) to decorate her tree with. After all, decorate does begin with D! 

We read Open the Barn Door... by Christopher Santoro. I gave MC a piece of white construction paper, markers, and crayons. She colored while I made the barn out of red construction paper. Then, I gave her the barn to color. When she finished, I cut the barn doors so that they would open. She helped me glue the back of the barn (not the doors!) to the white paper she colored. Then, we printed a picture of her dad (which also starts with D), I cut him out, and she helped me glue him down behind the doors. Now, she can open the doors and see dada!

After this project I wanted to get my little wiggle worm moving again. So, I wrote "D" several times on a piece of paper and cut each one out. I handed MC a letter D with a piece of double stick tape on the back and asked her to put it onto a door. I emphasized "D is for door" and the sound "/d/" over and over throughout this activity. She found a total of 14 doors, placing a D on each one. This was also a great counting opportunity!

Later in the day, we read The Little Dump Truck by Margery Cuyler. Then, we went around and she collected the D's from each door and placed them into her dump truck. Then, she dumped them into the trash! By the way, one of her favorite things to do is to dump things out, and when she does she says " dumped it" every time!

We read Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman, in which there are all kinds of dogs! I decided that we'd make a D-dog, with D-shaped ears and a D-shaped nose. We made him out of a paper plate (that MC painted brown), construction paper, and glue. Then we added some wiggle eyes. MC loves this dog and was very upset that she couldn't play with it while it was drying.

So, that was our week of the letter D. Next comes P!

Tot School, Letter M

My daughter, MC and I started tot school! The letter M was our first letter. We worked on the letter M for two weeks, however, my plan from here on out is to work on each letter for only one week. Here are our M activities:

We read If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff several times throughout the two weeks. Then, I drew a muffin on brown paper and cut up strips of purple paper (this was to be our blackberry jam). MC helped me tear the purple strips into smaller pieces (a great fine motor activity). Then, I put some dabs of glue onto the muffin and she placed the purple pieces on the glue. 

We read Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I cut a moon out of yellow paper and we glued it onto a blue piece of paper.  Then, I put a few squirts of glitter glue on the moon and handed MC a paint brush. She brushed the glitter glue around until it was spread out. 

I also made a simple moon shadow puppet to use in our walk-in closet with a flashlight. I cut a moon shape out of card stock and hot glued it onto a straw. 

Next, we read Duck Duck Moose by Dave Horowitz. I took a close-up of MC, printed it out and cut her face out. She helped me glue her picture on a piece of paper. Then, I painted her hands brown and she made herself some hand printed antlers. I added MC the Moose onto the bottom.

We read The Mitten by Jan Brett. I cut out a pair of mittens from blue paper and MC helped me glue them on. Then, after realizing that we ran out of white paint, I instead painted her hands orange and she put her handprints into the mittens. I used my hair dryer to speed up the paint's drying process, then squirt some glitter glue onto the mittens. MC used a paint brush to spread it out all over her mittens. 

We read Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr. Then, I made MC a mouse mask out of felt while she worked on coloring over an M I created with painter's tape.

It actually took her several days and my help to add this much color. Then, we peeled the tape off...

...and were left with this!

Here are some of our other M activites:

I drew an M on a piece of paper and she stuck stickers onto it.

After realizing that we don't have a chalk board (it's now on my Christmas wish list), I drew an M with chalk onto black paper, then handed her the chalk to see what she would do.

MC loves to "paint" with water. I drew an M on a piece of paper and gave her a paint brush and a cup of water. 

I cut a mitten out of construction paper and gave it to her to add to her coloring table.

Throughout the two weeks, we also made muffins, went to a cafe and ate muffins, got the mail, played with magnets, listened to music, read nursery rhymes, and read lots of books. Here are some of the other M themed books we read: 

Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun

Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson

The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

Mice on Ice by Rebecca and Ed Emberley

Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini

That's Not My Mermaid... by Fiona Watt

Curious George: Snowy Day adapted by Rotem Moscovich

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

Sticky Windows, Fall & Winter

Winters are long and cold where we live, so I try to come up with some fun indoor activities to keep MC busy (Pinterest helps!). Something I came across on Pinterest that I thought would be fun to try was a sticky window. However, being a huge fan of the holidays, I wanted to make these sticky windows more festive.

The first sticky window was for Halloween. I drew a pumpkin on the backside of clear laminate and taped it to the sliding door. I cut up construction paper, yarn, and strips of tissue paper in Halloween/fall colors (orange, green, brown). I had MC help me tear the strips of tissue paper into smaller pieces (she loves this activity, and it's great for fine motor). MC explored the sticky laminate for a few minutes, and then I showed her how to stick our goodies to it. It didn't hold her interest for as long as I hoped, but she still had fun. I saved the extra pieces for another day. 

The next sticky window I came up with was a maple tree. My family owns our own maple sugaring business, so it's on our minds a lot. I found some fake maple leaves for a couple dollars, drew a tree on the back of some contact paper and taped it to the glass slider. MC loves nature and being outside, so if I can somehow bring nature indoors, I will. 

The next was a ghost with white tissue paper. Again, I cut strips of white tissue paper and had MC help me tear the strips (a great fine motor activity) into smaller pieces. Hint: If you spell anything out, like I did, make sure you spell it backwards... My "Boo!" looks like "!ooB", haha!

This sticky window was for Christmas. We also happened to be learning about the letter D! So, on top of the tree, I drew a D tree topper. I gave her some Christmas bows to stick on and also some diamonds (starts with D) cut out of contruction paper. One thing I should have done differently is gone over the lines I drew several times so the tree would show up better. 

I plan on continuing with my holiday themed sticky windows throughout the rest of the year, so stay tuned for more sticky window ideas!

Jack-o-Lantern

Today, MC's Aunt Tata came over to visit (MC can't pronounce her real name so "Tata" is what she calls her). Since I'm not a fan of pumpkin guts, I suggested that she carve one with MC. It would be her first pumpkin carving experience! They chose a pumpkin (that came from our garden), and MC "watched" as Tata cut out the top.

Then, she helped de-gut the pumpkin...

...and pick out the seeds (my plan is to include them in a nature sensory bin I plan to make for MC in the near future; watch for the blog).

Then, we went inside (mostly for warmth) to carve the face on our pumpkin. Apparently, the pumpkin carving process takes a lot out of a 1 1/2 year old, but a banana did the trick!

When, Aunt Tata was finished carving the face on our pumpkin, we put it into my walk-in closet with a flash light inside of it, and turned off the light to show MC the final result.

She loved it, and was very excited to show her "puntin" to her daddy when he later got home. I laid out the pumpkin seeds on paper towel to dry. I will use them later in a nature sensory bin. 

For now, we are enjoying MC's first jack-o-lantern, who is now sitting outside on our deck. Happy Halloween!