Tot Tray Tuesday

Tot Trays 10.03.11 - 10.07.11

This week we're taking advantage of the cooler weather to finally do a Fall theme. We are just barely seeing some changes in our trees so the trays are a little more artificial than I hoped they'd be! All printed materials are from Homeschool Creations' Fall Fun Pack. 

Leaf shadow matching

Leaf sewing using a blunt end needle (largest gauge), yarn and Dollar Tree leaves.

Clothes pin number match

Acorn color match

Leaf sorting

Color sorting

Letter match

Shape identification and match

Dot-a-dot page

Acorn impressions in play-doh

Fall sensory box

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D is for Dinosaur!

This week, the boys and I looked at dinosaurs! We visited the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and purchased some really great books at one of the gift shops. I couldn't resist this huge book about dinosaurs! The boys have been reading it since, so, for the letter Dd we learned a little more about DINOSAURS! 

Lucky for us, the Letter of the Week Curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler did dinosaurs too! 

Eli, trying out his grip. 

Turner was very proud of this dot-to-dot page! 

D is for DEACON! 

Eli, rescuing dinosaur eggs and putting them back in their nest. I posted about his tot trays on Tuesday.

Matching dinosaurs up.

Identifying footprints.

Dinosaur bones! Store bought pizza dough, cut in to strips then place small chunks on the ends. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and sugar (mixed)

One highlight of the week was our dinosaur dig! We had some friends over (but I forgot to ask their mommy to use pictures of all the kids) and dug for "fossils" in the back yard. A few days prior, Turner and I made dino foot prints using a mixure of salt, water and flour (which I baked at a low temperature to harden) and then I used some dinosaur skeletons I found at the Dollar Tree. The kids all gave it the obligatory 5-7 minutes worth of activity but it was worth it because they went back today to dig again!

Eli with a discovery. 

I know Turner thought it was cool, but he was pretty engrossed in a "competition" to see if he could find the most.

Putting together a 3-D dinosaur puzzle (Dollar Tree). 

Nothing but frustration for Eli with the puzzle; it was actually quite difficult.

Eventually, Eli was happy to toss the parts in to some play-doh!

And, finally, our Fun Food for the day (inspired by Meet the Dubiens)! In case it's not obvious it's a pterodactyl (cheese), some dinosaur leaves (kale chips), a T-rex (pb&j quesadilla), an exploding volcano (fruit leather, red peppers), and that flailing thing on the bottom is a fossil (veggie sticks). 

We did lots of other things I just didn't have time to take pictures of them. Baby splashing in the toilet, anyone? I did not get the chance to take pictures of was all the reading we did about these incredible creatures, and the really neat dinosaur painting (take any dino from around your house, dip in paint, and "walk" along paper!). It was another great week around here!

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Tot Tray Tuesday

Tot Trays 9.26.11 - 9.30.11

For some reason, it was really hard for me to get pictures of the trays this week! Nevertheless, here are a few of the Tot Trays Eli will be working on. Not pictured are the Dd crafts and all the dinosaur craziness that has taken over the house (homemade fossils, anyone?)! 

Dinosaur matching

Dinosaur lacing cards

Duck number matching

D dot-a-dot page from our Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Play-doh mat also from COAH

This worksheet came from here -hey have lots of printables. We're not totally in to the printables yet, but I'm sure they'll be useful soon.

I've seen this idea every where: styrofoam + golf tees + marbles. Great for fine motor skills!

Carry the dino egg on a spoon (one side of the room to the other)

Dinosaur footprint match-up!

Move the baby dinosaur eggs back to the nest

Number identificantion

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Head over to check out lots of Montessori inspired blog posts! 

Tot Tray Tuesday

Tot Trays 9.19.11 - 9.23.11

**Two trays not pictured: car sorting, and sensory box for the week**

Letter C craft: crab

Giving a Cat a Cupcake from Spell Out Loud

Cupcake number matching: Eli surprised me when he easily identified 

numbers 1-5 so I've added 6-10. If he gets bored, we stop. 

Letter Cc dot-a-dot from our Letter of the Week Curriculum from 

Confessions of a Homeschooler. Actually, this is a magnet page but Deacon

puts too much in his mouth so markers it is! 

How many caterpillars on the leaf? From COAH's Letter of the Week Curriculum.

Letter sorting

How many fireflies? From Homeschool Creations Camping Preschool Pack

Place the pom poms on the caterpillar (worksheet from our LOTW curriculum)

Making cubes from foam blocks (Dollar Tree)

lower case letter c craft: caterpillar

Ok, this one might stretch the imagination: placing a dough ball in the cupcake liner...place the appropriate numbers of candles in the cupcake. I'll say the number orally and Eli will place the candles. 

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