Tot School- Summer 2015 (1 Year, 7-9 Months Old)
This Summer flew by! It was definitely nice to have all summer to do this tot school unit, because we certainly didn't do it every day! We spent lots of time outside and hanging with family and friends, but we did get around to a lot of the activities! We also deviated a little from our plans and focused on learning letters, colors, and numbers. Aly has learned these all really well! It's been a fun summer of learning. I've added notes and pictures throughout =]
Since it's summertime, I know we will be taking advantage of the warm weather as much as possible and we will also have lots of visitors, so I decided to stretch out our Summer/Beach/Ocean theme over the entire summer rather than just one month. I am really excited about this theme and glad to have a couple months to do it all! Also, I think once we start back up in the Fall, I will be changing up how we do Tot School a bit. I want to be a little more structured with our time (like at the same time, doing circle time, etc). I will try to post about our new schedule and what not when I figure that all out! =] For now, here's our Summer plans!
Verse: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.” -Psalm 24:1
Verso: “Del Señor es la tierra y todo lo que hay en ella.” -Salmos 24:1
Color: Yellow
Color: Yellow
Letter: S is for Sun, B is for Ball
Letra: S, B
Shape: Circle
Forma: Circulo
Library Book List:
Hide and Seek, Harry at the Beach
Where is Baby’s Beach Ball
In the Ocean
Deep Sea Dive
Baby Love’s Summer
Going to the Beach With Lily and Milo
Grandma’s Beach
Noodle Loves the Beach
Spot Goes to the Beach
Beach Day
El Oceano
I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean
Over in the Ocean
Quien Vive en el Mar?
Splish Splash
Mouse’s First Summer
Hello Kitty, Hello Summer
These library books were a huge hit. Her favorites were Going to the Beach With Lily and Milo, Spot Goes to the Beach, Hello Kitty, Hello Summer, El Oceano, and I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. By the end of the summer I was trying to hide that Lily and Milo book haha.
Music
-Baby Shark
-Five Little Fishies
Five little fishes swimming in the sea
teasing Mr. Shark
you can’t catch me you can’t catch me!
Well along came Mr. Shark as quiet as can be
SNAPPED that fish right out of the sea.
-Down By the Bay
-ABC’s
-Go Bananas
-Herman the Worm
Oh, I am so so bad at doing songs with Aly haha. I'm not sure that we ever did any of these!! I'm hoping some structure this Fall will help me better about that!
Math/Motor Skills
-Focus on sorting with counting bears
Alynne LOVES these bears. She currently asks to play with them everyday. When we got them at the beginning of this summer, we really worked on sorting the bears correctly, now Aly loves to practice scooping, pouring, and lining them up! When she's finished, she always sorts them into the appropriate colored cup though haha!
-Color identification motor skill practice with play fishing set
The fishing set was a huge hit as well. Alynne was very obsessed with all things fish at the beginning of the summer, so she squealed with delight when one morning there were "fishies" to play with! These fish were a great tool to help teach Alynne her colors. She can now identify and say them all!
-Bead paper towel rolls on straws activity
We never got around to this!
-Ball tray
I never actually made the tray, but we did play with lots of balls and talked about their shape!
-Pom pom stuff it in activity
We never got around to this!
-Number cups and balls activity
We never got around to this!
-1 to 1 Correspondence with balls and muffin tin (continued from last month)
Art
-Circle art with toilet paper rolls
Anything with paint is always a success!
-Circle sticker art
I created a color pinwheel and had Aly stick the circle letter stickers in the matching colored section. She did this very well and also named the letters as we went! You can see it in a pic of her art wall at the bottom.
-Crab hand prints
Alynne loves doing hand prints. I only got a few of the after pics, but you can see the finished product in the bottom art wall picture.
-Painting with and on seashells
This was a huge success! So fun!
-Tissue paper fish
We never got around to this!
-Ocean Do-a-dot sheets (these are so awesome!!)
-Summer Do-a-dot sheets
-Beach ball coloring sheet
-Beach items coloring sheet
-Beach scene coloring sheet
Of course miss Alynne loved all of these color and dot sheets. There were a ton, but we used them all up! I could definitely see how Aly improved with the dot markers over the summer. By the end of the summer she was able to complete the alphabet maze and named the letters as she went!
Science/sensory
-Beach felt scene
I wasn't sure how long our beach scene would survive, but it is still up and all of the pieces are still in tact! Aly loved this felt scene and from it she learned all sorts of beach vocabulary!
-Sand exploration on beach trip
This was definitely one of my favorite things we did this summer. We took two beach trips to Coney Island. Alynne is a very cautious little girl and typically does not like to be messy. So at first she was very leery of the sand, but it wasn't long before she was covered in it having a blast! She also loved playing in the ocean. The water was freezing and the waves were fierce, but she was fearless and wanted to stay and play in it forever.
-Seashell sensory bag
We never got around to this!
-Ocean sensory bin
We never got around to this!
-Ocean water play
We did an ocean themed bath! Aly loved it =]
-Ice painting
This girl loves playing with ice! "cool!" She also had to invite all of her friends to join in this activity ;)
-Seashell prints in playdoh
I made some homemade Kool-aid playdoh and Aly loves playing with it! We get it out almost daily. We did use the seashells one time, but mostly Aly likes for me to make balls, hearts, and spell things for her! This was how she learned how to spell her name!
-Circle sponge activity
This activity was lots of fun on a hot summer day before we got our living room ac installed! Papi even got to join us for this activity, which always makes it more fun!
Finally, here are just some random pictures of other activities we did this summer including more painting, hand prints, chalk, baking, and cloud dough!
