Tot School – Pigs

~Aiden is currently 39 months old~

In honor of National Pig Day (sheer luck that this coincided with our plans for the week), which is March 1st, our theme this week was pigs and the Letter P.  

Letter of the Week

I cut out the shapes needed to turn the letter P into a pig.

 

  and Aiden glued everything together. 

I made a pig alphabet matching game, which he was not thrilled about.  Oh well, maybe when he gets a little older.

Book of the Week and Craft

Aiden’s favorite book this week was The Three Little Pigs.

We made a pig finger puppet to go with the book (next time I will laminate so it doesn’t get bent.)

 

and a pig out of a water bottle.

Math

Aiden made pink finger prints on index cards,

 

which we turned into a Pig Counting Book (1-10).

  

Colors

I hid a pig under a house and Aiden would try and guess which color house he was hiding under.

 

This was a hit!

Tot Trays

He matched fabric patterns and shapes.

 

He played with Stamping Sticks.

 

Aiden used the hole punch and a star punch.   This is another activity that keeps him occupied until he runs out of paper.

I set out some sequencing puzzles for him.  He looked at the pictures but was not interested in putting them together. 

 

We worked on the concept of beside, on, in, under, and behind using a pig and a little barn.

 

That was our week.  You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

-Cindy

Weekly Wrap-Up: Play Time

 

As I try and remember exactly what Emily and I did this week, other than the basics, the only thing I can come up with is playing.

Emily is learning how to play Chess in one of her co-op classes, so we have been playing Chess at least once a day.

    

She has spent hours in her room building with K’Nex.

We learned about Renoir and Emily painted a still-life.  I consider art to be part of school, Emily thinks it is too much fun to be school work.

Emily and Aiden built a fort during “quiet time”.  Emily read to Aiden so I’m counting this as school time. : )

We are continuing to work on subtraction, telling time, and money.  (PJ’s and a hat, isn’t this what everyone wears during school?)

We started using All About Spelling this week and we are both loving the program so far.

Not a terrible exciting week, but we had fun!  For more weekly wrap-ups check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Artist Study - Renoir

“Why shouldn’t art be pretty?  There are enough unpleasant things in the world.” 

-Renoir

This week Emily and I have been studying, impressionist artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Self-Portrait – Pierre Auguste Renoir

One of our favorite books was Renoir and the Boy with the Long Hair.

Jean, this story’s long-haired little boy, happens to have a very famous father – the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  But Jean also has a problem.  Despite his many protests, his father thinks Jean’s hair is too beautiful to be cut short.  The artist loves to pose his son as a model for many of his paintings, and Jean’s long hair is an important part of those fine pictures.  Meanwhile, other kids of Jean’s age often tease him because of his hair, and that makes him quite angry.  Even worse, well-meaning adults are sometimes attracted by his beautiful long hair and mistake him for a pretty girl.  That annoys and embarrasses him.  Jean simply has to convince his father that the time has come for him to wear his hair short like the other boys.

Portrait of Jean Renoir

I found the complete works of Renoir here (some of his paintings are rather revealing) and Emily picked out a few of her favorites:   

The Children of Martial Caillebotte       

   

Spring Bouquet  

 

Madame Renoir With A Dog

We choose to do a mixed media still-life.  I wanted Emily to pick an unusual container to put the flowers in, such as a boot, but she looked at me as if I had lost my mind. 

She painted a canvas with tempera paint, sketched the flowers, then painted them using watercolors. 

The finished masterpiece!

I can see such an improvement in Emily’s artwork and I LOVE that she is enjoying the process and becoming more confident in her artistic abilities.

Pigs Alphabet Matching File Folder Game

Aiden is learning about the letter P and pigs this week.  To help him learn the letters of the alphabet I created a file folder alphabet matching game for him using our pig theme. 

I added Velcro dots so he can stick the pigs to the the matching letter.  Aiden is working on matching just the upper case letters, however I did created pigs for lower case letters.  Here are the UPDATED  links if you would like to download the file folder game:

Pigs in a Mud Puddle Alphabet Matching Game

Pigs in a Mud Puddle Upper and Lower Case Pigs

Tot School - Frogs

Aiden is currently 39 months

 

Our theme this week was Frogs and the letter F. 

Letter of the Week

Aiden used dot paints to paint the letter F and added frog stickers. 

Book of the Week and Craft

We read Froggy Gets Dressed.  To go along with the book we made a really cute frog, which we found here. 

We changed the craft a little and used yellow dot stickers for the frogs spots and a pipe cleaner as our hanger.

Math

Aiden counted how many flies he could catch with a fly swatter.  The fly swatter has two velcro strips on it to catch the flies, which are felt circles.

I introduced the concept of small, medium and large.  Aiden sorted the pompoms by size and used tongs to put them in the correct size tube. 

He decided it was more fun to pick the pompoms up with his teeth and put them in the tubes.

Cutting

Aiden loves cutting paint swatches.  This is one activity that will hold his attention for quite some time.

Pre-Writing Skills

Aiden enjoys scribbling on paper and I find paper all over the house.  I finally gave him a notebook of his own to scribble and draw in.  He told me the picture below was of a frog playing in a pond.

Tot Trays

He hammered golf tees into styrofoam.

We pulled out on of Aiden’s favorite toys, Drill and Design Activity Center.  

And finally, Aiden transferred colored pasta from one container to another.  I’m still finding pasta on the floor.    

To see what others are doing in their Tot Schools visit Carisa’s site 1+1+1+1.

Weekly Wrap-Up

The beginning of our week was not something I am proud of but highs and lows, it’s all part of homeschooling.  Our house had a bad case of the grump bug and I ended up hiding in the bathroom for a few minutes just so I could pray.  Tuesday evening I finally raised the white flag, and took my kids to visit grandma.  Those few hours away helped put things back in perspective (selfish I know!).  That being said, we got past it and actually had some fun this week.

Our household is eagerly anticipating the first day of Spring, 29 days and counting.  We made a poster with flowers and will add a flower petal each day to count down the days until Spring officially arrives.

Each flower petal has something fun on it such as, make up a song about spring, put out nesting materials for the birds and squirrels, blow bubbles, etc.

3 R’s – We did the basics this week.  Nothing outstanding to report.

We finished up our study on squirrels and hopped onto frogs (sorry I couldn’t resist!).  I would really like to order some tadpoles but I’m not sure where to order them from, and am I really willing to commit to taking care of a frog?  Anyone have any suggestions?

Aiden had a busy week, going from one activity to another.  I had a hard time keeping up with him this week and felt like he got more of my attention them Emily. 

To check out more weekly wrap-ups visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.