What We've Been Up To :)

Here are a few of the activities we've been doing the last few weeks. I don't have pictures for ALL of our activities yet, so I'll be adding more every couple weeks.

I SPY JARS

For the big one, I used a cleaner refill bottle. Fill the bottle 2/3 of the way with long grain rice (not the instant kind!) then put 15 or so objects in, seal the lid with glue, and swish around. I put a couple foam alphabet letters, a random assortment of beads and buttons, tiny shells, glitter shapes, and even a Barbie shoe ;) I wrote everything down so I could have her name all the items, including their colors.

The small one is made from a small peanut butter container. I put lots of eye-catching "pretties" in it to keep her attention.


A's STORY
This custom little book came from the DLTK's Growing Together website. We've been working on coloring a few pages a day and reading it together. She LOVES that it's all about her!

I love how she colored each flower with her favorite colors :) The purple object on the left side of the house is her slide!


EGG CARTON GAMES
This was something I had from teaching and used with Kindergartners and some of my first graders. This particular game focuses on the beginning letter sounds, p, t, b, and d. Little Bear identifies the picture and what letter it begins with, then finds the letter and places the picture in the spot. She gets a little lazy with this sometimes and wants me to find the letter and place it...but I figure if she can name the picture and identify the beginning letter, that's better than nothin'! Since I made this one MANY years ago, I can't really say where it came from...but if I plan to make any more, I suppose I'll just find some cute pics on MS Word and cut them out :)

PLAYING WITH BEANS :)
This is such an inexpensive way to entertain a small child! I just mixed a bag of dry white beans and some black beans together, threw them in this tub (I store them in a container with a lid), gave her lots of different scoops, spoons, bottles, and a funnel and away she goes! She loves to use the tiniest measuring spoon the best.

CUTTING PRACTICE
It's amazing how excited she gets at the thought of using her OWN scissors! I give her several pre-cut strips with *PINK* (of course) lines drawn on them for her to practice cutting. This not only helps her learn how to cut, but it really works those fine motor muscles! She usually gets tired after the first strip :)

PUFF BALL FUN
I've had these puff balls for quite a while and didn't know exactly what I should have her do with them....so I just gave them to her, along with two sorting containers and a pair of *PINK* tongs and let the fun begin! She placed the big puff balls in one container and the small ones in the other. She used her hands mostly, but did try out the tongs (I think the fact that they have pink tips enticed her to do so!).

Even Little Tiny joined in on the fun when she got up from her nap :) I gave her only the big ones and a container and she "practiced" placing them in and out of the container. They were a big hit with both girls...I just had to make sure and wash their fuzzy little paws afterwards ;)

BUILDING BLOCKS
This is one of my favorite pictures of the girls playing together. Little Tiny mostly watched Little Bear build her towers and then proceeded to be the *Head De-constructor* knocking them down as soon as LB would have her castle perfect. It was a great character building lesson, teaching Big Sister to share and be patient with Little Tiny. When we were done playing, Little Bear and I taught Tiny how to put the blocks in the bucket and I was shocked that she actually did it! Such a fun experience for all of us!

STORYTIME OF COURSE!
I find that no matter how often I straighten the bookshelves, this is a job that's never done....which makes me smile with delight! I love it that my girls LOVE to read. Little Bear has ALWAYS enjoyed reading, even as a very young baby. Tiny has not had as much patience to sit and listen to books like her sister did, but she loves to read to herself (in other words, look at and eat the books). I just love this picture of her picking out a book...she stood at the bookshelf and pulled several off for quite a while without knowing I was watching. It was precious!