Tot School goes Bacterial

This week we got a little distracted from Tot School due to a bacterial infection on the boy’s skin, yet to be named. We should get test results back Monday.  We think it could be a staph infection because we’ve been exposed to it recently.  Pray you never have to deal with this.  It is a pain.  There is a lot of daily washing, cleaning, disinfecting, and repeating.  If you would be so kind as to say a little prayer that the boy recovers quickly, no one else gets it and that we get rid of it completely, I would be very grateful!

 

On to a better topic- Tot School: St. Patrick’s Day!

 

Language Arts: Lil’man is slowly improving in being able to trace dotted lines.  He doesn’t have the whole grip thing down yet, but I figure that will come with more time and practice.

 

 

Math Concepts:  He was so excited to do our Lucky Charms graphing activity.  The boy just loves food and I think being able to play with food is an added bonus for him. 

 

The boy also did some size sorting with St. Patrick’s Day symbols.

Finally, he did a number maze.  He really seems to enjoy these. 

 

My Favorite: My boy is such a happy boy.  He looks so grown up in this picture.  It really makes me miss my lil’baby. 

Finally, here are some of the books that we've been reading:

Don’t forget, you can download all the St. Patrick Day printables (not all seen here) for FREE at 2 Teaching Mommies. 

Make sure to check out on our BASKETBALL Unit we posted this week too.  It’s a fun way to bring a touch of March Madness to your kiddo.

I hope you’re able to come back next week and see what we did!  

 

We’re linking up to: Preschool Corner, 1+1+1=1, and Weekly Wrap-Up.

Tot School- St. Patrick’s Day

Lil’man is 27 months.

Well, we didn’t do much in Tot School this week because we had Grandma and Grandpa here visiting…another reason I am a little behind getting this posted.   The weather ended up being b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l, which made for a fun filled time!


We did do a couple of St. Patrick’s Day activities our one day of Tot School that I wanted to share.  First we practice number recognition (0-3).  Lil’man would pick a card and then say its number. Then he would add that many bingo chips to our shamrock board.  He did really well in the beginning, but by the end he was ready to just cover all the open spots and be done with it.  We got the Shamrock Number Fun card and board from Making Learning Fun.

And if you haven’t seen my stART post from this week, then go check it out to see how we painted the shamrock below with tissue paper.
  
Then we also enjoyed a non-St. Patrick’s Day activity.  Puzzles!  He hasn’t pulled these out in a while and he wanted to check out all of them.

I had some other fun St. Patrick Day’s activities planned, but we just didn’t have time to get to them this year.  L  Oh, well there is always next year.

Here is my favorite picture from our visit with Grandma and Grandpa.
If you would like to see what others are doing with their tots, then check out 1+1+1=1.

Pick of the Week- St. Patrick’s Day Alphabet

I love reserving library books.  It is so easy.   All I have to do is log on to the public libraries web page and the titles I want to reserve.   No matter which library has the book, all of the books that I want will be shipped to my “home” library.  Then all I have to do is wait to receive and automatic phone message informing me that my library books are ready for pick up.  The only down fall is sometimes I select books that I haven’t read yet and I don’t know what I may be getting.  Although, then there are times like this week, when a book I thought wouldn’t be read much ends up being the Pick of the Week.

Lil’man loved this book and actually sat through it.  St. Patrick’s Day Alphabet is best described as a story dictionary.  (I was worried that the 2-3 sentences for each letter would be a bit much for my boy to sit through, but I was so wrong.)  Each page is dedicated to one letter of the alphabet and each letter connects to a symbol of St. Patrick’s Day or Ireland.   I think my son’s favorite part about the book was the letters.  He is still into the alphabet and I am not complaining one bit.

What is your Child’s Pick of the Week? If you blogged about it, then leave me a link to your blog so I can go check it out.

stART- St. Patrick’s Day Countdown

I was so excited about the stART activity I had planned this week.  We have been reading quite a few St. Patrick’s Day books and this particular book is short and sweet, while still introducing various symbols of St. Patrick’s Day.  Plus, it incorporates counting!  Unfortunately, Lil’man wasn’t as into this book as he was with some of his other choices.

I was really looking forward to the art project that I had planned with this book.  It was a “painting method” I had never tried before and I was anxious to see how it would turn out.  We created this shamrock.
I love how it turned out.  To create this we used cardstock, various shades of green and yellow tissue paper and vinegar.   I cut out the shape of a shamrock from the cardstock and then Lil’man placed tissue paper all over it.  Once the shamrock was covered, Lil’man dabbed vinegar all over it with a paintbrush.  It was nice and soggy.
 
Then we set it aside to dry.  Once it was completely dried, Lil’man pulled off the tissue paper.

The tissue paper left it’s color behind to create this wonderful water color or tie dye effect.  I will definitely use this method again.  Lil’man had so much fine and he used various fine motor skills to complete it. If you would like to see more stART activities then go check out A Mommy’s Adventures.

Movement Monday- Irish Dance

I came across a great video that teaches beginning Irish dance steps.  Check it out and get your kids in the Irish spirit this St. Patrick’s Day.

The Three Dance Move in Irish Step Dancing -- powered by eHow.com

Once you’ve check out this video, you can see more videos with different steps by clicking the link above.  Then pop in some Irish tunes, combine the steps and get jiggy with it! 

Family Night- St. Patrick’s Day

I wanted to get back in the habit of having a  theme family night once a week or at least twice a month.    The goal has always been just to spend quality time together as a family, but every once in awhile I like to spice it up by making it a “theme night.”

Since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, I had to take advantage of all the great ideas.  So, here is what we did for an evening of Irish fun.
Game: Pot of Gold Hunt.  For this activity we purchased the chocolate coins and “hid” them around the house.  I use the term hid loosely because in reality they were just lying around.  We did hide a small “pot” with lots of coins.

Art-n-Craft: M&M Rainbow (found my inspiration here). First we sorted out the colors then Lil’man glued them on to the corresponding color in the rainbow.

Music & Dance:  Irish Jig!  After striking it rich, we had to celebrate by doing an Irish Jig.  So, we popped in some Celtic music and got jiggy with it.
Food: Mint Chip Ice Cream. I am not a big fan of some of the Irish main dishes, so we settled for something green for dessert!
Read Irish Tales:

For Fun: To end the evening we enjoyed a green bubble bath. (Not the best picture, but you get the idea.