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Compassion

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Now I Know my ABCs ~ Letter E

imageAll printables for this unit can be downloaded for free on my website, Animal ABCs.

Letter E ~ Elephante elephant

Ee Elephant Extras…Ee Elephant  Extras


Ee Elephant in Action…

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See more on my blog here: Letter E Elephant Tot School


Have more elephant fun…


More Letter Ee Fun…


Did you miss…

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Little Books for Little Cooks - Humpty Dumpty

Little Books for Little Cooks
We had a lot of fun with the Nursery Rhyme theme in the kitchen.  My five year old helped me put together an easy Humpty Dumpty breakfast.


The Book Before You Cook

Humpty Dumpty...After the Fall by Charles Reasoner

Summary:  If you have ever wondered what happened to Humpty Dumpty after he fell, then this is the book for you.  It is shaped like a castle, has die cut doors and peek through windows, and a rhyming text.  Humpty also has a positive attitude that is perfect for the youngest reader.


When it's time to cook...

You'll need:

  • one hard boiled egg 
  • one piece of bread 
  • food safe marker or food coloring
  • peanut butter or other bread topping

To make:

1.  First, I hard boiled a few eggs.  I think everyone knows how to hard boil an egg, but I put my eggs in a pot, cover them with water and bring that to a boil.  Once it boils, I remove the pot from the heat, cover it and let it sit for ten minutes.  Then I remove the eggs from the water and place them in a bowl of ice until they are cool enough to handle.  Using this method has worked great - I have never had green yolks!


2.  I used a Wilton Food Writer pen to draw the face on a hard boiled egg.  These pens are great for making fun food, and they come in different colors.  If you do not want to purchase a food safe marker, dip a q-tip in food coloring to draw the face on your eggshell.

3.  Then I spread peanut butter on a piece of bread and cut it into squares and rectangles.
 

4.  I then assembled it on a plate to look like a wall.  If peanut butter doesn't work for you, any topping will do - jelly, cream cheese, almond butter, etc.


Finally, Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall and it looks like he is about to fall!

Little Books for Little Cooks is a monthly feature that focuses on creating some edible fun with your little one.   We will share a fun book to read with your little one along with a cooking activity to do that ties in with the featured book. Sometimes there may be actual cooking involved…and sometimes just fun!


Friday, February 24, 2012

Treats 4 Tots

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Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!

Bolded are items we personally own and love!  If you are hosting a TOT friendly giveaway you are free to leave a link in the comments section!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Get Moving with Nursery Rhymes

This is the last post for the month in our Nursery Rhyme series on Totally Tots, but I will still be sharing Nursery Rhyme ideas on my blog. 

What I love about nursery rhymes is that they are short and simple and easy to incorporate during the day. You can read the rhymes, sing them, create crafts or even play games with these stories. I’ve had fun thinking of ways to get kids moving with nursery rhymes. I came up with several active ways to tell nursery rhymes and listed them below.

Hickory Dickory Dock:

clockweb

Hickory, dickory, dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

(We used a foam puzzle to be our clock, but you could draw one with chalk on the driveway or garage floor, use a length of string, or masking tape too.)

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The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down,

Hickory, dickory, dock.

I sang the song while my daughter ran up and down the clock. This was a simple way to practice the rhyme and move those muscles!

Jack Be Nimble:

 

We did this fun activity while studying about Jack earlier this year. I wrote the letter J all over our driveway with chalk. My girls jumped on all the letter j’s and then jumped over the candle stick.


Jack and Jill: Have your child practice doing the log-roll while the rhyme is being read.

Simple Simon/Little Jack Horner: Set up a simple obstacle course with a couple of chairs. Give your child an empty pie-plate to balance on their head while they walk around the chairs.

Wee Willie Winkie: Place several pairs of slippers in a pile. Have your child run to the pile, find a matching pair of slippers and put it on, and then run back to the starting point.

The Crooked Man: Tape a very crooked and winding path with masking tape onto the floor. Have your child start at one end and wind around to the finish.

Yankee Doodle: Make a stick-horse and gallop around the room while singing the rhyme.

Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling My Son John: Have your child see how fast they can put their socks and shoes on by themselves. Then see how fast they can take them off.

These are just a few ideas! Can you think of other active nursery rhyme games? If so, please share with us in the comments.

 

Here are a few more good nursery rhyme resources:

Mother Goose Club – great source of online videos

Hubbard’s Cupboard: If you have a group of children you will want to check out The Mother Goose Olympics idea from Hubbard’s Cupboard.

Nursery Rhyme Pinterest Board

Nursery Rhyme Unit from Spell Outloud

Nursery Rhyme Ideas from Totally Tots

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Introducing ~ Christy

hiking and Christmas 144I am a stay at home mom of four children ~ two boys and two girls ranging in age from 5 months to 14 years.  I am currently blogging at Snacks and Stories where I share our favorite books and fun snacks to go with them. 

Here at Totally Tots, I will be sharing many of the snack ideas in the monthly feature Little Books for Little Cooks. Looking forward to sharing some fun ideas with you!

Christy

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s ~ Number Stamping

little handson Abc 123 

Emily and Juliette love using rubber stamps to make pictures, so I decided to turn them into a learning activity too.  We used our Melissa & Doug Baby Farm Animals Stamp Set and Emily had a great practicing her numbers with it. 

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I folded a piece of white paper to make 8 even spaces.  At the top of each box I wrote the directions.  For example, I see 4 red pigs.

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First, Emily read the directions.  If you are doing this with a younger child you could read the words to them and if possible have them read the number. 

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Then she used the animal stamps to fill in the boxes.  If you don’t have a stamp set you could also use different types of stickers.  Emily counted to herself while she was working and then we counted together to make sure she had the right amount.

This activity was great for numeral recognition, practicing 1:1 correspondence, fine motor skills and color recognition.

Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s is a bi-monthly feature that focuses on practical and simple ideas that you can do at home to help your tot develop their letter and number skills.

Michelle

Monday, February 20, 2012

Simply Made ~ Collage Box

I'm a big believer in letting art be open-ended for children. Meaning, there is no "right way" to make art. While working toward a certain end-product can be fun and have value (following directions, staying in a theme, etc.), I also think that children should be allowed to make art for art's sake.

One way to let children make art freely, is to provide them with a variety of materials and let them go. My favorite way to do this is with a "Collage Box". A Collage Box is basically a box with a variety of materials for children to make collages with.
 
Collage Box

It's super simple to make! Chances are, you've got everything you need already! Go raid your craft cabinet or your scrapbooking stuff that might be collecting dust...ahem :)

Materials:
  • Plastic Shoebox (or any other container you prefer)
  • Scraps of all kinds (Paper, Fabric, Ribbon, etc)
  • Anything else you can think of!
  • Glue
  • Scissors 

    Directions:
    Place it all in a box. Let your children create using their imagination!
      Collage Box Materials

      Some things in our personal Collage Box:
      The beauty of the Collage Box is that you can add to it. It constantly changes!
        One of the ways that got Jonah (4 years) super excited about using the Collage Box is by having him make some patterned paper with me to place in the box. We pretended that we were Eric Carle and had a Pretty Paper Factory. (More details about the Pretty Paper Factory can be seen on my blog.)

        Watercolor


        Once I hooked his interest, I gave him the glue and scissors and said, "Create!" His Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree is below.

        Collage

         
        So tell me, what other things would you place in your collage box?

        Sara

        Friday, February 17, 2012

        In My Heart ~ Acts 17:24-25

         
        Life and Breath {Acts 17:24-25} is #1 from Seeds of Purposeimage

        Full Page Verse Printable… image


        Verse Mini Book {which could also be cut into mini flash cards to have kids put the verse in order}…  image


        Copy Work Tracers {print & cursive} image


        Copy Work Sheets… image

          
        Full Verse Coloring Pages… 
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        Visit the main Seeds Family Worship Printables page here.

        Visit Seeds Family Worship to learn more about their ministry here!

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