Follow up...and ideas for this week

Here are some pictures from last week's Valentine themed lessons.

Maverick made cards for his grandparents and great-grandparents. Don't be fooled by how studious he looks in this picture...it was his FIRST card! :)

The completed cards, ready to mail!

We glued velvet on the V. I had a hard time finding velvet (only looked at Walmart and Target) and then while I was walking aimlessly through Target (which I do OFTEN) I saw a ribbon leftover from Christmas clearance that felt and looked like velvet. So we used that and it was an easy and cheap alternative to going to an actual fabric store.

We also sorted and counted candy hearts. I used the little 2 oz cups to help Mav make piles of like colors.

Sorting

Then he dumped each cup and touched and counted each heart (one to one correspondence) and I wrote the number on a sticky note. 

After all the hearts were counted and the numbers written, Maverick noticed that several of the numbers were the same. I was so shocked and proud that he came up with this all on his own! We then put them in piles and talked about less and more. 

Of course he got to eat a few once we were through.

Then I decided to stick the stickies with the numbers in random places around the house for Maverick to find them as he went about his day. This is a good way to practice numeral recognition. He loved finding the numbers all over the house and acted like they got there on their own.

All in all, it was a great Valentine's week.

Here's what we are working on this week:

Letter/Sound: Mm

-Glue macaroni on the M

-Starfall website work with the letter M

Reading/Comprehension/Theme: The Mitten

-Read The Mitten by Jan Brett (there are also other versions, but my library was out of them- it would also be great to read the three different versions instead of reading the other mitten books listed below)

-Read The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten and The Missing Mitten Mystery

-Act out the sequence of The Mitten by Jan Brett (loved this idea of using masking tape outline of a mitten to act out, but using cut outs of the characters since we don't have several students to use) We plan on coloring and cutting out these printables after reading the story in preparation for retelling

Math: Counting/Sorting

-sort and count m&m's

-group by more/less/same

-"hide" numerals around the house

-counting by 2's to 10 using construction paper mittens

-Mitten patterns using construction paper mittens

-painting mittens

Valentine's Day Fun

Valentine's Day is coming up and I wanted to post what we will be doing this week and next. We just started yesterday so I don't have many pictures.
Letter/Sound Activities: Vv

• Glue velvet on the V. (I couldn't think of anything else that would work!)

(no velvet yet)

• Starfall website work. This site is great for letter practice. It's super easy for toddlers to operate and gives words and pictures using the various letters and sounds.

• Write the letter Vv and find the letter V in a pile of magnetic letters.

Valentine's Day Activities:

I had these small 2oz cups left over from the party and plan on using them for sorting candy hearts.

• Sort and count candy hearts.
• Make patterns using candy hearts. (ie: pink, white, pink, white, etc.)
• Focusing on the Kindness virtue from We Choose Virtues.
• Valentine's Day Cards for the family. (Basically have to get this done tomorrow since I have to mail them.)

Here are some good ideas we are going to try:-Lollipop cards-Heart AnimalsHappy Valentine's Day!

Birthday Fun!

Last weekend was Maverick's 3rd birthday party. He wanted a Disney's Little Einsteins theme, since he loves the show and absolutely loves music. When I started searching for party ideas and supplies, I learned quickly that Little Einsteins were popular in 2008. Needless to say, I had a really hard time finding supplies. However, it worked out nicely because I was forced able to make most of what I needed. The only thing I bought were these party hats.

He put a party hat on his toy and sang happy birthday to it.

I figured 3 year olds needed more entertainment than we had at his 2 year party, so I made three stations with things for them to do. The first station was the Making Music station. Unfortunately I was the hostess and the photographer so I didn't get any pictures of it. The kids made jingle bell bracelets using small bells (on the Christmas clearance aisle, thank you) strung on pipe cleaner. Also, tambourines made from paper plates and dried beans. And lastly, egg shakers (made from plastic eggs, rice and lots of tape). This is the station that required the most help, so I ended up being planted there for quite a while.

The most popular station was the Dinosaur Dig. The kids LOVED this, and who wouldn't? Sand indoors?! I got the sand from Lowe's and makeup brushes from the Dollar Store. They actually did a pretty good job containing all the sand in one spot.

The last station was Painting Pictures. There were watercolor paints and small cups of water for the kids to paint pictures. I was definitely not brave enough to use "real paint" on the carpet!

This party was seriously so much fun to plan because Maverick finally knew what was going on! That added some pressure too, but he kept saying all day, "This is so fun mom! Can it be my birthday tomorrow?" So sweet. Here are a few more pics...

He REALLY likes opening presents.

The Rocket cake...saved by my mom and friend, Colleen

The welcome sign.

And an update on the little one...he doesn't care for peas.