Tot School: Letter C

{Caden is 24 months old.}

After a long hiatus Caden and I started tot school up again. We now have a room dedicated; albeit shared with the dog, to tot school. I love having all the materials in one place. We have a small table with stools in one corner, an art easel in another corner and a shelving unit for our tot trays and other learning toys. And I am slowly adding other elements to the walls. I have secured a felt board to the wall under the window and hung a pocket chart above the table. I also plan on adding a magnet board, an alphabet poster of some sort and some string to hang art projects from. (I suppose when I am finished with the room I will take you all on a virtual tour 😉 )

Themes

Now that Caden is 2 years old I am beginning to introduce the alphabet while working to add to his vocabulary. I am using the Tot School Printables from 1+1+1=1. Each unit focuses on one letter and a vocabulary theme. I have also chosen to add a color and shape to our work.

I decided to start with the letters of Caden’s name rather than to go in alphabetical order. After his name I will do the consonants then the vowels. So this week we focused on the letter ‘C’ (for cats) and the vocabulary theme of pets. We also did a little work with the number 3, the color blue and squares.

Printables

I laminated many of the printables, punched holes in them and put them into Caden’s Tot Time Notebook (click the link to learn more). He enjoys scribbling on the pages with dry erase markers. This is a good way to expose him to letters, numbers and shapes. Eventually he will get the idea to trace the lines of the letters, numbers and shapes. But for now I ask him to color the pictures as a way to enhance his vocabulary.

With the other pages Caden colors on them, uses dot markers or stamps.

The cat page above it from the ‘C’ Tot School Printables at 1+1+1=1. The number 3 dot page is from the new Number Coloring pack at 3 Dinosaurs. The Number Coloring pack is a great addition to Caden’s tot school. I will be using the dot pages as well as the play dough mats.

The cat coloring pages pictured above it from Making Learning Fun and the fish pictured above is one page from the Brown Bear, Brown Bear tot pack found at 1+1+1=1. I also used the shapes book from the Brown Bear pack as well as the counting cards.

Tot Trays

Here is our new tot tray shelf.

On the shelf this week we have the sensory bin and book basket on top. I realize Caden can’t reach the sensory bin or books but I don’t want Caden getting into the sensory bin unsupervised and the books are stored on top to keep the dog out of it. (I think I may move the book bin to the living room where we will get more use out of it.) On the next shelf I placed the Melissa & Doug stacking cubes, a basket of stuffed dogs and cats, and our Melissa & Doug pets sounds puzzle. On the shelf below that we have the LeapFrog Letter Factory Phonics bucket, a cat lacing card and the snow ball transfer tray. On the bottom shelf is a 3-part cat puzzle, a colander and pipe cleaners fine motor skills activity, and the pets card with mini pet figurines.

Caden only played with maybe half of these trays. He really likes the LeapFrog Letter Factory Phonics bucket. He has even started to sing-a-long with the ABCs song.

Caden played with the puzzle a couple of times during the week. He can name most of the animals and make their sound. He confuses the small rodent pets, the mouse, the guinea pig, hamster, and rabbits, he calls them all bunnies.

We got out the animals from the Pets Toob from Safari, Ltd and the pet matching card. Caden was more interested in looking at the mini animals and only matched up a few with the card. (Printable from Letter ‘C’ Tot School Printables pack.)

Sensory Bin

Caden loves sensory bins! We played with the Letter ‘C’ Sensory Bin quite a bit. You can read more about this sensory bin in the Letter ‘C’ Sensory Bin post.

Book Bin

I don’t have a good picture of the book bin this week, but it was filled with various alphabet books including Dr. Seuss’s ABC. I also wanted to include books about cats but I only had a couple Skippyjon Jones books. I also included Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle for its purple cat.

Arts & Crafts

This week for Caden’s art project he painted a cat that I had drawn on a big sheet of paper. I was going for a wax resist piece but it didn’t turn out so well. Caden had fun painting on his new easel anyway.

In the Kitchen

This week Caden helped Grandma make ham and white bean soup (It was really yummy!). Caden had the task of stirring in the beans and brown sugar while Grandma added some cut up ham left over from Christmas dinner. Caden liked to watch the beans drip off the spoon when he lifted a scoop above the pot. He was pretty good about not making a mess too!

Other Fun Stuff

Caden really enjoys playing with play dough, he still plays with it at least twice a day, probably more. This week I added a cat shaped cookie cutter and a number 3 play dough mat from 3 Dinosaurs. We practiced rolling out snakes to make a 3, as well as rolling balls to count to three.

Another fun thing we did this week was play with his black dog puppet. Caden had lots of fun making the dog sneeze. It was hilarious! I also tried using the puppet as a learning tool, having it help us sing the ABCs. And I am trying to think of other ways to incorporate the puppet in Caden’s learning. Any ideas?

This week we also played outside in the snow! And we are (trying) to take part in the 31 Days of Gross Motor Challenge. You can read my post about it here.

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