Tot school- birds…

I bet you all thought I had stopped doing Tot School with Noah. Nope- we just take our time and I am also pretty bad about uploading photos. It has been almost a month since I last posted our activities and during that time we have focused on Birds, the letter B {for birds!}, letter N {for Noah & nest}.

Fairly easy going month though with quite a few playdates, playgroup, visits to the play center, playing and walking outside, a overnight trip to stay with a friend and the start of rythmic class and play kindergarten {Free event you take the kids to once a month- things in the kindy hall for kids to play with and you can meet other local mums and kids! The kids can also play outside on the play equipment if they want to!} so while we were busy we didn`t have time for Tot School everyday.

Noah turned 21 months today!

Art & Craft

Noah did some more ice painting.

We got a big package from my mum in Australia and I left the box out for Noah to play with. He decided he wanted to “colour” it instead.

Noah wanted to use his dot markers to draw.

He asked to do “colouring” more than 3 times a day everyday. We don`t really have space for him to do it but I ended up leaving his paper and crayons on the tv bench so that he could do it anytime {he wants me to leave the markers out too. Um no!}. He liked this set up!

Some feather painting {remember, the theme was birds!}- Noah was no really into this! We will try again another time. Usually painting is always a success but I think I made the mistake of putting him in the highchair to do it and he thought he was going to eat and so got quite upset {and tried to eat a feather- very unlike him!}

Stickers were also a hit and he played with stickers almost everyday. I guess this is more of a sensory activity but will keep it in art & craft for now.

The problem is when we go to rythmic class and he gets a sticker for attendance to put on his card he tends to stick it on his face or arm or shirt. I find this funny!!

Dot painting a bird

For this activity {which came from 1+1+1=1} I asked him to colour the bird red, and then the next one blue, green and yellow and so on. Surprisingly he did quite well with this!!

Feather collages – These went down a lot better than the feather painting.

Free drawing with markers

I try to let Noah use his markers or dot markers a couple of times a week. They are not the kind of things I can just leave out for him to play with anytime because he would likely draw on something he shouldn`t. Because I put some of his art up on a string on the wall with pegs though he can usually indicate to me if he wants to do “colouring” with something other than his crayons and then depending on what I am doing he can usually use them. They do get everywhere though so if we are just about to head out they are not usually any good and also if we have already had our showers for the day. Same goes with stickers- I had some of his sticker creations up and he just gestures if he wants to play with stickers. Mainly I give him the circle stickers from 100yen shop with like 200 stickers per pack of different colours. He used these stickers {not many photos} to decorate and owl, a regular bird {after he coloured them both with markers} and also on a “B” sheet. I tried to get him to put the stickers in the circles that were making up the B but he was not interested- I am sure he will be more so after time. Especially since he loves stickers and is finally at the stage where he can pull a lot of them off the paper himself.

Practical life & Fine Motor Skills

Hanging out with friends is practical life right?

And been nice to your brother

All practical things I want Noah to learn!!

Other things we did was put bird pegs around the bowl- Noah liked me to do this and he enjoyed pulling them off but he did manage to get some on himself and also he pegged a couple to his clothes at one stage.

We did some more bean pouring- this is definitely a montessori themed activity and he loves it. It took Noah a couple of times to realize that he was much better at pouring with his right hand but in the end he moved things around so that he could do it better. Smart cookie!! Of course cleaning up spilled beans is also practical life work!

Pouring water was fun too

He also helped wipe up spills and clean crayon off the floor/table with a wet wipe if he drew somewhere other than paper. He also has started “helping” me with Shion more by helping Shion sit when I change his clothes and also bringing him his water bottle if I ask for it. He loves to take the lid off himself and try to make Shion drink it. Have to be a bit careful with this as now Shion is on solids I have caught Noah trying to feed Shion stuff more and more often- a cheese cracker here, some normal yogurt there. Nice he wants to share…but Shion is not quite ready for it yet!

We pulled out the mamagoto playfood and pots and pans a couple of times as well. Noah is getting more interested in this now and likes to pretend to eat things or feed them to me. He doesn`t seem much interested in trying to cut the food that breaks apart but he does enjoy pulling all the wooden magnet veggies apart and putting them back together in order.

Math & Sensory

Some of our art and craft activities also cross over into sensory but you can see those above.

Some other sensory and math based activities we did were – play with a bird themed sensory bin filled with birds, eggs, feathers and some tools.

Noah played with this 3-4 times over the past couple of weeks. I had mad up a mini sensory basket for Shion to play with as well which was a bit hit.

Mini tot school for Shion

and Shion with his basket on another day…

Close up

This was probably more practical life or fine motor skills work but I think it fits here too as while he played with this I sang “one little two little three little chicks” and helped him count them. I told him the little yellow puff balls were baby chicks. We had a couple of different sizes- one fit in easily, the other size he had to push in with one finger.

I used the shape cards from 1+1+1=1 which all had pictures of ducks on them. I layed them out and asked Noah to find certain shapes and he really enjoyed this {more than I thought!} as he is finally getting almost all of them right and when I say “Yes, that`s it, well done” he gives himself a clap which is so cute!

Also- I have no photos since we did it in the bathroom but I gave Noah a bucket with some blue tinged water {food colouring} and 6 rubber ducks to play in while we sang “5 little ducks”- the 6th duck was blue and big and the mama duck! Noah loved splashing around in the water and playing with the ducks!

Before we did feather collages I got him to sort the feathers into colour groups- he was not so interested in this but did it for a minute or so before I gave him the glue.

We did some playdough as well

As well as some farm puzzles {This was the first time I bought these out- he could match them up okay but had trouble putting them together himself- I tried to focus on the duck and chick!}

Boys played blocks everyday- mainly the duplo but the wooden blocks and the nesting/stacking blocks also got a work out!

Music & Language

We focused on singing four different songs/fingerplays which fit in with our bird theme- “5 Little Ducks”, “Two Little Blackbirds”, “One Little, Two little, Three little chicks/penguins” and “The Kookaburra Song” . All were well loved!

We read a lot of books and I tried to read some of the books we had that featured birds including some of these below.

Noah loved “Waddle Giggle Gargle” as well as the Spot books the most. The photo below is not a bird themed book but we had read some with birds just before this.

And Noah also enjoyed reading by himself in a cupboard with his favourite blanket, his snack and a book.

I also introduced a letter box – gathered some B items, some “b`s” got his crayons and some “b” sheets and put them in a box. He LOVED this- mainly because he got to do “colouring” but he pointed out “B” in his alphabet book and in another book in the last couple of weeks too so I think he understood at least a little. He tried to do the B sound
as well.

I read about this idea here but have seen it done elsewhere as well. It is quite common to set up a small box system of all the letters for older children in a montessori classroom as well.

Here he is exploring it.

And here is a picture of what was in it.

We did some “N” work as well- a N is for nest colouring sheet and N sheet with dot markers but I don`t have photos. I didn`t do a letter box for N yet though so will do it again another time.

I think that is everything!

Linking up to 1+1+1=1 as usual! Also with Living Montessori Now as some of our activities were Montessori inspired!

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