It's time for Toddler Tuesday! The weather is aggravating my Ehlers Danlos something awful so today is a snow day (and also why it took me so long to post). This week we are learning about backyard birds. His sensory tray is filled with birdseed, "Backyard Birds", feathers, a small bird house, and the ever present spoons and funnel. The birdhouse I will need to change. He wanted to put the birds in the house and was a little frustrated that they fit in the hole except for their legs. I will break the roof open and put hinges on it so that it can open and close.
We are using a pair of tongs to show him how birds eat while working those fine motor skills. We made pipe-cleaner worms, and pom pom berries. The idea is for him to transfer them from one bowl to the other with his "beak".
I found this free printable matching game from Prek-8.com. I glued them to some card-stock and then taped over them to give them some strength.
We built a nest with some shredded paper I saved from Christmas, some feathers, wooden eggs, a mamma bird, and a chick coming out of the egg (puppet).
This was a huge success... And a huge mess. The only down side was that Panda really wanted the baby chick to come out of the egg and did not seem to understand it was a puppet.
We also had plans to make bird treats with peanut-butter, birdseed, and pine-cones... But I have yet been unable to get up to make them with him : ( Oh well. There is always tomorrow. That's it for us this week. What are you and your family doing this week? Thanks for joining us and
shine on!
That nest is awesome! My son would have eaten half of the paper. LOL!
ReplyDeleteMay I ask where you get all your amazing ideas? It's a goal of mine to take Little Man's learning to the next level this year and I'm having trouble getting inspired.
Some of them come from Pinterest. I try to leave a link when I can find the original link. Some of them come from an incredible country-ish childhood, and some of them I couldn't say really, I've been working with children for many years now and can't remember where a lot of it comes from any more. The nest popped into my head when I saw all that paper at Christmas. I couldn't just throw it out and had been wanting to do a "Bird Week". Pinterest is a good place to look, and also "Make and Do" type of books from the 50's. You can usually find them in secondhand books stores. I grew up on them and know a lot comes from them.
DeleteThank you... for now, I'm busy printing those bird flash cards. My daughter will flip! I'm blowing them up to 8 X 11 and we will take a bird and do research together. write what we find in the back. :-)
DeleteLoving the tongs!
ReplyDeleteEhlers is kicking my butt today too. *hugs*
I would love to recommend books by Thomas & Petra Berger, and All Year Round - by Ann Druitt as a few books I've held onto for homeschooling ideas. My kids are now 14 & 19, and we are STILL using these! We are also hopelessly addicted to Pinterest, especially for science & art options for the older years.
I have also taught preschool & elementary kids at my church for over 25 years, and many of my ideas STILL come from watching children play, and turning their natural tendencies into the next learning opportunity. If they're watching squirrels, we'll discuss the life of a squirrel. If they're playacting the Nativity story, it might be time for some stories about the birth of Baby Jesus. If they're poking at leaves in the yard, maybe it's time to make leaf-crowns, leaf-rubbings, and simple science experiments with leaf chromatography!
you forgot about the part of raising your two sisters ;)
DeleteLooking forward to next week's Toddler Tuesdays and our collaboration muhahaha
Oh I love the tongs - I'm going to have to borrow that idea for my biggest two, I think they'd really enjoy pretending to be birds!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a lot of fun. I thought I was being so original with this one and then found it all over Pinterest... Oh well.. Great minds and all that.. I also saw it down with clothes pins, and am thinking about finding my sugar cube tongs, they are smaller and might be easier on tiny hands. Have fun!
DeleteOh, sorry to hear you've been a bit down and under the weather. I love these ideas. So lovely and messy. ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks like he is enjoying all the fun you create for him. My little man used to love using the tongs.
ReplyDeleteHope you are feeling better.