Toddler Tuesday: Part 8

We're back! This week we are learning about clouds. Well, our learning is cloud themed. Perhaps that is a better way of saying it. I don't expect Panda to be learning about evaporation, condensation and so forth; but by keeping a theme it helps us stay on track and keeps things interesting. Our "lessons" are mainly about moving, trying new things, and using those fine motor skills in fun new ways. Our sensory bin is pretty simple. It's full of cotton balls, a helicopter, an airplane, tongs, an ice cream scoop, a ladle for picking up the cotton balls, and a wooden bowl to sort them into.

 

I finally got around to changing our clear contact paper tree into a felt board tree. This will stick around as a weather board when Panda starts school. Our felt finger puppets also stick to it for even more fun. Oh! and I even have plans to have a "build your own snowman" felt set up for Panda when he is older. The tree stands about two feet wide and three feet tall.

 

The felt pieces are on the floor in front of the board in wooden bowls. I left them out like this as an invitation to play. Yesterday Panda spent a long time examining these things and returned to the board several times throughout the day. In the fall we stuck leaves onto the contact board and next fall I will make some felt leaves. We switched to felt because it is reusable this way and contact paper is pretty bad for the environment. 

We made Toddler safe Cloud Dough using vegetable oil and left over formula. I also added a bit of cinnamon and clove for a smelltastic sensory experience. It made our dough a bit speckled, but who cares, it smells good!  I didn't measure the ingredients. Just add oil and mix until the mixture clumps together and is the consistency you want.

We made this picture during our Stars and Moons lessons (forgot to mention it). I gave Panda some stickers and watched him focus his entire being on pealing and sticking them onto the paper. A wonderful thing to do for cabin fever tots... I saved the picture so we could make clouds on it using finger paint, and a cotton ball on a clothes pin. Don't you just love projects that you can keep adding to, and use over and over again?

 For an extra fun sensory experience I opened a bag of fiberfill toy stuffing and dumped it on the carpet. Anyone who has a toddler with cabin fever NEEDS to try this. Oh my! Panda has been having a blast playing in his very own "Cloud"!

 A Lot of Fun!

 So much that I couldn't choose a picture..

 No really.. It was just that much fun. You've got to try this! ; )

Thank you for visiting us and have a blessed week. What are you doing at your house this week? Please leave a message in the comments below and Shine on!