Toddler Tuesdays: Butterflies

Hello, welcome, and thank you for bearing with us. Toddler Tuesdays are a bit sporadic lately and I'm sorry. Hopefully this will be the last week of upheaval in our home. We are switching to a new OT for Panda and things should calm down once we have therapy times in place. 

This week we are working with butterflies. I wanted to do this for Mother's Day, but.. you know.. Upheaval.. Our sensory bin has fresh cut grass, the four stages of a butterfly's life, flowers, rocks, a butterfly sipping pool, a net, magnifying glass, and tweezers. This bin went over real well. 

These are the books I've chosen for this week. I know we've done 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' before, but he really likes this book.

 As Panda enters his 'squashing bug' phase of toddlerdom I thought this would be a good poem for us this week. It is in the 'Treasury of Poetry'.

I made a caterpillar out of a clothes pin and then printed out several pictures from 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' book. Panda had a lot of fun "feeding" the caterpillar by tossing it through the holes in the fruit while making loud lip smacking noises. It was adorable and an exercise in imaginative play and fine motor skills..

 

I put a paper butterfly in a baggy with paint, and then taped it to the table for Panda to squish. He did not like touching the squishy bag one bit. Oh well, we will try again today. It's a new sensation. When the butterfly dried I slipped the clothes pin caterpillar on the wings and Panda was in love. He played with both the caterpillar and the butterfly for a long time. The painted butterflies for the rest of the week will be saved for cards.

 I cut butterflies out of felt for this activity. Then we matched like color butterflies with like colored blocks. It was a simple activity for color matching. Not all activities need to be spectacular. 

This is an idea I got off of Pinterest. I didn't have the energy to make cute beaded felt butterfly wings so instead I opted for printing out pictures of real butterflies.

 

This last activity was the favorite one of the day. I bought a tube of butterflies at the craft store and cleaned out an old spice jar. The butterflies only fit in sideways, so Panda had to concentrate to get them in right. He LOVED this activity so much that he emptied out the jar and stuffed them back in 5 times!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you like this weeks activities. I've wanted to do Butterflies for a while now. Hopefully things will be quieting down soon. Till then, thank you for your understanding. Shine on!

Toddler Tuesday: Part 5

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! 

Toddler Tuesdays: Part 4

Good Bye 2014 and Hello 4th addition of Toddler Tuesdays! I thought it would be a good idea to spend this week doing "New Years" activities (even though our New Year eve tradition is to take down the Christmas decorations and go to bed). Our sensory bin has some noise makers, black beans (night sky) and sheep. Sheep? That's right 2015 is going to be the year of the Sheep. Chinese New Year is still a bit off, I figured it couldn't hurt to add them in now...

 Plus I came up with a few sheep books, but no New Years books for this week. 

We are beading some necklaces (some with jingle bells for noisemakers), and while it's not pictured we also are bending some pipe cleaners. While he bends and twists them I'm making some funny glasses for us all. 

This is part of an ongoing picture we are working on. Sunday I traced Panda's hand to make the sheep and cut out the hills. Then he helped glue them down. Monday Panda dipped his fingers in white paint to make the sheep's wool and snow/stars, today I had him dip his fingers in glue and dot the page again and then I put gold glitter on. He was pretty impressed that the almost invisible glue dots turned gold when the glitter was shaken off. We still have cotton balls to add and then some dye for the wool, and likely a party hat.

 This activity is a bit beyond Panda, but he is enjoying it and giving it a good go. We are really working his hand eye coordination and fine motor skills by wrapping a sheep figure in yarn to give it a fluffy white coat. 

Last of all, what would New Years be without a Ball Drop? This was the best picture I could get; if that gives you any indication of how much Panda loves this activity. Instead of cars we are dropping five sparkly pom poms down his car ramp and shouting  5..4..3..2..1! As they fall. It's my sneaky way of working on numbers with him, not to mention cause and effect. I've seen lots of cardboard tube pom pom drops on Pinterest, but the last time I built him a drop wall it took him less than 15 minutes to tear it down. This, he loves!

 That's what is going on in our classroom this week. What is going on in your home this week?

 Happy New Year! 

Shine on!