Tot School: Week of December 7

Lauren is 38 months. Illness interrupted our tot school routine but we were able to get a few things done.

I want to include more literacy activities in our tot school so this week I suggested that Lauren and I draw a picture and write a story. Lauren didn't want to draw but she was very excited to write her own story. As you can see in the picture she drew squiggly lines across her paper. I was happy to see that she wrote from left to right, top to bottom.


Lauren then read her story to me. I regret that I did not write down what she said!

Lauren wrote letters in colored salt.

We worked on the alphabet puzzle.

Lauren loves to sort by color so she decided the sort the letters.

After reading Clifford's First Christmas we played this activity from Making Learning Fun. We took turns hiding Clifford under a stocking. This activity provided a fun way to practice reading family members' names.


Lauren got lots of counting practice. Here she is creating counting cards. I gave her an index card, told her a number, and she placed the correct number of dots on the card.

She then used the counting cards with our Christmas tree counting activity.

For more Tot School fun visit 1+1+1=1.

Decorate a Tree Activity

The girls love this simple Christmas activity. The reindeer basket holds a variety of small ornaments. The girls enjoy decorating the tiny tree over and over again. Thanks to Itty Bitty Love for the great idea!

Christmas Track Game

Who will reach the Christmas tree first? Roll the die, read the cards, and see!

To make this track game I used a red file folder, white square stickers, and Christmas stickers. I placed the white stickers in a track leading to the Christmas tree sticker. I placed stocking stickers on several of the white squares. To play you will need markers (we used Christmas Little People figures) and a bag of either letter or word cards. When I played this with three year old Lauren I used letter cards. For five year old Julia I will use sight word cards.


The directions are placed at the top, left corner of the game board. The players roll a die and move the correct number of spaces. If the player lands on a space with a sticker then she must read a card from the bag.


Two of the spaces are labeled "Poinsettia Patch". a player who lands here must read three cards.


Play continues until everyone reaches the Christmas tree. We like to have the Little People sing a Christmas song around the tree but I guess that is optional!

Activity Advent Calendar

It seems every blogger has shared her activity advent calendar this past week. I am enjoying the great variety of calendars and thought I would share mine. I made calendar last year after I saw it on My Montessori Journey.

Twenty four little stocking hang from red ric-rac strung across our bookshelves in the playroom. The stockings are numbered and inside each stocking is a card detailing the Christmas activity that we will do that day. Simple, fun!

Tot School: Week of November 30

Lauren is 38 months old. Lauren worked on the following skills this week:

• recognizing letters
• functions of print: following a recipe
• fine motor control: manipulating playdough and buttons, using tongs
• ordering objects by size
• recognizing shapes
• sorting objects by color and size
• extending and creating patterns
• counting up to six objects

Here are a few of her activities this week:

Lauren helped me make green playdough.

She used cookie cutters to make playdough trees and then decorated them with buttons.

She matched shapes on this wreath from First School.

Lauren used tongs to sort pom poms. The pom poms can be sorted by color or size.

She ordered felt Christmas trees by size.

Lauren sorted small present ornaments by color.

I created a pattern with the presents and Lauren extended the pattern.

Then Lauren surprised me by creating her own pattern with three colors!

We played our Christmas tree grid game.

Lauren has been enjoying typing on the computer. I select a large font, Lauren chooses the font color, and then she types letters.

For more Totschool fun visit 1+1+1=1.

Christmas Tree Grid Game

Little present ornaments make fun counters for our Christmas Tree Grid Game.

To play this game the child rolls a die and sets out the correct number of presents on the Christmas trees. Play continues until the grid is full.


Grid games are great for developing left to right movement, one to one correspondence, counting sets of objects, and creating equivalent sets of objects. Download this grid game here.