Tot School: Week of September 7

Lauren is 35 months old. We began our week with a fun family trip to the zoo. Our tot school objectives for this week were:

• identify body parts: neck, chest, shoulders, waist, stomach, back
• recognize written first name
• balance a bean bag on various body parts
• find an object that is being described
• describe attributes of an object
• small muscle control activities
• sort objects
• identify a pair of objects as the same or different
• observe seasonal changes

Here are a few pictures of Lauren's week:

We sang "The Lauren Song" while tracking the print with a pencil.

I named various body parts and Lauren tried to balance a bean bag on that part.

I set out four pictures at a time and described one of the girls. Lauren listened to the description and found the girl.

Lauren and I looked at an elephant toy and described its attributes: gray skin, four legs, long trunk, short tail, etc.

Lauren sorted lids by color. She first tried to sort by size but there are too many sizes for her to handle. I plan to set up a size sorting activity for her next week.

I put pairs of lids into two bags. Lauren and I each reached into our bag and pulled out a lid. Lauren would identify if the lids were the same or different.

We took a walk to look at our neighbor's pear tree. Lauren described what the tree looks like in summer. Then we came home and she crumpled pieces of green tissue and glued them to her tree trunk. This was a great fine motor activity and took an amazing amount of concentration to finish.

When Lauren was finished with her tree I recorded her observations. We will visit the tree again in the fall, winter, and spring.

For more tot school fun visit 1+1+1=1

American Girl Collages

The American Girl catalog provides fun cutting practice. The girls like to cut out their favorite dolls and glue them to a piece of paper.

Name Writing Practice

I made Julia and Lauren personalized chalkboards to help them practice writing their names. Julia usually uses a capital L and A when she writes her name so I wanted her to practice writing it correctly. The name painted at the top provides a correct model for her to follow.

Lauren attempted to write her name before scribbling on her board. Way to go Lauren!

Thank you to Jennifer at The Write Start for this great idea!

Tot School Week of August 31

Lauren is 35 months old. Her learning goals for this week were:

• recognize written first name


• identify parts of the face: eyes, nose, mouth, cheek, chin, ear, earlobes, forehead, lips, eyebrows, eyelashes, nostrils


• recite nursery rhymes: This Little Piggy Went to Market


• small muscle control


• tear and glue paper


• identify color red


• find an object that is being described


• identify pairs of objects as the same or different

Here are some snapshots from our week in tot school:

I named parts of the face and Lauren used a pencil to touch those parts on the baby's face.


Later in the week, I gave Lauren a picture from a magazine. I named a part of the face and Lauren colored that part red.

Lauren worked on tearing red paper .

After finding red objects in our collage collection, Lauren made a red collage.

She sorted toys into "red" and "not red" piles,

She colored a simple red book. To make this interesting for her I provided various red coloring tools: a thick marker, thin marker, glitter marker, crayon, and pencil.

Lauren matched pictures of red objects.

I set out four princesses at a time and then described a princess. Lauren listened to my description and found the correct princess.

Each of us had a pile of color bear cards. We would take turns turning over a card and Lauren would decide if the pictures were the same or different.

We used the color bear cards to play a memory game.

Lauren loves to help me cook. Here she is stirring the broccoli, rice, and chicken.

We also read lots of books including The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry , and the Big Hungry Bear, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Who Said Red?

Check out 1+1+1=1 for more tot school inspiration.

Transparent Drawings

One afternoon we made transparent drawings, an activity in the wonderful resource Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl. The girls drew and colored pictures with crayons, pressing hard.

Then they used a cotton ball to apply a coat of vegetable oil to the back of the paper.

We dried the papers overnight on a piece of newspaper. Now lots of light shines through the paper.

Colorful Sun Catchers

We always have seasonal sun catchers hanging on our kitchen door but I had a hard time coming up with a sun catcher for August. During a trip to the Lakeshore store I saw these and decided to make a simpler version. When I set out the materials, Julia had her own idea of what she wanted to make (yeah!).

To create a frame for her sun catcher Lauren attached 9"x 1.5" strips of black construction paper to the perimeter of a nine inch contact paper square.

She placed several colors of tissue paper squares on the contact paper and glued sequins to the frame.


Julia created a flower using tissue paper for the stem and leaf. The flower sequins made lovely petals for her flower.