20 Toddler Goals Fulfilled at the Beach

Well, we are here at the hot, sunny Lake Erie (except for that one day of crazy thunderstorms we got stuck in) for the week and I thought I would share some of the things with you that my toddler has been learning. The objectives I am using come from the draft of the new early childhood content standards for Ohio. The age group is "Younger Toddlers."

OBSERVING YOUR SHADOW

1. Show a sense of satisfaction when making things happen. (Approaches Toward Learning)

2. Recognize self as a separate person with distinct characteristics. (Social and Emotional)

THROWING ROCKS/SHELLS IN THE WATER

3. Using trial and error to discover how things fit and move in space. (Math)

4. Use trial and error and repeat actions to explore objects. (Approaches Toward Learning)

USING TOOLS TO DIG, SCOOP, POUR, AND FILL

5. Repeat actions intentionally to achieve goal. (Approaches Toward Learning)

6.Use objects in new and unexpected ways. (Approaches Toward Learning)

7. Explores the environment through a variety of sensory motor activity. (Approaches Toward Learning)

8. Use both hands together to accomplish a task. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

GATHERING, COLLECTING, GROUPING ROCKS/SHELLS

9. Pay attention to quantities when interacting with objects. (Math)

10. Notice changes in quantity of objects. (Math)

MATCHING SIMILAR SIZES and COMPARING DIFFERENT SIZES

(disclaimer: my son did not do this, it is just an example)

11. Match 2 objects that are the same. (Math)

12. Shows awareness of the size of objects. (Math)

WRITING IN THE SAND WITH A STICK

(disclaimer: my son also did not do this)

13. Use a full-hand grasp to hold a writing tool to make scribbles. (Language and Literacy)

And here are the rest of the goals/objectives that we covered at the beach while doing all these activities:

14. Purposefully try behaviors to make things happen. (Science) 

EX: scooping and pouring sand, throwing rocks

15. Try out different things with an object to see what happens or how things work. (Science)

EX: throwing rocks at different lengths, at different angles, or different heights

16. Focus on an activity for brief period of time (Approaches Toward Learning)

17. Show emerging signs of responding positively to limits and choices offered by adults to help guide behavior. (Social and Emotional)

EX: reminding child to share toys with other children

18. Walk with increasing coordination and balance. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

19. Participate in active physical play. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

20. Follow adult intervention/guidance regarding safety. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

EX: reminding child not to go too far out into the water

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

DIY Feltboard

Here is a felt board I made for the classroom awhile back and now use it with my son. It is just a piece of cardboard with black felt glued on and then a cardboard border with colored masking tape to decorate it. Very simple. I also made another one which I can't find now, but it was thicker. I used 2 empty fabric bolts from the store and taped them together. It takes a lot of tape, but was quite sturdy actually.

 Remember, you don't have to use felt to make pieces for your felt board. Laminated pictures with velcro on the back works as well. I made 4 sets of some different things that L is familiar with. The first is food as shown above.

Farm Animals

 Vehicles

Toys

To make these, I photocopied the images from a book I got at the library, colored them with crayons and then laminated and added the velcro.
I think this way is easier than cutting out felt, although I have made some of those as well. I like the idea I saw at library storytime for making felt pieces, using fabric paint for the details.

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Thinky Linky Thursday

<a href="http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/search/label/thinky%20linky%20thursday"><img alt="Preschool Teacher" src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r103/loriajones/ThinkyLinkyThursButton.jpg"/></a>

MOST CLICKED LINKS FROM LAST WEEK:

Exploring the Ocean-Sensory Fun from We Can Do All Things

Craft Camp-Caterpillars from Having Fun While We Learn

Congrats and here is your featured button:

<a href="http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/search/label/thinky%20linky%20thursday"><img alt="Preschool Teacher" src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r103/loriajones/ThinkyLinkyThursFeatButton.jpg"/></a>

Animal Homes Books for Toddler/Preschool

We have been going to the library toddler storytime this week and I wanted to share some of the books we heard. Unfortunately my sweet little boy was being not-so-sweet today and we didn't get a chance to write down the names of the books that were read, but nevertheless, here are the ones I did remember:

Also, I have come across 2 great sites with lists of more books about houses/homes:

Family Reading Partnership

The Miss Rumphius Effect

Have fun reading!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Tutorial Tuesday: Words Their Way

Hello, this is Beth Ann from Taming My Flock of Firsties.

I wanted to thank Lori for letting me guest blog on Tutorial Tuesday. What a great idea!

Words Their Way came into our classrooms one Monday morning. "This is what you are going to use for your Spelling program." Hmmmm?

The first and second grade teachers all got together and "learned" what this program was about. Some teachers took the initiative to dive right in so that others could learn from their expertise. It's a good thing we have some penguins in our school. :)

Now that we have been using it for two years, we have all embraced it.

Once you get into it, you will LOVE it!

One of my colleagues developed a system for each day. We pretty much followed by the book but we tweaked some things to make it our own.

Monday: Hand out sorts.

Discuss with groups.

This is the part they love.

NAME

SCRIBBLE

HIGHLIGHT

CUT

SORT


Name: They write their names REALLY BIG on the back of their sorts.

Scribble: They scribble...really, on the back (this is usually a lighter color than their name).

Highlight: They highlight their features.

Cut: They cut out their sorts.

Sort: They sort their sorts.

There is usually a lot of discussion going on about connections and other things they have found.

After they have sorted they put their sorts into their baggies and off they go to Daily 5.
They are given two copies (one for home and one for school).
I send home a little note each day in the beginning to explain what the parents should be doing each day.

Tuesday: Speed Sort
I have found that my firsties have a really hard time reading the clock in our room...really???
I put a timer on the Smart Board and we all do the speed sort together.
The timer counts up and when they are finished they record their time on their sheet.

Click on the image to download a copy for you.

I have to explain to them that their sorts are not the same. They are comparing their time from before and not to compare other students with their time. It worked pretty well for me this year. If they beat their time from before, they get a sticker on their page. :) I LOVE stickers!

Wednesday: Buddy Sort

They find someone in their sorting group.

I broke their groups up into berries this year (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.). When they find someone, they work together to "quiz" each other. "What word would go in this feature?" "Where does this word belong?"

Thursday: Word Hunt

Using their Daily 5 Read to Self  bags, they have to find words that go along with their features. I started out with trying to find 10 of each. Boy, was that a nightmare! I finally figured out that what worked best for the students and me was to go through all the books (there are only eight) and try to find some words that fit in the features. If they cannot find any (which happens a lot), they can look at the word wall or try to think of some words that would go with that feature.

Friday: Test

The students sort their words and then glue them into their Spelling Journals. After the entire group was finished with this I would call them back for some extra testing. 

I would give them 5 words to spell (from their features) and a bonus word (maybe an oddball word).

The kids really looked forward to Spelling.

They made some great progress.

We have them take a pre-test to see where they fit in groups and then a post-test to see how much they have grown.

I enjoy this program so much! 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me at bakteach16@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful day!

Neon Worm Picnic- Sensory Play

I have been wanting to do this activity that I found over at Tutus & Tea Parties for quite some time now: Colored Spaghetti Sensory Play. There is a great video over there that shows exactly how to color the spaghetti as well. 

Well, here is how our colored spaghetti "worms" as I call them, turned out.

But, we decided to do ours more of a picnic style. I got out some of L's picnic set and some other cereal bowls and a spaghetti scoop.

Here he is serving me up some yummy spaghetti! Although the tongs would have worked better than a spatula, I wanted him to figure that out on his own.

Digging right in!

I set up a sorting station as well, but L wasn't too interested in this. Although I have seen him sort colored blocks before, I did this one on my own.

L really enjoyed this one. It is the longest I have seen him stay at one sensory bin recently. I hope the noodles stay good for a while in the ziplock freezer bag so we can keep using them!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Follow-Up on Toy Organization

First off, I would like to say Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there, especially my own and my husband. Hope your day is great!

I have been busy since this post when I pleaded for help in organizing my son's toys! Of course, the house is still a far cry from perfect. But I have come up with a solution that works at least for now. Thanks to the suggestion of reader, Kristianne, I decided to begin by going through all the toys and organizing them into groups. Then I got the appropriate containers. 

These are shelves that my mom had given me that were up in the play room, but not really being used, so I decided they would work for now. The biggest problem I have is that L cannot reach the top shelf and there is really no reason for there to be so much room between sheves, but there is no way of adjusting them.

So, as you can see, that cleared up the mess that was by the chair and now I have moved the end table there.

You can kinda see the "parking lot" for some of the larger toys with wheels next to his tent.

 Here is how I set up the space for L to play his Vtech and when he's not using it, I store the chair up against the wall. 

 Moving on to the family room. Remember that huge tub that was there? Well, that is gone. In it's place is my new breakfast nook. Where did all those toys go, you ask?

The cabinets on either side of the fireplace were pretty much being used for junk, so they got cleaned out, thus making plenty of room for the extra toys. Also, they can't be seen, so if they aren't in the most organized shape, it's all good (as Pete the Cat would say).

It just took getting a little creative and actually getting to work sorting things. As I said, it could still look much better, but it is a major improvement from where we were. Thanks for the help, Kristianne.

I hope you are inspired to organize something in your homes now!

Easy Banana Popsicles with No Added Sugar!

Here is a little Summer concoction I came up with upon discovering that my son is BANANA CRAZY! It's very simple. All you need is:

1 1/2-2 Bananas

1/2 cup of orange juice

Blend together (with blender or food processor), pour into these handy dandy popsicle molds, and freeze.

They are really very yummy! You can of course use any type of popsicle mold, just vary the amount of the ingredients you need to use. I actually only used 1 banana and it wasn't enough to fill this whole container. 

You can also add other fruits to make various flavors. I would recommend strawberry, pineapple, or mango.

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP