The toddlers are focusing on the letter P this week. We discussed foods, animals, and colors that start with the letter P. We love that pizza starts with P so we turned our room into a pizzeria. I read the story Secret Pizza Party then we each made our own pizza using fine motor skills to add sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. The toddlers sang a pizza song and added paper cheese and pepperoni to a P for our letter craft while we waited for pizzas to cook. A yummy lesson!
Ms. Joanie is such a fun part of the Creative Tots family. She comes once a week with her engaging attitude and happy disposition. Ms. Joanie often plays her guitar, drum, shaker eggs, or bells. The children think it is hilarious when Elmo makes a guest visit. The children listen intently as Joanie teaches the parts of her guitar, breathing exercises, and music terms. The toddlers love to join in singing classics like “Wheels on the Bus” and “Twinkle Twinkle” but Ms. Joanie is always teaching us a new song. Ms. Joanie will join us for the Valentine’s parties in February so families will get to witness her infectious joy.
We are enjoying the wonders of winter and the color white through sensory experiences. Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.
Shaving cream on the tables provided an interesting textured sensory activity. It also provides an empty canvas to practice drawing shapes, letters, and lines.
Our sensory bin and discovery tubs provided different textures and items to sort and pour.
Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice provided an activity to use all of our senses including taste! We read the book, danced to the video with song by Carole King, and tasted chicken soup with rice!
Our pretend veterinary office has provided fun interaction and vocabulary. The children love to pretend to take care of and feed the animals.
We create centers for sorting, exploring and sharing. The month of January has been packed full of fun center exploration.
We decided to celebrate our last day of school before the break in our pajamas! On Friday, the toddlers got a turn to go down the slide in the preschool room, went on a candy cane hunt, had popcorn snack while watching a short holiday film, and finished the day with a dance party!
As the weather turns colder, we try to find ways to practice our gross motor skills while inside. We do the parachute, wheel of fitness, dance party, four corners, marching band, bean bags, and relays. One of our favorite indoor recess activity is the ever changing obstacle course. This gives toddlers the opportunity to practice taking turns and get some energy out. We incorporate walking a straight line, hoping on star mats, crawling, and of course – the tunnel.
The parachute is another class favorite! We often have monkeys jumping on the “bed” or make small waves then big waves. We take turns going under the parachute and sitting on top!
The beanbags help us learn parts of the the body and balance as we try to place them on our heads, shoulders, knees, and toes!
We do try to get some time outside but the rain and snow won’t stop the toddlers from fun gross motor activities!
Our toddler class continued to learn about the color red as we took turns peeling apples. Our fine motor skills were put to the test as well as revisiting our study of the five senses. We enjoyed our peeled apple slices for snack. A yummy lesson indeed! We will be “picking” apples next week – a picture of this will be included in the color book sent home at the end of the year.
Toddlers use all their senses to explore the world around them. We spent some time naming the five senses, reading a story about our senses, then using all of our senses to observe a treat in the mystery can.
Hearing. I shook the mystery can. We used our ears and listened. We decided it was a soft sound.
Sight. I took the lid of the mystery can to give the toddlers a peak. Inside were lots of round white items. Marshmallows!
Smell. We then used our nose to try out our sense of smell. The marshmallows smelled sweet!
Touch. We then used our hands to feel the squishy and soft marshmallows.
Taste. Finally we got to taste the marshmallows. Yummy!
Cooking is a fun way to use all five senses. Last Friday we made pumpkin mini muffins. This was an easy three ingredient recipe so we all took a turn adding items (1 box of spice cake mix, 1 can of pumpkin puree, and 4oz of apple sauce (one little snack cup). Chocolate chips are optional. We put all the ingredients into a large ziplock bag then squished it all together. I cut off the corner of the baggie to squeeze into greased mini muffin tin. It was fun, easy and delicious. Bake 375 for 18 minutes. This would be fun to do at home on a cold winter day!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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