Each month the toddlers focus on one color. September is Yellow! We have read Hello Yellow and Little Bea, watched and sang along to Heidi’s Hello Yellow video, selected counted and named yellow items in the mystery can, had a yellow hunt in our classroom, played with yellow play-dough, tasted yellow lemons, and used half lemons as a stamper to make circle prints! We will continue to explore yellow throughout the month.
Toddlers are experimenting, thinking, solving problems and learning all the time. Through exploration and experimentation, children develop the ability to think, understand, communicate, imagine, and work out what might happen next. In September our cognitive development focus is on the five senses.
I filled our mystery can with big marshmallows. We shook the can and listened to the marshmallows bounce around using our sense of hearing. After taking the lid off – I gave the toddlers a peak of what was inside. We described the marshmallows as white, round, and bigger than tiny marshmallows.
The toddlers used their noses to use their sense of smell.
Every child got to choose one to use their sense of touch to feel and squish.
The best of the five senses was getting to taste the marshmallow!
We took our cognitive development focus one step further and put a lemon in the mystery can. We went through all five senses and compared the lemon to the marshmallow. The tasting resulted in some fun pictures.
Because our color of the month is yellow and our shape is circle – We used large lemons to do prints!
In our preschool prep class this school year, we will be doing many different art projects. Some of them will be processed-focused, letting them make art at their own pace and with their own creativity. Others will be product-focused, teaching our students to follow instructions to reach an end goal. These types of projects usually will focus on our color, letter, or shape of the month. Below you can see some of our product-focused art projects we did last week!
Yellow Lemon Prints
The Studio Toddler class has done such a wonderful job adjusting to their new routine and getting to know their friends and classroom. We have several different centers that our students can play in during their free choice time, as well as table activities that relate to our monthly objectives. See some of their exploring in the photos below!
Table Activity: Yellow Playdough
Sensory Station
Trains and Transportation
Home living/Dramatic Play
Playground Adventures
While our friends are still getting used to our classroom environment, we have been pulling students on an individual basis to do art projects. When we start learning our small group routine, these will be some of the types of projects we will complete in small groups, and some we will still work on individually with each student.
“A is for Alligator” letter craft
Yellow Lemon Print Craft
We have been focusing on the color yellow in the toddler room this month. Our sensory tub is filled with fun items to “make lemonade”. We are creating with yellow play dough and yellow collage free art.
We created an alligator out of the letter A for our letter focus this week. Add eyes and teeth….Chomp!
“A circle goes around and around”… is the song we sing as we make a circle collage.
The Preschool Prep class worked together and made their own play dough! We dyed it yellow for our color of the month, and used it for our sensory table all week!
Today we read “Autumn Orange” and found lots of orange items inside.
Later we explored the color orange in our discovery tubs.
We also combined last month’s color (yellow) with this month’s color (orange).
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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