~Ladybug is currently 24.5 months old~

 

Letter: Hh

Object: Hammer

Vocabulary Development Theme: Tools {Handy Manny}

You can find the printables for this unit here on the Tot School Printables webpage.

 

Why, oh why did it take me so long to buy a cookie sheet for school?  I meant to buy one when Krash was a tot and never remembered.  Finally I remembered while at Target, and it is awesome!  It amazes me how something so simple can engage a child so much!

We used our puff ball magnets {just take a pom pom and hot glue a magnet to it} to work with our printables…

She even did the lacing card with magnets this week and really enjoyed putting them on the tiny circles.

LOTS of number work was done, like I said-AMAZING how a simple tool can change the entire activity!

 

I created a new add-on for Tot School printables…dot paint shape pictures!  She loved this!!!  I am still finding a place to host my add-ons for Tot School printables, for now download the first few here!

We keep our magnets in a baby food jar and this is great work for her to dump, put them back, and screw the lid on and off!

 

I put velcro strips on the side of a drawer set and put her review flashcards up!  She has played with them a lot since I did this!

 

 

We used our homemade play dough to make letters again, this time we used our wooden letters to stamp into the play dough, and put jewels in the dough.

She finger printed the dough again…

Then she added jewels to the letters…

 

She colored most of her hammers this week on her own!

 

She did a lot of dot painting again, this time after she had used the magnets and the cookie sheet.  It was great to use the printables more than once but in different ways!

 

Tracing was a big hit too and she traced on the lines a lot!!!

She really got into the erasing this week too!

 

Letter Hh printables here!

Fun Books & Toys for this unit here!

 

 

We got out our Handy Manny Tot Book and I was shocked with how MUCH Ladybug liked it!!

 

Krash saw her working and wanted his own Handy Manny stuff.  I pulled out his Tot Book, which he made when he was about 2 1/2.  He couldn’t believe he didn’t color the entire thing and proceeded to color it all!

 

Krash used to be a big Handy Manny fan so we have his old toys and Ladybug is now in LOVE!  She really enjoyed watching Handy Manny with his tools sitting beside her!

 

She loved finding the tools that matched the book she was coloring!

 

 

I finally got my shelves reorganized our shelves to get her started on Tot Trays! I only have room for 2 right now, but we have another trip to Ikea on the agenda so I can add another tall shelf and use the bottom rows for Tot Trays on the 2 units, using the bins for storage at the top.

For those of you wondering what the difference between our Tot Trays and our Learning Toys…the trays are activities I set up with specific thought in mind {think Montessori}.  The learning toys we use are usually spontaneous activities that occurred with other toys we had out and about during the week.

This week I set up Stacking Pegs and we worked together a LOT on the words push and pull.  She also gets very frustrated when she pushes too hard and they fall out, so we worked on dealing with dramatic moments!

 

Later in the week she began stacking tall towers on her own!

 

 

She also worked a lot with Guidecraft’s Fraction Cups.  I started her with just the whole and the halves, modeling them for her while saying the names of the fractions.

Once she mastered the whole and halves, I added in the thirds.  There is one with fourths but she isn’t quite ready for that one yet-the pieces are too similar to the thirds.

 

 

She spontaneously sorted the balls from our ball pit, into our colored hats!  Then I heard her counting them!!!!

 

Ladybug is a master color sorter!!!  She sorted Zoobs while Krash and I were building a car!

 

Enjoying some toys outside on a warm day, the gears toy always keeps her busy for awhile!

 

She finished coloring before Krash one day so I gave her the container to put her markers into the small holes. She did this about 5 times!

 

 

I set up a tool sensory bin for her, mostly toy tools, with a few of Daddy’s safe tools in it too, she loved it!

She was very excited to find matching Handy Manny tools and was telling me “two tools”

 

 

We have enjoyed beautiful weather this week and spent lots of time outside.I still try to work with Ladybug as much as I can on her gross motor skills because of her delays.  She climbs a lot outside and often gets nervous but I love watching her try!

   

One of her favorite gross motor activities is walking up the roller coaster track and “running” down.  I hold her hands lightly and let her muscles climb her up the hill and she works on balance when she runs down.

 

Krash turned 5 this past week and we had his party yesterday.  Ladybug was enthralled with the balloons!!!!

  

 

More Tot School Links…

    

• Tot School 2010/2011 Roll Call {and FAQ Clarification Post} –I have finished updating the Tot School roster, please let me know if you are not on it and you have linked up for at least 3 weeks. You can leave a comment on this post telling me that this is your 3rd {or more} time linking up!
• Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
• Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
• Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
• Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
• All of our Tot School Posts {sorted by ages here}
• Visit our Tot School Tools Store
• Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
• Tot School FAQ
• How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot’s age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)