Letter Aa; Noah's Ark; Animals

I accidently lost pictures from my SD card on my phone; therefore, this entry will not have very  many pictures.  I will take pictures of what I have the best that I can. 


Themes:
Letter Aa; Noah's Ark; Animals


First, we went exploring for our new letter and theme of the week. I made a map again and had the toddlers follow the map to the Weeping Willow tree.  Under the tree was the Little People's Noah's Ark, our Bible, some animals, and Noah's Ark napkins and animal crackers. We then headed over to the play ground for an outdoor snack while I read the story of Noah's Ark to the children. 


Other activities we did this week were:
I allowed them to free play with Noah's ark and the animals.  I also sat our Little People's barn and animals for them to enjoy along with extra bath animals.  We focused on barn animals and zoo animals.  We reviewed sounds and names of as many animals as we could.  We read Little People's Barn and Farm books.  These books also allowed the toddlers review in numbers, counting, letters, opposites, shapes, and colors.


They drove matchbox cars on the letter A. 


We played a hopping game where I wrote all the letters in their names as well as the letters we've already learned with sidewalk chalk on the deck.  They then listened for the letter to be called out and would hop to that letter. 


We walked along an Aa drawn with sidewalk chalk on our deck as well.


They colored in circles that had the letter Aa in them.


They colored two different pictures of Noah's Ark.


We sang, "Who Built the Ark?" and "Arky Arky" songs while lunch was being prepared. 


We colored and glued on an Ark on our Bible map.


We looked through our binoculars to see what animals we could find in the woods: birds, squirrels, etc.

I am sure there are more activites that we did with this theme; however, after losing the pictures, having a new baby, and being on maternity leave my mind has went blank.  I will add to this theme as I think of more activities we did.  I also will try to add some pictures of the books and toys they played with as well as their Bible maps.

2015/2016 Themes and Curriculum for Tots

After working most of the summer on a new curriculum for 2 year olds, I decided to take a twist on what I was working on and gear it towards the interests of my 2 year old little guy.  This idea came to me this past week when I decided to take my little guy exploring at the 4h fair.  He is all about Dora the Explorer, Deigo and maps; therefore, I dressed him as Diego, hand drew a map and told him we were going exploring.  I showed him the map and asked him to tell me what we were going to be looking for.  He pointed to each picture in order and told me.  Then he couldn't wait to go exploring with me.  We spent the afternoon exploring the fair and got see the animals, tractors, and kid's corner.  He had a blast! Below are some of the pictures I took from that day exploring.

The map I made for him for the fair.

The items in his backpack

Dressed and ready for a day exploring

Pointing to where we go next on the map.  I think his map was his favorite thing.  He held it in his lap the entire time almost.
Enjoying his time at Kids Corner

Singing "We Did It. We Did It" If you have ever watched Dora you know this song! It's at the end of every episode.
 


  His reward was ice cream!










After seeing how much fun he had, I decided to turn my Bible Alphabet Curriculum into an Exploring the Bible Curriculum. I plan to have a map for the tots to look at that they will have to go exploring and look for each week's new theme on Monday.  Then the rest of the week's theme will go along with the item that they found.  The item or items will have something to do with a story from the Bible.  Then depending on the story, a regular alphabet theme will go along with the Bible theme. After searching for ideas on Pinterest, I came across a great site called God's Little Explorers. This blog had an entire curriculum a lot like the one I was planning; therefore, several of my ideas will be taken from her site as well as my own thoughts and twists as the year goes on.  God's Little Explorers by Motherhood on a Dime is a great place to look for ideas as well.  I love that I stumbled across this site! You should definitely check it out!  Some of my themes and letters match whereas others may not.  I tried to also go in order of the Bible; however, there were a few holidays I wanted to do a certain Bible story with; therefore, it may be off a little from the order found in the Bible.


Although, we may not follow this exactly, with a little one on the way, I wanted to have my year mapped out the best I could before the school year actually starts.  So below is the schedule I hope to follow.  I hope to continue to incorporate The Daily Five into this as much as possible (only we do them a little differently: Working on Letters/Words, Working on Writing, Listening to Reading, and Reading with a buddy or to self.)
.


August
Week 1: X Marks the Spot (Exploring the Bible as a whole); Letter Xx
Week 2: The Creation Story (Gardens and apples); Letter Gg
Week 3: Noah's Ark (Animals); Letter A
Week 4:  Tower of Babel (Buildings, Towns, and Cities); Letter Tt


September
Maternity Leave


October
Week 1:  Abraham (Nature and Camping); Letter Nn
Week 2: Isaac (Insects); Letter Ii
Week 3: Fall Fun Week (Pumpkins compared to Christians)


November
Week 1:  Joseph (Colors); Letter Cc
Week 2:  Moses as a Baby (Boats and Baskets); Letter Bb
Week 3:  Thanksgiving (Being Thankful for what God has given us; Five Finger Prayer)


December
Week 1:  Moses (Manna and Quail); Letter Qq
Week 2:  Samuel (Voices; Vision; Five Senses); Letter Vv
Week 3: Jesus (Christmas); Letter Jj



January
Week 1:  David and Goliath (Rocks); Letter Rr
Week 2:  David, Solomon, and Josiah (Kings); Letter Kk
Week 3:  Fiery Furnace (Fire Prevention Week); Letter Ff
Week 4:  John the Baptist


February
Week 1:  Jesus's Disciples (Friends; Servants); Letter Ss
Week 2:  Good Samaritan (Love); Letter Ll Valentines's Day
Week 3:  The Prodigal Son (Money-Pennies and Presidents); Letter Pp Prsidents' Day
Week 4:  Daniel and the Lion's Den (Godly Men and Women); Letter Mm


March
Week 1:  Dr. Seuss Spirit Week
Week 2: Jonah and the Whale (Water); Letter Ww
Week 3: Jesus Dies; Letter Dd
Week 4:  Easter; Letter Ee
Week 5:  Jesus Heals (Healing-People in Our Community); Letter Hh


April
Week 1: Jesus Feeds the 5000 (Sharing)
Week 2: Jesus Calms the Storm (Under Water Creatures); Letter Uu
Week 3: Lost Sheep; Lost Son, Lost Coin;  (Jesus  Loves all of us no matter how small or young)
Week 4: Jesus Loves the Little Children (You); Letter Yy


May
Week 1:  Zacchaeus (Climbing and Trees) Letter Zz
Week 2: Martha and Mary (Opposites); Letter Oo
Week 3:  Review Week; Summer Party




Summer Schedule Starts!


I know my day probably won't go exactly this way with an infant, but below is an idea of how I hope my days will go:


Arrival/Free Play/Learning Video/Learning Box
Calendar Time/Bible
Life Skills/Centers/Outside Play
Snack
Daily Five
Coloring/Drawing/Writing/Free Play in kitchen while lunch is being prepared
Lunch
Story/Quiet Learning Video
Nap/Life Skills
Snack
Outside Play

The Colors Black and Brown

With weather being so nice last week and a few sick kiddos along with my allergies acting up this week, I decided to combine these two colors since we didn't get as much done as I would have liked to during the days.

These colors were a little harder to do with the tots because there isn't a lot of black things for little ones; however, we have had lots of practice reviewing our other colors and enjoying the beautiful weather outside!

Our characters for the color black were Mickey and Minnie of course! In the morning at arrival the the tots were able to play with Mickey Mouse clubhouse (an awesome yard sale find at my husband's boss' house!) or play with stuffed characters: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. They also had the choice to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney.  I recorded several of these episodes so I could pick out color related ones.

Our brown character was Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. However, out of all the characters we have, he is not one of them so I left out the Mickey Character items both weeks.  We also got out a cowboy set of figurines we had for them to free play.


Working on Writing:  We wrote with sidewalk chalk.  We colored pictures from Brown Bear Brown Bear. 
   
We colored a black picture and wrote a black entry in our journals.
We read about Elmer the Elephant and colored our own elephant bright colors!
 
We colored and painted our Mother's Day gift: flowers made out of coffee filters.  This activity took us a couple days to finish.

Working on Words/Letters: We practiced and reviewed our names almost daily as well as color words.  We also read alphabet books and books about colors.  We reviewed our letters on our word wall and watched LeapFrog Letter Factory and color videos on youtube.
Listening to Reading: We read Brown Bear Brown Bear and colored several pictures to go along with this story. A couple days, I took outside a box of books for the tots to choose from for me to read outside to them.  They loved this! I am sure we will do this more often this summer!  Their favorite is No David.
Reading to Self/with a Partner:  I redid our reading area and added several new books for the tots to read and look at during their free time.  I also allowed them to picture read the books outside in the box.  They sat at our new Cars table and read them!
The Colors book to the left is one of their favorite books to read to each other and by themselves.  They love pointing at the pictures and saying what they see and what color the object is.
Bible: Last week we focused more on sin and what we do that God does not like such as biting, hitting, taking toys away from our friends etc. We also talked about how God wants us to play with our friends such as playing nicely, sharing, taking turns, helping pick up our toys, etc. This week we focused on how God loves us no matter what we do or have done.  He forgives and loves us unconditionally and he wants us to love our friends and family the same way!
Other Activities: We played outside a lot the last couple weeks! We played in our toy castle playhouse, road bikes/toy cars, ate lunch and snack outside several days, and took lots of walks as well as tried out the big playground across the street!
We also went on a Bear Hunt while learning the Cool Bear hunt song. They loved this song along with learning Tootie Ta, Hokey Pokey, and Ring Around the Rosie.  We also played "If you hear my voice..." This game is similar to Simon Says except they have to listen to the teacher to find out what they are supposed to do.

The Color Orange

This week we are focusing on the color orange! Our characters are Zoe and Ernie because their skin colors are orange!
Working on Words/Letters:  Orange! Some of the activities we did while working on words and letters are:
*Reviewing the words on our word wall and adding orange to our word wall
*Doing a science project that included mixing red and yellow water to make orange:
Step 1: Get your supplies together-three clear glasses or cups, yellow food coloring, red food coloring (I used the gel kind so the kiddos could mix it for me.),water in two of the cups, two stirrers 
Step 2: Allow the children to mix the red in the water. 

Step 3: Allow the children to mix the yellow in the water.

Step 4: Pour the yellow water into empty cup.
Step 5: Pour red into the cup you just poured yellow into.

Step 6: Watch as the water turns orange.  Add yellow or red to make the water the shade of orange that you want.

*Reviewing our names by singing our individual name songs when we got to our letter on the word wall

*Singing the color songs off youtube that teaches us not only the color but also how to spell the color word
*Watching Puppy Dog Alphabet

Working on Writing: Below are some of the activities we worked on while learning the color orange for writing:
*The tots mixed red and yellow paint in a ziplock bag.  Then they wrote 'letters' and 'shapes' on the outside of the bags. No mess writing practice!


*Draw an orange picture
*Write an orange journal page- the tots tried drawing their very own circle after singing the circle song on youtube (havefunteachingcircle).  During this song they tried drawing large and small circles in the air.  When the song was over I had them try drawing their own and helped those that needed it.  I then told them if they colored inside the circle they would get a sticker.  I made my own circle and demonstrated what I meant by that.  I then showed them that if they colored outside of the circle, they would only get a check mark for trying.   All of them got a circle because they all tried their best to color within the circle!


Listening to Reading: This week, I sat out several old and new books out about shapes, colors, and alphabet and then allowed them to pick which story they wanted me to read.  A couple of their favorite stories they chose were: Soft Shapes, Elmo's Guessing Game About Colors,
I love the soft shape book because they can tell me the shape on each page as well as the color of the shape!
I also really liked Elmo's Guessing Game book because it goes along with how I am teaching the children their colors using Sesame Street characters. Elmo's hints are what color certain characters are.  The kiddos are able to guess most of the colors by remembering each character!

We watched the following youtube video which was great because they were able to follow along with the words on the screen: Busy Beavers!


Bible: We are learning about The Fiery Furnace.  We watched a youtube video about it.  We discussed the importance of worshiping only God and spent extra time in worship.  We read different children Bibles stories about it.  

Extras: On Monday, as I introduced the color orange to them,  I decided to make an orange lunch: mandarin oranges, carrots and grilled cheese sandwiches. We also pointed out orange items throughout the room and outside.

The Color Yellow

This week, we took a break from our yellow manips.  Instead, we found more Sesame Street characters and a Sesame Street building at a yard sale.  I cleaned these up and left these out for the children to play and explore as they arrived.  They also have the option to eat breakfast brought from home, watch out the window, read a book, put together a puzzle, or watch a learning video on tv.

After all the children arrive and my little guy wakes up, we head outside if it is pretty out or downstairs to our learning room.

Once downstairs, they free play in centers while I prepare snack.  My centers include: A Dramatic Play Area (kitchen and dress up), Reading Nook, Music, Math Manips and flashcards, Blocks, Free Play (outdoor type toys that I have out during winter when we can't get out much such as a teeter totter, riding toys and a slide), art, writing, and sensory/science (this is a hit and miss if I have something included in this.

Learning Time Area/Writing Center

 Science Center: Blue water area was in here as well as our scavenger hunt items we found.  We used those items as color sensory play.

 Full view of our classroom from learning area.

 This area is actually in a separate room that I turned into a ball room so that we had another area to go during those long winter days.  I also had in this room a closet that we called the library with all my extra books and a keyboard for playing music as much as they want and a toy box of random toys.

 Music Center: We have a bucket of instruments below.

 Free Play Area and Blocks

 Manips/Math

 Reading Nook and puppets

 Dress Up (Hoping to figure out a way to organize this and even hang some up, but for now this is easiest for the toddlers to pick up and toss in box.)

 Dramatic Play Center

 Learning Time Table/Lunch and Snack Table

Working on Words/Letters: We worked on the color word yellow daily as well as names.  We would sing and follow along with Y.e.l.l.o.w Spells Yellow on Youtube. We would also review R.e.d. Red, and B.l.u.e. Spells Blue. After we sung about the colors, we would go over our color yellow sheet.  I took pictures of things that were yellow off of Google images, and the students would tell me what each item was and what color it was.  Then, I would hold up a name card and ask who's name it was.  After the students guessed right, we would sing that child's name song (All are to the tunes of Mary Had a Little Lamb or B.I.N.G.O.).  We would continue doing this until we got through all of the names.  We try to sing and point along with the alphabet song to review our letters daily as well.

On Wednesday, we did extra working with words letters instead of a writing activity.  I didn't plan it this way, but we got downstairs later than normal as well as our extra activity took a little longer than I expected.  I decided the toddlers were finally ready for a word wall.  Because they are so smart? Because they know words already? Because they can read already? No, I decided to put it up so that they can see their names all day long as well as see the color words we have been working on weekly.  I feel the more they see them, the quicker they will learn them.  They already know when I point to a certain letter on the chart who's name starts with that letter; therefore, I felt like they were ready to start recognizing their whole name.  Some already can just by recognizing that first letter on the name card.  So back to the word wall...I didn't want to just put it up and let the toddlers come in and see it.  Instead, I decided to put up the letters with them watching and helping me decide who's name goes under which letter.  Amazingly, they were able to help with this task.  We only did A through M at first because I don't have any of their names that start with letters after M.  However, it still took awhile, and we didn't get time to do a writing activity.   (Word Wall sheets came from Hubbard Cupboard! I absolutely love that site.  Forgot How much I enjoyed that site when teaching pre-k!)

We also started doing opposite words during this time.  I have little wooded puzzles that they can connect opposite words.  I only gave them one to start out with until they mastered putting it together and telling me the words.  Then, I gave them a second puzzle if they played with them correctly and didn't try eating them.  (That still seems to be an issue depending on the day. Typical toddler problem!)

 

Listening to Reading: We read several stories about colors. Big Bird, and of course ducks. Some of the stories we read were 10 Little Ducks by Eric Carle (one of my all time favorite authors), Early Bird on Sesame Street, 5 Little Ducks, (There is an amazing Youtube video that the students can watch and follow along with the words.  I love giving them chances to follow along as well as listen to stories on cds, so they aren't just hearing me read to them.) and I Am (used for our writing activity as well), We also read the Creation Story daily.

When reading the I Am, I read it through one time and stop on certain pages to see if they can finish the sentence I am___ by looking at the pictures.  Then, we reread it, but I have the toddlers help me on every page finish the sentence.  This story was very easy for them to pick up on! They were able to read back most of the story to me after only hearing it one time.

Working on Writing: The toddlers love to write! Usually they choose markers to write with; however, this week, they decided to write with them all! Some even wrote with two utensils at the same time!

Day 1: They had the choice to write with yellow markers, yellow crayons, or yellow colored pencils.

Day 2: We wrote our yellow journal entry: yellow sun!  We talked about how God said "Let there be light." and there was! Genesis 1:3. Of course this led to other things God created.  (More of a review for the Creation Story.)

Day 3: We ran out of time to do our writing activity due to spending a lot of extra time on working with words/letters.  

Day 4: Journal Entry-We read I Am and wrote our own entry stating what we are doing. 

Day 5: Yellow Paint! I never saw the toddlers come running to the table to easily before.  The minute I got the paint out, they all were trying to climb into their seats!  I love doing activities that they are excited about!

Reading to Self/With a Buddy: I allow them to read during free time, at the table or with a stuffed animal.  This time is really just picture reading or memorizing and 'rereading' stories such as Five Little Monkeys.  However, I feel it is a huge pre-reading step.  It gets them enjoying books and learning how to hold them correctly.  Some are even starting to picture read and tell me what is happening in the story.  Others are able to repeat almost every word in certain stories just by hearing them and looking at pictures!

Bible Time: We learned about the Creation Story again to go along with yellow sun.  (Like I've said many times before, toddlers learn best by repeating, repeating, repeating!)  We broke out my sample book that the kiddos made last fall, and I 'read' to them out of that. 

 

The next couple of days, we read from a children's Bible and a small board book.  (You have to be careful when reading from anything other than the Bible even children's story Bibles because they aren't always the most accurate; however, children prefer these because of the pictures so change up what is needed and allow them to enjoy.) 

Another day, we acted out the story.  Their favorite part was when I turned the lights out!  They also love pretending to rest on the 7th day!

 Extra Activities: Yellow Scavenger Hunt, Yellow sensory play, fine motor skills with shapes, play dough letters, and of course dress up is always a fun part of our day!  I also introduced mustard to them during lunch and we ate a yellow lunch with corn, mustard, nuggets, and bananas.