Thursday, June 2, 2011

Little Pilots Tot Pack

I’d really like to make some more pages to go along with this unit.  I tend to create only what Alex loves right now, but maybe your kiddo enjoys other activities…I want to do what appeals to your tots, too!  If you have any page ideas suitable for a 2- 5 year old,  let me know & I’ll see what I can do.
Max is our little airplane lover, and we’ve decided to do an airplane theme for his 2nd birthday this summer.  The graphics were purchased to design his party invitations and decorations, and then I decided that I might as well make a tot pack since I’ve got the graphics.pilots tot pack
This is the first tot pack that I’ve made since Jensyn was born – almost 2 months ago – and it’s taken me about that long to complete it!  I’m guessing it’ll be a few more months before I have any quality time to enjoy Photoshop for any long stretches of time again...
Alex is getting a little bored with some of our activities, so I tried to create some new activities for this pack.  There’s more than what is shown in the picture above.  I was just too lazy to include all the images :)
It includes the following pages, with the new activities in italics:
Circle What’s Different
Color By Number page Count & Clip cards
Find The Letter (upper & lowercase)
Roll & Graph Prewriting
Counting 1 – 10 Puzzle Race Game
Shadow Matching
Size Sort
Plane & Pilot sorting page
Shape Matching

We haven’t used this tot pack yet (or even printed it), and I’m hoping the dice for the graphing game works out okay.  I’m thinking about also making a spinner…especially if the dice design isn’t the greatest.  Let me know if you have any trouble cutting and gluing it, please.
A Few Extras…
You can’t do an airplane unit without making paper airplanes!We love the paper airplane instructions on the website Alex’s Paper Airplanes. (We love the name, too, since Alex is my 3 year old!)  This site has lots of fun airplane designs with step-by-step instructions AND videos.  Every little boy I’ve babysat in the past few years has loved these planes!
We picked up a simple airplane story to go along with the unit.  It’s a cute rhyming story, and on the last page it has a diagram of the parts of an airplane.  It’s definitely on the simple side, suitable for reading to my 2 year old.  When we’re ready to do this unit, we’re also going to check out what airplane books are available at our library.
 
I’m also considering one of these airplanes as a birthday present for our little guy.  They both look like such creative, battery-free, FUN toys for a small boy that I can’t make up my mind!
Do you have any other ideas?  I’d love to hear what YOU would do for some hands-on fun with an airplane unit!

7 comments:

Ms.M said...

When I teach transportaion one of the things we cover is planes. Well, my students LOVE the Donald Crews books. He has a fabulous book about airplanes called Flying. You and your little one should check it out. :)

Thanks for the tot pack.

Ms. M
Ms.M's Blog
A Teacher's Plan

Pam from Over the Big Moon said...

Thanks for sharing! My almost 3 year old loves all things Plane related right now! He's going to love this!

Michelle said...

My husband is a pilot and my sons LOVES airplanes. I just about died when I saw this. ;) Thanks so much!

Marlynn said...

So cute!

Hey I've been looking and I can't find anything for tots or preschoolers that involves wildlife, like elk, deer, skunks, bears, moose...you know that kind of stuff.

I see lots of jungle, farm, puppies, kitties, but nothing along that line. Just a thought, I know my girls would love something like that.

kinderpond said...

I would love to share some of my transportation/airplanes materials because you shared your items, but I was unable to find your email :(

Jennifer

kinderpond2@yahoo.com

Pennie said...

I must be doing something wrong. Every time I try to download the Little Pilots pack I get the message from 4shared that I have to be a premium member to download. And I have some little monkeys of my own that would love to use this.

Joelle Turner said...

Hi, I came across your link in Pinterest. My son LOVES airplanes right now and will love coloring and looking at these pictures. He is only 22 months but I will let him enjoy what he can. I have twin 3 1/2 year old daughters who will also love this lesson. They love talking about "airmanes" because they know how much their brother loves them. I am planning on a airplane birthday for his party in October, please share pics from your party!!!