Friday, October 14, 2011

Tot School – Letter I and Ice Cream

Alex is 3.5 years old, and Max is 25 months.

Okay, let’s try this again.  Letter I, take two!  This week went MUCH better!  We only fit in 2 days of Tot School, but that’s because we were enjoying what will probably be the last of our 70 degree October days. 

We completely ignored our RRSP board this week.  I tossed in a few letter I practice pages in the middle of our other activities, and we talked about the memory verse for a few minutes.  Alex & I even sat together and reviewed the letters, numbers, and sight word for each week…with smiles on our faces.

That’s not to say Alex was 100% cooperative – he still had his moments.  (For example, he was willing to cut a blank piece of paper into “confetti”, but he wouldn’t even consider cutting the lines of his Bible verse paper.  I didn’t argue.)  Overall, though, this week was very nice for all of us!

Max amazed me!  He couldn’t match the letters, but he sat down and very intently worked on putting each of the 26 letters in the correct place.  He’d ask me “Where does this go, Mommy?”  I’d point to the correct spot, and he’d place it there. I  can’t believe this little boy’s attention span!

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I got a quick video of Max working on this letter page,
and Alex needed help during that time…so here’s a little peek into our morning.

Alex used his counting cards to count out the correct number of ice cream cones.

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Alex had fun circling the pictures that were different.  Every time I think he’s got this mastered, he surprises me by making a strange choice on these pages.  Guess he’s just keeping me on my toes!

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Max matched uppercase letter I cards.
Alex wanted to try it, too.

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Alex had trouble with the ice cream truck puzzle,
but he did a great job on the ice cream cone!

(In the background, you can see my little Tornado & his aftermath of dumped toys…)

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We “retired” magnet pages for a while, as Alex wasn’t interested.
When Grace pulled out this page, though, Alex was very jealous.
I think we’ll be trying again in the coming weeks, as Max would probably enjoy these too.

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Alex & Grace played the Race To The Ice Cream Truck game. 

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Max made tall towers, knocked them down, and built them again.
This involved lots & lots of giggles.

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Max built ice cream cones just for fun.
Alex & I rolled and counted how many scoops of ice cream to put on each cone.

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Alex practiced writing the letter I.

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Alex sat on my lap, and we went through these cards from RRSP to review letters, numbers, and sight words.  He doesn’t “get” the sight words yet, but he does know the sound that each letter makes.  He tells me the letter & number on each card.  I’m just casually sounding out each word and telling him what it says.  I figure that, in time, he’ll start to understand that these letters make specific words.

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Prewriting – can you tell he’s proud of himself?

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Max colored the ice cream cones because Alex didn’t want to.
Max didn’t really get it, but he had fun coloring.

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Shadow matching – Alex didn’t want to do it this week.
The shadows this week were rather hard for Max, but he kept trying!

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This week, we used RRSP and our own Ice Cream printables
The magnet/Bingo marker page is from Making Learning Fun.

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below.  You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

Tot School