- Letter A
Ants and Alligators and Apples, oh my!
Crafts: - Egg carton ants
- Ant prints—cut out large letter A, use ink pad to make “ant prints” all over the A.
- Sing: The ants go marching
- Alligator clothespin magnets
- Alligator animal puppets
- Sing: Alligators and Monkeys
Math: - Use felt apples to count
- Use felt apples to do beginning addition
- Read 10 Apples Up On Top
- P’s alligator ate _____ pieces of meat. I printed out a picture of an alligator, and cut it out. At the top of a piece of paper I wrote "P's alligator ate ____ pieces of meat." Then I cut up small pieces and numbered them 1-10 (you could use higher numbers if your child needed). I put them in a small box, and allowed him to pick a number. Then he ripped a piece of red paper (meat) into as many pieces as the numbered paper said. He glued the alligator, his numbered paper, and the correct number of pieces of meat onto the paper. If you were working on writing numbers, you could have the child fill in the blank, since he's not ready for that he just glued the numbered piece into the blank.
Fine Motor Skills: - Accordion folding paper
- Lacing apple shape (I used a plastic lid--from oatmeal or grits container--and cut out an apple shape, then used a hole puncher to punch holes and had him lace through the holes)
- Animal puzzles
- Brown Bear Brown Bear Puzzles
- Cutting straight lines
Social Studies: - Johnny Appleseed
Science: - Animals that Hibernate: bears, frogs, snakes, turtles (use pillows to make a den for hibernating while reading brown bear brown bear)
Gross Motor Skills: - Animal Walks
- “Swamp Game”-lay down blue tablecloth, put plastic alligator on the cloth, chant “I’m walking, I’m walking, I’m walking through the swamp. I hope that alligator doesn’t go CHOMP!” swimming, jumping, tip-toeing, marching, etc.
Sensory: - Shaving cream (like snow) in cookie sheet, practice drawing letter A; then allow for play with cars/etc in shaving cream.
- Oatmeal--dried oatmeal in a tray, practiced drawing letter A;
Snacks: - Ants on a log
- Animal crackers
Games: - Animal Bingo
- Funny Farm Animal matching file folder game
BOOKS: - 10 Apples Up On Top (as I read, we counted the felt apples and stacked them on his head)
- Brown Bear Brown Bear
Materials needed:
Felt apples
Animal crackers
Pretzel rods
egg carton
paint : green and brown
google eyes
pipecleaners
large A cut out
ink pads
clothespins
string
paint
magnet
paper bags
green construction paper
Alphabet stickers
Alligator stickers
Ant stickers
Apple stickers
Blue tablecloth
Piece of paper labeled for math activity
Small cut out alligator
red paper to tear
numbers 1-10 on small paper for picking how many pieces of meat the alligator ate
glue stick
brown bear brown bear puzzle tiles
animal bingo game
Letter A theme bag
File folder game
Puzzles
Prep work:
Cut out felt apples (10)
Cut out large A from construction paper
Cut egg cartons into 3 cup pieces
Cut out alligator shape
Make small numbered pieces 1-10
Label piece of paper for math activity
Draw straight lines on a piece of paper for cutting
Toddler Activities:
- Hide and Seek with the apple! Hide most (or just part if that's what your child is ready for) of the apple under something or behind something and have the child look for it. My son LOVES this game.
- Instead of the shaving cream mentioned above, I let the toddler have a big glob of yogurt on his high chair tray to make an ooey gooey mess with. He liked it, and since he likes to still put his fingers in his mouth yogurt was the way to go (it looked what the bigger kids were doing, so it was a hit).
- We're working on learning body parts, so we are working on hand (he already knows head, tummy and toes). We work on this by just talking about it: "Where's your hand??" "Here's your hand!" and I touch his hand.
- Sing "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands"!
- Sing "ants go marching"...he attempted to march (it was too cute)
- Animal walks (he tried to play along)
- Den building (he loved crawling on the pillows, and laying under the pillows)
- Animal books: We read all the titles that we have about animals, and he learned to make the sound for dog "woof woof". We have two touchy feely animal books, and those are his favorite! I highly recommend those.
- BOOKS in general! It was a great week because my son finally got interested in books!! My MIL picked up a touchy feely book (mentioned above) at a thrift store when she was here last month, and it was a big hit, so I went last week and bought another one. He loves it too, but the best part is that it seems to have peaked his interest in ALL books! He's bringing me books to read all the time now....now, he usually only makes it through a few pages of the book (except those touchy feely ones), but it's a start down the right road. Before this week, he wouldn't sit to be read to (except that touchy feely book...did I mention I HIGHLY recommend those??) and would snatch the book from me if I tried to read to him while he was playing. My son, very against literacy.
- Sign for STOP. My son doesn't do many signs, in fact, he only does 2. All done, and more. (He's big into food...what can I say.) BUT, he understands many more. Up. Drink. Milk. Eat. Sit. Ball. Light. My mind went blank, but there are others. So, this week I introduced the sign for STOP. The others we've been working on for months, and this is a new one. He doesn't get it yet, either that or he's just a defiant little booger (tongue in cheek...I don't think one year olds can be defiant personally!).
- Counting. I count all the time. When I'm changing his diaper, it's often the only thing that keeps him still!! I do it in a big grand voice, or a slow deep voice, or a high squeaky voice, but always counting to 10 (I can change a diaper, FAST!). I also use it when I'm trying to get him dressed, again it will usually keep him still. "Three buttons. One. Two. Three. There you go, all done!" "Ten snaps. One. Two. Three." (you get the picture)
- Colors, we just talk about colors all day as well. "Do you have the red ball? Mommy has the yellow ball." "See the pretty red apples." Etc.
Of course, he's around for all the learning, and probably picks up on more than I think.
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