Apples

Our theme for the next couple of weeks will be apples.  So, to kick off our apple learning we went on a trip to pick apples.

Hailey gets a boost up to reach some of the apples up at the top.

Hailey loved picking the apples.  She would pick one, take a little bite, and then move on to the next apple.

Later on that day we made our own apple tree.

Here’s what you’ll need: paper towel holder, paper plate, green construction paper, two pieces of green construction paper cut into a tree shape, paint brush, brown paint, glue, apple stickers.

Put the apple stickers onto the green pieces shaped like trees.  Or you could use red pom-poms for your apples but we didn’t have any.

Paint the paper towel holder brown.

Glue the your green pieces onto the paper towel holder.

Cut a piece of green construction paper to fit on the paper plate and glue it on.

Once the tree dries, cut four slits in the bottom of the tree.  Bend the pieces and glue onto your plate covered with green paper.

The finished apple tree.

Hailey also practiced spelling her name on the apple shaped cards.

We have been reading a lot of books about apples but these are Hailey’s favorites:

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Apple Harvest by Calvin Harris

Letter of the Week- Letter B

Our letter of the week last week was the letter B and we did several activities to help Hailey learn the letter B.

Hailey used water colors for the first time to paint the letter B.  It only took a couple of tries before she understood that she had to dip the brush into the water and then the paint and then she loved it.  She spent a lot longer with the water colors than she usually does with regular paint.  (And- an added bonus- she didn’t even try to eat it… yet)

This is the finished letter B that I cut out and glued onto construction paper.  It hangs on our refrigerator all week so that Hailey will see it a lot.

We also made a Bumble Bee out of the letter B- an idea I saw over at No Time for Flashcards.

Here’s what you’ll need: a large letter B on yellow construction paper, black and blue construction paper, scissors, glue and pipe cleaner.

Cut out several lines to be stripes on the bumble bee and two wings out of the black construction paper.

I cut out the B but left the centers of the B in so that the paper would be a bit sturdier.  Hailey glued the stripes on.

Glue the wings onto the back of the B.

Use the pipe cleaner to make antenna and thread it through the B.  I put the antenna through a stripe so that the B would be less likely to rip.  Cut out the centers of the B.

Here’s the finished Bumble Bee B, glued onto blue construction paper for added durability.

We also played hide the letter B using some felt letter B’s which I hid around our house for Hailey to find.  She also enjoyed the letter B activities at Star Fall.

Hailey colored her Letter B book.  Later we added pictures to it and then I put the book together.  (If you look closely you’ll be able to see that Hailey is wearing her bathing suit over her clothes.)

Here is our last letter B project of the week:

Here’s what you’ll need: a deep box, a piece of paper, golf ball and paint.

I didn’t get any pictures while we did this project- but I dipped the ball into the paint and then dropped it into the box with the paper in it.  Hailey shook the box around to spread the paint.  This project combined several of our themes last week- B for the ball, red for our color, and circle (ball) for our shape.

It will be a long time before we do something like this again though.  Hailey got frustrated while we were working on it and she took the ball out and threw it across the room.  This resulted in a very sad mommy and a very sad toddler as well as lots of red paint to clean up.

The finished picture.

One Red Circle

This post is not actually about one red circle.  Rather it is about the number, color and shape Hailey was learning about last week.

Our number was the number one (we will do a new number every other week).  Here is one of the projects we did to reinforce the number one.

Here’s what you’ll need: a large number one on construction paper, a blank piece of construction paper in a different color, paint and a sponge.

Sponge paint the number one.  Notice the look of concentration on Hailey’s face- this was serious work!

After the 1 dried, I cut it out and glued it onto the other piece of construction paper.  Then I wrote “one” and we added one sticker.  This is hanging on what will be our number wall in Hailey’s playroom.

Our color for the month of September is red.  We did a couple of projects last week for the color red.

We made a red discovery bottle- it has water and red food coloring in it.  And here you can see Hailey adding some glitter.  Then I used a hot glue gun to glue the top on and added a label that says “Red” on the side of the bottle.

Then we made a red collage:

Here’s what you’ll need: a bunch of red stuff and some glue.

First Hailey colored the red paper using a red marker, crayon and colored pencil and used a red stamper as well.

Then Hailey ripped apart a different piece of red paper.  (Great for those important little hand muscles.)

Glue all of the red items onto the red paper.

The finished red collage.

Lastly, our shape for the month of September is circles.  We made a circle painting.

Here’s what you’ll need: construction paper, paint, various items shaped like circles to use as stampers (I used the tops from milk containers, the top of a lays tube, and an empty toilet paper roll).

Dip the circles into the paint and then stamp onto the paper.

The finished circle picture.

Letter of the Week- Letter A

Last week was our first official week of Tot School.  I have been doing crafts and learning activities with Hailey for a while but I decided that with the new school year I would start doing Tot School with her- which is basically just like pre-school except on a 2 year old level.  I am going to break up our activities we do by category when I post about them- for example today I am going to share with you all of our letter activities we did last week.  Then on the other days I will share with you our activities related to our theme, number, shape, color and Bible story.

So, our letter last week was the letter A- here are some of the activities I did with Hailey to help her learn the letter A.

On the first day we colored this Letter A Template.  Hailey wasn’t feeling very well and I ended up doing most of the coloring.

Then I glued the A onto a piece of construction paper.  The letter of the week paper will hang on our refrigerator all week since that it a high traffic area and I want Hailey to see it as often as possible.

For our next letter A activity- you will need a large A on a piece of construction paper, another piece of construction paper, red paint and an apple cut in half.

Dip the apple in the red paint and stamp it onto the letter A.

Cut the A out and glue onto a different color piece of construction paper.  This also hangs on our refrigerator.

We also made this Letter A Book.

We played a hide the letter A game as well.  I have a lot of felt and foam letters so I hid several A’s around our living room.  Here is Hailey finding one of the A’s in the trunk of her car.

We also did the Letter A activities on the Star Fall website which was one of Hailey’s favorite activities.

Lastly, we made this really cute ant- I saw the idea for this over at No Time for Flashcards.

Here’s what you’ll need: black paint (I don’t have black, so I mixed these colors together to try to get a dark color), paint brush, 2 pipe cleaners, scissors, 1 section of egg carton that is three pieces long and 1 section that is just one piece, and wiggle eyes (I used black and white construction paper to make the eyes because our last project that had wiggle eyes on them- Hailey pulled them off and tried to eat them, so we aren’t ready for wiggle eyes yet)

Paint the egg carton.  Why yes, Hailey did eat some paint- how could you tell?

After the paint had dried- cut two holes in the top of the 1 piece of egg carton and thread pipe cleaner through to create antenna.  Then add your eyes to that piece.  Cut holes in the three piece section of egg carton to thread pipe cleaner through for the legs.  Then glue the head piece right on top of the first section.

Here is the finished ant.