December- What's on the Tray, week 2 and 3

Lots of fun on the trays this week, gearing up to Christmas!

 Same and Different tray- Kenna has been really interested in this concept. She is comparing things, and making amazing connections. I am stunned by some of the things she has been noticing. I found a winter themed same/diff game, and we have played a bunch. I added a control of error with an S or a D on the back of each card. Kenna knows she can flip her pile of "same" and make sure they all have S. 

 PreWriting skills- Dry erase marker and lots of fun Candy Cane prewriting pages. She is more interested in this than she has been in a while.

 She was circling the circle- she didn't understand she had to trace it ON the line!

 Roll the Dice, match the pictures, and decorate the tree.

 Extention- Last week our tray with bows focused on tweezing. This week, Kenna is encouraged to think of two different patterns (ABAB and AABB is what she came up with) and line up the bows. This was a huge hit.

 Count and Clip- This was not really fun for her at all. The snowflakes were too small and kind of mixed up, so she couldn't easily count them.  I deliberately only printed off 11-20 cards, because that is what she needs to work with, but they are really hard still.

 She does love the clipping though! ( I wanted to share that after this tray sat unused, I added a dry erase crayon. I modeled crossing off snowflakes as you count them, and BOOM! She was sucessful and really happy!)

 Skip Counting. Kenna is way beyond 1-10, so these cute ornament cards needed to be extended... I sorted them into two groups and we used our beloved "pointer" to count by twos. She really loved it. We used the terms "odd and even" and then we watched a couple funny youtube songs about even and odd. She totally grasps the concept and has all the even numbers memorized. I taught 3rd grade for 7 years, and this was so hard for those poor kids... I am excited to be starting early with skip counting!

This wasn't a tray, per se, but we did take time to bake sugar cookies for Santa. ( I am not a cook. I don't bake, I barely make edible toast.)  We used Grammie's secret recipe, and the cookies (Shockingly) came out so delicious! (This is despite the fact that we made them vegan and replaced the egg, butter and milk!)

 Quinn, wearing her new apron from Grammie. She helped by being underfoot and getting into the flour Kenna spilled.

 Little Man, watching the cookies bake, and wearing his apron from Grammie like a cape. (His apron is denim, made from recycled jeans, and I am in love with it! I'm going to beg my mom to make a few to sell on my etsy!)

 Kenna, helping wash dishes. This Practical Life activity is one of her favorites at the moment. She loves our scrub brush, she loves the running water, and she really likes squirting soap.  She's also wearing her apron from Grammie... and not much else!

 While the cookies were cooling, we stirred food coloring into the special almond icing.  (Another grammie reicpe)

Kenna iced all the cookies, and carefully cleaned up our spatulas and cups. She has become a great little helper. I love that she loves all aspects of the kitchen- even though I am terrible at cooking.

  We're getting close to the 25th! Please Christmas don't be late!

K is for Kite

 K week was kinda dull compared to the excitement we had during ocean week, at the actual ocean!! I just kinda let Kenna do what she wanted, and we stayed really calm and cool this week.  I pulled out each of my tot trays and snapped a picture for ya. All printouts are from www.confessionsofahomeschooler. (her site rocks!)

size sequencing

Tracing the letter K with dry erase markers. (I just stick my sheets in a sheet protector, so I don't have to laminate so many things.)

Letter tiles- I provided the lowercase letters to go with the uppercase word card. Kenna hated this tray this week.

THEN CAME THE FUN PART!!!

We pulled out our awesome, cool and very special DRAGON kite!! It was a super-windy October evening, so we quickly ate dinner and surprised Kenna with it. 

She was very excited. Like squealing, jumping and growling excited. 

The wind was great, but we decided that trees and powerlines were making for bad kite-flying. We threw the three kids in the car and headed to the park. 
Ready, Set, Go!

  Our dragon kite sailed on the wind, and it was magical. 
Then sadly, it crashed and burned.

  Quinn was relaxing in her carseat as we attempted a few more flights of the dragon. Little Man was trying out his army crawl on the basketball court. (ruined that shirt...)

 Bill and I were totally and utterly determined to get the kite to stay aloft. Kenna lost interest and we found her on the swings.   

 We're flexible, (and frustrated by the kite...) so we all got on the swings.  Kenna, Little Man and Quinn would still be swinging if the sun hadn't gone down. It was really peaceful to have all three kids happy at the same time. ahhhh.

 As I declared Kite Day over, Kenna and Daddy raced for the big red slide and took a ride down together.

 Down they go! Wheeee!

And that, my friends, is what I call a perfect evening!

Shaving Cream Ghosts

Gather your materials:

1/4 cup white glue

3/4 cup shaving cream

sharpie

brown paper bag

big bowl

Measure out your glue. Sqqqquuuuueeeezzzze!

 Then measure out the shaving cream. PUUUSSSSHHH!

 First exploration into the gooey mix.

Kenna started to smoosh shaving cream onto her ghost.  She was totally into it!

 Little Man (13 months) was more hesitant, and started with one finger!

 Daddy got into it, too!

 You get the feeling things started to get messy when Daddy grabbed the shaving cream and offered Kenna more!

 High five, messy people!

It took over a day to dry, but when the fluffy parts were firm to the touch, I cut out the ghost shape and glued on a mouth and eyes. 
Spooky!!
 

Jack-O-Lantern paper plate craft

Cute craft, super easy, and great for both my big kids! (33 months and 13 months)

Kenna painting her jack-o-lantern face with orange paint. (Little Man painted his when he woke up from nap, with his hands.)

I simply took a paper plate and drew a face on it. I asked for Kenna's input on what shape to make the eyes, nose and mouth.

I only give a little paint at a time, thank goodness! She decided the scrape and pour method was the way to go...

While her paint was drying, I gave her a piece of black construction paper to cut up into big squares. She is really good with scissors, so that was all the direction she needed. I painted with Little Man while she did this. I asked her to put her squares into the clear container.

Once the paint was dry, I cut out the facial features.

Kenna glued the black paper onto the back of the plates, completely covering up the cut-outs.  I added a stem, and then in a last minute creative moment, Kenna added some yellow dot stickers. 

Cute, cheap, easy.  Who could ask for anything more?!

Linking up to:

Montessori Monday

Sensory Shaky Bottles

This is an easy way to add some sensorial play to any baby's day.  (My Little Man is 12 months old).  I used some clear containers (breastmilk storage tubes, in this case) and added some things with visual interest, that would also make nice shaky toys. ( I added pony beads, glass "gems" and colored paperclips.) The content possibilities are endless, of course!  I meant to take a closeup picture of the bottles, but apparently I didn't.  Sorry! I think you get the idea!

Little Man loved them!  He studied the contents, rolled them around, and shook them like crazy.  And lucky me, the lids screw on really tightly- so try as she might, Kenna (32mos) couldn't break into them.  Whew! That means I don't have to glue the lids on, which means I can refill these containers and reuse them another day!

For older toddlers, you could add things that are quiet (like cotton balls) and ask them to compare the sounds. Ask them to find the loudest shaker, the quietest shaker, etc.  You could make this a matching game if your containers are opaque- make matching sets- two bottles with the same objects, and let them use their ears to match them up. :)

Bath time!

The only person more excited than Kenna about Little Man's birthday was ME!! I couldn't wait to give him this present! I ordered him this awesome wooden bath toy set from Mama Made Them on Etsy.

For a great price, I got a turtle, whale, fish, boat and two removable people! It is all hand-carved, woodburned and sanded. It is really nice! All the wooden pieces float, and they are a perfect size for a one year old to push around in the tub. Kenna really likes them, too.  I am soo happy!

Our new wooden bath toys go great with our other bath stuff- small bowl and cup from Ikea, and two little pinch pots from Walmart. I banned plastic bath toys about six months ago, while on my plastic purge. I'm proud to say bathtime is totally plastic-free! :)