M is 3.5 years old
We had a fun week, with no particular theme. I am trying to have 1 to 2 weeks of theme-based activities, followed by at least 1 week of non-themed activities while I prepare for the next theme. I’m hoping to get in a bug unit, then we will be DONE. The plan is to enjoy a nice long break, get some much-needed things done around the house and just spend time having fun as a family. :)
We started our week with a scavenger hunt. This was
so much fun. M and his cousin, S, had a blast with this. In fact, we had to do the whole thing again one evening with Daddy. :) I created a chart for the kids, with pictures of 12 things for them to find in our backyard. They took their little charts, a couple of crayons, and some plastic containers outside and began hunting:
My niece was the first to find everything pictured, and was quite proud of herself:
A close up of her treasures, which she insisted on bringing home with her (much to my brother’s delight, heh):
I uploaded our scavenger hunt chart and you can find it
here, if you think you’d like to use the same one. It was a big hit!
The weather was awful, so we did a lot of indoor activities the rest of the week…
Fine Motor Skills:
A little fishing game where you try to catch the fish as they go in a circle and open and close their mouths:
M’s Lite Brite made its way onto his shelves, and he really had fun with it – all closed up in his room with the shades drawn. :)
His little wooden dress-the-bear puzzle was out for him also; he played with it once and never bothered with it again:
Literacy Skills:
I made a little name train for M, and he connected the train cars in order to spell his name. I used velcro dots so they could stick to each other:
He did his Bob the Builder Name
puzzles (For these I use large flat marbles and write the letters on them with a sharpie):
Colors / Sorting:
We’ve had this file folder game forever, and M always enjoys it. I used Jolanthe’s
color cards, and created pockets with the color name cards. M goes through the stack and places each picture in the correct pocket. He just loves pockets. :)
Math Skills:
I found these at a thrift store and at first glance I thought they were Cuisenaire rods. However, once I got them home and took a look at them… well, I’m not sure what they are or what to do with them. Each single block unit is 1/2 inch. The rods go from 1 unit up to 12 units, and apparently we don’t have a full set. There’s only 2 8-unit rods, and only 1 10-unit rod. Sigh. Any ideas how we can use these? Or, does anyone know what they are? They are not the traditional Cuisenaire rod colors either. I let M just play with them and explore them the first time I set them out. I showed him how to create some designs, like a house and a stair (the stair was useful for showing the relation between the rods from shortest to longest).
I hope everyone had great weeks! I’m linking this up to
Preschool Corner and
Weekly Wrap-Up. Be sure to go check them out!
Have a beautiful day! :)
I just can’t say enough good things about these Little Bear books – they are even better than I remember from when I was a child! In this one Little Bear visits Grandfather Bear and Grandmother Bear, and gets a story from each one. One story is about when Mother Bear was little and made friends with a little robin. The other story is about a gremlin who has magic shoes. :) M asks for this every day at least once. It’s quite long – 4 chapters – and he sits for the entire thing, even the 2 pages where there are no pictures! 
This is a cute story about a rat trying to get Big Brown Bear to give up one of his slippers so he can use it for a bed. But M loves this book mainly because there is a little toy car in it that winds up and goes, and the rat gets to drive it at the end. :) 
I uploaded our scavenger hunt chart and you can find it 
