Tuesday Week 3

Introducing...LETTER BOXES!  Here's some action shots of our E letter box:

 

We watched Signing Time volume 4: Family, Feelings, Fun in the morning.  We also went to the library's story time where we learned about the letter "J" and jungles.

After naptime I brought Monkey upstairs and let him explore his "E" letter box.  I need to get upper and lower case letters done and laminated so I can put them in so he can have exposure to both.  I also wanted to add a few more things to it but didn't have the time to get stuff printed and laminated (or sewn-I want to make a felt eggplant).  So now for a break down of what's in the E box!

-Alphatales E book: The Enormous Elephant Show

-The eel picture found here (ocean animals ABCs)

-Excited (the one from the matching and from the feelings book)

-Exhausted  (the one from the feelings book)
-Ear (we're using it for our senses folder)
-Eye (we're using it for our senses folder)
-Foam E (see materials-it's from the mat)
-Eight (one is from the LDS file folder book I found from the "Noah's Numbers" game and the other is from here see the counting one)
-Monkey's "Green Elephant" that my cousins gave him when he was born (it's a Carter's brand)

We read:
Alphatales E book (right after we opened our box)
Over in the Ocean-this book was really fun, it was like the Jungle one we read before it's supposed to be sung/read to the tune of Over in the Meadow.  It was really fun.
Ocean Babies-this one was really fun to introduce the babies in the ocean
Octopus, Oyster, Hermit Crab, Snail: A poem About the Sea (we read this before)

And not related to our theme:
Diary of a Worm (we requested this one when we talked about worms but it FINALLY came through)-this one is great to learn about the lives of worms and what they do-written in diary form. Fun for kids!
Spot Loves His Grandma
Spot Loves His Daddy
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

We also looked at the tot book we made (for details see this post)

Before bed we read Plenty of Penguins (we got this one from the thrift store).  It's a beginning reader to teach about penguins.

All kinds of animals: Tuesday-tot school week 2

I'm debating whether to read the Jungle Book to Monkey or not.  I've heard there are some rough parts so I might have to read it first.  That being said I think we'll watch the Jungle Book Friday or Saturday.  We've had a LONG day today.  We went to the doctor for Monkey's rash and found out we'll have to treat it off and on until he's completely potty trained (he was doing GREAT around 12 months but has had a major regression since).  We made chocolate chip frozen yogurt today for our craft/activity (chocolate chips start with C!)  Here's what we used:

Ice Cream Ball
Brown Cow Vanilla Yogurt (Cream Top but you can use any others-the Maple flavor might be yummy too!)
Some sugar (to taste)
Enjoy Life Foods chocolate chips (buy them on Amazon here) (perfect size and perfect for Monkey since he has a peanut allergy!)

I dumped all of it in (a little over half a bag of the chocolate chips-we like our chocolate chips) and I rolled it inside on a towel.  This part is VERY important because we've had leaking issues with our ice cream ball before!  Monkey had fun rolling the ball with me (ours is blue-we got it as a gift for Christmas).  In about 30 minutes of rolling (stopping halfway in to scrape the sides) you have awesome frozen yogurt.  The recipe for vanilla that comes with the ball is really good.

After we got done with that we started reading and playing with puzzles. 
Books we read:
But Not the Hippopatamus by Sandra Boynton (library)-this is a fun book.  Monkey loved this-we've read it A LOT in the past couple weeks.
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (also a library book).  This was pretty fun.  It is nice to teach about feelings, counting (also time since there are little clocks on it and it says "At 6 o'clock..." "At 7 o'clock..." and so on), size comparisons, etc.  I think this book can be applied a lot of ways!
Little Polar Bear Finds a Friend by Hans de Beer (also a libray book).  Little Polar bear ends up in a crate and is in an airplane to be sent to the zoo but helps Wally Walrus and the other animals escape.  He meets another bear.  You'll have to see if Little Polar Bear makes it home!
Polar Babies by Susan Ring.  A fun book for babies and toddlers.  The polar bear cubs play all day.  We borrowed it from the library.
You Are Special, Little One- cute going to bed story! (also from the library)
The Jungle Book (Disney's).  Monkey enjoyed me reading about Mowgli's adventures.
Kangaroos Have Joeys.  Another library book. This book says the names of baby animals.  It would be really fun if you wanted to learn that deer have fawn and kangaroos have joeys (a variety of animals, fish, and insects).  You can also use this to learn about the different classifications of animals since I believe all of them are presented in this book.
We will also finish the Velveteen Rabbit before bed (we started it yesterday).  Edited after bedtime to say we didn't get to finish or even read more than 10 words.  Monkey didn't take a nap so he didn't even want a bed time story tonight!  Oh well there's always tomorrow!

Monkey also played with animal puzzles but I've been trying for over an hour to get the pictures up and my card reader isn't working so maybe tomorrow!

Here's another post about a kangaroo book-we really liked it!

Tuesday 9/8 edit: Pictures!!!

Monkey has his own way of doing puzzles.  He figures out where one thing goes and puts the rest on top.  He'll get it!

N is for Nest

Baby Bird's First Nest by Frank Asch

I LOVE Frank Asch books! Moonbear was one of my favorite characters as a child. I'm glad I can rediscover this author with my son!

This book was about a baby bird that fell out of its nest and decided (with help of little frog) that it needed to build a nest for the night until raccoon came along. Little bird was able to jump up the tree and frog later helped baby bird jump all the way up to its mommy. It would be a cute book to read for bedtime. We enjoyed the simple illustrations that set Frank Asch books apart.