Monday-feelings cont... Happy

Finishing up our theme we read:
See and Spy Counting-Baby Einstein board book
Baby Happy, Baby Sad-Leslie Patricelli-CUTE book!  Great for toddlers!  Monkey loved this one-it was his favorite of the day
If You're Happy and You Know It-Raffi-a book about going to a birthday party using the song "If You're Happy and You Know It"
I Love It When You Smile-Sam McBratney (we read this one before and really loved it)
If You're Happy and You Know It-Jungle Edition by James Warhola-we really liked this one-check this one out!
When You Are Happy-Eileen Spinelli-this was a really sweet story for a mother or father to read to their children
Feeling Scared-Helen Frost
Scared Stiff-Katie Davis-GREAT book about being afraid!  The little girl is afraid of all the scary things in her closet, backyard, and a scary dog.  She realizes she doesn't have to be afraid of them
The Little Train-Lois Lenski-really cute book to learn about trains-board book so it's great for toddlers!
Alphatales G (see materials on the left side for more info)

Tuesday Week 4: Feelings!

We did our F letter box today!  Here's some pictures:

 

Our box with our letter f folders (our farm animals, feelings, and fall folder-pictures below)

  

You can find the contents of this folder here the Go Fish Feelings comes from here (scroll halfway down)

  

I put sticky back velcro where the faces go on the kids so Monkey can put faces on the kids (I put the hook on the kids and the loop side on the face so we can hopefully use them on our felt board too)

  

I laminated the whole folder so when Monkey is older he can draw different faces on the back with a whiteboard marker.

  

You can find this one here

  

I cut the animals in half and glued down the front (and then laminated the folder) and used sticky back velcro to attach the back.

  

  

Monkey exploring his box!

  

Funnels-dollar store

  

He REALLY liked the flashlight-he thought it was really neat to look at the light

  

 Our F box: Alphatales F book (not pictured), Funnels (see above-not in this picture), baby fork (the blue thing behind the football), football, flashlight, Finding Nemo book, fish (goldfish-in Monkey's hands), hand from our senses folder (we got the picture here), foam F from floor blocks (see materials link on left side), frog (from the book found here- the coloring animals one), four and five (one from my Noah's Ark Numbers folder game I referred to here and one from the Brown Bear count with me-see the link for the frog), fire truck, Feelings Book (see below)

Then we read:

Alphatales F book: Fifi Ferret's Flute (see the link on the left side for info about our Alphatales books we bought)

Feelings Book by Todd Parr (included in our F box)

Lots of Feelings by Shelley Rotner 

A to Z Do You Ever Feel Like Me?  Bonnie Hausman We loved this one!  It would be great for an older child too.  You read a little riddle and figure out what the child was feeling (there are hints around the page) 

Pigeons Have Feelings Too!  Mo Willems This was a fun book too

Feelings Alphabet by Judy Lalli.  This book had real photos of kids in black and white.

We checked out some other ones too but they didn't work out-they were written for older children.

We also watched Signing Time #4 and reviewed our feelings signs (Monkey hasn't started any feelings signs yet).

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.

Doggies! Wednesday Tot School week 2

Monkey got to spend some time with his grandparents today!  He had a blast!  Grandma brought some fun books for him to read which we plan to talk about soon here :).  After they left we enjoyed some Butternut Squash soup I made (I found some Butternut squash at the grocery store Monday and got really excited).  While it was boiling the squash in spices and water we watched Signing Time volume 1 (First Signs).  After dinner we read a bunch and looked at our Brown Bear tot book (I'll talk about it in a bit as well as where to get the stuff!).

Books we read:
Alphatales D: Detective Dog and the Disappearing Doughnuts (see my materials we use for more info about Alphatales-you can also check out all the threads with the Alphatales tags.
Puppy Love-This was my first book that I "read" as a child (I memorized it and told the whole story almost word for word).  It's a fun story about taking care of a puppy (puppy-sitting).
101 Dalmatians-based on the Disney movie.  Fun to read the story!
Clifford Barks!  We liked this one.  Monkey had to keep yelling out "doggie" throughout the whole story
Clifford's Peekaboo-Monkey's favorite Clifford book so far (but we borrowed it from the library).  He loves to cover his eyes with his hands or a playsilk or whatever and say "Baby?" or "Buddy?" and then uncover and yell out "BOO!"  He thought it was funny that Clifford puppy played peek-a-boo.
Tails Are Not for Pulling-great book for toddlers to teach them to be gentle with animals.  I'm considering purchasing it since Monkey is at the stage that he likes to stomp on tails and poke in eyes.  He thought all the different pets were fun.  The book includes tips for parents to teach their toddlers how to be gentle with pets.
Before bed we read Adventures of Biscuit which is a bargain book from Barnes and Noble (we just barely bought it last week).  It includes 5 stories: Biscuit, Biscuit Finds A Friend, Bathtime for Biscuit, Biscuit's New Trck, and Biscuit Wants to Play.  Monkey got a TOTAL kick out of these.  He loves how Biscuit says "woof woof!" over and over.  He had to start saying woof in anticipation of me reading woof!  Biscuit is an I Can Read! My First reading level. 
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I finished the Brown Bear tot book today!  I found that rubber cement + packing tape hold things that are laminated together.  Here's where we got the materials.  We printed the color book (I colored it and we laminated it so Monkey can learn colors-it's attached with sticky back velcro in case we want to put in one for him to color.  We also put in the heads and tails matching, the ABCs (we put ours in on two seperate things rather than front to back-I will post pictures when I can).  We also included the counting one.  We didn't include the shape one because we're putting it in our shapes and colors book I'm working on.  We're making the heads and tails for the felt board also.  I also am doing the sized bears for the felt board.  Monkey thought the lapbook was fun!

For anyone interested on what's going on with ME...I got the coolest paper in the mail today (FINALLY!).  Drum roll please....my Bachelor's Degree!  When I was pregnant with Monkey I found out that if I took 21 credits my last semester and 18 the one before I could graduate and walk 2 weeks after he was born.  I ended up on bed rest a couple weeks before Spring break (maybe only a week) on (32 weeks-37 weeks) because of preterm labor.  I had two incompletes to finish after walking.  My professor for the one was great and let me finish my paper and turn it in.  My other one agreed to let me come to a summer class but wouldn't allow me to nurse my baby or have breaks to pump so I asked what we should do.  She agree to let me do a homestudy course and two weeks later came back and said never mind.  I ended up taking a class from another University that is seen as an equivalent.  After finishing that (online) I STILL had to jump through hoops but the good news is that the paper is here and it's getting framed tonight.

Oh and I started a book I want to read besides the one I'm reading to help my hubby (which by the way I really don't enjoy that book!).  Here's a link to the book: Playful Learning.  If you have a local La Leche League go buy it from your group!  Procedes go to help the group (all the mamas are volunteers-the money goes straight to the library and any rental charges or other costs the group acrues).  I got it in a swap otherwise I would have bought it from my group.  I'm starting chapter 1.  Although we've made the decision to homeschool I think it would be of benefit to read it cover to cover still.

Bunny Monday (week 2)

Well we're starting week 2 of tot school.  We took some fun pictures when we got going...at 7 PM!  Yeah that's right.  We had THAT kind of a day.  As I type I'm on hold trying to get Monkey in to the doctor for yet another "rash" (not really a rash...) that looks like a chemical burn in his diaper area.  He was napping until well after 6:30.  We still read books and watched Signing Time while I got our dinner ready. 

 

Monkey just woke up and is enjoying a sippy while mommy gets ready to read!

 

Bunny with the letter C.  Monkey got Bunny for his 1st birthday from his grandparents

We read:
Alphatales Cc: Copycats while Monkey played with his foam letter C (you can read about these materials here)
Clifford's Animal Sounds-a really cute board book we got from the library.  Perfect for a 17 month old!  Monkey looked through this one for quite a while.
My Very First Book of Animal Sounds by Eric Carle-another board book from the library.  This one is split in half when you open the cover.  It's basically a game to match the animal picture and name with the sound they make.  I don't think we'll check it out again but it inspired me to make an animal themed tot book.  I will make a game that you match the animal to the sound and an animal ABC book.
Five Little Bunnies-this was a First Little Golden Book that I was given by one of my elementary school teachers.  It is great to teach about everyone being an individual, how everyone in a family has a certain role, the 5 senses, the number 5 or 4 or 1.  I used my fingers to show how many bunnies were being talked about throughout the story.  I wiggled my fingers in Monkey's face when we read.  He thought this was quite amusing and drew him in to the story even more.
The Bunny Book by Richard Scarry mine however looks like the second picture.  This was one of my favorite books as a child.  It's really cute and teaches toddlers about different types of bunnies as well as their features (long ears or short ears, etc).  Monkey loves looking at this book but I have to keep a VERY close eye on him since he likes to tear.
The Friendly Duck-Another one of my favorites from my childhood.  This is a story about a little boy that lives on a farm that visits a duck (he passes other animals on his way).  The little boy doesn't come one day so the duck follows his path and finds him.  This book would be great to just read or to learn about farm animals or to learn about a series of events.  The duck is the cutest part of the book!
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter-Another book from my childhood.  We also wanted to read about Peter Rabbit but didn't have time to get to that one too.  MUST have books for every child!
Bunnies ABCs- This is a fun book that has a different animal for each letter.  There are some funny ones I haven't heard of outside of this book but it inspired me to make an animal ABC book in a lapbook for Monkey.  I hope to work on this in the next few weeks.
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown-Honestly not my favorite book of hers.  It was cute because it had the message that no matter what the baby bunny did to run away the mom would change herself to make the baby come back.  I personally like Guess How Much I Love You better.
And we started reading The Velveteen Rabbit before bed (we'll finish tomorrow).

We watched Baby Signing Time volume 4: Let's Be Friends (friend signs including share, feelings, opposites, food, etc)

We went to the baby gym today and Monkey learned how to say "apple".  He enjoyed playing with his letter C while we read and also played with his bead maze.  He's getting really good at moving the beads on some of the wires.

Monkey "reading" the Clifford Animal Sounds book

I came up with another good idea that we will start implementing tomorrow.  We are going to start putting together "letter boxes".  We have a shoe box from my husband's new shoes that Monkey LOVES to open and close (it's attached on one long side) so we are going to put objects or pictures of objects that begin with the letter we're going to work on that day.  It's a fairly big shoe box so we can fit a variety of objects.  I will be posting what we put in each box if you decide you want to do this with your family too.