Tot School and BBB - 4th of July

Tot School and BBB

 Xander is 20 Months

With the holiday and having friends in town, we decided to take a break from our normal shape themes last week.  Instead we did some Independence Day themed activities.  Also, since it was such an odd week, I decided to combine the Tot School and Brain Building Boxes posts into one this week.  I will just make the linky early and keep it up longer, so anyone who wanted to link up is more than welcome!

Ok, so not that impressive of a set up this week.  I didn't make it to the library on time, so I only had our own books.  We had the 4th of July booklet I made, The American Flag, and The Statue of Liberty.

Xander loved the 4th of July 3 part cards.  Some of the monuments were a little hard for him, but I expected it.  I also used most of the same words in a Little Reader lesson, which also ended up being a big hit.  He can read some of the words, but not as many as in the past couple of themes.

Flag Craft

To stick with our patriotic theme, I set up this foam flag craft for Xander.  I used a large sheet of red foam and cut strips of white sticker foam.  The blue rectangle was also peel and stick.  The stars were sparkly foam stickers.  The kid loves stars, so the star stickers ended up being his favorite part.

Glow in the Dark Star Container
When I took the glow in the dark stars down from him space theme, I decided to keep them out for the 4th of July also.  The stars and an empty cheese container ended up being lots of fun.  We are working on opening and closing the container.  He is particularly fond of shaking the stars out once he has them all in.

Nesting Stars
This was another recent activity since we did it a few weeks ago during our star week boxes, but Xander didn't seem to mind.  This box had our star cookie cutters that we used for nesting and sorting by size.  He was excited to see them again.

North American Animal Matching
Xander sure loves his Toobs!  This box had animals from his North American Wildlife Toob.  Since none of our animal flash cards had the right animals, I made some North American Animal 3 Part Cards.  I really only needed the animal picture and name, but figured I might use 3 part cards in the future so went ahead and made them.

Flag Magnet Sheet
This box had some pom pom magnets and a flag sheet from Making Learning Fun.  I think I used the bingo marker page instead of the actual magnet page because it had fewer dots on it.  While Xander can line the magnets up in the dots when he feels like it, he mostly just wanted to throw the magnets on the page and watch them stick.

Red and Blue Counters
I pulled out our red and blue counting bears and Minimotors counters and made some quick cards to go with them.  We had fun talking about the different shapes, and he even did some sorting.  He could read some of the words on his own, others he needed help.

Puzzle of the Week

Unfortunately, I didn't have a good 4th of July themed puzzle for this week.  Instead I just pulled out a puzzle that hasn't seen much action in a while.

He was "tweeting" for the bird, which is why he has a funny expression.

Fireworks Activity

We did an eye dropper "fireworks" activity, which ended up being lots of fun.  You can read the post here.

At the Fireworks

Xander got to go to the fireworks for the first and second time this year.  He loved them and still walks around asking for more and saying "booom booooooom boom!"

Brain Building Linky

Since I am always looking for new ideas for our boxes, I decided to start a Linky.  Have you posted about any sort of brain buidling work boxes, tot trays, busy bags, etc?  Feel free to link up!  All I ask is that you add the Brain Building Lynky button (in the sidebar) or a link back somewhere on your post.  Thanks!