Tot School - Food Theme

Now that we are all done with our Shape Themes, I have decided to take a few weeks to do mini themes before we move on to the alphabet.  I wanted quick, simple themes because I know these last few weeks before I go back to grad school will be busy and I want to make the most of this precious time with my baby.  This last week I choose a food theme. 

We had so many great food books, and I found even more at the library.  Our shelf was overflowing!  In fact, there were still more books on a different shelf.  We read Ice Cream Everywhere, Fruits and Vegetables, I Eat Vegetables!, The Fruit Group, The Milk Group, Life Cycles: Pumpkins, Strawberries are Red, Apples, Vegetables Vegetables, Beans, Life Cycles: Straberries, The Life Cycle of a Carrot, and Food ABC.

Since the BBB Linky wasn't really a hit, I have decided to stop.  Regardless, here is what was on our shelves.

Corn Magnet Sheet

This box a free printable from DLTK and some white, green, and yellow pom pom magnets.  Xander liked it for the first day, but then just threw the pom poms around.

Food Word Puzzles 

I picked out the puzzles from our Simple Word Puzzle Pairs.

Food Word Puzzles 

One box had the ice cream tray from his Big Button Fun.  Xander had fun with this, as did one of the little girls we babysat last week.  It was cute to watch them do it together!

Fruit Color Sort

I grabbed a bunch of his fruit from his play food and labeled a party tray with masking tape.  He had fun sorting, but even more fun pretending to eat the food and saying "yummmmm."

Cutting Food 

Our Cutting Food Set is always a big hit with Xander.  Maybe someday I should expand with one of the other sets available.  Sorry, no pic!

Fruit Word Match

I printed the fruit cards from 1+1+1=1 and made some corresponding word cards.  We worked on matching them up.  He really surprised me in the fruit words he knew, and didn't know.  The kid can read watermelon, strawberry, and coconut, but cannot reliably read banana or pear.  Regardless, it was still a good activity and we will probably do it again every once in a while for a refresher.

Inside Out Fruit 

I found this great printable from At Home with Montessori that had pictures of a fruit, as well as a cross section.  We used it as a matching activity, which was much harder for him than I would have expected.

Ice Cream Scooping

The Ice Cream Scooping set was a big hit with Xander, as well as two of the kids we babysat last week.  In fact, we had some serious trouble taking turns with it around here!  I was happy Xander enjoyed it, and it was a great fine motor activity.  He really struggles to remember when to press the lever on the scoops!