4th of July Coding Game for Botley

We have had the Botley 2.0 coding robot for about a year and a half now. My 6 year old likes it, but doesn't do a lot of "coding" with it. To try to make it more enticing (and educational) for him, I decided to make a 4th of July themed grid game to go with it.

I made a bunch of cards with 4th of July themed pictures, printed them on cardstock and laminated them. Then I taped them to the ground and gave him a stack of cards telling him which item he had to try to land on. The goal was to be able to get to the next card from the spot he was already on, which is more tricky than getting there from the edge. If you don't want to tape to the floor, you could glue them down to butcher paper or posterboard. I just liked the idea of being able to rearrange them easily.

Now I was running out of laminating sheets and didn't want to wait for more to arrive, so I printed the cards small enough to fit two to a page. That means I had to space them a little ways apart for the commands to come out right (I just eyeballed it). I also made a version of each card in the PDF a little bigger, so you could just put them down next to each other.

 Print the Botley 4th of July game here.

4th of July Resources and Activities

  

Printables:

4th of July Addition Roll and Cover

4th of July Learning Pack

4th of July Cuisenaire Templates

4th of July 3 Part Vocabulary Cards

4th of July Mini Book

4th of July Coding Game for Botley

Blog Posts:

Eye Dropper Fireworks

Star Ice Painting

4th of July Tot School (2024)

4th of July Tot School Activities

4th of July (3 Years Old 2021)

4th of July (3 Years Old 2014)

4th of July (2 Years Old)

 Book Ideas:

Tot School: Summer Theme

 Lately for Tot School we have been doing about a shape a week, in addition to another theme. The most recent theme has been summer!

We did this popsicle spinner matching game for both shapes and colors. I gave her little blue glass gems that we called "bubbles" and she put the bubbles on the corresponding popsicles.

At the Beach vocabulary matching in our table pocket chart . She LOVED the lesson on  Little Reader, but only wanted to match about half the cards.

We did some Olaf size sorting. Since we hadn't done much size sorting, I only got out two sizes instead of all three.

I put some summer themed buttons into therapy putty. She enjoyed it so much, she asked me to put them back in for her to find multiple times.

Ice cream shape matching from Tot Schooling

Lots of kinetic sand play. 

Matching sentences to pictures from This Reading Mama

Summer Theme Resources and Activities

 

Printables:

Summer Reading 100s Chart

Olaf Size Sort Activity

Color/Shape Popsicle Matching Game

At the Beach Vocabulary Cards

Gardening Vocabulary Cards

Blog Posts:

Ice Painting

 Book Ideas:

Love Monster and the Extremely Big Wave

Pete the Cat and the Magic Sunglasses

The Watermelon Seed

Splat the Cat Up in the Air at the Fair

Splish, Splash, Splat!

Izzy the Ice Cream Fairy

Are you Ready to Play Outside?

Should I Share My Ice Cream?

Early Reader Summer Books

Meet the Sight Words Books (Level 1 and Level 2)

Summer

Playing Outside printable book

Nonfiction Sight Words Readers (Level C and Level D)

Beginner 10s Frames Cards

Having good number sense has really helped my boys understand math as they get older. It seems to be coming a little less naturally to my youngest, so I'm trying to find more ways to foster it. Recently, I made her these beginner tens frames to use to help her visualize quantities.

Each card is double sided (and laminated for durability). One side has a blank 10s frame and one side has enough circles to match the number.

She's too little to give her all ten at once, but I've started giving her a few with little beads or gems to match to the cards.

Print the Beginner 10s Frames Cards Here

Frozen Olaf Size Sorting Activity

 We've been working on some summer theme Tot School activities with my daughter. She LOVES Olaf and Olaf LOVES summer, so I decided to make an Olaf size sorting activity for her.

The file I made has three different sizes of Olaf, his sun hat, his lemonade, his beachball and his umbrella. I cut it all out and laminated it.

The first time I showed her, I only used the biggest and the smallest set.

Print the Olaf Size Sorting Activity Here

Popsicle Shape and Color Spinner Game

With the school year done, we've been embracing summer! To that end, I made this popsicle color and shape matching game. The popsicles are different colors and have different shapes on them. Then I made two different spinner sheets depending on whether you want to match colors or match shapes.

I taped one of these spinners to a CD case and then can just switch out the spinner inside. I gave her little blue glass beads and told her they were bubbles.

Color version of the game

Shape version of the game

Print the Popsicle Matching Spinner Game HERE

 

Tot School - Pentagons

We have been working on a shape a week, as well as doing other themed activities. 

These are the shape related activities. Juniper was about 23 months.

This was her little area on our play room wall. The poster is from The Learning Effect. The rest is her completed work for the week.

 I put her pentagon page dot page on her easel and she used pom pom magnets to fill in the circles. For extra fun I used her pentagon magnetic tiles to hold up the paper.

Doing a little puzzle that included a pentagon (giraffe for moral support)

She did some watercolors that I then cut into a pentagon.

Coloring some pentagons (Printable found here).

Tracing some pentagons in her dry erase center. She still needs a lot of help tracing, but she enjoys it.