BBB - Pentagon Week

Brain Building Boxes

 Xander is 20 Months

 These are the boxes from last week, so they happened during our Pentagon Week and our Traffic Sign Theme.  I try to have the activities link in when I can, but don't feel constrained by making them fit.  I don't intend all of the activities to be done independently.  Most requiring scaffolding from me.

Basket and Sticks

This box had a basket and some giant pick up sticks.  The idea was for Xander to fit a stick through a hole on each side, which is much harder than you'd think.

Traffic Sign Match
This box was the same as last week's traffic sign match box, just with different signs. It had half of the wooden signs from his traffic set, and then little cards to match them to.  He required a lot of help, but enjoyed it.

Traffic Sign Patterns

This box had some of the pattern strips and signs from my Traffic Sign Printables.  Since he still struggles with patterns, we only did one at a time.

Shape Mail
Last winter I made Xander this felt mail set.  Each envelope has a shape of a different color for the stamp.  The idea was that he could either match shapes or colors, so this week, we focused on shapes.  He LOVED playing with it, but mostly enjoyed shoving them all in the mail box and taking them out again.

Xylophone Pitch Practice
This box had Xander's xylophone, which we used to work on the different notes.  He loves going through the notes and had it out every day.

Magnetic Pattern Block Sheet

This box had some magnetic pattern blocks and a sheet with color coded outlines.

Puzzle of the Week

This week's puzzle was one of the boards from our Big Button Fun set.  Xander LOVED it.  He liked pointing to the different cars and telling me their colors.  I also kept out the puzzle from last week, just because it fit the theme so well.

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!

BBB - Octagon Week

Brain Building Boxes

 Xander is 20 Months

 These are the boxes from last week, so they happened during our Octagon Week and our Traffic Sign Theme.  I try to have the activities link in when I can, but don't feel constrained by making them fit.  I don't intend all of the activities to be done independently.  Most requiring scaffolding from me.

Traffic Sign Shadow Match

Like the majority of the boxes this week, this activity came from my Traffic Sign Printables.  Xander loves the traffic signs, but I really wanted him to focus on their shapes.  He did a great job matching, but couldn't be bothered liming up the cutouts.

Traffic Sign Match
This was Xander's favorite box, even though he wasn't very good at it.  It had half of the wooden signs from his traffic set, and then little cards to match them to.  He was really good at some of them, like the stop sign, but can't read the other cards, which is really my fault.  I had intended to make a LR lesson to go with this unit but never got around to finishing it.  He still loved it and was able to match things if I read the cards he didn't know.

Sign Shape Match
This box had a sheet another sheet from the Traffic Sign Printables.  Xander can read his a lot of his shapes, but still needs practice with a few. This page had signs with the name of a word and then sign cutouts to go with. He enjoyed it and did pretty well, but it was another activity that required me pointing out the shape of the sign because he would get so caught up in the sign itself.

Clothespins and Cup
Pretty self explanatory.  Xander really struggled with pinching the clothespins, so I was excited to find some easier plastic clothespins at the dollar store part way through the week.  He is so much better with them and can do the activity as intended.

Boggle Jr
Boggle Jr has been sitting in our basement for a while.  I got out just one card and the letters that went with it to see if Xander could match.  He did ok matching if I set the blocks up for him, but he really struggled if he knocked them over or picked them up and set them down on a different side.  I think we need to stick to activities with only one letter per object.  Oh well, how would I know if I hadn't tried.  He still really liked it.

Cariboo
One of our shelves had Cariboo on it.  It was a game that my step daughter had had and loved, so when I saw it at a garage sale for $2, I had to pick it up for Xander.  He is still technically too young to really play, but I got it out to see how he would do.  He aboslultely LOVED using the little key to find the balls and open the treasure chest.  We quickly gave up playing by taking turns choosing cards.  In fact, I ended up just putting the cards away and letting him open the compartments with the "key."  He loved it and I figured it was good fine motor work.

Puzzle of the Week

This Melissa and Doug Traffic Sign puzzle was PERFECT for this week's theme (of course I can't find the link to it anymore, but here is a similar puzzle).  Actually, I got it for Xander for Easter thinking we may end up doing a traffic sign theme.  Even though the slots where the pieces go, he did a good job putting it together when I reminded him about the shapes of the pieces, not just what signs they were.

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!

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!