Tot School: Pete the Cat Theme

Earlier this week I posted our Pete the Cat Learning Pack. Those, along with the original Pete the Cat Tot Pack are what we used for a theme this week.

This was the shelf by his desk. I put all the Pete the Cat Books we have. I also put the little shapes book I made.

This tray had some cupcake cards and number tiles. Archer enjoys counting and really enjoys the number cards, so it was a fun activity for him.
Letters are a big thing around here. I initially intended this to just be a matching activity. However, I decided to laminate it and add Velcro dots to make it into a toddler notebook page (I hadn't yet hole punched it when I took the pictures). Now to hope he doesn't lose any when he carries them around the house...

I used a dry erase pocket for his worksheets. He has been preferring the dry erase colored pencils lately.

  

He also used the dry erase colored pencils on some of his other printables.

I also got out his Hide and Seek Positional Word Game. He would pick a card and then go hide the toy cat there.

I picked up this Pete the Cat Hot Dots Book at a local thrift store. He can do some of it on his own, but needs his help with a lot of it (it is from the Kindergarten set, we don't have any of the preschool ones)

Tot School Heart Activities

 Archer was 26 Months

This was our last Shape Theme in Tot School. You can see the Shape Themes "Curriculum" post here. This week was heart.

Note: we did a LOT of heart activities for Valentine's Day, so we did a little less this week.

This is what Archer's desk area looked like. The shelf included a Non-Fiction Sight Words book, an alphabet book, an animal antics book, a blends reader and My Heart is Like a Zoo. I also had some of his artwork.

We used stickers on his Dot Art (Free to print here).

Shape tracing page that we use with dry erase crayons (Free to print here). This is still something we do together.

Heart fondant cutters, a heart stamp and an extruder for play dough. I also dug out some heart scatter we got back around Valentine's day. He also really enjoyed his alphabet stampers  (similar to these).

Working on his heart color page. (Free to print here)

Playroom shelves include both theme related tot school activities and other toys, usually open ended. The goal is to work on things like fine motor skills, visual spacial skills, math and literacy (and keep him entertained). 

Top left had a heart stringing activity, a foam heart puzzle, sorting disks and his magnetic ice cream set. Shelves on the right had some two part puzzles, a heart punch with paper, the Food Truck Fiasco game, safari bowling, a magnetic shape book and a basket of cards with the highway shape (from Making Learning Fun).

Heart lacing activity. I had him roll the die and then put that many hearts onto a pipe cleaner. 

Quick foam puzzle I made.

Tired, but still wants to play. 

Puzzles with a heart paper punch?

 

Putting some blocks in numerical order.

Tot School Star Activities

Archer was 25 Months

We have been working on Shape Themes in Tot School. You can see the Shape Themes "Curriculum" post here. This week was star.

This is what Archer's desk area looked like. The shelf included a Non-Fiction Sight Words book, a Meet the Sight Words book, an alphabet book, and a blends reader. I also had some books about the stars and hung up some artwork.

Dot art  on his easel(Free to print here).

Shape tracing page that we use with dry erase crayons (Free to print here). He definitely couldn't do the stars on his own.

Do a dot markers on his color page. (Free to print here)

Star fondant cutters, a star stamp and an extruder for play dough. We also got out some design rollers and some little star beads.

Playroom shelves include both theme related tot school activities and other toys, usually open ended. The goal is to work on things like fine motor skills, visual spacial skills, math and literacy (and keep him entertained). I have been trying to also include one of our toddler games, to get him more used to playing games with us.

The shelves on the left had a lacing alphabet, a container with glow in the dark stars, a SpinAgain and letter construction set. The right shelf had alphabet puzzles, a star paper punch, star cookie cutters for the pasta drying rack, some star ice cube trays with balls, magnetic gears and a basket of cards with the highway shape (from Making Learning Fun).

Lacing alphabet. This is always a HUGE hit.

Letter construction set. This picture is misleading, because the pieces were NEVER in the basket. They were always all over the playroom floor.

Alphabet puzzles

Star punch and paper

Star cookie cutters with colored wooden balls. I had ideas of making patterns together with these. Instead, he tossed them around.

Gears on his easel. So much easier than having them all on the kitchen floor.