B for Bear - Week 2

Xander is 22 Months

We are currently working on our Mommy & Me ABC units.  This was our second week on letter B and bears.  You can see Week 1 of Letter B here.  We didn't do quite as much this week because there were some days that neither of us were really feeling it.  Since this is supposed to be fun bonding/learning time, we only do Tot School if we are both in a good mood.

His desk setup was the same as last week, except for the addition of a glow in the dark bear to his wall.  His white board had some bear cut outs (in the printables), some alphabet magnets, and his fridge phonics set.  The mini pocket chart (from Target) has his sandpaper letters and some bear flash cards. 

We didn't quite make it through all out bear books last week, so we finished this week.  We had some on the letter b and a bunch on bears.  I don't know how many times we read Brown Bear Brown Bear, Polar Bear Polar Bear, and Panda Bear Panda Bear!

 
Tracing
Tracing between the mommy and baby bears in his activity center.

Case Sorting

This box had a case sorting activity to divide the "baby" and "mommy" letters.  Mostly I just modeled this for him.

Bear Pattern Matching

I made some little pattern cards to go with his counting bears.  He liked to talk about finding the bears' "homes".  He is still more focused on matching the color than what the pattern is, but we will get there!

Talking to the bears face to face.  He was saying "Hello, hi!  Hello, hi!"

Lacing

Some bulletin board letters and some printables made into lacing cards.  The strings are from Oriental Trading.

Letter Clipping

This activity was one of the favorites of the week!  He loves practicing using the little clips.

Puzzles

This box had a puzzles that were a little harder than last week's two piece puzzles.  He particularly LOVED the four piece puzzle of the baby from his A to Z Puzzles.  He couldn't do it on his own, but brought it to me many times to put together for him.

Dot Magnet Pages

This week I printed the magnet pages back to back, so he could just flip it over if he wanted to do the other one.

 

Number Card Matching

Number cards and the corresponding number tiles.  (I also uploaded some number tiles here you could just print and laminate).  We did 0-5 last week, so we did 6-10 this week.  Most days we ended up mostly using these as flash cards.

Stamping
We did some more stamping with our uppercase and lowercase stamp. Have I mentioned how much I love washable ink???

Cutting
Xander is by no means ready to use scissors on his own, but he is absolutely fascinated with them.  He is always trying to steal mine, so I decided to go ahead and get him his own pair of training scissors.  This week I accidentally printed the cutting pages on card stock instead of regular paper.  It was way to tough for his little hands, but he had fun trying.

Alphabet Stickers

Sensory Bin

Polar Bear Model

For more Bear ideas you can check out my Bear Pinterest Board.

 

Playing in the Rain

We finally got some rain (no lightning)!  Xander had a ball getting soaked.

B for Bear - Week 1

 

Xander is 21 Months

We are currently working on our Mommy & Me ABC units.  This was our first week on letter B and bears.

This was his desk set up for the week.  His white board had some bear cut outs (in the printables which will post next week), some alphabet magnets, and his fridge phonics set.  The mini pocket chart (from Target) has his sandpaper letters and some bear flash cards.

His shelf had a fabric B, the B from his floor tiles, an B minibook, a bear book I made him, the bears from his various toobs, his peg letter B, a stuffed polar bear, a finger puppet, and the bear from his alphabet zoo.  Above I hung some bulletin board letters, some bear flash cards from 1+1+1=1, and two bear crafts we did (see below).

As you can see, we had no shortage of books for the book bin this week!  We had some on the letter b and a bunch on bears.  He loved That's Not My Bear and I like a great bear cub series we have that includes Panda Bear Cubs, Black Bear Cubs, Grizzly Bear Cubs and Polar Bear Cubs.  We also read some great fiction like Moonbear and Going on a Bear Hunt.
 
 Tracing

I put a tracing page in his activity center.  He still needs a lot of help tracing, but I want to make sure we do it on a semi-regular basis until it clicks for him.

Mommy and Baby Matching

This box had some pictures of mothers and babies of different kinds of bears (Printable Here).  Xander did a pretty good job of matching them up.  For an added twist, we also matched up his corresponding toob figures (the four bears are from the Wild Toob, the Zoo Babies Toob, and the North American Wildlife Toob) .

Shape Caves
This box had some little bears with colored shapes on them and a Shape Caves page.  The idea was for him to match the bear's shape to the correct cave.  Apparently I have to make the bear climb his arm every time he gets one right.

Size Sorting
This box had five bears of different sizes.  He can find the biggest and the smallest, but struggles with the in between.


2 Part Puzzles
This box had a bunch of two part puzzles, some printed and some purchased.

 

Number Card Matching

Number cards and the corresponding number tiles.  (I also uploaded some number tiles here you could just print and laminate).  We did 0-5 this week week.  This week he was more interested in playing with the number tiles than matching them up.  Oh well, it is his school time, however he wants to use it.

Play Dough
Play dough is always a big hit around here.  He used his lowercase b dough stamp, an uppercase B cookie cutter, some bear cookie cutters, and his dough stamping page.  One of these days I will get around to making my own play dough again!

Finger Rhyme

I typed up this finger rhyme from one of our old National Wildlife Animal Baby magazine.  He LOVED it.  I don't know how many times we did it this week, but he loved being involved in the actions!

Big Button Fun

This box had the bear from our Big Button Fun set.  Because there was only one piece on this side, I also included the corresponding buttons for the reverse side, which happens to be a giraffe with nine buttons.

Extras

Our craft this week was super simple, just some snow paint and some bears cut out of card stock.  For the brown bear I let him sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar for extra texture.  He loves seeing them on his wall.

Reading Panda Bear Panda Bear with his Tag Jr.

Eating Teddy Grahams with pumpkin dip.

Playing with Magnetix and making letters.  He has a lot of fun with these, but needs supervision to make sure he doesn't stick the balls in his mouth or ears.

For more Bear ideas you can check out my Bear Pinterest Board.