Tot School Supplies and Activities

Last week I shared what I will be doing with my almost 2 year old. Today I want to share with you some of the activities and supplies you can use that go with the themes I mentioned last week. Here are some of my favorite supplies for little ones:

Stickers

Water beads

Dot a Dot Markers

Animal Bingo Game

Pom poms

Playdoh (this may not happen quite yet with Baby Girl, as she it still bad about trying to eat things!)

Large crayons

Chunky and peg puzzles

Finger Paint 

Normal Art Supplies (construction paper, glue, etc)

Books and Activities:

Farm Theme

With this theme I want focus on animal vocabulary and the sounds the animals make. 

Books: Little Blue Truck, Going to Sleep on the Farm, Touch and Feel Farm Animals, The Very Busy Spider

Activities: farm animal puzzle,  farm animal Little People play, animal stickers (along with other art supplies for motor skill activities, farm sensory play, farm animal part of the Animal Bingo Game

Colors

I will teach what the colors are, but my main focus is for Baby girl to recognize like colored items.

Books: Usborne Colors Play book, A Color of His Own

Activities

Pom pom sort, Finger paint, Construction paper art (cut paper into pieces and let toddler glue them where they like), make a fruit loop necklace, Dot a Dot painting page

Zoo

The reason this one is here, is that I believe this will be about the time we do a field trip at a zoo. I would love for her to know some of the animal names and sounds they make. 

Books: Goodnight Gorilla, Sesame Street At the Zoo, Animal Sound Treasury Book

Activities:

Zoo play with stuffed animals, Construction paper/paper plate animal craft, Animal from Dot a Dot painting page, Animal sensory play, zoo animal part of the Animal Bingo Game

Pumpkins

Little Man will probably do some pumpkin science and learning during this time, as well, so this is a great time for them to get to learn together!

Books: I have several little Autumn time books with Winnie the Pooh, Clifford, and such. I bring them out during this time up until Thanksgiving, so we will probably read some of those. I don't have a specific pumpkin book, so we might borrow one from the library. 

Activities: Explore a pumpkin (sensory play with seeds and guts. You can also put this in a ziplock bag for those little ones too grossed out, or if you want to keep it less messy), Paint a pumpkin, Pumpkin craft

Fall/Thanksgiving

November is often busy with gearing up for the upcoming holidays that I wanted to make this time as simple as possible. I want to focus on the thought of saying 'thank-you' for things. 

Books: Similar to Pumpkin Theme, Bear Says Thanks

Activities: Nature walk to gather leaves, leaf rubbings, make a turkey place mat, Fall sticker activity ( I have Thanksgiving themed stickers that Baby Girl will use on construction paper). 

Christmas

Again, this is a busy time! It's at this time I will be pulling out the Shepherd on the Search and both Little Man and Baby Girl will be doing activities with him. The focus this month will be on the reason for the season-Jesus!

Books: Who's Coming to Our House? ( I love this book!), Little Truck's Christmas, Story books of the first Christmas

Activities: Gingerbread house, Christmas tree sticker activity , Little People Manger play, handmade Christmas crafts for Grandparents

Body Parts and Getting Dressed

The focus here will be on vocabulary (arms, legs, belly, nose, eyes, etc.) also learning some independent skills, like putting clothes on herself

Books: My First Body Book (Little Man will be going through this at the same time, so they can look at this book together), Sesame Street I can Dress Myself, What will you wear today?

Activities: Identify body parts using stickers, sing 'head shoulders knees and toes', Work on dressing herself, Mellissa and Doug dress up magnet activity

Fairy Tales and Dress-up

Purely fun, but I thought this would be a great time to read classic fairy tales, watch Beauty and the Beast (for the 100th time) and let her play dress up. It will be winter time, so it will be fun to have some movie days and indoor play! 

Books: Fairy Tale Treasury Book (we have a version that I can't find a link to), She also has some Disney Princess Board Books, That's not my Princess

Activities, Melissa and Doug Dress up magnet activity, play dress up with scarves, shoes, and tiara (this may be some Christmas gifts!), movie day with Fairy Tale movie, and help mom with a snack to go with it!

Hearts/Love

There are so many cute valentine crafts for this age! Talk about love and not only how much I as a parent love her, but also how much Jesus Loves her. Motor skills and knowing a heart shape is the focus for this theme. 

Books: I Love You

Activities: Heart googly eye craft, heart sticker activity, learn 'Jesus loves me'

Grocery Store

Simple counting, sorting, and vocabulary building will be this themes focus. I am sure Little Man will want to join in, and we can add some adding/subtracting and counting money to this for him. 

Books: Toddler Counting books (I may have one or two of these. May need to do a library run for this theme!)

Activities: Set up play kitchen to be a grocery store, make a simple 'grocery list' and see if toddler can find the objects, do some fun counting activities with both food items and other items in the toy room

Rainbows

Colors is our focus here. Even though it was covered earlier in the year, it will be good to focus on it again.

Books: Noah's Ark story in Bible Book, look at weather section in Nature Anatomy

Activities: Dot A Dot page, Pom pom rainbow, Fruit loop Rainbow, Finger paint, rainbow in a bag

Weather

We will most likely be focusing on this with Little Man as well. Things like water cycle and cloud formation will be above her head, but she can still participate in some of the activities.

Books: Magic School Bus Weather, How do you say it today, Jessie Bear (seasons book), Nature Anatomy

Activities: Handprint Seasons craft, shaving cream cloud play, cotton ball cloud craft

Bugs

Again, we are getting to the point where Little Man's nature studies and Baby Girl's themes collide (less work on mom, right?!). Vocabulary building and sensory play are the focus for this week

Books: Usborne lift a flap bug book, A very hungry caterpillar, Bug nature books that Little Man has

Activities: Bug counter sensory play, nature walk to look for bugs, bug craft, butterfly craft, Bug part of the Animal Bingo game

Gardening

This is about the time I should be planting my garden, and there won't be many activities this time around, outside of being outside and helping mom plant, water, and weed the garden. 

Books: Springtime board books

Ocean and the Beach

Lord willing, we will be planning a trip to the beach for the summer, so I thought this would be the perfect way to end our Tot School. Sensory play, vocabulary building, learning about fish and ocean creatures will be the main focus for this theme

Books: Shine a Light ocean book (Little Man will need to help with this), Under the Sea with Me

Activities: cupcake liner fish craft, Dot a Dot picture, sea shell and water bead sensory play, Blue ocean salt painting

Follow me on Pinterest to see more Tot School activities! Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you wind up following my Tot School Schedule this year. I would love to see your learning at home journey!

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