Tot School, Week 2: Letter B, Bubbles, Bees & Butterflies

Breck is 41 months
Rowan is 16 months

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Tuesday
Counting Bees
I made nine felt bees and Breck made one. I also cut out the numbers 1-10 in felt.
Breck placed a number on the flannel board and then added that many bees, counting them each time he added one.

(unfortunately, Rowan got a hold of the bees and in a matter of 3 minutes, managed to pull apart all the bees. Eventually, I'll sew all their stripes and other parts on for a more permanent bee.)

Then we read two bee books:
This one taught about the different jobs of different bees and how bees help to pollinate flowers, make honey and that there are some bees that don't make honey at all.

Title: Busy, Buzzy Bees
Author: Allan Fowler

and

This was just a fun read
- although, it did teach about jealousy and helping.


Title: Buzz Bumble to the Rescue
Author: Lynn E. Hazen

My First Letter B Book

I found the images for this book by doing an image search on Google.
I cut them out and Breck had to choose which picture went with the word on the page.
Then we wrote the word for each page's image - I showed him how to hold his pen and then I held his hand, holding the pen, and wrote the word so he could get a feel for writing.


Spelling Fun Puzzle
Pretty much all Breck spelled was the word "Bee"


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Thursday

This book was fun and short. It's about bath bubbles going all over town.

Title: Bubble Trouble
Author: Stephen Krensky


Straw Bubble Blowing
Then we made a bubble blower with straws!


I don't remember where I originally saw this idea, but it didn't work so great for us.
(ETA: I found the link! - this idea was from Chasing Cheerios.)
So, Breck had fun blowing into our bubble solution with the straws - that lasted about 2 minutes.

Glitter Bubbles
Then we moved on to an art project: glitter bubbles.


The glitter came in a shaker, which I was thankful for, so it wasn't a once-and-dump mess.
I drew the bubbles, explaining that they are circles, Breck squirted the glue on them, I spread the glue with a brush and Breck sprinkled the silver glitter on top.

Then we shook it off to reveal our masterpiece!

You could hear crickets chirp...he was not impressed.


Learning About Butterflies
After a little break, we read:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Breck didn't want to make the butterfly craft I had planned to go with this book, so we moved on.


Name-Letter Matching
I put this name "game" together in about 5 minutes.
(I've seen this idea several places but couldn't tell you where it originated.)

Breck really liked it!
(why is it, the less time it takes to make a game or craft, they better they like it?!)
I'm planning to make names of family members, too.


History Lesson: Pearl Harbor

Title: Pearl Harbor
Author: Stephen Krensky

This was completely not even close to being in the lessons this year, but Breck pulled this book off the shelf at the library and stuck it in our basket. And, not wanting to discourage reading, we took it home. (along with 8 other random books)
So, in the afternoon, while Breck played with his big legos, I read the story.

He paid best attention when I read it with a 1940's announcer voice!
...whatever works, right?!

And we reenacted what we could with his legos. I made some submarines, airplanes and he made the battleship!
Then he destroyed everything.

I tried my best to explain what was going on and why certain things happened and what the bigger words meant.
If he didn't retain much, I suppose I'll be happy that he was exposed to it all.

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Friday

Butterfly Life Cycle
We started off Tot School with a more in-depth lesson on the stages of the butterfly life-cycle. I used this short but concise page to print out and read to the kids.

After I was done reading, Breck and I acted out the four different stages (Rowan wasn't very into this):

Egg
we rolled into a ball on the floor


Caterpillar
we squirmed and ate food


Chrysalis
we stood still


Butterfly
we fluttered around the room



Butterfly Craft
I had originally planned on making a waxed paper and crayon butterfly, but someone (aka: me) forgot to buy waxed paper this week.

So, we made one out of paper and a pipe cleaner instead. I was a little disappointed with the end result, but Breck liked it enough to fly it around the room! And that's really what matters.