Friday, March 12, 2010

Tot School - Squares

Tot School - Week 2 - Theme: Squares
Owen & Eli: 18 months old

Tot School went really well again this week, though finding activities for toddlers relating to squares was a little more challenging than it was for circles. We started off the week with matching the squares to the correct size, like we did with the circles. There were three different sizes to match, which I think was a little too challenging for them. Once I took one away, they did much better with it.

In the 'fine motor skills' category this week, we played with dried beans in different sized square Tupperware containers and transferred them from one container to another with spoons. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep them from dumping the beans all over the floor? We also played with monkey stickers by sticking them inside a square outline. Owen loves stickers, Eli gets mad when he can't get them off his fingers : ) Pipecleaners were a big hit too - and the boys were surprisingly good at stringing square buttons on them.
I made a sheet for the boys so they could match up their little square books like a puzzle. They were really good at filling up all the squares with books. We used the same sheet with magnets on the refrigerator too, though that seemed to turn into a 'rip the paper' exercise, much to my frustration ; )
I found these square nesting blocks at a consignment sale this week and the boys love them! With very little instruction, they figured out both uses for the blocks: stacking as a tower and nesting one inside the next. Hours of entertainment!
Two books that we read over and over this week were Pa Grape's Shapes and Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings. Both books include all the different shapes, not just squares, but between the rhyming and the textures, both books were a great addition to the week.
Triangles are next week! Send me any ideas you might have and thanks for visiting our week in tot school!

5 comments:

Janet said...

That's great, Beth! They look so interested in the activities you planned. One idea for triangles...do a search for "hamentaschen" / "hamantaschen" to see some triangle-looking cookies with filling. They don't look hard to make. They're used in Jewish tradition during Purim remembering Esther standing up to Hamen who wanted to get rid of the Jews. Purim was the end of February.

{lauren} said...

These are such great ideas for shapes! My son is totally uninterested in shapes...but I'll keep these in mind when the time comes. I like the size matching boards in the first pictures...those would be a hit with my Noah:)

Susan-Chasing Marcus said...

You have lots of clever activities. I really like the match the book up to the square activity.

About the beans, I have a vinyl table cloth that I put on the floor for sensory tubs. The rule is Sophie must keep the mess on the tablecloth and can not throw the items. She knows that everyone spills sometimes but if you intentionally dump/throw more after a warning the tub gets put away until tomorrow.

Carisa said...

Your boys are just precious! Glad you are linking up with Tot School!

Kathryn said...

I was hoping for some adivce i am starting to follow your blogs activites. So last week we did circles and he did really well but this week it was more of a struggle with getting him to recognize that the shape is a square and not a circle...:/ Do you do the activities in hopes of them recognizing the shapes or just to introduce. My son is a little older at 22 months so i was trying to get him to see the difference and he would just associate "what shape is this?" to "circle". Its been a little frustrating i would love any advice:)