Hi guys! This is the last week of the month, so we get to review! You can work on any activities that you missed this month, plus I have a few new activities for this week!

Diamond/Shape Symmetry Puzzles
Directions: This is a simple and fun way to reinforce shapes, their names, and symmetry. Put two popsicle sticks side by side and draw a shape on them. (see pics below). I used a permanent marker so that it would bleed less. I made an oval, square, diamond, heart, rectangle, and circle. Show your toddler the puzzles and invite them to match up the shapes and name them.

Purple Sensory Bin
Directions: Dye some sensory materials purple* (rice, noodles, beans, etc.) Add lots of purple items from around the house and watch your kiddos explore! Ask them what all of the items have in common! Add in a yellow or other contrasting item and see if they notice that it is out of place! My girls always love when I give them spoons and tupperware/muffin tins so that they can pretend to cook with the sensory materials. We definitely made some purple pies with these beans! :)

*To dye items with food coloring, simply put them in a big gallon zipper bag, add a splash of rubbing alcohol (maybe 1-2 tbs?) and some food coloring. Shake the bag until all the items are covered in color, then lay them out flat to dry! I use a cookie sheet/tray lined with a paper towel and it dries pretty quickly!

Fly A Kite
No directions needed! Find some kites and have a grand time! They are in lots of stores this time of year. We have some fun Elsa/Anna kites from WalMart and I believe they were less than $2! Talk about how the wind keeps the kite up in the air! Discuss that kites are diamond-shaped! So many fun conversations are to be had! I haven't taken any pics of us flying our kites yet, but my girls loved it! It wasn't very windy the day we tried, but they still loved dragging their kite around like a leash! It was pretty hysterical how pathetic it was, and they still had a BLAST! Enjoy them!

Flower Pot Color Matching
Directions: I found this cute printable online at this website. Click for the free printable!  Next, I cut the pots and flowers apart. These flowers printed off huge, so I used a big easel/poster sized paper for the activity. (p.s. Kids just love using big pieces of paper! It's a fun little novelty of being a child!) We discussed the flower pot colors and the girls got to "plant" the flowers in to corresponding-colored pot! You can glue the flowers down, or just allow them to decorate again and again!

The end! Have fun this week! I'm excited for May coming up! 

The One with April Plans, Week 3

Let's get going on week 3!

Here is the April calendar of activities!

Xx Dot Art:
Directions: print file. Introduce the letter of the week: X!  Allow child to decorate the uppercase and lowercase x. (You can use circle stickers, dot stampers, play dough pieces, or pom poms) You can read Dr Suess's ABC book and demonstrate which letter is big X and which one is little x. I have included a video of my kids doing this along with me pronouncing the /x/ sound correctly. Phonetically, the /x/ sound is in words like fox, box, and six, (and not like xylophone!)  This is more difficult for children to identify because it is most commonly found as a medial or final sound (rather than the typical initial sound.) 

(I'm not sure what a tarx is...? Ha!)

Diamond Sponge Stamping
Directions: Cut a plain sponge into the shape of a diamond. Use the sponge as a fun stamp! We made our diamonds purple because it's the color of the month. This is simple and easy for young toddlers to do! Encourage them to count the sides and corners of the diamonds. 

Flower Play Dough Digging
Directions: Pretend to plant flowers in some play dough! I used small Dixie cups as pots, brown play dough as dirt, and some fake flowers to plant. My girls LOVED this activity. I gave them some small play shovels and empty watering cans to really encourage creative play. We discussed that plants need dirt, water, and sunshine to grow. The girls dug, planted their fake flowers, and pretended to water them over and over. 

X Snack: Pretzel Stick X's
Directions: So simple! Give your kiddo some pretzel sticks and ask them to make you some x's. "How many pretzel sticks do you need to make an X? ...2? Right! Now show me how to make an x! Can you make a big X and a little x?"

X-Ray Cotton Swab Craft
Directions: Using a white crayon or chalk, draw simple human body outline onto a black piece of paper. Cut apart many different sized cotton swabs and ask your kiddo to make the bones out of cotton swabs! Now you have an adorable little x-ray! X is for x-ray! :)

Potato Stamping Tulips
Directions: Cut a potato in half. Then cut a tulip shape into the potato piece. (see picture). Dip the potato into purple paint in order to make fun flower shapes. Draw stems and leaves as you discuss the parts of a flower. 

X Letter Recognition
Directions: Print file. Discuss that this is an ox, and that it makes the /x/ sound at the end of the word. "Can you see any letter X's hiding on this ox?" Ask the kiddos to mark the letter X's using dot art markers, stickers, or simply just circling the letter. 

(My printer ran out of ink mid-ox!) 

Number 9 Play Dough Mat
Directions: Print file. This month our number is 9, so here is a play dough mat all about 9! (Laminating it will make it more durable for future use!) Encourage your preschooler to roll out some play dough like a long snake in order to make a 9. Older kiddos can trace the letters in the word "nine". Count out nine pieces of play dough to place onto the circles. This all is just a great way to explore the number nine in a tactile way! 

Here are all the printables:

Xx dot art

Xx letter recognition

Number 9 Play Dough Mat

The One With April Plans, Week Two

Hey guys! This week is W week! We will be learning about watermelons, and continuing work on the themes of diamonds, purple, #9, flowers, and kites. 

Here is the printable calendar for April for you to follow along! :)

W Dot Art*
Directions: print file. Introduce the letter of the week: W!  Allow child to decorate the W. (You can use circle stickers, dot stampers, play dough pieces, or pom poms) I wasn't able to fit both upper and lowercase on one page, so I went ahead and just did one letter. You can read Dr Suess's ABC book and demonstrate which letter is big W and which one is little w. Show them that a uppercase W looks just like a lowercase w, just bigger!

Diamond Popsicle Stick Building
Directions: I have seen all over Pinterest how people put sticky Velcro dots onto popsicle sticks to build. I finally decided to do this! The velcro was $5 at Walmart. For this activity you need to use the jumbo/wide popsicle sticks, not the narrow ones. Work together to make a diamond. "How many sides does a diamond have?" "How can we make a diamond with our popsicle sticks?" If you don't have the Velcro dots, you can always simply glue the sticks together to make a diamond (or even glue them flat on a paper for younger toddlers!) 

Kite Diamond*
Directions: print file. Use page one as a kite template. Cut apart the colorful triangles on the other pages as puzzle pieces. Present the puzzle pieces to your toddler and invite them to decorate their kite! They can make a kite all one color or various colors! This seems simple, but it is difficult for them to be able to place the correct sized triangle in the corresponding place. This will help with problem solving skills. You can even have fun challenges in order to promote color recognition. "Can you make a purple kite? How about a purple and yellow kite?" Have fun decorating your kite over and over in different ways! 

W Snack: Making "Watermelon Cookies"
Directions: Cut watermelon into large, thin, circular slices, (about 1-2cm thick.) Lay the slices on a cookie sheet/cutting board (or something to contain all the juices!) Invite your toddler to use cookie cutters to create fun shaped watermelon "cookies". This is sooo fun for kiddos! Note: keep the watermelon seeds for an activity on Friday! 

Red + Blue = Purple Color  Mixing
Directions: Add some blue paint and red paint to a container and encourage your kiddo to mix the colors together! Ask them to predict what color it will make. I have done this with a gallon-sized zipper bag or simply stirring the colors in a cup. (Spoiler alert: it makes purple.) Now, use this paint for our next activity: purple flower painting! 

     (It looked like a pretty dark purple!)

Purple Flower Painting
Directions: Use the purple paint from our previous activity to paint flowers. I like to use a paper plate/bowl as a place to hold my paint. Get the bottom of a small 20oz drink bottle and use it as a stamp! It makes adorable little flowers, and it is nice and chunky for a toddler to hold! 

W letter recognition
Directions: print file. Hopefully our kiddos will be able to recognize the letter W by Friday! Test this out by printing off this page. Show them the W on the top right corner of the page. "This is a watermelon that starts with the letter w!  Can you see any w's hiding on the watermelon?" Invite them to mark the w's with dot art markers, stickers, or even just circling them. See if the M tricks them! 

Watermelon Seed Counting
I wanted to make a worksheet for this, but I found an adorable already made one online! Click here to see the adorable free printable! I accidentally got a seedless watermelon, so I ended up using raisins as my seeds! It was a simple swap and I didn't have to worry about choking hazards. Win-win! 

That's all, folks! Free printables here!
W Dot Art
Kite Diamond
W Letter Recognition

The One With April Plans, Week 1

Hi! I'm recovering from my Easter-food-coma and ready to blog! 
Here are the objectives for the month:

Here is the printable calendar for the month of April. Print it out and slam this badboy on your fridge for a quick reference in times of desperation! That's what I do! 

V Dot Art*
Directions: print file. Introduce the letter of the week: V!  Allow child to decorate the uppercase and lowercase V. (You can use circle stickers, dot stampers, play dough pieces, or pom poms) You can read Dr Suess's ABC book and demonstrate which letter is big V and which one is little v. Introduce the fact that /v/ makes the "vvvv" sound, (but not "vuh!") I always said to my students that it sounds like the noise a vacuum makes! :)

Diamond Coloring Page*
Directions: print file. Introduce the shape of the month, a diamond. Count the sides and corners together. Note: In most curriculums (in Texas, at least) they are now using the vocabulary term "rhombus" instead of diamond, even in kindergarten! So if you would like to stay on level with schools, you can use the word rhombus! I will definitely mention this to my kiddos, but I probably will end up still calling it a diamond. (Just being honest!) Encourage them to decorate their diamond and hang up their art in order to refer to it later! Try to find diamond shapes throughout the day. 

Diamond Flower Creations: 
Directions: Cut out lots of various colored diamonds of of construction paper. Invite your child to create fun flowers out of them and glue down the pieces. As you work together, describe the parts of a flower (stem, leaves, petals, roots, etc). This is a fun and simple activity that reinforces the shape of the month and also introduces vocabulary for our flower theme. 

V Snack: Violin Nutter Butters
Directions: Introduce that violin begins with the letter V. Make a violin snack togther! :) Use a nutter butter cookie for the base of the violin. Use peanut butter to stick pretzel sticks onto the nutter butter as a neck. Another stick can be the bow. Have fun, and make sure to use peanut-free products for those with allergies!

V is for Vase Craft
Directions: Cut out a large letter V shape in construction paper. Encourage your child to glue down the V as a vase. Add and glue some cute paper flowers to your vase. It's a simple a easy way to work on phonics. As you work together, try to think of other words that make the v sound! :)

Purple Crayon Introductory Page
Directions: print file. Introduce purple as the color of the month. Show the toddler the crayon and ask them to decorate it purple. (Using crayons, markers, paint, water colors, etc) Spell out p-u-r-p-l-e for them. Older preschoolers can trace the letters in the word purple. Throughout the day, look for purple things around the house. If you have the book "Harold and the Purple Crayon" it would be a fun one to read together! We also had "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse", which is fun for older toddlers. 

V Letter Recognition
Directions: print file. Hopefully our kiddos will be able to recognize the letter V by Friday! Test this out by printing off this page. Show them the Vv in the top right corner of the page. "This is a vase that starts with the letter V!  Can you see any V's hiding on the vase?" Invite them to mark the V's with dot art markers, stickers, or even just circling them. Have fun!

Kite Counting:
Directions: print file. Poke a pipe cleaner through the paper at the base of each kite. Secure each pipe cleaner with tape on the back of the page. Invite your kiddos to lace items on each kite. (You can use cheerios, beads, noodles, etc!) "This kite says 6 on it. Can you put 6 things on this pipe cleaner?" This would be a great activity to keep them busy while you work on dinner! Reinforce the number 9 as the number of the month. Count out 9 beads to lace onto this string. This helps with fine motor skills, counting skills, and hand-eye coordination. 

(front)

(back)

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Printables here:
Vv Dot Art
Diamond Coloring Page
Purple Coloring Page
Vv Letter Recognition
Kite Counting