We’re still going strong with our tot school . Some days are smooth as a breeze and somedays I could hardly get through one activity. That’s the beauty of teaching at home. You can pace it at your own child’s level and still be assured that they learn the necessary skills.
If you’ve missed previous letter of the week activities please read them below.
Letter A /Letter B /Letter C /Letter D / Letter E / Letter F / Letter G / Letter H / Letter K / Letter L /Letter M
Day 1
🔸Object Bin
For Letter N week I had the following in our object bin – Necklace/Nose/Nest/Nails. I have also included our letter construction set and the leap frog letter factory toy to get her introduced to the letter.
All the letter flashcards are displayed in a pocket chart on the wall for her to point out and learn throughout the week.
🔸Nail the letters
A DIY Halloween activity to learn the letters. If you have a toddler who gets into the toolbox or sneak around when we do home projects like mine then this activity may satisfy them. As obvious as it sounds you need to be extra cautious with this activity or you can even use golf tees for a more safer option. But M was over the moon getting those nails all for herself.
What you need ➡️
🔸Cardboard box or a piece of cardboard with some depth( I used the latter).
🔸Green & Orange Marker.
🔸Nails.
Draw a pumpkin freehand on the board. Mark dots for the letters and write each letters next to it. I prepunched the holes for her but you can just leave a dot also to make it challenging. Colour in the pumpkin using markers. Give them some nails/ golf tees with a toy hammer to punch in next to the letters that you call out.
🔸 Letter Collage with nails
Supplies needed.
- Letter N printable
- Nails
After printing the Letter M I let her place some nails on it all the while stressing out the letter sound /n/ . She loved the rough texture of the nails and watched how they roll around.
🔸Vocabulary worksheets
- Beginning sound picture cut & paste.
- Letter Tracing mat
- Letter sound cover
Day 2
🔸 Book: The perfect Nest
This is one of the book she loved this week. Jack the cat makes a perfect nest to invite the birds to lay eggs. The story unfolds into those birds fighting over the nest and Jack is forced to take care of the hatchlings when their moms leave them for another nest. A fun book with some great moral.
🔸 Counting eggs in Nest
Supplies needed:
- Yarn
- Pin pong balls
- Dice
Make a small nest by scooping up the yarn. Invite them to roll the dice and place that many balls ( eggs) into the nest. She’s still learning to read the dice and this is such a fun activity to learn that and counting.
🔸 Paper plate Nest
Supplies needed:
- Paper plate
- Brown/ Green/ light blue construction paper
- Brown paint
First let them color the halved paper plate with brown paint. Since I did not have brown paint I gave her favorite purple paint to complete this step. Meanwhile cut some green leaves and long brown rectangular strips from construction paper. You may also need to cut out oval shapes for eggs too.
While the paint is still wet cover the plate with brown paper strips and add leaves in between. Now glue down the cut out eggs behind the paper plate to complete the craft as below.
🔸 Nest Printables
These are some Nest themed hands on worksheets we worked on today. They are from Confessionsofahomeschooler blog.
- Letter N for Nest dot page
- Count & clip cards
- Letter N case sorting
Day 3
🔸Book: The Napping House
Yet another wonderful book from Eric Carle. It’s a great book to teach manners and being nice to fellow beings. Also for teaching time to kindergartens you do not have to look further. It’s about a grouchy ladybug who challenge many animals she meet to fight with her.
🔸Nature Collage
Fall is a nature festival with all the lovely colours spread around. To give some life to those withered colourful flowers we created a collage using cardboard. Also I squeezed in some learning by cutting them in some shapes.
Materials:
🌿 Cardboard.
🌿Multicolor flower petals( I used rose/ sunflower/ mint leaves)
🌿Contact paper.
Cut the cardboard pieces into desired shapes and then cut the inside of each of them. Stick the contact paper with sticky side up on each shapes. It’s better to reinforce the contact paper using a tape or else it may fall due to the weight of petals.
Then we went on the hunt for fallen flower petals and she sneaked some from the plants too 😊 Once back we sorted them in colors and used each color petals to fill the shapes. Honestly she got bored at this part and wanted to go for more flower picking. But she was so excited with the end product and we reiterated the colors shapes and even discussed the texture and how it smells too
🔸 N is for Night sky
Supplies needed:
- Letter N printable
- Green & blue construction paper
- Star stickers
- Silver glitter
- Black paint
Take the letter N print out and paint it black. Add the silver glitter while it’s still wet.
Once dried cut out letter N and glue into blue construction paper. Add the star stickers and a small circle for moon. At the bottom add the green construction paper cut out as grass.
🔸Night Sky Dot with glitter
This free printable is from Thisreadingmama website. Instead of using dot marker I let her glue the dots and then add the glitter onto it.
Day 4
🔸 Book: Nosy Rosie
🔸 Cotton balls nose transfer
Using a bowl and cotton balls this is an easy game to play with your kids. Apply some vaseline on their nose ( so that the cotton will stick) and encourage them to pick the cotton ball and shake it into the bowl.
🔸Pasta Necklace
A simple fine motor exercise and to adorn those pretty necks. Use some dyed penne pasta to string on a thread. You could also use beads or cheerios or plain pasta for this activity. It’s all about strengthening those tiny muscles while they do the threading.
🔸 Nose Printables
You can find these fun nose themed printables at funwithmama website and download for free.
Day 5
🔸Book: Chicka Chicka 123
A perfect book to learn about feelings for the little ones. The illustrations are beautiful with colourful images that represent each feelings. Story is about a monster who got all feelings mixed up and a girl helps him to sort them out into little jars! In the end the color monster turns pink with full of love 💖💖
🔸Magic Number Reveal
A simple yet amazing activity for young kids to learn about numbers.
Write any numbers that you choose on a thick white paper ( I used some index cards) using white crayon. The numbers will be hidden and tape it onto a plain surface or tray. Give them watercolors and let them paint on top to reveal the hidden numbers. Be sure just to brush on top and not to press hard.
🔸Decorate Number Nine
Number nine starts with letter N. So I decided to print this out on a cardstock and gave her some random craft supplies to glue on it. We used buttons/ gems/ tissue paper squares/jewels/pom poms etc.
🔸Net Printables
You can download the free net themed printables from Carissa’s totschool website.
Sensory Bin
🔸Night Sky
What’s in the bin➡️
🦉 Black beans.
🦉Wooden stars and owl ( From Michael’s).
🦉A lid covered in foil as moon.
🦉Tree branch from a game.
This bin was made inspired by a beautiful book about nighttime as seen through the eyes of a little owl. The owl flies around and meet many nocturnal animals such as bat/ skunk/ frog/ crickets and also a sleepy bear. She enjoys the night view from a little branch and when the rooster crows in the morning the owl will be fast asleep. This could be a perfect bedtime book and by the end of the book my kids were already yawning.
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Playdough Invitation
🔸Make a Nest
I set up an invitation to create a nest for her using homemade brown Playdough. I made it using cocoa powder so it’s sure to get her attention 😆.
In the tray ➡️.
🌿Homemade brown Playdough.
🌿Twigs.
🌿Mint leaves.
🌿Floral moss ( dollar tree).
🌿Ping pong balls.
This is usually an invitation to play and anything that they create is a big win! Normally I will make something next to her and she tries to copy me. Playdough is a wonderful way to develop those tiny muscles while unleashing the creativity in them.
The Wall of Fame
