Tot School

Connor is 23 months old

This week, Connor began learning about sizes. It didn’t take him long to understand the concept of big and small. One of the first activities we did was build towers with boxes and cups, and line up boxes and cups from biggest to smallest. 

On our painting day, we made handprints and compared them to each other.

Connor also used pattern rollers, made leaf prints with the paint, and took the opportunity to taste the paint.

On our modelling day, Connor used large and small bear cookie cutters to make play dough bears. He also practised slicing the play dough.

Other activities we did to learn about big and small were sorting animals…

and completing and alphabet puzzle with uppercase (big) and lowercase (small) letters.

Lastly, on our baking day we made Golden Oat Crunches.

These are my favourite photos from the past week.

Mud Glorious Mud

After the dust storm that took place here, we had to clean the outside play equipment. While rinsing the equipment, I began to splash Connor with the water. He loved it!

One area of our yard become fairly muddy. Although Connor has played with wet sand, he has never played in actual mud. I showed him how to make mud pies, and how to squeeze the mud between his fingers. This resulted in Connor sitting right in the mud becoming completely covered in it and having the time of his life. Unfortunately, by this time, my camera battery went flat and I missed out on getting the photos were he was covered in mud from head to toe.

Montessori Three Part Cards - Halloween

Here are some Halloween Montessori Three Part Cards which I created. To view more Halloween ideas and printables, be sure to visit United Teaching Discoveries.

Halloween

Tot School

Connor is 23 months old

Below are a few highlights of what we have done in the last couple of weeks. These activities were in addition to our snow holiday.

We did number 2 recognition activities which included baking number 2 cookies. We also baked number 1 cookies, as we didn’t get around to baking these when we did our number 1 activities. Connor loved using the cookie cutters and tasting the cookie dough.

 

Puzzles are still a favourite activity around here. Connor has moved on to these animal puzzles with each picture made up of 16 pieces. He only needs a small amount of help to complete these puzzles.

 

Lots of time was spent outside doing art activities.

Water play has become a regular activity around here too. Connor spends a lot of time with his Aqua Play set and his sand and water table.

These are my favourite photos from the past couple of weeks.

Using the Geometric Cabinet to Teach Size

I just found this video on how to teach a child to identify the largest and smallest item using the geometric cabinet. I have added a link to this video to my Montessori Sensorial Materials and Lessons post.

Teaching Toddlers about Size

Next week, Connor and I will begin learning about size. With the Montessori approach, a child learns about size using both the visual and tactile senses by manipulating the Pink Tower, Brown Prisms, Knobbed Cylinders, and Knobbles Cylinders. A good outline on how these Montessori materials are used for teaching about size is provided in this article: Teaching Size in Montessori.

Unfortunately, I don’t own any of these materials. However, I still intend to use the visual and tactile senses when teaching Connor about size. Instead of the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs, we will be using stacking and nesting cups and boxes. Also, Connor will be sorting and sequencing items by size.

Other planned activities include:

1. Reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears
2. Big and Little Handprints and Footprints Art Activity
3. Matching Animal Babies with their parents
4. Baking big and little cookies

Some of the materials and resources that we will be using are listed below:

Snow Holidays

It’s been quite a while since we have taken a family holiday. So, about two weeks ago, we decided to take a short break and take the children to the snow. The trip was a lot of work but well worth it. Jessica tried snowboarding for the first time, Connor had fun building snowmen with his dad, and I spent my time taking lots of photos and snuggling with Sarah. I’m really looking forward to going back next year.