ABC Adventures – Letter O

Welcome to our ABC Adventures. If you are new here and would like to learn more about ABC Adventures and how to join in, please see the information at the end of this post.

This week, Connor has been doing letter O activities. I introduced the letter O by having Connor stamp Os onto a printout of an uppercase and lowercase O.

 

Then, we proceeded to stamping with onions and oranges. This is the first time we used a food in a painting activity, so Connor was quite confused when I brought out the materials. But, once I showed him what to do, he loved it and did several pictures. The impressions came out much better with darker coloured paint.

Another craft which we completed was the making of an Octopus from the letter O. Again, this was a super easy craft and Connor found it quite manageable. The only thing I did was to cut the letter O and the strips for the legs out. This was Connor’s favourite activity from this week.

Finally, I setup an obstacle course in our backyard. The course consisted of a balance beam which led to crawling under a chair. Then, Connor had to go down a slide, followed by crawling through a tunnel and under a table, and finishing off by jumping over plastic bath tub. The balance beam was the most challenging part for Connor. Also, he wanted me to do the obstacle course with him, which I did, except for the crawling under the chair and through the tunnel.

   

 

 

This is all we managed to fit in for our ABC Adventures activities. Please link up and share your ABC Adventures!

Here is some more information and guidelines for ABC Adventures:

1. ABC Adventures is open to anyone with a blog that wants to join us by linking up to their current weekly letter activities.
2. In order to make browsing as easy as possible, please link to your individual ABC Adventures post instead of to your home page.
3. When you add your link please include the name of your blog and the letter of the alphabet that you learned about during the past week. For example, United Teaching (Letter A).
4. Although you are not required to use the ABC Adventures image you are more than welcome to do so by right clicking on the image, saving to your hard drive and uploading to your post the same way you would a picture. Please do not create a banner of your own. ABC Adventures images and the code to use is located here.
5. Please mention ABC Adventures in your post and link back to my weekly ABC Adventures post here at United Teaching.

Tot School

 

Connor is 28 months old and Sarah is 9 months old

We have had another several weeks were much of our activities have been unplanned. Other than our ABC Adventures, Tot School has mainly consisted of Connor selecting puzzles and arts and crafts. Also, there has been a new development where Connor has become interested in doing housework alongside the adults. I have been waiting to see this  happen for two reasons – one so that I could involve him more in our day to day housework and two so that I could start introducing more Montessori practical life activities. 

The puzzles that Connor selected included number puzzles and animal puzzles which required matching the adult animals to the baby animals. The huge interest that he had in puzzles over the last few months seems to have waned.

On our Painting Days, Connor showed more interest in finger painting and using cookie cutters for stamping. Normally, he wants to use every type of paintbrush and just do handprints so this has also been a new development.

Cleaning everything has been the most frequent activity inside and outside the home. I have lost count of the amount of times he has wanted to wash his little people in bathroom basin, bath tub, and outside in his water table. I don’t have photos of this, but I do have photos of him cleaning around our backyard. Now, if only I could get him to pack his toys away at the end of the day, most of my work at home would be done! 

 

In addition to going out to celebrate the Chinese New Year, we have also been taking advantage of the lovely warm days and spending time at the beach. I have introduced Connor to rock pools and the animals which live in them. He would just lie on his stomach and look into the water. 

He was also quite content to watch the molluscs / periwinkles on the rocks.

 

However, my favourite photos from our visits to the beach are of Connor trying to climb a tree for the first time and…

Connor and Sarah splashing around in the pool.

My favourite photos this week are of Sarah systematically pulling books of the bookshelf. This has been one of her favourite activities whenever she goes into Connor’s bedroom. The other photo is of Connor up the tree he climbed holding on tight so he wouldn’t fall.

            

ABC Adventures – Letter H

Welcome to our ABC Adventures. If you are new here and would like to learn more about ABC Adventures and how to join in, please see the information at the end of this post.

For the last couple of weeks, Connor has been learning about the letter H. As I have been away I only have a few photos from the activities that he completed.

Many of the activities that Connor did incorporated hearts. I specifically chose this theme to prepare him for Valentine’s Day. Hence, we began by decorating the uppercase and lowercase letter h with heart stickers.

To help Connor recognize the heart shape and make the connection between hearts and the letter h, we made various animals using the heart shape. The butterfly and fish were very easy to make and Connor needed very little assistance to arrange the hearts into the desired animal.

The panda was more complicated but well worth the effort. Connor was extremely proud of the panda. You can download the template for this panda from the First School website.

Another activity which I managed to capture was the heart matching activity. I purchased some small Valentine’s Day greeting cards and cut the heart illustrations out. Then, I cut the hearts in half and put them all in a small basket for Connor to match.

Lastly, we reviewed the colours red, white, and pink. I showed Connor how the pink colour is made by mixing red and white paint in a zip lock bag. He then used that paint to make his own red, white, and pink paintings.

      

 

Well that’s all we have for our letter h activities. Next week, I will be introducing the letter O. In the meantime, please link up and share your ABC Adventures!

Here is some more information and guidelines for ABC Adventures:

1. ABC Adventures is open to anyone with a blog that wants to join us by linking up to their current weekly letter activities.
2. In order to make browsing as easy as possible, please link to your individual ABC Adventures post instead of to your home page.
3. When you add your link please include the name of your blog and the letter of the alphabet that you learned about during the past week. For example, United Teaching (Letter A).
4. Although you are not required to use the ABC Adventures image you are more than welcome to do so by right clicking on the image, saving to your hard drive and uploading to your post the same way you would a picture. Please do not create a banner of your own. ABC Adventures images and the code to use is located here.
5. Please mention ABC Adventures in your post and link back to my weekly ABC Adventures post here at United Teaching.

Our Chinese New Year Celebrations

I have a few posts which I need to catch up on. The first one is about our Chinese New Year Celebrations. Every year, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, we head into China Town and watch the parade and displays and then go and have an meal at one of the Chinese restaurants.

This year, to help prepare Connor for the celebration, I began by reading a few books to him about the Chinese New Year. Our favourite book was My First Chinese New Yearby Karen Katz. It was a very simple introduction to the Chinese New Year which focused on food, families, and customs. This book was just right for Connor.

On the actual day, Connor saw the Lion Dancers…

Chinese street performers…

and cultural displays.

He was captivated by the performances and really enjoyed himself.

Happy Chinese New Year!

         

ABC Adventures – Letter O Outline

The next letter that Connor will be learning about is the letter O. We will begin doing these activities next week as I still have a fair bit to catch up on at home. Below is an outline of the activities I have planned for the letter O. We will be using the colour orange, the shapes octagon and oval, and the animals owl and octopus to learn about this letter.

Letter O Suggested Books

Arts and Crafts

O prints on the Letter O

Orange and Onion Prints

Hand Octopus

Blending Red and Yellow to make Orange

Learning Centers

Letter O Sandpaper Letter

Letter O Box Hunt

Letter O Lacing

Octopus Counting

Octopus Patterns

Letter O Play Dough Mat

Size Discrimination using Owls

Oatmeal Sensory Tub

Games

Obstacle Courses

Songs & Rhymes

Open, Shut Them

Old MacDonald

Cooking Activities & Snacks

Oranges

Oatmeal Cookies

I'm Back

This is a quick post to let everyone know that I am back. I have a lot to catch up on both at home and online, so I will be unable to post on the blog for a couple more days. However, I am now able to email any purchases of the Montessori Cards.

Going Away

This is a quick post to let everyone know that I will be away for about a week. Unfortunately, this means I will be unable to do an ABC Adventures post tomorrow or email any Montessori cards purchased during this period. I will be back on the 11th of February.