Tot School- on the farm (30 Months)

Jonathan is 30 Months

This week we've been learning about farms and farm animals. Grace has been enjoying looking at pictures of animals, so this was a theme both children could enjoy. We had a lot of fun! 

Bible 

This week we covered Isaac and Jacob during our Bible story time. We used some resources from Hubbard's Cupboard as well as some resources I personally own. Look for an upcoming post to cover what we did for Jacob. 

Stories, Nursery Rhymes & Read Alouds 

We read lots of books about farms and farm animals this week. I selected some that would appeal to Gracie as well as some longer ones that would be for Jonathan. Some favorites (click on the title to see our reviews, as well as additional books we enjoyed). 

• The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales by Heather Amery
• Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont
• Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
• Does a Cow Say Boo? by Judy Hindley
• Poke-A-Dot- Old MacDonald's Farm (Jonathan's favorite!)

Language Arts 

We continued trying to do some worksheets about beginning sounds.We tried to do some our Explode the Code primers and also tried some from School Sparks.  (Have you seen the School Sparks blog yet? It's a great resource for phonics worksheets.) 

While Jonathan can easily tell you that F says "fffffff", he at least hasn't been successful at pointing out pictures of words that start with the "fffff" sound. He also hasn't been patient enough to sit through a worksheet. He just wants to color everything. So, that's okay. We'll save it for another time. 

We did some Montessori nomenclature cards that Carisa over at 1+1+1=1 designed. The purpose was for Jonathan to match up the farm animals with the words for the animals. We also used her Memory & Match Up cards. Both of these sets were used throughout the week. 

The biggest use was matching our farm toob animals with the pictures. Jonathan had fun doing this over and over again. 

We also continued to work on name recognition. He's gotten pretty proficient at finding his name on the morning message board. 

Math 

Jonathan loved the book Poke-A-Dot Old MacDonald's farm. It is a great counting book, counting down from ten cows to one rooster. The clever and kid-appealing part of the book is their "Pop-a-tronic" technology-- each page has clear, clickable buttons for children to push, one for each number. It helps to reinforce counting and teach one-to-one number correspondence. Jonathan loved popping the buttons and wanted to read this book over, and over, and over again. Sometimes he was so excited about the buttons that he'd forget to count. This was a huge hit!

Sensory Play


We had a sensory bin this week. I used unpopped popcorn and gave Jonathan some cups and spoons to practice spooning, pouring and transferring. We also stuck his farm toob animals in the corn and he just spent lots of time with this this week.

Practicing spooning

Picking up spills

Transferring 

Playing with animals

Pretend Play

We played with his farm animals a lot as well as his Little People barn. He had fun building fences for his animals:

Art 

We made some farm animals this week. Jonathan finger painted a "dirty pig" and we also made a sheep:

I got the ideas from Usborne Farm Fun, part of their Preschool Activities series.

Music & Movies


We sang Old MacDonald a lot this week. We also watched Signing Time: Leah's Farm and reviewed our signs for different animals.

Games 


We looked through our 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm book and tried to find the different animals. We also did several of our farm puzzles and played with our See & Say.

Field Trip 


Finally, we attempted to go on a field trip to a local farm that had a petting zoo. Unfortunately, the petting zoo wasn't open. But we did come home with some good fresh produce! The state fair is in a couple weeks, so we'll get our petting zoo fix there.

Thanks for visiting! To see what other families have done, be sure to visit Carisa's blog at 1+1+1=1. Have a great week!

f is for farm: books for toddlers/preschoolers

In addition to the farm board books that we read this week, Jonathan and I also read some longer stories aimed at preschoolers. We found several keepers that we really enjoyed:

The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales by Heather Amery

This is a collection of 20 different stories about life on Apple Tree farm from Usborne Books. Each tale is about the animals or adventures of the Boot family- Mrs. Boot, the farmer, and her two children Poppy and Sam. The stories are short and entertaining. Stephen Cartwright's charming illustrations hide a duck on each page and Jonathan had lots of fun trying to find the duck.  Jonathan has really enjoyed these-- he remembered the stories long after we read them and even acted some of them out with his farm animals, such as having his little pig get stuck in a fence. Very cute and lots of value-- the stories have simple text at the top and more complex sentences at the bottom of each page. These will make great early readers as well.

Poke-A-Dot! Old MacDonald's Farm

Oh how Jonathan just loves this book. I requested it from our library after seeing it recommended in the Timberdoodle catalog. This is a book that is about the traditional folk song Old MacDonald's Farm. It's a counting book, counting down from ten cows to one rooster. The clever and kid-appealing part of the book is their "Pop-a-tronic" technology-- each page has clear, clickable buttons for children to push, one for each number. It helps to reinforce counting and teach one-to-one number correspondence. Jonathan loved popping the buttons and wanted to read this book over, and over, and over again. Sometimes he was so excited about the buttons that he'd forget to count. This was a huge hit!

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm by Joy Cowley

Mrs. Wishy-Washy is a farm woman who just loves to have everything clean-- including her animals! She scrubs the animals down regularly and one day cow, pig, and duck decide they've had enough. They run away to the big city and have adventures until they decide maybe the farm is the best place to live after all. The rhyming verse is very catchy and easy to read-aloud. The illustrations are equally engaging. Jonathan had fun listening to this read-aloud and saying "wishy-washy". As a fun read along activity, we brought his Little People farm animals into the tub one night and "wishy-washeyed" them until they were squeaky clean!

The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen

This was a bit of a longer read-aloud that we read over breakfast one morning. It's about farm animals and what happens of the course of a year on a farm. As the months and seasons change, the animals respond accordingly. In the winter, the animals stay close to the farm. In the Spring, the baby animals are born. In the summer, the bugs come out and the weather gets hot and the fall brings pumpkins and frost. It's a beautiful book that helped us talk about the changing seasons and life on a farm. Some aspects of the farm Jonathan could relate to, as my husband's parents live on a horse farm. I think this will be a book we come back to as we learn about seasons and the passing of time.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see our farm activities. :)

f is for farm-- books for babies and toddlers

This week we've been doing a unit on farms. I'm trying to make an effort to read with Grace, so I picked out several books that would be appropriate for her age level. I've been making the different animal sounds for her when she pats the pages. Although these books are geared for the littlest ones, toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy them as well:



Baby at the Farm by Karen Katz

Karen Katz has written several baby friendly books that we enjoy. This one is a "touch and feel" book that Grace enjoyed exploring. The simple text is about a baby exploring a farm. Grace patted the different animals, exploring their different textures- the mane of horses, the wool of sheep, etc. This is a nice first farm book.



Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont

We have owned this lift-the-flap book for a while and both Jonathan and Grace have enjoyed it very much. It's a lively story about a baby on a farm who just does not want to go to bed. The story is told in an engaging rhyme that will get your toes tapping: "While papa hauled the water/and momma cooked the chow/baby danced the cha cha/with the chocolate-colored cow". It's a fun, interactive book that both you and your children will love!


Does a Cow Say Boo? by Judy Hindley

This is another old favorite of ours. This board book is about some energetic toddlers exploring a barnyard. The toddlers are trying to figure out which animal says "boo!". As they explore barns, fields and pastures, the children encounter different animals and the sounds they make. Jonathan enjoyed this book as a baby, and Grace seems to be interested as well. It's great for interaction- the children learn animal sounds and enjoy a bit of peek-a-boo at the end. Highly recommend!

Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton

What's not to love about a Sandra Boynton book? This lively board book encourages your toddler to get up and square dance with the barnyard animals! Dancing cows, twirling pigs fill the pages of this silly book. It's been a great one for teaching Jonathan how to move and dance like the animals. Boynton's text is very vibrant and fun-- you can't go wrong with this one!




Animal Babies on the Farm by Vicky Weber

This cute board book is a guessing game. The first page gives an animal sound and a clue and then asks "Who is my mommy?"The next page reveals the mommy and gives the name of the baby: "My mommy is a pig. I am her piglet" Grace liked looking at the pictures of the animals while Jonathan enjoyed the guessing game. It's another fun board book.