b is for balloon

picture source

Sign Language- 


We reviewed the sign for balloon.


Books

Too  many Balloons by Catherine Matthias

We have really enjoyed this book-- it's a simple story meant for early readers. In the book, a little girl buys one red balloon and shows the balloon to the lion, who likes the balloon. Then the little girl buys two yellow balloons and shows them to the giraffes. The story progresses up through the number 10 when the girl now has too many balloons! I like that this is a great book for practicing counting, labeling zoo animals and colors.We had some party balloons of some of the colors mentioned in the book and Jonathan had fun picking up the proper color whenever it was mentioned in the story. It was a very fun read that we both enjoyed!

Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery by Jamie Lee Curtis


This is such a fun story about what happens to wayward balloons. The story is told in imaginative rhyme that reminded me a bit of Dr. Seuss. Do balloons get cold? Do they tango with airplanes? Do they fly into outer space? The concept, however, was a little beyond Jonathan, who has never had a balloon float away. The pictures are very detailed and full of humor that adults and older children would grasp well. This is a cute read, but probably better for preschoolers than toddlers.

Pop! Went Another Balloon: a magical counting storybook by Keith Faulkner

This is another counting/balloon story, but instead of counting up, it counts down from 10 to 1. The story is about a turtle trying to bring 10 balloons to a friend for her birthday. However, a flock of birds is very interested in the balloons and keeps popping them. Jonathan enjoyed this book because of the holes in the page (so the balloons show through), but he didn't get the concept of subtraction. It may be a good book to turn to in another year or two.

Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride by Marjorie Priceman

One last book we looked at was a Caldecott Honor book by Marjorie Priceman. I wasn't planning on this one, but chose it based on its Caldecott nomination and the previous book we enjoyed by the author (How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World). It is based on the first hot air balloon ride in 1783. During this ride, a sheep, a duck, and a rooster were sent up in a balloon. Priceman imagines what went on while the animals were up in the air. There's some detailed text at the beginning and end of the book, but most of the story is told in pictures. I wasn't sure what Jonathan would think, but he really enjoyed this book and asked to read it again! I learned a bit too about the history of the first hot air balloon ride. There are some homeschool web resources for this book as well, such as lapbooks (see below)


Motor Skills 


We played with balloons, of course-- the possibilities are endless! We put them in a laundry basket and pushed them around:

We played basketball with the balloons-- this was Jonathan's favorite!

And we also just bopped them around and practiced hitting and catching. These were all very fun activities since we're likely to be stuck indoors most of the week!

Art 


We did balloon painting, from an idea I got from Homemade Mamas. I pulled out some blue and brown paint and put it on a paper plate:

Blew up two small balloons and let Jonathan put the balloons in the paint and roll them, bounce them, etc. on fingerpaint paper.

This only held his attention for about 10 minutes or so, but he seemed to enjoy it!

Jonathan's masterpiece

We also did more work with glue sticks-- I used this template from First School to have Jonathan practice gluing shapes onto a hot air balloon. He was so excited to use a glue stick again!

I was very impressed that he figured out how to turn the shapes over to apply the glue- he didn't grasp that concept last week!

And he had a lot of fun gluing the shapes into place-- he did a fairly accurate job putting the shapes on the paper and correctly identified all the shapes and colors.

I know I'm a proud mama-- but I was impressed!

Another masterpiece

Library Links 


Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride
Pop! Went Another Balloon
Too Many Balloons
Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery




Web Resources 


B is for Balloon @ First School
Balloons Preschool Theme @ Everything Preschool
B is for Balloon @ Delightful Learning
Book resources for Hot Air @ Homeschool Share

Reading Our Library- Pamela Allen

Pamela Allen is an award-winning Australian children's author who is originally from New Zealand. She's written numerous books since the 1980s but may not be as familiar to US children.


Who Sank the Boat?

I picked up this book from another toddler-friendly book list. It's a fun read about five animals of various sizes who decide to go for a boat ride. As each animal tentatively enters the boat, the child is asked "do you know who sank the boat? was it the [animal name]". Jonathan really enjoyed this book. It took a couple readings for him to understand the story, but he started chiming in "No!" or "Yes!" when the animal enters the boat. This book won the 1983 Australian CBC Picture Book of the Year.

Bertie and the Bear is a silly book in which a little boy is being chased by a bear. The queen starts to chase the bear, followed by the king, followed by the general, ending with a yapping dog. Each person or animal plays a different instrument or makes a different sound, teaching children about the sources of different sounds.When we started reading, I was a little worried that it could be a scary book- but that wasn't the case at all. The story ends well and Jonathan had fun mimicking the sounds different animals and instruments made.  Plus, the story fit in well with our focus on bears this week! This book won the 1984 Australian CBC Children's Book of the Year

My Cat Maisie is a cute story with a wonderful lesson. Andrew is a little boy who wants a pet of his own. He is delighted when a stray cat appears at his doorstep. However, he is overly excited and not too gentle with the cat, which then runs away. Andrew sets out to find the cat, but encounters the neighbor's big dog Lobo instead. Lobo is overly excited to play with Andrew and is also not too gentle. When the cat reappears at Andrew's window that night, he very gently pets the cat and names her Maisie. This is such a cute story and teaches by example how we need to be gentle and thoughtful with animals. The illustrations help tell the story without being very preachy at children. I really enjoyed this book and it was a great platform for talking with Jonathan about how we need to be gentle at times. Jonathan really enjoys both his nana's and uncle's dogs and, like Andrew, is prone to get very excited around them. I think this is a book we'll check out again!



Find these books in your local library:
Bertie and the Bear
My Cat Maisie
Who Sank the Boat?

Other Links to Pamela Allen reviews/activities:
KidzClub has a story pattern for Who Sank the Boat? (Updated 3/8/11)
Our Worldwide Classroom reviewed The Potato People and has a fun craft to go with it.
Purple Frangipani recommends Shh! Little Mouse for toddlers
Jean @ At All Honesty recommends Grandpa and Thomas

Tot School- b is for bear, banana & bus

Jonathan is 25 Months

We had a busy, social week! We had a couple playdates, which we always enjoy. On the days we weren't out and about, we also began to focus on the lowercase letter b. This week we looked at bears, bananas, and buses.


Bible 


We focused on John 6:48 I am the bread of life from the Songs for Saplings CD. You can print out resources from the Totally Tots website. I am always so amazed and encouraged to hear Jonathan singing along! He had a lot of fun banging the cymbals along with this song.

Books 


This week, we read several books. Here were our favorites (click on the title to see the post):

- Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
- Banana! by Ed Vere
- The Wheels on the Bus by Ed Zelinsky
- The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort

Math 


We worked more on counting. We counted some bananas I printed and laminated and we also used our counting bears:

Games & Fine Motor Skills


We did a Heads & Tails puzzle along with Brown Bear, Brown Bear that I printed from 1+1+1=1's Brown Bear tot pack.

We also worked on our Melissa & Doug Basic Skills Board- a puzzle that Jonathan enjoyed, but he's still not  very proficient at all the clothing items.

And we did our Melissa & Doug Upper & Lowercase Alphabet Puzzle. Jonathan's pretty good now at recognizing the lowercase letters a and b!

Music/Pretend Play 


We did more bear hunts this week-- along with lots and lots of renditions of the Wheels on the Bus!

We reenacted Brown Bear Brown Bear using the templates on DLTK kids. We listened to the audio book read by Gwyneth Paltrow.

And we reenacted the Seals on the Bus using the fun template from Making Learning Fun. Jonathan had fun matching the laminated animal card to the animals in the book.

Art 


We did yet more Do-A-Dot pages for B is for Brown Bear, and B is for Bus. Jonathan loves these!

We worked on using a glue stick as we glued paper fruit (bananas) into a fruit basket:

This was the first time Jonathan used a glue stick. He did well when I helped him turn the pieces over- he patted them on the paper very gently. Afterwards he just liked spreading the purple glue- it didn't matter which side of the paper- he just liked spreading the glue. I guess he just enjoyed the process!

Social
As I mentioned, we had a couple of playdates this week. It's great practice on sharing. Jonathan has began a "mine" stage-- every toy is his. He may not be playing with it, but if a friend shows interest, suddenly the toy is mine.  He obviously still has a lot to learn about sharing-- it won't be long before Gracie is trying to play with his toys.

So-- question for other moms:

how do you help your tots learn to share? How do you address the heart issue behind not sharing while still understanding that your child is young and it's a hard concept to grasp?


This post is linked up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1  and What My Child is Reading at Mouse Learns, Mouse Grows.

b is for bus

Sign Language 


There are different signs out there for bus. We reviewed the one that we learned from signing time.


Books 

The Wheels on the Bus by Paul Zelinsky

This is the first book with moving parts (other than lift-the-flap books) we've read and my goodness, it is a hit! Jonathan has always loved the song the wheels on the bus and this cleverly illustrated book has become such a favorite. It has wheels that you can turn, you can make the people go bump, open the doors, swish the wipers, etc. Most of the pages have tabs you pull back and forth. The only hesitation I would have in purchasing this book is it might not last long with my exuberant two year old. It's best to look at the book together to prevent damage. The illustrations are detailed and tell a story of their own. I actually had to hide this book from Jonathan because he enjoyed it so much and I didn't want him to read it without me. Fantastic book!

School Bus by Donald Crews

Donald Crews has several transportation related books. Freight Train is a particular favorite of Jonathan's, so I thought we would check out School Bus from our library. The book chronicles (mostly in pictures) the typical day of a school bus around town. The buses go, the buses stop. Children get on. Children get off. Buses wait. Children go home. The text isn't anything profound but the illustrations caught Jonathan's attention and he enjoyed it enough to want to read it again.

Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort

This is a clever spoof on the Wheels on the Bus that involves animal sounds. There are seals going "errp. errp", vipers going "hisss hissss" and geese going "honk honk". Jonathan seemed to enjoy this silly story and making the animal noises. The illustrations just add to the fun. A fun book that both Grace and Jonathan enjoyed!
There are tons of great learning activities to go with this book too! We printed out this activity from Making Learning Fun to retell the story.


Art 


We did another do-a-dot page from Making Learning Fun. And we printed out a school bus picture and colored it with markers.



Library Links
School Bus
The Seals on the Bus
The Wheels on the Bus

Web Resources


Bus Preschool Theme @ Everything Preschool
School Bus @ First School
School Bus Craft @ Crayola
Wheels on the Bus @ Virtual Vine
Seals on the Bus @ Totally Tots
Seals on the Bus Activities @ Making Learning Fun

b is for banana

Sign Language 


Banana was among of the first signs we learned.

Books 


I only found one toddler friendly book about bananas- if you know of any others please let me know!

Banana! by Ed Vere

This book is a simple story about two monkeys and one banana.  The storyline is mostly told by the simple pictures and the expressions on the monkeys' faces. One monkey finds a banana and then his friend comes along and wants the banana. Will the monkeys share the banana? The only text in the story are the words "banana" and "please". It's up to the reader to put the proper inflection on the words, similar to Jez Alborough's Hug.

Jonathan loved this story. I think any toddler can relate to the plot-- one monkey wants the banana, one doesn't want to share. There's even a tantrum/melt down until the monkey in red learns to say please. This is a book Jonathan kept coming back to and asking me to read it again.

I like that the book has a good lesson-- the monkeys learn to ask please and the monkey that threw the tantrum learned that the tantrum did not produce the results he desired. Tantrums occur off and on around here-- so it was good to reinforce that the monkey had to "use his words" and ask for what he wanted. :) This is a great toddler-friendly book.

Pretend Play


We acted out the story using our playfood banana. I had Jonathan be the monkey in the red shirt and ask please in order to get the banana. Very simple activity, but it reinforced the book nicely.

Snack 


We ate bananas (surprise, surprise!) for snacktime and then the next day we made banana pancakes for breakfast. Made me think of the Jack Johnson song. We also had a banana snack cake that was yummy!

Craft 


We printed out the fruit basket craft from First School. I cut out the pieces and then let Jonathan try to glue them onto the fruit basket.

Math 


I printed and laminated extra pieces from the fruit basket craft to practice counting bananas. You could also go to the grocery store and count how many bananas are in each bunch!

Games 


We don't own this, but this Avalanche Fruit Stand game by Learning Resources looks great for fine motor skills. You could also use the pieces as counters and math manipulatives. It also would be versatile for other fruit related themes!

Library Links 
Banana!

Web Resources 


B is for Banana @ First School

b is for bear (Part 2)

See Part One here!


Books 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

This is a favorite book in our home, as it is for many children. Jonathan loved this book early on, and it helped him learn his colors and animals. The text is predictable and makes it easy for toddlers to chime in. It was perfect to pull it out for our b is for bear day.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.

We also own and enjoy the second book in this series, featuring different zoo animals and the sounds they make. We had fun imitating the different animal sounds.



Pretend Play
Sun Hats & Wellie Boots recently posted about how they reenacted the bear hunt story. We haven't done this yet, but it's such a great idea!


Math


We pulled out our counting & sorting bears. Jonathan loves these! He sorts them by color and we practice counting how many bears there are. We've been practicing counting 1-5.

The Princess and the Tot shared a great Montessori-style idea for these bears- I had Jonathan practice placing them into an empty wipes container. He liked dropping them into the wipes container and then opening the container and dropping them out. It was a great activity that I'm sure we'll come back to!

Gross Motor


We did the actions along with the rhyme Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around. We also danced to the Wiggles Song: the Monkey, the Bird and the Bear.


Fine Motor Skills/Practical Life 


We pulled out our Melissa and Doug Basic Skills Board. This is a puzzle which features a bear who has different items of clothing to snap, buckle, zip, etc. Jonathan and I have been working on learning how to put his clothes on and take them off, so this puzzle helps him to practice some of those skills.

Art 


We did a B is for Brown Bear magnet page from Making Learning Fun-- but this time instead of coloring with do-a-dot markets, we used crayons. We've been practicing coloring with the Kumon Let's Color books and we've progressed to the pages where Jonathan has a small white space to try to color. The goal of these pages is to help tune fine motor skills in preparation for writing. So coloring in a Do-a-Dot/magnet page is a perfect correlated activity.

Games

I printed out the Heads & Tails puzzle game from 1+1+1=1. Jonathan did a great job putting the pieces of the different Brown Bear characters together. He's progressed a lot with doing basic puzzles. In fact, it may have been a little too easy for him.


Snack 


We had Teddy Grahams which were a big hit!

Library Links- Use Worldcat to find some these resources in a local library

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
• Going on a Bear Hunt
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
• Kids in Action CD 

Web Resources


B is for Bear @ First School



Book Resources:

• Brown Bear Brown Bear @ DLTK Teach
• Brown Bear @ Virtual Vine
• Brown Bear @ Homeschool Share
• Brown Bear Tot Pack @ 1+1+1=1
• Brown Bear Magnet Pages @ Making Learning Fun
• Polar Bear @ DLTK-Teach
• Jesse Bear B4FIA Unit @ Delightful Learning
• Jesse Bear Resources @ Homeschool Share
• Bear Hunt Storytelling Pattern @ KidzClub (updated 3/8/11)

What We're Reading- Aliki

We were introduced to Aliki Brandenberg through another toddler-friendly booklist. Aliki has written and illustrated a number of books for children of all ages, some of which have been featured on the PBS show Reading Rainbow. Most are nonfiction geared towards preschool and up. But here are a couple we've enjoyed during the infant/toddler years:

Welcome Little Baby is a sweet book in which the mommy is caring for and talking to her baby. The mommy tells the baby how excited they are that the baby is here and what life will be like as he or she grows and learns about the world. The pastel illustrations are very sweet and the text is very calming. It's a great read aloud for a young baby. It focuses on a parent-child relationship not a sibling relationship, so it's most appropriate for snuggling with your baby on your lap.

One Little Spoonful is part of the Harper Growing Tree series. This book is targeted for ages 1+, but we enjoyed it as soon as we introduced solid foods to Jonathan. In this story, a mommy is feeding her baby giving "one little spoonful for your nose" and then "one little spoonful for your toes". The rhyme is catchy and sweet and I would find myself reciting it to Jonathan as I fed him. Now, he laughs at the messy baby as we read the story to Gracie. It's a fun read aloud.




Both of these books are out of print, but you can find used copies online or just check them out of your local library!

Aliki has some science and social studies related books that I think we'll be exploring in the next few years. Explore Amazon's Aliki page to find more by this author.





Find These Books in Your Local Library: 


One Little Spoonful
Welcome Little Baby