Counting Cookies

I originally saw this idea over at Counting Coconuts and knew I wanted to make some for Sweet Girl.  They were super easy to make.  All you need is felt (I used brown and black), thread/needle, fabric glue and some batting/interfacing.  I used a large cup to trace my circles onto the felt.  Then I cut them out and placed a piece of batting in between the two pieces.  I hand stitched them together and used fabric glue to glue on my "chocolate chips".

We've had fun playing with these in our play kitchen.  Sometimes we will count the cookies, sometimes we will count the chocolate chips.  Sometimes I'll ask her to bring me the cookie with "just one chocolate chip" or the cookie with "the most chocolate chips", etc..  And then sometimes she will bring them to me and say "hey mom....look it has one chocolate chip".

Tot Activities

We were off visiting my family most of last week so I'm keeping the same tot trays from last week out for Sweet Girl to play with.  In addition to those, I decided to add some more "fun stuff" too!!

Tracing lines

I made up this simple little sheet connecting the princess to their "pal".  I laminated them and have included a dry erase marker and little eraser with the sheet. 

(And if anyone wants a copy of this sheet, just leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email and I will forward it to ya!)

Placing stickers on letter A/a

We typically use our Do-A-Dot markers with these sheets, but I thought it would be fun to mix it up a little.  The apple sheet is from 1+1+1=1 and the lowercase 'a' is from Making Learning Fun.

See & Spell puzzles

This is a new puzzle for us so I'm only presenting two words at a time.  It looks a little overwhelming if there are more than two words showing.

Drawing on the Buddha Board

This is just for fun!  I'm addicted to this thing!!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

Let's Play a Game! (Printable included)

Sweet Girl is just starting to understand the concept of games (rules and turn taking and the such) so I created a little game for us to play.  It's really simple, but lots of fun and I'd thought I'd share with you all.

Here are all the game pieces!!

Basically, Sweet Girl and I take turn rolling the dice to see what color we get.  Then, we get to pick out our teddy bear and place it on the mat.  We have these teddy bear counters so we use the big and little ones to correspond with our circles.  Oh...and I made our dice using colored stickers and a blank dice (I found mine at the dollar store, but you can get them here for $0.25+shipping. 

The one who fills in the last circle wins!! 

I love that the game touches on so many different skill areas....turn taking, attention/concentration, color recognition, matching, big vs. little.

Wanna play too? 
Just click here to print out your own mats.  I recommend cutting out and laminating your mats for durability.  And if you don't have colored counters....just print out two copies of the mats, cut out all the circles of one set of mats and use those as your "game pieces". 


Linking to:
For The Kids Friday, Preschool Corner, Tot School

Learning Toys - Shapes

I switched out our learning toys in our playroom and family room this week.  I try to do this every week, but sometimes I never get around to it!  I usually remember once the toy baskets have gone untouched for a day or so.  Here are some of our learning toys this week.

Melissa and Doug Shapes Puzzle

Sweet Girl loves completing puzzles.

Smart Snacks Sorting Shapes Cupcakes

Look at that determination!

Lauri Toys Smart Shapes and Stacking Pegs

Shapes for lunch!!

I tried to incorporate shapes into our foods this week.  This is Sweet Girl's lunch one day....here we have a heart shaped sandwich, oval grapes, triangle cheeses and a circle cup of applesauce.  She thought this was pretty neat!!

Learning Toys

I try to rotate Sweet Girl's toys out on a regular basis to keep the toys exciting and new.  We have lots of toys in our playroom, but most of them are in baskets or bins, so I try to pull out some everyday and put them at her level.  I've found that she isn't quite old enough to "decide" what she wants to play with and needs direction and suggestions.  I also keep a few learning toys in a small basket in our family room.  Here are the most popular toys this week:

Wedgits

Do you own these?  If not, you should put them on your kiddo's birthday list!!  They simply are amazing blocks.  Everyone in our household loves them (mom and dad included!!)

They make great accessories too!! 

Melissa and Doug Magnetic Dolls

These are really cute and great for fine-motor coordination.  Sweet Girl really loves these!

Dora book with playmat and figurines

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but my daughter LOVES everything Dora!  This book and playset is amazing and was only $5.99 at TJ Maxx.  It comes with this huge playmat and all the figurines from the series.  This provides hours of fun and entertainment for Sweet Girl.....it's great for imaginative play.  She usually carries Dora and Boots around in a little basket all day.  (And yes, I do frequently wash her Dora pajamas....I know it looks like she has them on in every picture).

Alphabet flashcards

These are from the dollar section at Target.  Sweet Girl pulled them out so we did some letter A activities. 

Here we were playing a little memory game. 

And here are some shots of our tot trays in action this week:

Balancing marbles on the pegs was by far the biggest hit this week!!  She has probably done this 50 times already!!  And it really does take a lot of concentration.  Look at that face!!

(P.S. They have this exact pegboard/peg set at the Dollar Tree...I was just there yesterday)

Balancing the marbles

Sorting fruit into flower cups

Matching up the foam ABC letters with the letter cards

And here is my FAVORITE shot of the week: