Goodbye Winter. Really. Leave. Now.

I'm just going to put a disclaimer in here that I am well aware that it is almost April and we're celebrating Easter in less than two weeks. Apparently Virginia doesn't agree, and I'm pretty sure that's why my mood has been less than stellar. I know everyone else has probably packed away all of their winter activities, but not us at the Kuda household! We're holding on strong for some more snow...

Yesterday we had more snow fall and stick than I think has happened all year. Seriously. This is what it looked like:

Pathetic

A couple of weeks ago, we were predicted to get a FOOT of snow. How awesome! Mr. Kuda had his shovels ready. Miss E was waiting patiently, ready to shoot outside as soon as she got the go ahead.

Except that it never happened. The picture above is all I have from this winter. Having lived in Boston for five years (and I spent a good portion of my childhood outside of Chicago), this is just down right depressing.

I digress... Anywho, as an homage to the fading winter, or maybe in hopes to bring on one last storm, for Tot School last week, we decided to add some winter theme into the mix. We didn't have a ton of time for structured lessons (because said winter won't leave us alone, neither will sickness!), but of what we did do, I think we were pretty successful!

One of the things Miss E is starting to really get into is matching. I printed out these snowflakes, cut them in half, and she had a blast matching the pairs. We talked about the different colors, and why certain ones may not match (due to different patterns/colors). I love this activity because she can do it herself, but I can also join in the fun.

The first time we did it, I set it up for her, placing one half on the ground,
then giving her another half, one at a time.

Admiring her work. And of course, the horse joined in :)

See? So fun!

Next up was the craft of the week. I have this crafty-rific friend who can basically make up a craft in .5 seconds with no materials except the shirt on her back. We did this activity with a group of kids a month or two ago, and I was waiting for the perfect time to complete it with Miss E... What better way to say goodbye to winter than to make faux snowmen?

Tube sock snowmen! I mean, seriously, how cute are those?! I'm telling you, my friend is a genius. Not only was it a fun craft that lasted all through Mr. C's morning nap, we worked on all sorts of concepts, including counting, big/small, long/short, colors, comparing/contrasting and fine motor skills. Here's the step by step:

Collect any size tube socks. I like longer ones because they make bigger hats while also giving you lots of room to work with. We had two different sizes. Take some batting and stuff it into the sock. You can put some dried beans into the bottom to give it a solid base to balance on, but we didn't have any and it worked out just fine.

Tie the open end in a knot, then fold that end over itself to make a hat for your snowman. It's not needed if you have a big "hat," but it's probably a good idea to use your glue gun (or fabric or craft glue) to secure the edges of the hat down.

Here are the rest of the materials you'll need:
buttons, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, ribbon, and of course,
your glue gun or fabric glue

After you have your hat ready, tie a ribbon around the top third of the puffy part for your snowman's head. After that, decorate to your heart's content!

We used pipe cleaners for the mouth and arms, though I'm sure more crafty folks could get really crazy. Maybe even use real sticks for arms! Crazy, I tell you! We just used buttons for everything else, apart from puffy balls for the top of his hat, and voila! Fun little decorations for you to put up during the winter months. Or in our case, in the spring months, too.

That was pretty much it for Tot School last week. We definitely did our share of reading, too. I'm actually really happy with the outcome with our last ditch effort to say goodbye to winter. Miss E has been asking when Spring will come since we've done this activity, so I think it stuck!

So excited for Tot School next week! I've been planning it for awhile, and it's a perfect way to start off the (almost) first week of Spring. No hints this time!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda

Tot School ~ The Letter G

Miss E ~ 27 months

You know, something about this week had me feeling lazy. I just wasn't excited for the letter G. It's funny how things work out to exceed your expectations sometimes. This ended up being one of our most fun and productive weeks for Tot School! It just proves that you don't have to have anything elaborate planned to do Tot School, just dedicate some time especially for structured learning. Toddlers are great at leading the way. And I just love watching Miss E learn. She's awesome.

And seriously. How cute is she?
This was taken after our new "quiet time." She was
so proud of herself for sitting while reading
books independently. It was a victory for all.

So once again, I just couldn't pick one central "G is for..." item. So we went with gorillas and goats, but as you'll see, there were other things that just happened to pop up. I just went with it...

First, Miss E did her tracing. She loves to do this, but other things got more exciting this week, so it only happened once.

I'm trying to show her how to trace the letter,
but she just hasn't gotten that quite yet.
That's ok. She'll get it eventually!

 Then, she checked out her book basket containing her "G" books. Turns out we talked a lot about bedtime, because most of the G books we have in our house begin with "Goodnight..." She got a kick out of it though, and often put all of her books on her work table to read them.

Checking out Sparkly Garden

 Of course, she loves doing Do-A-Dot artwork! I know I've referenced it before, but I just love the Tot School printables. Miss E just loves them, too!

Since I was feeling particularly lazy, I just did internet searches to find activities. Since Miss E loves painting, we decided to do a foot gorilla, which I found here. I'm pretty sure we could do something like this every day, and Miss E would be thrilled. Here's the basic sequence of the activity. The project was completed over the course of two days:

She was SO proud of herself!

Turns out, Miss E LOVES to glue things! I think I'll start having her glue her name onto her projects instead of me just writing her name. That way, she'll start to recognize more than just the first letter of her name. It will also give her more ownership of her work.

Glueing our gorilla led to Miss E asking for more glueing. Which meant that I really had to think on my toes. This is what happened next!

Basically, I got really good at cutting things out quickly. I used some of our scrap paper, cut out shapes, letters and numbers, then drew/wrote where they should go on pieces of construction paper, kink of like a puzzle. I really think we could have done this all day!

Miss E has her shapes down pat, but definitely could use some work on letter and number recognition. We'll be doing this again!

We added puffy balls for 1:1 correspondence. She loved this!

Glue madness! Such a hit.

Not bad for a week I wasn't excited for, huh? We actually got interrupted by a snow storm, which inspired a final winter activity for the year (and thanks to my awesomely creative friend who gave me the idea!). I'll do a separate post on our winter theme, but because it was so much fun, I'll give you a hint now...

I mean seriously. Can you stand the cuteness???

That pretty much sums up our week! It was so much fun, and I learned a lot about what Miss E and I are capable of, even with little to no planning. Yay for productivity!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda