Teaching Tots- Day 1 A-E

Today was day 1 of our summer lessons. I learned today that you have to be flexible! Gretchen and I were going to join a Mommy & Me group today at a local nursery, which would've thrown a lot of our activities out the window. 20 minutes before we were suppose to leave, I found out the event was cancelled. So, we were able to start our lessons! I started first thing this morning. Gretchen had eggs, bread/toast, and cheese for breakfast. I told her that eggs started w/ the letter 'e', and had her identify the 'e' in her name that's on her placemat. She must have known we were going to learn letters, because when I folded her toast over for her, she exclaimed, "B!". I guess it looked like a letter b to her!

I had her color the letter 'A" picture while I was cooking breakfast. She wasn't too into coloring though, so we put it back in the folder for her to finish later.

Gretchen made this at church a few weeks ago, but I thought it was a perfect letter 'b' activity! Simply, let your child color a coffee filter, and clip it in the middle w/ a clothespin to make a butterfly.

This was our letter 'b' activity. We glued buttons onto a 'b' butterfly. Gretchen is right hand dominant, so I placed the buttons on her left side. She had to reach across midline in order to pick up the buttons, ranging in size from large to small. Reaching across midline and using a pincher grasp are great fine motor skills! Tip: Use activities to increase learning as well as motor skills! Note: I did place the glue on the paper for her.

Here she is with her finished button butterfly!

Afterwards, we played a game with cotton balls. I brought home these large tweezers from work, and gave her 3 cotton balls. (We were learning to count to 3 today.) And, I gave her a red cup, since that was her color of the day. Notice that her shirt has cupcakes on it for the letter 'c'! For this game, she simply had to pick up each cotton ball with the tweezers and place them into the cup. She had a hard time at first, but had the hang of it this evening when she showed daddy the game she learned.

Her lunch consisted of applesauce, cucumbers, chicken nuggets, and dip!

We covered the letter 'b' when she got her afternoon snack-brownies (and oranges!)

What did you teach your tot today?

{Friday is our next scheduled lesson}