P Week

We are currently making a list of P words.  It is an ongoing list that we add to each day through out the week.  Lillian loves thinking up words to add.  Often we will be out and about or in the van when she thinks of them so they don't always make it on the list, but at least she's thinking about it all the time.  At the end of the week I will tape her list to the wall so it is handy if she wants to refer back to it.  As she tells me a word I try to draw a little picture beside the word so she has a picture clue too. 
We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake and then we made PINK PANCAKES in the shape of a P.  The kids enjoyed them and it was easy to do. 
We have also read Peter Pan and we have Pinocchio out to read tomorrow. 
Another fun activity we did was to pick up PERSIMMONS and then we made PERSIMMON PUDDING. The kids always love it when they get to cook and they were a great help and enjoyed the activity. 
Lillian was sick this week so we still have one activity left to do: PAINT PUMPKINS!  This is fun to do outside and is easy.  I will incorporate math too by getting a variety of sizes and colors of pumpkins so we can sort them different way, group them, add them, and graph them. 
For snack tomorrow we are going to have PEANUTS.  It is fun to get these in the shells for the kids to break.  Most kids don't realize peanuts come in the shell.
Our last activities will be to make PATTERNS using our pattern blocks and cut out shapes I have and to read a fill in the blank chart about PETS.  Then we will make a PICTURE of our PET. It's going to be a busy weekend!

UNO!

One word: Uno!  I just happened to think of this card game the other day.  I hadn't played it in years, but we did when we were young, so I headed off to the store and bought us a deck (I think it was $4 at The Christmas Shop).  The kids were excited to see a new game that night and wanted to play right away.  The directions say the game is for kids 7 years and up but that just isn't true.  Granted, Cole was to young at three years old and lost interest quickly, but Lillian was really into the game and caught on quickly.  Needless to say the first few times we play we're going to have to help her learn how to play and the rules, but it isn't going to be long until she is teaching her friends how to play.  Unfortunately it was to late, but she wanted to play again that night and again the next day, so I know we're on to something good here.  We did find out they've added some new cards to the deck (skipping cards, and reverse cards for instance) since we played years ago, so be sure and review the directions before hand.  This game is perfect though for teaching colors, numbers, turn taking, and, of course, good sportsmanship!  We shook daddy's hand at the end of the game and congratulated him on his victory.  We'll get him next time!

Dimes

Currenly Lillian and I are working on money, at this time its dimes.  You do not want to overwhelm a child by introducing different coins at the same time.  Instead, focus on one (generally you begin with pennies) and then advance up as they master one.  However, continue to review coins previously taught so they retain that information.   As I recently said, I purchased some hundreds charts.  After I have given her ample time to explore the dimes on her own I had her place one dime on each box in the tens place on the hundreds chart.  Then, as we say "ten, twenty, thirty" and so on she slides the dime off the corresponding box.  We also reversed the process and counted by tens as we placed the dimes back on the chart.  Next, we took turns placing one dime on a tens square while the other person covered her eyes.  Then that person got to guess what number was under the dime!  Simple activities like this are a game to children and they enjoy playing them over and over and do not even realizing they are doing a learning activity.

Counting and Hundreds Charts

I picked up a pack of Hundreds Charts at the local teacher store (you can order them online too).  In case you aren't familiar with hundreds charts they are a grid with the numbers from 1-100.  I also bought highlighting tape; tape that is colored, but you can see through.  It acts like a highlighter but is tape (highlighters will not work on the boughten charts because they have a type of lamination on them).  On one board I highlighted just the tens row, another chart counting by fives, and another one even numbers.  I also put one of the charts in Lillians seat back pocket in the van.  That way it is available to her if she wants to look at it or use it, but it isn't being pushed at her.  Sometimes these items just have to be available to children for them to become interested and to provide them with an opportunity to explore them on their own.  She has already taken it out many times and talked about the numbers she sees.   As a side note, you can also find a variety of different kinds of hundred charts online.  If you used this option you could use a regular highlighter to mark them and put them in a clear paper sleeve to make them more durable.  If your child seems overwhelmed by the vast number of numerals on the chart, just use a piece of paper to cover up the bottom portion.  Often just taking away the access helps.  The highlight tape is a tool to help her focus on just the digits I want her to concentrate on.  Then we can use the appropriate chart to aid us as we learn to count by two's, fives, or tens.  Later, I can use the same method to show odd numbers or counting by tens starting with a different number other than ten.  That will come MUCH later though!

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

This is a simple activity, but can be as indepth as you want depending upon the amount of time you have available.  To prepare I went online and printed out pictures of cupcakes.  I always print things for lessons on cardstock because it holds up better and then I get it laminated.  It cost a little more, but it will hold up much better.  There were tons of options online (all I did was type in "pictures of cupcakes"), but I only printed pictures that contained a specific number of cupcakes (one cupcake, two cupcakes, etc).  Then in either Word or Excel type up number cards to match. Even though toddlers can't read yet I still include the number word beneath the digit so they are exposed to the print.  After reading the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" by Laura Joffe Numeroff, I gave the children the pictures and number cards and explained the process to them.  I only had to demonstrate with the first one for them to catch on.  You can see in the above picture how the numeral one card was matched to the picture of one cupcake.  I was pleased when, on her own, Lillian picked up the number cards and said "we can put these in order" and started putting them in numeric order (as you see below).  It's important to give kids the freedom to explore activities like this on their own so they can come up with new twist like this too.   As I mentioned earlier, this activitiy has many extensions you could do; do some activities with the letter C, color a cat or cupcake picture, sorting (these cupcakes have blue in them these do not or these have animals, etc), add two groups of cupcakes together and, the most obvious, make cupcakes!