Tot School—February 2012

Gabriela has been spending a lot more time playing with toys in her room, hence the shorter Tot School posts.  I ought to take some pictures of her playing!  I value the time I spend with her in Tot School, but I love the fact that she is learning to play on her own and use her imagination.  She’s no longer content to watch videos on TV…that’s a good thing.

Sensory Tubs and Imaginative Play Sets

Sensory Tubs:  I’m afraid these are on their way out, but we’ll see how things go.  I love putting them together!  Gabriela always loves sensory tubs for the first week, and then she’s tired of them.  We had 2 tubs this month:  Winter and Valentines.  To read more about these 2 tubs, click the links. 

Imaginative Play Sets. Read more about my play sets HERE, and click on THIS link to see where I got my inspiration! For now, I think these are going to replace sensory tubs…or I might consider about alternating between the two.  If I ever get around to making a light box, I may have 3 things to consider.

Valentine’s Day activities (of which there weren’t many)

Transferring red jewels into heart trays.  She had to transfer the larger jewels into the tray with the larger hearts and the smaller jewels into the smaller heart tray.

Heart bead counting.  I had some bead garland with tiny red hearts, so I cut some of it into sections of 1-10 hearts per strand.  I kept the beads in a heart box.  Gabriela had to remove the bead strands from the box, count the hearts in each strand and match each one to the a numbered heart. 

Co-op Activities

Art lesson with pattern blocks 

Music lesson with rhythm instruments.  We also made our own shakers (picture at right).

Field Trips

Quarry Bank Mill—This was a field trip for my older two, who have been studying the Industrial Revolution, with factories and mills.  However, there were plenty of hands-on activities for Gabriela to do, and she enjoyed it.

Dunham Massey—A National Trust property not far from Quarry Bank Mill (yes, we did both on the same day).  We joined some friends for a nice outdoor walk.  

I’m linking this post to “Tot School” at 1+1+1=1.