Showing posts with label Tot School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tot School. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Tot School Nursery Rhymes & Fingerplays for March & April


For the last 4-5 months Gianna (2) and I have been working on little songs each month to learn. Sometimes they are picked due to the season, sometimes she'll hear a song that she wants to learn and sometimes like this month I choose what song we are going to work on. So far we have learned the following songs (links to lyrics are in the brackets):
Spring Mini Bulletin Board Set
November/December: Frosty the Snowman
January: the "Joy Joy" song (I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart!) (click here)
February: ABCDEFG Jesus Died for You and Me! (click here)
March & April: Various Fingerplays and Rhymes.

One of the things I like to do especially with songs that aren't as familiar to me or maybe I don't remember the words 100% from my own childhood is post little posters on the wall so I can see the words at a glance. Carson Dellosa sent me one of the Mini Bulletin Set and I made up a cute display that I can look at it during our lunches & snacks which is when Gianna and I sit and visit while we eat. 

In the "display" above I posted our Spring Bucket List using Blank Header so we could refer to a list of activities for Gianna (and Connor/Madison) when they are bored (or driving me nuts) and need to find something fun to do. I also used 4 of the Small Signs to write out 4 finger plays we are learning and several of the little accent pictures with nursery rhymes. It makes it MUCH easier if we can just refer to a card as we are learning these rhymes & songs and Gianna uses the pictures on each card to find a song or rhyme she wants to work on.

I also needed a calendar display near the front door to refer to for playdates, craft shows for my Therapy Pack business as well as a place to put artwork and pictures of the kids. All of the pieces (the watering can, raindrops, umbrellas, flower pot accent piece and flower accent come from the same set and I still have more pieces although not a lot of them to use for other things. I'm thinking about making up a weather display and may use an umbrella and a raindrop for the rainy weather picture and we'll talk about rainy days as well as Sunny Days and appropriate clothes and gear we might need on those days.

I really liked the Spring Mini Bulletin Board Set - it's very versatile and while I am using it for tot school I think you could use it to create a game using the Blank Header for Counting and Alphabet review, use the raindrops and umbrellas for calendar time or perhaps to make up a folder game to review math or phonics problems and so much more. It's only $6.99 too!

The Fingerplays and Nursery Rhymes used in the top display are:

1) 5 Little Green & Speckled Frogs
2) This is my Garden
     I'll plant it with care.
     Here are the seeds
     I'll plant in there.
     The Sun Will Shine,
     The Rain will fall
     The Seeds will sprout
     and grow up tall! 
3) Mary Mary Quite Contrary
4) Jack N Jill (she LOVES this one)
5) Here are the Bees Hives (and this one)
    Where are the Bees?
    Hidden away where no one sees (make a fist)
    Soon they'll come creeping 
    Out of the hives
    1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Bzzzz
    (hold fingers up as you count and then go Bzzzz!)
6) Here is a bunny (hold up 2 fingers)
    With ears so funny
    And here's a hole in the ground. (make a hole with your other hand)
    At the first sound she hears
    She pricks up her ears  (stand fingers up tall)
    And pops right into the ground. (pop fingers into the hole)

Disclaimer: I received a package of the Spring Mini Bulletin Board Set to review. I was not required to have a positive review only to share my honest opinion. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Teacher Aids by Carson Dellosa: Interactive Notebooks Science

Interactive Notebooks: Science Resource Book
When you were a child did you learn better with rote memory work - or hands on interactive learning? I've always been a visual learn myself and would of loved working on Interactive Notebooks in Science & Natural History classes especially. I've always enjoyed books that incorporate flaps, wheels, charts, and other hands on methods for learning. The opportunity to "make it myself" would of been a huge plus too!

Today I wanted to share another book from the Interactive Notebooks series from Carson Dellosa. I've used their books for years both as a nanny and a daycare provider & I like how complete their books are and yet I can still tweak many of the activities to meet a variety of ages.

by Carson Dellosa Publishing
ISBN: 9781483831206
$9.99 (paperback) (ebook)

Details (from the website):
1) Kids learn about 5 senses, plants, animals, physical properties, motion, day & night & more!
2) Notebooks are personalized to fit kids' learning needs by creating fun, colorful pages for each top. Kids learn organization, color coding, summarizing & other skills.
3) Kids will refer back to and "read" their books over and over again which encourages review and constant learning.
4) Each book focuses on grade-specific math, language arts or science. Books are for grades K-8.
5) Each book is aligned to Common Core & meet current state standards. 
6) Each book contains 96 pages of lesson plans, printables and more.



My thoughts:
I recently received the Interactive Notebooks Science book for Kindergartners and have had fun looking through it. I don't know about you but I am SOOOO ready for Spring to be here and to be honest I'm ready to jump the gun a bit and drag out my plants, seeds, pots and soil and have some fun with the little kids. How about you?

The Interactive Notebooks Science book is a 96 page teacher's guide that includes printables, how to's, covers Life Science, Physical Science & Earth and Space Science and I think with 2 year old Gianna instead of doing a whole notebook we would take it in small chunks and use the printables & ideas for learning about the 5 Senses, Plants, Animal Habitats and maybe Space. I'd take an activity for the Stars & Animals and make it tie into some of her favorite songs like Old MacDonald & Twinkle Twinke Little Star as well as He Has the Whole World In His Hands. She could easily do one page activities during her Tot School Time.

You can purchase this book on Carson Dellosa's website here or you can also find it on Amazon here for the same price. If you purchase it on Amazon I receive a small commission which helps me provide fun Tot School Activities & toys for Gianna & it's greatly appreciated!

I have reviewed other Carson Dellosa items. Click the image below to read those reviews as well:


Interactive Notebooks: Language Arts Resource BookCommon Core Assessment Record Book

Disclaimer: I received this book from Carson Dellosa in exchange for my honest review. No money exchanged hands and I was not required to have a positive review. Thanks for reading GivingNSharing!

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Fontenelle Forest _ Bellevue, NE

Thursday I started going Stir Crazy - ever feel that way? Tuesday/Wednesday I had a lighter version of one of my migraines thanks to not getting good sleep on Sunday/Monday - it started with the over sensitivity to sound on Tuesday and left me feeling limp and irritable. By Thursday though it was over - so after being more or less housebound for 2 days and sleeping 14 hours on Wednesday night and waking up feeling more myself on Thursday we were ready to go do something - ANYTHING.

I thought about taking the girls to the Zoo but to be honest I've never really liked going to the zoo. Usually we just go to the Acquarium and the Lied Jungle. Now that Gigi is mobile and I have her walk 99% of the time (actually we haven't had the stroller in the car for a couple months) or in a cart if we go shopping I'm sure the zoo will be much more enjoyable since she will want to be up close and personal with ALL the exhibits. I'll let you know....


At the last minute I decided to hit Fontenelle Forest. Fontenelle Forest is located in Bellevue, Nebraska about 15 minutes from my house via I80 & Hwy 75. It's one of Nebraska's oldest conservation organizations and one of the largest private nature centers in the nation. It also owns Neale Woods and encompasses about 2000 acres of forest, prairie & wetlands along the Missouri River which is part of the Loess Hills. Ok, enough history. You can read more about that here.


If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder.... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in. ~ Rachel Carson

Fun & Educational for kids....
Fontenelle Forest is a wonderful playground for kids & their parents. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday they have a program in the morning for preschoolers called Mudpies. Mudpies is a toddler & preschooler focused art, storytime & social time designed to bring kids closer to nature by playing with nature. They paint with flowers, fingerpaint, do playdo, play with blocks, puppets, watch the birds in the birdhouse, go for walks on the boardwalk, do sensory play, etc... Gigi is finally getting old enough I can take her & hopefully I can find a day it isn't so crowded so we can enjoy ourselves. Fridays they are open to daycares and preschools but since I only have 1-2 kiddos we'll go one of the other days. During the summer they have camps for older kids who can also volunteer and during the school year there are mini camps of just a few hours for the little kiddos.

You can also walk over 26 miles of trails and the handicapped & families with strollers are welcome and provided with a beautiful boardwalk to make it easily accessible to everyone! Gianna was initially afraid of the boardwalk but once she started running it was hard to get her to stop. She loved looking over the rails and seeing the birds & "quirrels" as they ran or flew around. 


Scary wobbly treehouse
Our focus as we walked was to find Acorn Alley where they have put in a natural playground for the kids to explore and play. The only toys to be found are sticks and of course the group of homeschool kids there decided they made fantastic guns. The girls basically blew them off though and played around them. Both girls fell in love with the Zylophone - they have 2 of them set up and they run the entire scale from higher to lower notes. There is also a neat natural pond that Gianna promptly walked into the water to explore and a cute little bird hopped around drinking. 

From there you can walk a bit further and Tom's Treehouse comes up. The girls were a little afraid of the back portion of it. This section wobbles as you walk up the stairs and I'm not sure if that is intentional or not (and I forgot to mention something to the staff) but once Gianna got over being scared of the wobbliness she went up it several times. Then she came across the bridge that went between both sections of the treehouse & got scared all over again. 

I think if the "Wild Boys" hadn't been there we might have stayed a little longer. We went over lunch time and Maddie wasn't starting to build a real attitude so we ended up needing to leave. Next time I will make sure we go to Mudpies first. I think both girls would of really enjoyed that and then eat a little lunch around 11, play for a bit and then head home for an earlier naptime. Even though I made sure Gigi had about an hour nap in the AM she could of benefited from a longer one so she would cry the whole way home...

Invest in a membership card....
Membership with Fontenelle Forest is much more reasonable than the Zoo and the Children's Museum and as the girls get older it will be the one that I keep yearly. At $35 for an individual (Me) I can get in even when they are closed to walk the trails and I can bring friends for 1/2 price anytime ($3.50/adult or $2.50/child over 2) and at $55 per family I can bring 2 adults & 2 children & I've already asked and since I have such a small daycare they said I could do the family membership so we can take advantage of the classes such as Mudpies and the outdoor nature playground. Families with older kiddos can take advantage of Canoeing trips, lying out and looking at the stars, exploring with a guide and so much more! To me that is worth it!

Linked up @ 


This is not a sponsored post.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Tot School Fall Sensory Activities


We are now heading into October (yay!) and Gianna is getting so big. She is loving Tot School and I have been trying to incorporate more sensory activities like Pumpkin Playdough, hunting for acorns & colorful leaves and this fun sensory box.

Materials I used:
  • Various plant picks with leaves, pumpkins, scarecrows, etc from the fabric store (Joanne's has a nice selection)
  • We used last months oatmeal but you could use corn, hay, acorns, birdseed, etc
  • leaf shaped serving trays from Dollar Tree
I began by purchasing 6 fall picks from the floral section at Joanne Fabrics. 
Having 2 girls meant having to get 2 of everything. Pumpkins (these could
also be used for graduating size activities), Scarecrows, Flowers (Mums in 
this case). There were lots of leaves on all of them.


I pulled off all the pumpkins, leaves & flowers. The Scarecrows stayed 
on the pick as I didn't have any wire cutters. I just watched Gianna to
make sure she wasn't poking someone's eyes out or trying to chew on them.


I found these neat leaf shaped trays at Dollar Tree for $1 and they are the 
PERFECT size for a high chair tray. They don't hold much I don't quite trust 
her on the floor not to be carrying it all over the place but still for a 
toddler they are a nice size.


Throw in a little bowl and a spoon or two and she is happy 
for a good 1/2 hour to hour at a time (sometimes longer)!

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