After a few week break to get our lives back in order, Henry and I were back to
tot school this week! We officially moved on from colors to shapes. Our first shape was circle. Along with the focus on shapes, I have decided to start adding a theme or context which we will use to teach the shape. Each theme will last two weeks. The first theme is fruit!
Sadly, Henry wasn't nearly as excited to be back to tot school as I was. He was basically on strike. He cried every single day. He wanted nothing to do with the trays and downright refused to even go to the classroom twice. I'm really hoping he just didn't feel good this week -- he's getting four teeth right now. But, part of me also thinks he just hated the trays this week, and I'm the first to admit they were a little uninspired -- I just don't know.
The activity wall was made of the same three components as for the colors series -- the magnet board,
felt board, and the
weather wall. On the magnet board, I had round fruit slice magnets {Target dollar spot}. Hen ignored them. On the felt board, I took away all of the colored related characters and replaced them with different sized circles. Henry liked those, but kept asking about "Elmo." The weather wall was the same.
The tot trays this week were alright. Henry ignored them for the most part. The first was a take on the sensory bins we had done with colors. It was meant to be a transitional piece from colors to shapes. But with the time gap, it didn't quite work. For the tray, I put a bunch of circles and round objects in a round muffin tin. Each object or group had its own spot. It allowed Hen to play with a variety of things, but in a little more ordered way. It included balls, buttons,
squeeze tops, slinky, sponge, wooden blocks and several other objects. Henry enjoyed dumping the tray out, and trying to put the smaller things in his mouth.
The second tray was a paper puzzle that I made and laminated. I traced different sized circles from scrap booking paper to make three circles, then cut those circles into shapes. The shapes were then numbered to correspond to their place on the laminated sheet. Henry never played with it. Sad.
The third tray was a large circle with the question, "What would you like in your fruit salad?" I then had a small apple/tomato {not really sure - Target dollar spot} shaped container with
fruit cards from 1+1+1=1 inside. Henry really loved the cards. He didn't really put them in the circle, but we went over and over the names of the fruit. His favorite was coconut and he carried it everywhere when we were in our classroom.
The book bin was empty this week for no reason other than I forgot my library card when we went. Oops. Lesson learned -- check your wallet before leaving the house.
And sadly, we didn't get to any of the other crafts/activities I had planned. He just wasn't interested, and I didn't have the energy to fight him.
Anyone else dealt with a tot school strike? How did you deal with it?
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