Henry is 31 months old.
After a one week fall break, tot school {and tot school co-op} were back this week. The letter is U, which is pretty challenging. We are starting on a streak of tough letters so hopefully I will be able to figure out some activities. Prior to this week Henry could say and identify the letter U.
On the first tray was a "you" activity. Since the letter U is limited, we did a few "you" activities. On this tray were pictures of each of the children in the co-op printed on a colored card. Then, there was a second card with the child's name printed on it in a dashed font. The children could then match their picture to their name, place it in a dry erase sheet, and use a marker to trace their name.
The name and picture cards were the same color so the activity was self-correcting. I think many of the children were able to find their name and picture, but not as many {including Henry} were able to actually trace their names. I think I will keep this activity in the classroom for a while so kids can do it whenever they want.
The second tray was a little fine motor work. The tray included a number of paper umbrellas and some floral foam. The idea was to poke the umbrellas into the foam. This was really popular and Henry's favorite tray for the week. It was easy enough for the kids to take the umbrellas out and put them in. Only downside was that the umbrellas are really fragile, so many took quite the beating. So, if you want to do this, have a lot of umbrellas on hand.
The final main tray was another umbrella activity. On the tray was a large colorful paper umbrella and some pop-poms. I place a circle in each color and increased the number in each color. That way, the activity was great for color-matching and for simple counting.
Other activities this week included:
Utensil sorting: I included a basket {with 4 sections} with a couple forks, knifes, and spoons. The kids could then sort the utensils out by type. This was another one of Hen's favorite.
Letter U Sensory Bin: For as small as it was, I was surprised that this actually got quite a bit of use by a lot of the children including Henry.
Letter U Magnet Board: This was really sad, just a couple of letter U's. Still, I saw a surprising number of kids using the tray.
Under, Over, In, and Out: On this tray, I included a cup and a ball with 4 cards picturing the ball under, over, in, and out of the cup. The kids could then replicated the action. This was one of those things that some kids picked up super quickly, and others really didn't understand. Henry didn't really understand it, he got in and out, but struggled with under.
"You" Matching: Using pictures of all the children, I created a simple matching game, using pictures of each of the children. Turned out to be an easy fun matching game.
