Tot School: Rainbows and Noah's Ark

This week was a whirlwind of activity. Aside from having extra kids every day (not that I mind them at all!), Zak was home Monday-Wednesday and we were just enjoying having him around. So even though I had a plethora of activities planned we only touched a little of what I wanted to do. Fortunately, we will be revisiting the rainbow/Noah's ark theme again in August sometime and now I have a whole bunch of planned activities!

MONDAY
I made kool-aid playdoh. It smelled so nice and had the most vibrant colors I've been able to get thus far making my own dough. It was intended for them to make rainbows, but this mommy made one is the only rainbow that was created. lol The kids had their own ideas, but they really enjoyed themselves.

I didn't put too many trays together this week because, well, I just didn't have much time too. Plus, the kids didn't have as much of a need for them this week with Zak being home. They would much rather play with him. These are little letters that I got at the Dollar Tree. Asa worked on these for quite a while at the beginning of the week.
He found the letter K. He was pretty excited about it. :)
TUESDAY
I believe that I got this idea from Meet the Dubiens, but it may have been somewhere else. lol So many good ideas out there it is hard to keep track of them all! All this is is bath 'paints' made with shaving cream and food coloring. The kids had a good time with them.
Painting away. The boys honestly thought it was much more cool to dump the paints in the water and change the water color. lol
WEDNESDAY
Working hard coloring his ark and rainbow.
When he was finished I cut out the windows and he pasted animals under them. So it was a lift-a-flap type project. Asa's is the top picture.
These are a couple other activities that I had set up for the kiddos in the school room (which we didn't spend much time in this week due to it being messy and I didn't feel like cleaning it). These color charts are easily recognizable as Jolanthe's. I printed them off from Homeschool Creations and Asa had a great time sorting the colors (because anything done in a pocket chart makes it way cooler than if it wasn't done with a pocket chart...according to Asa).
I found this really cute Noah's ark shelf at Goodwill. I gathered all of our little stuffed animals. I was envisioning a 'toss game', but the holes turned out to be a little small. However, the kids really enjoyed just playing with it and the animals. It turned out to be a great story telling prop.
THURSDAY
We had school time in pajamas on Thursday. :) I got out their animal stamps and they had fun stamping animals into a picture of the ark.
We also did a fun color mixing wheel activity. This was Asa's first time using a dropper and he did a really good job! The color wheel can be printed off from Mama Jenn's.
He really like this activity and we actually did it several more times.
Rainbow Rr for the letter wall.
FRIDAY
We kind of changed themes and we did a lot of rabbit activities on Friday. I was reading a blog that jogged my memory of this book. I really loved it when I was little (this is actually my book!). We used these really cute If/Then cards the second time through the story to help Annabelle and Asa retell the story. They both really love activities like this. You can find these cards at Homeschool Share. This is a phenomenal website with tons of fantastic free printables.
Working on retelling the story.
This cute Rr sort and other rabbit printables can be found at Home Grown Hearts. These are really too easy for Asa now, but I like to do them for review.
Here he is doing a rabbit size sort from the same link mentioned above.
I love floor puzzles, and even more than that my kids love them. lol So whenever I see them at second hand stores and garage sales I buy them. I also really like that it is an activity in where the end result comes about easier when they work together instead of separately. Every time they do a puzzle together it gets easier and easier for them to work together and communicate. I'm hoping that will flow into other areas of their lives. They even worked together and made funny faces for this picture. :)
SILAS
Poor Silas didn't have too many activities planned for him this week. Don't feel too bad for him though because he got lots of cuddling one on one time with daddy. He did join in with us on Monday for some play-doh fun. However, he didn't like it much. I think he was just confused as to what he was supposed to do with it.
Enjoying bath painting time. He will do anything if it involves a bath. :)

This Melissa and Doug Noah's ark toy was a $5 find on Craigslist. I love finding good deals! And Silas likes good deals too.
We also played with his animal magnets. This little boy has such a temper, and it usually stems from frustration. He cannot handle being frustrated or not being able to do things. For instance, he had a complete meltdown shortly after this picture was taken because he could not fit all the animals on the cookie sheet like he wanted. He was so angry! Finally, after he calmed himself down I showed him that we could stick the magnets on the fridge. They are still hanging there today and he has quite enjoyed them there and has had no tantrums since. lol

I am also very impressed that he knows so many animals. He may not be able to say their names, but if I tell him to find the zebra he will find the zebra for me (granted he's in the mood to play that game). I also thought it was really cute that he was trying to have me find the elephant. He kept saying, "Where da Eeee?" I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was saying until he finally gave up on me figuring it out, picked up the elephant and said, "There is!" What a cutie. :)
That wraps our week up. We had fun. Next week we'll be back to our normal routine. We are doing an Occupations theme. Should be fun! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

I am linking this up to 1+1+1=1. Head on over and see what other cool tots are up to.