Sunday, October 25, 2009

G Adventures

Tot School
Well, we've successfully condensed a letter's worth of activities into one week and still had a great time!
Here's what we did for "G" week (once again, sorry the pictures float in Firefox - they match up with text in IE):

Lapbook: Green.

Song.
  • Ten Green Bottles.
Book.
  • Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley (a favorite).
Food.
  • Sprite from a green bottle.
  • Green food! That's broccoli, okra, spinach tortellini, green olive, avocado, spinach tortilla with cream cheese roll-up, green apples, green grapes, and snap pea crisps.
  • And I got to snap green beans...
Science.
  • We mixed yellow and blue to get green. First we did paints.
  • And then I painted a tree with my green paint. With some guidance from Mommy.
  • And then we mixed playdough, and I made a snake!
Physical Activity.
  • We did a green scavenger hunt outside.
Adventures...
First, we went grocery shopping! And when we got back home, we sorted out all the green food we bought.
Then we made my lapbook! On the front cover is a big G with grapes all over it - I used my Do-a-Dot markers to make the grapes.
On the inside is a letter "G" mini-book, a "green" flap book, a "garden" mini-book, 10 green bottles under a fridge flap, and a "God is love" verse under a "G" in sign language flap.
And on the back side is my G for girl coloring page...
Animals: Giraffe and Goat.

Song.
  • Bill Grogan's Goat.
Book.
  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone (my absolute favorite book ever!).
  • The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
Food.

  • Goat's milk. It was okay, but not perfect.
  • Animal cracker goats. Mommy said I was a troll for eating goats, but I'm really not. I'm the littlest billy goat.
  • Grilled cheese sandwich and a salad that even a goat would eat! (And veggie booty and green grapes.)
  • Oh yeah - that broccoli left over from my green meal yesterday? I ate the whole pot of it - cold - with ranch dip! Yummy!
Science.

  • To go along with the Billy Goat book, we did bridge experiments. First we made a bridge out of three pieces of paper - and it didn't hold stuff up so well.
  • Then we took one of those those three pieces of paper and folded it with a fan fold, creating triangles if you look at it sideways. When you stick that paper between the other two, those same three pieces of paper can hold a whole lot. I LIKE triangles!
Physical Activity.

  • Also to go along with the Billy Goat book, we did lots of 3x exercises. Three jumps, three push-ups, etc.
Adventures...
Mommy showed me how to make horns (cones) from construction paper so I could play like a billy goat. Yep, I am definitely the littlest billy goat. Though Pappa keeps telling me I'm a nanny goat.
And we made finger puppets for the three goats and the troll and acted the story out LOTS of times.
We talked about what is bigger than me and what is smaller than me - like how the three billy goats were 3 different sizes. I decided that pumpkins and trolls and pizza are bigger than me.
We drew a freehand giraffe. Mommy copied instructions from a book and I copied Mommy.
Then we made a giraffe craft. Mommy put all the shapes together, then I painted it brown and put yellow spots on it.
Pretty cool, huh?!
Plus, we had a miracle-grow giraffe that started out REALLY small.
After four days of soaking, it had grown a whole lot!
I like giraffes... Here I am hanging out with one in my class at church.
Seasonal: Fall.

Song.
  • Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
Book.
  • My Happy Pumpkin by Crystal Bowman (a favorite).
Food.
  • Pumpkin cupcakes - my favorite part was the green gumdrop stem!
  • Apple cobbler -
  • made from the last apples from our orchard!
Science.

  • After collecting leaves (see next item), Mommy put one of each kind of leaf on the table and gave me another set of each leaf to match up to the leaves on the table.
Physical Activity.

  • We raked leaves.
  • And I rode my bicycle.
  • We collected leaves outside on a "signs of fall" nature walk.
  • And we had leaf "blizzards" inside to music!
Adventures...
With all those leaves, we did some leaf rubbings with crayons.
We made a dancing pumpkin man from poster board and brads! My favorite part was making the hands - and then making the man dance when he was done.
We made Peter and his wife finger puppets.
We did some pumpkin graphing for a math activity...
And we did some gumdrop counting and toothpick sculptures. Only they didn't last long - I ate them in two sittings...
Country: Greece and Italy.

Song.
  • We watched Italian opera on DVD. Definitely NOT my style - I didn't last long!
Book.
  • Cooking the Greek Way by Lynne W. Villios.
  • Goofy and the Gondola: An Adventure in Italy from Disney's Small World Library.
  • Pizza Kittens by Charlotte Voake (a favorite).
  • Tony's Bread by Tomie de Paola.
  • The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herm Auch.
Food.
  • Pizza - made with spinach and feta cheese for a Greek flavor...
Science.

  • We did a gravity experiment. Mommy asked me what would fall faster - a big ball or a little ball. Of course, the bigger one! We checked it out...
Physical Activity.

  • I played on my swing!
Adventures...
We made stained glass!
Actually, we painted a pyrex lid (the bottom had broken) with acrylic paints.
And I had a glow stick to play with when I went to bed that night. Pink, of course!

Food/Bible: Ginger, Garlic, Grapes, and God.

Song.
  • Jesus Loves Me
Book.
  • Dr. Welch and the Great Grape Story by Mary Lou Carney.
Food.
  • Ginger and garlic stir fry. With lots of green and gluten.
Science.

  • We talked about growing. First you plant a tiny seed, then you water it (we played with a spray bottle filled with water), and the sun shines on it (we played with the lights), and it grows!
  • I "made" a garden with floral foam and flowers (and water and light).
  • And we checked out how much I've grown! Here's a piece of yarn that shows how tall I was when I was born, and another piece that shows how tall I am now! 20 inches to 36 inches...
Physical Activity.

  • We checked out our grapes and picked some! They are just about ready for making juice...
Adventures...
I learned how to say "God is love" in sign language. And I made a Jesus Loves Me mini-book using glitter glue.
I did a ginger/garlic sniff test with peeled ginger and garlic. I think I like ginger best. And I helped Mommy make the green stir fry.
And I played with my sensory tub - filled with dried garbanzos and dried green peas. Actually, I had that to play with all week.
I've been taking good care of the camels that live in my sensory tub!
And I've been doing some worksheets, too.
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If you have a post or link related to "G" Activities for toddlers, link up here!

6 comments:

Rose said...

What a full, fun week. I'm impressed.

Nicole {tired, need sleep} said...

I can't believe how much you pack into one week! These are all great G activities and I'm saving your whole post for when we get to G. Thanks for sharing all of this with us!

sheila said...

I love the letter G, it's a happy letter, lol. And it's for Giveaway, which coincidentally I'm having today, lol. How funny is THAT!

ShEiLa said...

So busy...
the construction paper cones remind me of a certain head wear in the old Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella.

I am always amazed at the amount of projects you get going. Wow!

ToOdLeS.

peata said...

lots goin on there.
you should send the pics of the giraffes to the 1,000,000 Giraffes project http://www.olahelland.net/giraffes/blog.php
cool.

scrapbook-crazy.com

Laski said...

Wow! How much fun is she having??? So many fun ways to learn G!!!