Monday, January 25, 2010

Tot School

Tot School

We spent a week on Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone - that is a super book! I could read it all day! We also read Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman - another favorite! We used the Itty-Bitty Bookworm curriculum and did some other stuff, too...

I made a cat mask. First you paint a paper plate VERY carefully. Mix yellow and black and brown paint. DO NOT mix in the white paint! Eat a waffle while doing this if you need extra sustenance.
Then Mommy hides the plate so it can dry. After you've forgotten all about it, she brings it back out so you can cut out eye holes (with her help) and glue on a pompom nose and pipe cleaner whiskers and pink ears. The pipe cleaners don't stay on very well unless you staple them.

You maybe have to wait for the glue to dry - though I don't see why. Then you can chase after Flamey the cat with the mask.

Mommy read a story about colorful cats. Every time she mentioned specific color, I had to bring up the right cat on a stick.

Guess she must have just mentioned the green cat! Personally, dogs on sticks are much tastier, I think. I decided to cut up the cats with my handy dandy scissors when we were done with the story. I like cutting things up into tiny pieces!

Here I am showing you how a cat walks! I can clean myself like a cat, too...

I'm practicing my throwing skills; Pappa says they can use some improvement. Here I'm tossing a mitten (stuffed with socks) into a wheelbarrow.

On the subject of mittens, we read The Mitten by Jan Brett. I love this book! I love lots of Jan Brett books! Then I colored the animals from the book with lots of bright colors, while Mommy cut out some mitten printouts and stapled them together. There were some new animal names for me, like hedgehog and badger.

After I colored the animals, Mommy cut them out and I put them into the mitten in the same order they went in from the book. Though it was much easier to fit paper animals in than real animals!

I also did a Do-a-Dot picture of the mitten with a mole and rabbit...

And I made a rainbow with the Do-a-Dot marker lids! I was very proud of it...

Let's see - I also painted a sleigh so I could pull my animals through the snow while I sang Jingle Bells. I even had the bright idea to paint the runners white so it'd look like snow.

Mommy made a cat for me to eat! The mouth was the best part. I liked the ears, too.

We did a cat experiment to see if Flamey liked the toy mouse or the ball of yarn better. Big fat lazy cat didn't like either of them!

Speaking of ball of yarn, this is me rolling up the yarn into a ball. Tedious business, I tell you.

We made a paper-stuffed cat and then made a bed for the kitty in a shoebox. He likes it there, because he is asleep. Blue is a perfect color for a cat.

I washed my mittens, just like the kittens in the book did! And my hat, too. But I didn't like the pie. Just whipped cream for me, please!

And I washed my feet, too. Bonus points for that!

I also did some alphabet matching - I know all the big letters and am getting lots of practice matching up the smaller letters to the big ones.

Modeling clay was a favorite activity...

Here is a crab I made all by myself! Scary looking, huh?

I made a dog - all by myself! - from the Jukka set Grandma & Grandpa got me. Only I guess it was supposed to be a cat.

I also played with my winter people that Auntie Ann got from Russia.

And one of my favorite activities of the week was one I invented all by myself! I threaded a shoe lace in and out of the holes in the utility shelf in my room. And I practiced tying bow ties, too. I can get the first knot right, but I'm still working on the rabbit ears.

That's it for now, folks!

4 comments:

silly eagle books said...

I love Paul Galdone, but have never seen his Three Little Kittens book! I especially love the kitty cat paper plate. I will have to let my daughter do that--our favorite version of that story is one by Lilian Obligado: I reviewed it here:
http://www.sillyeaglebooks.com/2009/04/three-little-kittens.html

thanks for sharing all the great ideas!

ShEiLa said...

Lots of cats in these photos.

I have a CAT as the topic of my post today too. Kitty's are fun... mostly... sometimes NOT! Cats and balls of yarn just go together.

ToOdLeS.

Anonymous said...

Esme, You are getting so big, so fast and learning so many cool things!! Thank you to you and your mommy for posting the pictures and activities so we can share in your fun! Love and Hugs!
A. Susan

Debbie said...

I love everything you did this week! The cats are adorable!