Tot School May 2012 Sea Life Week 4

Tot School
May 2012
Sea Life: Week 4

This week was a short week due to the Memorial Day holiday and with Roo's 6th month check up and all the prep needed for our big trip to California next week, I had to cut back on activities a bit.  It has been really exciting to see how the girls' vocabularies have been expanding over the last few weeks with all our new "S' words, beach words and names of sea creatures.  Both girls just seem to soak up the information and surprise me with their retention in fun and, of course, totally cute ways.  This unit has been one of my favorites so far!  I will be sad to draw it to a close, but I am super excited to experience it all in person in a few short days! I wish we could pack up little Leila and bring her with us!  I think her mom and dad would miss her too much though!  We will definitely have to take lots of pictures and share them with her and you all when we return.   Post-California trip I will take a week off to re-group, prep for June Bug and Lelia's joint birthday party and plan for our next unit.  Hmm...what will be next?  The possibilities are vast!  Any suggestions or requests?

BOOK OF THE WEEK:

In My Ocean
By: Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich

This book is a sturdy board book with great pictures and a dolphin finger puppet attached (as seen in picture above).  The girls loved taking turns making the dolphin swim and dance through each page as I read to them.  Fun book!

BIBLE VERSE:

“The sea is His, for He made it.  And His hands formed the dry land.”  Psalm 95:5
(Corresponds with a great song from Songs for Saplings: ABCs)

LETTER of the MONTH: S

      · S is for sailboat. (See Art Connection below.)
      · S is for seaweed. (cut different strips shaped like seaweed from different textured materials and
                                      have you tot glue onto paper.)

MUSIC CONNECTION:  Sail Boat, Sail Boat (from Perpetual Preschool)
Tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle"

Sail boat, sail boat in the sea
won't you come and carry me
through the ocean, through the bay
to a place that's far away
Sail boat, sail boat in the sea
won't you come and carry me

ART CONNECTION:  Sailboat Picture

            For this activity you will need:
                 · construction paper triangle
                 · construction paper half circle
                 · construction paper rectangle
                 · glue
                 · blue construction paper

           To make:  Have your tot identify each shape and its color and then glue them down in the
            appropriate places to make a sail boat.

The girls have really mastered the art of squeezing glue onto paper!  They are understanding the concept of spreading the glue out to cover the whole shape.  Both girls are even finding the long term satisfaction of keeping the glued items on the paper rather than immediately trying to rip what they glued back off!

Both girls were able to identify the colors red, yellow and blue.  Brown was still a challenge.  They were able to identify the triangle, but not a half circle (hard concept) or the rectangle.  We haven't done too much work with names of shapes yet.  We will have to incorporate more of this in the months to come!







June Bug proudly showing off her sail boat picture!

SENSORY SKILLS:

            Floating Sailboats~ WE GOT A WATER TABLE!!!  If you don’t have a water table, you can
            fill a plastic bin with water and have your tot float the toy sailboats, plastic seaweed from 
            a pet store and  sea creatures.

           Sensory Bin~ continued from previous weeks

FOOD FUN:  We did quite a few food related projects this week.  Yum!

As you can see from the pictures, the first thing both June Bug and Leila did once their plates were in front of them was scrape off the peanut butter with their finger and lick it.  Too funny!  Sometimes I think they must plan moments like these out in their own toddler talk language!

Apple Boats

            What you will need for this activity:
                   ·  Apples (cut in half)
                   ·  Peanut butter (or any nut spread)
                   ·  Pretzel sticks
                   ·  Cheese, cut in a triangle(or any fruit/veggie)

            To make:
                  1. Cut the apple in half.
                  2. Spread peanut butter on the fleshy side.
                  3. Stick a pretzel stick into the apple and put cheese/fruit/veggies through the top of the  
                      stick to create a mast. 

Leila LOVED these stuffed eggs!  June Bug took one bite, spit it out and said, "I don't like it." I personally didn't care for them either, but I have never been a double stuffed egg fan.  My husband, on the other hand, loved them. So I guess you either love them or hate them!  They were fun to make regardless.  We also mixed thawed organic frozen blueberries into organic plain yogurt to create our "sea" for the sail boats.

Stuffed Egg Sailboats

What you will need for this activity:
      ·  2 hard boiled eggs
      ·  1 tsp apple cider vinegar
      ·  2 tbsp organic mayonnaise
      ·  ½ tsp mustard
      ·  cheese, cut in the shape of a triangle

To make:
      1.  Slice hard boiled eggs in half.  Remove  
       yolks and use a fork to mix yolks with above
       ingredients.
      2.  Stuff egg whites.
      3. Place a triangular shaped cheese slice on   
       top to create a sail.

 

Seaweed Sushi
I was trying to think of activities that we could do pertaining to seaweed when I got the idea of making vegetarian sushi!  I found a great simple "make-it-at-home" instructions on a website called Home Made Simple (click to check it out!) 

            What you will need for this activity:
                 ·  nori, aka dried, edible, seaweed (Whole Foods sells it, as does many local ethnic food  
                    markets)
                 ·  Japanese or sushi white rice (different than your typical American rice)
                 ·  cucumber
                 ·   avacado
                 ·  vinegar
                 ·  sugar
                 ·  soy sauce
                 ·   sushi mat (thin bamboo strips used to push sushi together)

            To make:
                 1. Rinse sushi rice in a fine strainer, until the rinse water runs clear. Then, cook sushi rice
                     according to package directions.
                 2.  In a small bowl, combine vinegar, sugar and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Transfer rice to a wide
                      nonmetal bowl (preferably wood, ceramic, or glass) and sprinkle with vinegar mixture, 
                      tossing gently with a large spoon to combine. Cool rice, tossing occasionally, about 15
                      minutes.
                 3.  Cut up cucumbers and avocados into thin strips.
                 4.  Place 1 sheet of nori, with the shiny side down, on the sushi mat, with a long edge of the
                      sheet nearest you. Gently press about ¾ cup of rice onto the nori, leaving a 1 ¾ inch
                      border on the side farthest from you.
                 5.  Arrange your ingredients in even strips horizontally across rice, starting 1 inch from         
                      side nearest you. Beginning with the edge nearest you, roll the mat over so that the upper
                      and lower edges of rice meet. Then squeeze gently but firmly along the length of the
                      partially rolled up mat. The nori border will still be flat on mat. Open the mat and roll                          log out to seal the rest of the nori border.
                 6. Move the roll, seam side down, onto a cutting board, and cut the log crosswise into 6
                     pieces with a wet, thin-bladed knife.