Alrighty mommy friends!!! Last week I made the decision to finally dive into some sort of Tot School Structure for Beckett. Today, I've got September's plan built and ready for take off!
First, however, let me clarify that this is just as much a trial and error thing for me as it will be for any other mommy reading this. Of course, my background is in education so I have a pretty good concept of planning & teaching but I've never done THIS before, so bear with me as I figure out what works for us!
A few notes on my monthly plans:
1. They are not a detailed lesson plan intended to walk you through a lesson. They are a list of ideas to incorporate into a schedule and routine that works for you. We plan to work three mornings a week (he's in Parents Day Out the other two) and will choose activities based on our time & mood! I'm not sure if I will do ANY scheduling or planning yet, but I threw this diddy into the download just incase that's how you roll. ;)
2. I do not plan on listing ALL of my activities for learning the alphabet. There are a few alphabet activities in the plan, but we will also continue using the same activities we've been doing, and will incorporate them in our daily Tot School Time. You can check out our favorite activities here. They are working well for us. At this point, Beckett (21 months) can identify most of his letters and a couple sounds.
3. I plan to incorporate counting throughout. There will not be a lot of specific counting lessons. We will count the things we see & use during fine motor activities. We will assume “counting mats” is on every plan. [You can grab my free counting mats here].
And that's it!! So now for September!!!! (I'm really excited, ya'll).
This month's theme is "Things that Go." I chose it because Beckett is really into cars & trucks right now, so I thought it would easily hold his attention. Also, we already have a trip planned to the fire department at the beginning of October, so it just worked for us!
Here's a look at our list of activities for the month. You can download this printout here.
I chose 8 fine motor activities to prepare. I don't have a specific goal for how many we complete. If the same activity entertains him every day for the entire month, so be it! I hope to do at least one adventure per week, but that may be a lofty goal with a newborn! We'll see! I just gathered all of my materials for the month, and we'll keep the box handy for every morning together.
I went on a scavengar hunt through my house to look for any books that have a transportation theme. I was kind of dissapointed at how many I found! I was hoping to have an excuse to add a few books to our collection. Apparently there's no need. :) Here's the collection of books that will be in our book box this month:
Looking to bulk up your collection? Here are some of our favorite books from this stack.
I also plan to have a set of toys or manipulatives on hand each month. We had a good collection of cars already, but I wanted to make sure I had a variety of "things that go," so I hit up the Dollar Tree. This was very likely unecessary (don't tell my husband), but I had to pick up a couple of supplies for the fine motor activities anyway, so I just grabbed them while I was there! :)
I also made my first set of vocabulary cards, alphabet cards, & coloring sheets for this adventure! You can download these sets for FREE for until September 22 (after that it will be $1).
And now for rest of the goodies! Here is a list of links that will be helpful to to as you work through these activities. Note that some of the activities are my own ideas and will be coming to the blog in the next couple weeks!
My main goal is just to be intentional about spending time with little man, working on basic skills he needs. More specifically, I would like to:
- expand his vocabulary
- finish learning the alphabet names & sounds
- learn to count & identify numbers to 10
- provide new experiences
- provide new experiences
-prepare him for writing through fine motor activities
A few notes on my monthly plans:
1. They are not a detailed lesson plan intended to walk you through a lesson. They are a list of ideas to incorporate into a schedule and routine that works for you. We plan to work three mornings a week (he's in Parents Day Out the other two) and will choose activities based on our time & mood! I'm not sure if I will do ANY scheduling or planning yet, but I threw this diddy into the download just incase that's how you roll. ;)
2. I do not plan on listing ALL of my activities for learning the alphabet. There are a few alphabet activities in the plan, but we will also continue using the same activities we've been doing, and will incorporate them in our daily Tot School Time. You can check out our favorite activities here. They are working well for us. At this point, Beckett (21 months) can identify most of his letters and a couple sounds.
3. I plan to incorporate counting throughout. There will not be a lot of specific counting lessons. We will count the things we see & use during fine motor activities. We will assume “counting mats” is on every plan. [You can grab my free counting mats here].
And that's it!! So now for September!!!! (I'm really excited, ya'll).
This month's theme is "Things that Go." I chose it because Beckett is really into cars & trucks right now, so I thought it would easily hold his attention. Also, we already have a trip planned to the fire department at the beginning of October, so it just worked for us!
Here's a look at our list of activities for the month. You can download this printout here.
I went on a scavengar hunt through my house to look for any books that have a transportation theme. I was kind of dissapointed at how many I found! I was hoping to have an excuse to add a few books to our collection. Apparently there's no need. :) Here's the collection of books that will be in our book box this month:
Looking to bulk up your collection? Here are some of our favorite books from this stack.
I also plan to have a set of toys or manipulatives on hand each month. We had a good collection of cars already, but I wanted to make sure I had a variety of "things that go," so I hit up the Dollar Tree. This was very likely unecessary (don't tell my husband), but I had to pick up a couple of supplies for the fine motor activities anyway, so I just grabbed them while I was there! :)
I also made my first set of vocabulary cards, alphabet cards, & coloring sheets for this adventure! You can download these sets for FREE for until September 22 (after that it will be $1).
I would LOVE to hear what you think! Make sure to comment below or connect with me through Facebook or Instagram and let me know how it's going for you!! To keep up with these posts, follow me on Blog Lovin'.
Have a blog? Please feel free to link up below so we can share our ideas! :)
You have wonderful ideas! I'll have to add "Things That Go" to my list of Tot School themes! Thanks for the link-up, too!
ReplyDeleteI love all these ideas. I will be trying some of these with my two girls. Thanks so much for sharing....I'm always looking for different tot ideas!
ReplyDeleteLaura
www.discoveringhiddenpotential.com
You can never have too many books right?! Lots of great ideas! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteLaura
Over the 1st Grade Rainbow