Spoon Sort

This was a quick and easy sort I created within minutes.  I was working on making some other food trays and E was playing around with some of the things I have stored away.  

He pulled out the pom poms and started spooning them into some bowls.  I made a joke about the purple ones looking like grapes and things began to snowball.  Soon, the red ones were cherry tomatoes, the  tiny green ones became peas, yellow turned to corn, and the pink ones were cherries.

I went downstairs and grabbed something that I knew would be perfect for this activity and a tray was born.

Shape Sorter

I haven't posted anything for T for quite some time and I wanted to mention one of my favorite basket toys to use with him.  We have a bucket very similar to the one pictured below.  It is a basic shape sorter but also has nesting cups.    

Long before starting tray time with E, I used to sit and work with him on this toy.  With both boys, I only presented circles and squares to start with to give them a better chance of success.

Online Food Games

I found a few food games online that E has been playing the last few weeks.

Sid the Science Kid has a game where you have to pick food and put it on a plate for Sid.  The goal is to pick a food from each group.   At first it was hard, but E soon realized that the foods light up to match the colors on the plate.

Sesame street also has some food games and videos that E enjoyed.  The nice thing about this site is you can search within each section for selections tagged food.

Pasta Necklace

Continuing with our food theme, I had E make a pasta necklace this week.  This simple and classic activity is great for working those little fingers.

E liked the necklace so much that he wore it for quite some time after making it.  For the next few days, I would take the noodles off and have him practice making the necklace again.

Felt Board Food

The felt board/pocket chart I received for Christmas came with a set of pictures and words all pertaining to a farm theme.  I pulled out the food words and pictures and made a quick reading activity for E.

I simply put the words in the pocket chart and added the pictures to the board on the top.  Then, I had E try and match the pictures to the words below.

He did a great job using first letter clues to figure out where everything went.

Sorting Food Groups

Today, I tried to explain to E that there are different food groups.  I used terms like different food families and he seemed to catch on somewhat.  That's what I thought until he later told his father that pie was a food group.

Nonetheless, we are continuing with the idea even if I simply succeed in making him aware that there are different groups of food and we need a bit of each in our meals everyday. 

I found a food group game (go figure) at a consignment sale a while back and decided to use the game pieces to make this tray.  We used my veggie platter to sort the pieces into different groups.  It helped that the pictures in each group had matching background colors.

We sorted them together and talked about the names of the groups as well as the foods within them.  We put the junk food in the middle and talked about how we should only have a little of these things and how they should be eaten after we have eaten from the other groups first or on special occasions.

Food Books

I went to the library this week in search of some books about food.  I wanted to find some fun books that were more than then pictures of food and descriptions of food groups.  These are a few of the fun books I found.

  

These are two books that E really liked.  The pictures are all of food made into very creative pictures.  We had fun reading them as well as trying to name what food each picture included.

This is a cute book with very simple text and pictures.

This book is a classic and for good reason.  Beyond the wonderful text and pictures, there are so many teaching points one can gather from it.  We have been reading it this week and I plan on exploring it further next week during tray time.

E is currently 35 months old.

Pancake Flip

In keeping with our food theme this week, I made a pancake game for E.  He loves pancakes and always wants to watch me make them.  Seeing his interest in wanting to flip the cakes (which obviously I never let him do), I made one of his trays into a griddle and let him have his hand at flipping.

I attached a piece of black felt to the tray to help make it look more like a griddle.  It ended up being necessary for E.  Without it, the pancakes slid all over the tray and were difficult to get under with the spatula. 

As for the pancakes themselves, I simply cut out circles, shaded them brown and laminated them.  To make the game a bit more challenging, I added sight words with dry erase marker.  I did this so I could change the words later without having to make more pancakes.

I had E flip the pancakes and say the sight word before turning over the next one.  He really got into and kept telling himself to hurry before they burned.  After he flipped the ones on the griddle, we added more  I had in waiting and kept on in this way for some time.

Play Grocery Store

This is simple but great idea my mother in-law gave me.  She saves old food boxes and turns them into store items for her grandchildren.  I decided to copy her.

I cleared a shelf in my pantry low enough for E to reach and then I added old boxes, containers and a grocery bag so that E could use it as his store.  He enjoys picking out items and is thrilled when a new item is added to the shelf.

This kind of activity is lends itself well to learning experiences.  For instance, E likes to try and fit all the items in his one bag and I was able to teach how to accomplish this.  I showed him how to pack the larger items first and then fill in the spaces to maximize his space.

E also likes to "check out".  We pretend to scan (and count) the items and he gets to practice how one pays and says "thank you".

Other times, we name the items and pretend to eat.  Or, I request he go to the store and pick up certain items for me.  He has even asked for a mixing bowl and spoon lately.  I see him gathering ingredients and making various recipes.

Early Readers

Last year, my wonderful in-laws called me to let me know that the school district they both worked for was giving away their old reading series books.  They asked me if I would be interested in them and of course I said yes.

E is starting to show an interest in reading and already knows a few sight words and so I dug through the books that I had stored away and found these to go along with our topic of food this month (there were so many).  Don't get me wrong, the literature isn't gripping or artful in any way, but these books definitely have their purpose with kids who are just learning to read.

Here is an example of what a lot of these books look like.  Very simple and rhythmic text make these books perfect for building E's confidence in reading.

Finger Working Food

I pulled out E's basket of cutting food to work his fingers and fine motor skills.

I also added white pom poms to different sized cups (different sized openings) and had him practice pouring without "spilling the milk".

Blender Math

This month, E and I are going to tackle the topic of food.  We started by using some fake fruit that I recently purchased at Target (decor section).  I decided the pack of fruit could be used for an activity that would work on E's counting and reading skills.

I had E pretend to make smoothies with them.  I got out my blender (blade removed for safety) and wrote up some recipe cards.  I added color words to help E.

He would read the cards, add the right fruit, and then "blend" it all together.

I was glad the fruit I bought ended up having different types of apples and pears.  It made the identification of fruit and reading a bit more challenging.

E really enjoyed this tray.  In fact, he wanted to make a smoothie for Daddy when he got home.

E is currently 35 Months

Ice Cube Game

E is still obsessed with the Hot Chocolate Game I made for him before Christmas and so I have been looking for ways to build upon the same concept.

So, while playing Don't Break the Ice after Christmas I thought to use the pieces as ice cubes in a new game.  In this one, rather than working on adding and subtracting, we worked on equal sharing (early division).

I found 4 see-through cups and made a die with multiples of 4 on each side (4, 12, 16, 20).  E rolls the die, counts out the number shown and then divides them among the cups equally.  

We simply practiced saying "1 in here, 1 in here, 1 in here, and 1 in here.  Now, 2 in here, 2 in here, 2 in here, 2 in here, and 2 in here."  We did this until all the cubes we had counted out were placed in cups.

At the end of each turn, we counted to make sure all the cups were equal (or matched as E says).  We then pretended to drink our drinks, dump the ice out, and do it again.

Several times E would have a pair that were not equal and it was a good chance for me to talk with him about how we could fix it.  By the end of the week, he was starting to grasp that you have to find the cup that has too many and move some ice to a cup that has too few.

E is currently 31 months old

Scarves for Snowman

Now that Christmas break is over and illness has cleared out of our house, we are finally back to our normal schedule.  Currently, we are doing some winter activities.

I received this pocket chart/felt board for Christmas and I was so excited.  I made a snowman with a set of different colored felt scarfs to go with him.  I then created snowman sentence strips that mimic the rhythm of Brown Bear, Brown Bear (see second photo for words I used).

I also made color word cards and had E practice putting the right word in the blank spot as we changed the snowman's scarf.