Tot School–Beaches and Oceans

Nathanael is currently 38.5 months

Again, I’m later in posting this than I want to be, but I am working on getting back on track, so I’m going to post it anyway!

Tot school. It’s a little different with the second kid. With the first, I had a lot more time to devote to just her. We started earlier in her life. She’s a girl and she absolutely loves crafts and always has. Nate, on the other hand, is 3 and 2 months (yea, that means 38 months), and doesn’t know any of his letters or numbers. He excels at other things, but academics just do not interest him.

Now, remember when I said in my Weekly Wrap-up post that I had come up with the ideal schedule? And that I had this great idea for a co-op tot school? It’s all to encourage my dear son to learn something and not just play wedgits all day long.

So, here’s my great idea. I was throwing around ideas about what I was going to do this fall since I still have Liam until mid-October (he’s the 2-year-old that I watch in the mornings while his mommy works). I decided I wanted to do some form of tot school, maybe going back to Hubbard’s Cupboard or Kitchen Table Play and Learn, both of which worked decently well with Kahlen. I mentioned this idea to a friend (who has a 3.5-year-old), and she said jokingly “Hey, maybe we’ll join you” and a co-op was born. It expanded to two more families, and I now have 5 kids coming to my house twice a week for two hours. Two of the mommies come too, so I’m not alone with these crazy monkies, but I am doing the planning and the “teaching”. So far, it’s been really fun, but a lot of work too. They burn through activities like you wouldn’t believe! (Unless, of course, you’ve taught preschool before). My original ideas about just using lesson plans I already have didn’t hold up, and I’m making a new lesson plan now for every week. It’s still thematic, and not really based on a learning objective, but I want them to have fun while learning how to learn (geez, you’d think I tend toward classical education or something )

Last week was our first week (as I’ve already mentioned several times), so I’m still getting in the groove. Here’s our basic lesson plan for each week:

1. Sing a verse song
2. Read a story
3. stART project related to book
4. Worksheets
5. Sing a song. You know, one of those classic kid’s songs that we all learned growing up.
6. Play a game or some kind of movement activity
7. Have a snack
8. Read a story
9. stART project related to book
10. Play another game, this one not necessarily movement. Sometimes we’ll use Education Cubes for this one.
11. Read another book
12. Do another craft
13. Sing verse song again
14. Watch a short movie related to theme.

Here’s our specific plan for our Beaches and Oceans theme that we did last week. I’ve tried to include links to where I found the various things, but I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

I started with the plan sheet found at Hubbard’s Cupboard, and expanded from there.

Here’s the printable plan sheet with supplies you need for each activity. I don’t have the actual PDF creator, so the links don’t work in this file. That’s why I’ve included the activities again below.

Day 1:

1. Sing Verse Song – Genesis 1:1
2. Read book – Beach Day by Karen Roosa
3. stART – Make a “beach towel”
4. Worksheets 
5. Game – Sharks and Minnows OUTSIDE
6. Snack – Sand Snack – Blue yogurt with crushed up graham crackers for sand and chocolate sprinkles for ants
7. Read Book – At The Beach
8. stART – Sand Painting
9. Game - Beach Ball Roll – What color is your finger on?
10. Craft – Make a Sand Scoop using milk jug
11. Sing Verse Song

Day 2:

1. Sing Verse Song – Genesis 1:1
2. Read Book – Way Down deep in the deep blue sea
3. stART – Paper Plate Jelly Fish
4. Worksheets
5. Game - Land or Ocean? (Tell them an animal. If it lives in the ocean, go to one side. If it lives on land, go to the other side of the yard)
6. Snack – Edible Sea Life
7. Read Book – Commotion in the Ocean
8. stART - Paper Bag Fish
9. Education Cubes – Ocean Animals Bingo
10. Activity – Ocean Shapes Mural using Pictures of Ocean Animals
11. Sing Verse Song

Goodreads Bookshelf – Here are the specific books that we used for school.

Printables for off days – I’m also coming up with a handful of activities for my two to do on the days we don’t have tot school, and printing extra copies for the other kids if they want to use them. This time, I was able to find a bunch of activities thanks to Totally Tots.

Size sorting whales.

And I made them a little sensory bin with some things I already had. I used pinto beans, shells, shovels, and bottlecap letters. They don’t share very well, and the point of having the sensory bin is so that I can get some activities done with Kahlen. So I made two that are smaller than I am used to making, but they worked great. Kept them entertained for almost half an hour twice!

Whew! That is one long post! If you made it this far, I’m impressed :) This was actually all last week now, it’s taken me a long time to write this post. This week, our theme was “homes and houses”, and I’m going to try really hard to get a post up about it on Sunday. Next week, we’re doing “Me and my Family”.

Questions? About resources, activities, anything? I <3 comments, so ask me anything :)

~S