2 Tots 2 Teach

gotta go for a while

2009-07-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

When I first started this blog, 2 Tots 2 Teach, I felt I was spending too much time posting about my kid's lessons instead of my own personal crafts. I had a goal of separating the two...

But now, I've realized, life with the two is crazy busy. I can barely find the time to post on my other blog CraftyKorisa about our life.

I'm going to keep this blog out here though for the moment I want to come back!

morning nature watch

2009-06-28T05:23:00.000-07:00

Materials needed:

Outdoors

curious kids

camera

planning

2009-06-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

It is time for a new plan. A new schedule.

This is more to keep me on track and actually spend quality time with my kids than anything else. If I don't have a schedule I find myself stuck in a pile of laundry or pile of dishes forever and the day is gone.....

With my son only one year away from Kindergarten (gasp) the housekeeping chores can be put on hold slightly (or until it drives us all crazy).

So, here is my new schedule. So far---so good. I'll let you know later if it is still working for us.

Gotta go......I have some birdwatching to do with the kiddos today on our "nature watch".

homemade sidewalk paint

2009-04-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

This activity is so fun, easy, and inexpensive. The kids loved mixing up their paints and then creating their masterpieces in the driveway.

Materials needed:

Cornstarch

water

food coloring

container with lid

Directions:

Scoop a few spoonfuls of cornstarch into a container. Add water and stir until it is the consistency you wish for ( You may have to add more cornstarch and/or water until it is the desired thickness). Add a few drops of food coloring and stir.

The paint dries almost immediately once it is painted on the concrete. You can cover any leftover paint with your lid for your next painting adventure! Just add water if it thickens up before the next use.

homemade "furniture"

2009-03-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

Materials needed:

Large box

different fabrics

poly-fil stuffing

hot glue gun (do the gluing by yourself) or craft glue if the kids do the gluing

box cutter

My kids love to play with their animals and dolls. They love making "beds" which means every blanket and pillow in our house usually makes it to the floor for the "beds". So I thought if we made our own special beds for their toys that would alleviate the problem (at least for a day or two).

First use a box cutter to cut a large box in half. Since I have two little ones, I used both parts of the box for two separate beds. Of course, I cut the box away from their curious fingers.

Once the box is cut, the fun can begin. The kids loved picking their fabrics to cover their boxes. I had tons in my closet that never made it to all of those wonderful "projects" I had been planning on completing. Carefully glue one fabric to the outside of the box.

After putting on the outside fabric, fill your box with stuffing. You can then put another piece of fabric on and glue to the bottom of the box. Finish your beds by letting the kids add pieces of fabric and decoration. Don't worry about getting everything perfectly straight or neat.....let the children do most of the work. They take pride in their "very own" creations!

sorting

2009-03-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Materials:

Several small objects of same color ( I got these small baby favors at Dollar Tree)

This lesson was entirely impromptu. Not planned at all. I was getting things ready for an upcoming baby shower and keeping my 2 and 3 year olds out of it was impossible. I decided to let them help me sort the colors.

I had forgotten what an important math skill this is. They had so much fun sorting into sets that I think I may go get more after the shower!

What amazed me is I was being so narrow-minded and said lets sort these by color. My two-year old did this for a while and said, "Mommy, we can put all the bears together too."
There are so many math lessons you could teach with these.....I look forward to sharing them with you!

puzzle fun

2009-03-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

Materials:

*Premade boxed puzzle (24-25 pieces)

I know I'm not telling you about anything new and groundbreaking here......but thought I'd remind you about puzzles.

I thought my kids would only want to play with the board puzzles designed for preschoolers. Imagine my surprise when one day I pulled out a more complicated one for us to work on together. My two-year old loves putting them together. I do have to assist her but she puts many of the pieces together all by herself! She loves bragging to me that she is "very good at puzzle games".

This is a fun thing for the 3 of us to do together for some quality quiet time.

super letter of the day

2009-02-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

One thing my kids love to do is to pick a letter each day for us to talk about. It is an easy, fun way to reinforce the alphabet.

Materials:

Recycled container ( I used an old coffee container)

Letters (You can make your own or buy pre-made...Dollar Tree often has them)

Directions:

Pick a letter each day. I let both of my kids each pick one. I then let them tape them to the wall. We then sing the coordinating song from our alphabet chart and cd.

I love our chart and cd but you could easily do this without it. Try listing words that start with the letter or practice "writing" the letter with play-dough, sand, etc.

easy Christmas crafts

2008-12-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

These easy crafts are simple enough for a one, two, and three year old to make! I had the joy of doing this with my kiddos and one of our favorite neighbor and friend.

Materials needed for Santa face:

Santa face template ( got mine from DLTK kids)

cotton balls

glue

Basically you glue cotton balls to the beard, I remember doing this in elementary school myself. I put the glue in small bowls and had the children "dip it, dip it, then stick it" to their pages. It is amazing that something this simple is so fun for all kids.
Materials for Christmas letter picture:

Paper

Marker

Christmas themed stickers

Write the first letter of the child's name on a sheet of paper. Let them "trace" their letter with the stickers. Older kids could do their whole name and write it themselves.

thanksgiving turkey

2008-11-27T04:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my mom for making this very cute turkey with Zander last weekend!

pilgrim faces

2008-11-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

This is an easy, quick, fun Thanksgiving activity!

Materials:

template of pilgrims

googly eyes

pom-poms

glitter glue

glue dots(if you want to make it really quick and easy) or glue

Print out the templates. Let your child make a face on his or her pilgrim using materials provided. They LOVE the google eyes and pom-poms. You could also use markers, crayons, paints or the medium of your choice. We then made glitter mouths. Once everything was dry, I taped their pilgrims to the wall....they have loved looking at them!

leafy art

2008-11-22T05:07:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back to posting kid's projects. We've had a lot of fun doing Thanksgiving/Fall art lately!

Yesterday we enjoyed making leafy art. This is very messy.....We crunched up our leaves and decorated our paper out in the garage. That made the cleanup much easier. The kids LOVED doing this. This is an easy project you can do with all ages.

Materials needed:
Dried leaves
Bowl
Paper
Squeeze Glue

Directions:
Collect leaves and let completely dry if needed. Crumble up leaves over a bowl or container. Squirt a "glue design" on paper. Shake the dried leaves over the design (similar to shaking glitter). Shake off excess leaves and let dry.

be back later

2008-09-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

I will post more lessons and activities in a month or so. I have decided I will take a break as I get ready for and recover from my surgery.

I can't wait to start planning activities again soon to share with you. I hope to feel great so the lesson should be even better.

green eggs and ham

2008-09-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess is one of our favorite books in this house. The kids love it. We have read it so often that they can recite the words on almost every page.

So I decided to make a fun breakfast for us......green eggs and ham!

Materials:
-the book Green Eggs and Ham
-eggs
-ham
-green food coloring

I just dropped a couple of drops of food coloring in the eggs as I scrambled them and put a few on the ham as I warmed it up.

While the kids ate, I read the story to them. It was a hit!!!

apples and bananas song

2008-09-09T18:50:00.001-07:00

This is such a fun song for preschoolers. The kids love singing it. I made some apples and bananas labeled with each of the vowels for Z and K to hold while singing. Just repeat each verse with a different vowel sound.

journaling

2008-09-09T16:04:00.001-07:00

Lines, scribbles, and drawings are the first steps of the writing process. You can help young children develop these writing skills through journaling. I started it this week with my son and daughter even though they are not yet writing letters. But they feel they are "writing" stories through journaling. I let them draw and/or scribble and talk to them about what they are doing. This is great for communication skills also! My husband has come home from work the past two days and looked at their journals first thing. They are thrilled to share and he loves knowing what they were drawing at the time (since I have written out their "stories" below or beside the pictures).
This is an inexpensive but wonderful thing to do with your kids. I bet it will be a favorite learning/sharing activity in your house. It is in ours!

Materials:
3 ring binder
journaling paper, very easy to make or find templates on line. I used activity village.
crayons
pencil

I let them decorate the cover to get them excited about the journal.

Here is one of Z's first entries.

This is Lightning McQueen. He has black wheels.

Sparkly S

2008-09-09T04:50:00.001-07:00

The letter we are focusing on this week is S. So we decided to make our S's sparkly!

Materials:
Paper
Glue (squeeze not a glue stick)
Glitter

Draw an uppercase and lowercase S on the paper with your glue. Let the children shake their favorite glitter on top of the s. Shake the glitter where it spreads evenly. Let dry overnight.....tada.....a sparkly S!!!

t is for tissue

2008-09-01T12:37:00.001-07:00

Materials needed:
construction paper
different colored tissue paper
glue marker

On your sheet of Construction paper draw an upper-case and lower case T. Trace the t's with glue, then attach crumpled tissue paper to the Ts. A fun and easy activity!

sensory caterpillars

2008-08-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

This activity took us a while to complete but the kids loved doing it and were (surprisingly) very patient. This is a good sensory activity for preschoolers that I found in The Mailbox magazine.

Materials needed:

Several cut circles from construction paper
popsicle sticks or pipecleaners (for antennas)
glue
Different "sensory" materials ( we used cotton, aluminum foil, uncooked macaroni shells, glitter glue, foam stickers, and feathers)

Glue a different sensory material on each circle. As we were gluing we talked about how each material felt. Was it soft, smooth, sticky, etc.? You can also talk about what each object looks like....hard, shiny, sparkly, dull, etc. You may need to help younger children with the squirting of the glue.
Finish your caterpillar with a face that has antennas attached to the top. You could also add legs if you are really ambitious.....we stopped with the antennas.

Let your project dry for most of the day or overnight before displaying on a wall. This was indeed one of my kids favorite activities!

href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w2QCRSh2bfM/SKm3ZdXeAPI/AAAAAAAABQo/UAc23Vy0oh8/s1600-
h/IMG_2526.JPG">

messy, mushy, mud

2008-08-13T04:37:00.001-07:00

This activitiy is not for the neat-freak mom. It WILL make a mess! But the kids loved it. I told them they were scientists and we would mix all of these items together to see if we could make "mud".

Materials:
aluminum or plastic container with lid (to stir and put mud in)
spoon
wet paper towel or washcloth (to clean up)

Mix the following together (or for more fun, let the kids do it. My 3 year old and 22 month old did fine with it).
1/2 cup cold water
1 TBS oil
2 TBS brown paint (washable is best)
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS cornstarch
Gradually add 1 1/2 cups of flour. You can add more oil and paint if mixture ends up too dry.

My kids loved this "science" activity. We stored the mud in containers to play with later. Have fun!!

birthday collage

2008-08-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what to do with all of your birthday cards? Make a birthday collage!

Materials:
posterboard
cards
glue
scissors

This is a great way to practice cutting and pasting. My son loved the finished product and taped it to his closet door!

whiteboard fun

2008-07-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

Materials needed:
Whiteboard
Dry Erase Markers

This is another great activity to keep kids busy and practice writing & drawing. My kids can stay entertained for several minutes with their dry-erase boards and markers. You can practice shapes, numbers, or just have fun drawing with these nifty markers!

music shakers

2008-07-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

Materials:
Empty coffee can
beans
fabric
ribbon
thread
glue (I used a glue gun to make extra secure)

This is an easy way to make a music shaker and not worry about beans getting into little mouths!

Fill an empty coffee can with beans. Place lid back on can. Cut a large piece of fabric and roll around can, gluing down to secure the fabric. I secured each end with thread then tied large ribbons around the thread. This gives the children "handles" to hold while shaking their music makers!

Play some fun music and enjoy shaking to the beat!!!

cheap & easy disposable paint containers

2008-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

My kids love to paint. The bad part is always the cleanup, though! Here is a great way to make paint holders to separate your paints.

Materials:
Cardboard egg carton
scissors

Just cut the carton into sections. I usually make four 3-color sections for the kids.

Just fill each section with desired amount of paint!

stamping fun

2008-07-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Materials:
Several large ink pads
Sheets of paper
Several patterns of stamps

This is a simple and fun activity that you can do anytime. The kids love it when I pull out the stamps!

You can buy the large stamps several places. My mom got this set with the inkpads from Oriental Trading Company. These are the beach theme stamps. I saw more fun ones in the catalog that I may order later!

fireworks

2008-07-03T04:43:00.001-07:00

You can do this simple and MESSY activity to celebrate the 4th!

Materials:
* Dark construction paper
* Glitter glue sticks

Help the kids make the fireworks by squirting the glitter glue on the paper and showing them how to spread it out like a star or "fireworks". Then let them go at it and have fun. It takes about a day to dry so be sure to find a place to store it while it dries (out of reach of curious hands).

Tip: I let them do this with their shirts off.....so I had less glitter in the washing machine.

marshmallow mountain

2008-06-30T04:22:00.001-07:00

Materials needed:
*marshmallows ( I found pink strawberry ones we used with the white.....made it even more fun!)
* plates
* plastic knife
*can of frosting
* card that says Marshmallow Mountain

While continuing to study the letter M, we made a snack that focused on that letter, Marshmallow Mountains!

This is such an easy and fun activity for the kids. And they actually remember that Marshmallows and Mountain start with M!

Place the marshmallows on a plate with a couple of spoonfuls of frosting. They can build their "mountains" on the other plate using the frosting as the glue to hold the marshmallows together. Just let them create, snack, and have fun!!!

ABAB patterns

2008-06-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

Materials needed:
* several copies of a picture ( I used birds this week, will use apples next week)
* markers
* scissors

This is a simple activity to start teaching patterns with little ones. Make several copies of a picture of any kind. I used birds since Z & K are fascinated with them right now. As you can tell, I also let them help me color the sheets. (To make this activity even easier, copy your pictures on 2 different colors paper). Then show them the pattern and even explain to them it is an ABAB pattern. After we made the pattern with our birds on the table we taped the birds to the wall in the ABAB pattern.

This is a skill very important to math and spatial skills later on and an easy lesson to start teaching now. This also reinforces colors.
My kids loved it and I plan on reinforcing it weekly. You can add more complex patterns once they master this skill!

letters collage

2008-06-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is a good way to study letters and introduce vocabulary to younger children.

Materials needed:
large piece of paper
marker
old magazines
scissors
glue

Using old magazines, find pictures that start with the letter you have chosen. Cut out the pictures and paste to your piece of paper. I let my 2 year old practice cutting with his scissors while we do this too.
Write the name of your object by its picture. Practice saying the words and letters throughout the week or as long as you study that specific letter.

Don't be afraid to paste pictures of things your child doesn't recognize. Like I said, this is a great way to build vocabulary. My husband was amazed when my son was 1 1/2 and could recognize a picture of a Beluga Whale and say "Beluga" after we did our B words with this activity!

magic nuudles

2008-06-23T12:35:00.001-07:00

Materials Needed:
thick paper or foam sheet
magic nuudles (can be found at craft & hobby stores)
wet washcloth or paper towel
marker

This can be used to practice fine-motor skills and reinforce shapes. You could also use this activity with letters or numbers.

Take a marker and draw a shape on your paper or foam. I also like to write the word out for the kids.

You use your magic nuudles by slightly wetting them to stick to each other or the foam surface. Use the noodles to outline the shape, letter, or number.
Note: The noodles are nontoxic if your child does happen to put them in his or her mouth.

This is a super easy, educational activity......ENJOY!!

workbooks

2008-06-10T05:05:00.001-07:00

I certainly don't think workbooks should take the place of a parent or teacher for learning but often they can be a fun way to reinforce concepts. My son (who is 2 1/2) loves "playing school" on occasion and working with the pre-printed activities.

I found these wonderful books yesterday at Walgreens. They say ages 4-6 but I think much younger kids could use them with adult assistance. I'm going to try the shapes and colors book with my 1 1/2 year old today. The best part about the books.....they were $2.99 each. There are several different kinds for different ages.....worth a try!

shaving cream fun

2008-06-08T18:23:00.001-07:00

Materials needed: shaving cream
a flat surface
lots of water and towels for clean up

This is a fun activity to practice letters and numbers.

Find a flat surface ( I prefer outside so I can just waterhose the mess away) and cover with shaving cream. Practice drawing in the cream and have a blast making a mess!!
I also let the kids stamp some letters in the cream with letter molds. You could extend this activity by adding food coloring to the cream. I may do that when we start talking about the color wheel.

fun fruit salad

2008-06-05T04:44:00.001-07:00

Materials:
a variety of fruit
knife (for you, not the kids)
cookie cutters
LOTS of towels (to clean up!)
bowl

Activity:
Creating a fun fruit salad while cutting out fun shapes, discussing the colors, and enjoying the sweetness of the fruit! Easy!!!

With the summer season here upon us the selection of fresh fruit is delightful (and less expensive). My kids love making our weekly fruit salad. This week I decided to make it a little more fun, though!

Let the kids watch you cut out the different melons if you buy them whole. Mine love to still guess which color will be inside!
After you cut some thin slices of fruit ( seedless watermelon seems to work best for little ones), give each child a plate and a cookie cutter to start making shapes out of their fruit.

Tip: Give them separate fruit and you cut your own if you plan on serving this to anyone else.....they will lick the cutters and eat their stars and hearts.

Make a variety of shapes for fun. We cut our grapes into ovals, made balls from the honeydew, made shapes & letters from the watermelon, and triangles for the cantaloupe.
Enjoy eating and talking about shapes and colors for a few days!!

magnets

2008-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Materials Needed:
a large magnet
paper clips (and staples if you wish)
2 clean plastic containers (I used a juice bottle and bubbles bottle)
sand
water
recording sheet if you want to do predictions

Basic Activity:
Use a magnet to pick up paper clips. Extend the activity by placing paper clips in sand and water and observing if the magnet will still pick up the clips.

We first talked about how magnets pick up certain items and then I recorded our predictions on this page I got out of Mailbox magazine. You could just talk about these things and not record also.

After predicting, start the fun....
Pick up some clips with the magnets. It always thrills my son, time after time!

Next, place some clips into a bottle filled with sand. Shake the bottle well then try to move the clips with the magnet. Tip: We had to place the bottle on its side to see the clips move better.

Next, place some clips in water and see if you can move the clips!

When you are finished talk about whether your predictions were correct. Then have fun finding other magnetic items in the house!

We discovered the corncob holders that were on the table (since I had yet to clean the dishes from dinner) were magnetic.

We also discovered we had a magnetic door!!!