Edited to add…
The Tot School Printables A to Z Bundle is now available! See details here!
I am so excited to share my new project with you ~ Tot School Printables! I am most excited to share because it has been successful with my girl-so far! She was showing the signs of being ready to begin more table Tot School time and was very interested in what the boys were doing. In order to stay organized I decided to re-invent the wheel and pull many ideas into one set of printable activities for her {and for you!}.
I must being by telling you that this experience has solidified my belief that ALL KIDS ARE DIFFERENT in a huge way. She is interested in doing activities that I would have never been able to get Krash to do. So, I say that to remind you that just because Ladybug likes this type of stuff, don’t be discouraged when your tot refuses it all! If you have a wild, active child like my Krash, this probably isn’t for you. Feel free to try, but I wouldn’t go printing everything off just yet! This will only be for certain types of tots-and my age target is approximately 2 year olds {Ladybug is currently 23 months old}.
Each unit has a focus letter, focus object to emphasize the main letter sound, a focus color and a vocabulary development theme that is based on the object. The focus color isn’t a big focus, I just made some of the letters that color and I am using the color to choose her dry erase marker for the wee {although she asked for purple one day this week so I gave it to her}. Numbers, shapes and other concepts will be as a whole each week. I mainly did this so that the units can be done in any order. We are going A-Z, but you certainly don’t have to!
This week’s Letter: Aa
This week’s Object: Apple
This week’s Color: Red
This Week’s Vocabulary Development Theme: Fruit
I will share each printable and then show you how I am using it. You will also notice what she did each day, based on her clothes! Some activities that she enjoyed were repeated, but I am not showing them more than once. Like I said, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get Krash to do much of this, and certainly not for as long as Ladybug interacts. So far she is going strong for about 10-20 minutes each day. I was lucky to get 5 from Krash even at 2 1/2!
Main Letter Sheet…this is just a simple letter sheet. I put it in a sheet protector and let her “trace” the letter as we said it together, emphasizing the sound and the word apple. She scribbled while I talked to her and she loved it!
Find the Apples…Similar concept to the sheet above, but with the emphasis on finding the apples on the Aa…purpose is just another way to talk to her about the letter/sound/object while she has fun scribbling!
Apple Shapes…You can cut these apart and laminate-which we may do, but I decided to leave hers in a sheet protector so she can color the shape I call out. So far she knows star, circle, moon {crescent}and heart every time and loves to find them! You could also choose to focus on just one shape per week, in that case-choose your shape and cut it out and only use it for the week.
Dot Paint the apples! She loved this and did a really good job with her dot painting!The idea is for her to just paint the apples, but I am well aware that is she is having fun, it will certainly end up like this, and that’s OK!
Dot Paint the Letter… She loved this and found every Aa and said A when she dotted it! I did the first 3 for her, modeling and then I let her go to see what she would do! Total copy-cat! 😉
Lacing and Puzzle…in each set there will be a simple lacing card as well as a 3 piece puzzle. Ladybug is not ready for the lacing yet-but I am doing it with her sitting in my lap {thus no photo yet}-eventually she will do it herself! We focused on top-middle-bottom while working with this puzzle.
Vocabulary Development…with each unit I am using the main object to spring into a vocabulary development theme. I am sure some weeks I will go nuts and do an all out theme, but some I will just work on some simple vocabulary development. I plan to include a sheet with objects on it, and I also plan to try to gather as many objects from around my home for her to go along with this theme. For the A-Apple unit, the theme is fruit, so I gathered much of the fruit from her play food..
After she explored awhile, I gave her the sheet and she colored items as I named them! We will do this a lot in one week, to learn the names of many fruits! I plan to cut these up at the end of the week, and then will bring the cards back out in following weeks for review {I plan to laminate them also}
Connect the Apples…Although the idea of this looks a lot like tracing-it is actually more to reinforce the concept of left to right. I stood behind Ladybug and modeled, holding her hand in mine as I started on the upper case A and modeled drawing left-to right while saying the letter and sound. She did attempt to copy me when she was independently working. Eventually she will trace the lines, but the idea is more for modeling at this early stage.
Stamp the Letter…I bought her a new set of Alphabet Stamps, and stood behind her as we did all of the stamping together. She was a bit freaked out by the ink, as this was the first time she has seen stamps. I worked behind her the entire time, except the moment I stepped away to snap a photo! Eventually she will stamp on her own, but much assistance will be needed for awhile unless I would love an ink-covered tot!
Colored Apples…I cut these apart {printed on cardstock} and worked with Ladybug on coloring them. She scribbled a bit and then wanted me to color them, which is totally fine. Krash saw us working and asked if her could help-OF COURSE!!! I love how she is looking at him in this shot!
After we had them all colored, I gave her a set of small objects to match to each card as we practiced colors!I also gave her a tray to put them in and out of…
Numbers 1-10…You could cut these apart, but we are leaving them in a sheet protector and Ladybug finds numbers and counts with me as she scribbles!
What Starts with Aa?…Ladybug loves dry erase markers so for now she is coloring like this! Eventually I hope she will like crayons as much so I can have some keepsakes! In this photo you can see her making the ahhhh sound as she colors, because I was in the background talking to her and making the sound!
Sequencing…Each unit will have a simple 3 part sequencing activity. Ladybug really loved the 2nd apple and pretended to eat it each time we did these!
Shadow Matching…I made the shadows lighter to save on ink and also to make it easier for younger tots.
Need some book and toy ideas? Visit my Tot School Printables Store to see ideas for Letter Aa here!
See all of our Tot School Printables posts here!
See other families using Tot School Printables here on our Pinterest board!
The Tot School Printables A to Z Bundle is now available! See details here!
There’s More…
- Tot School Printables Store…I created an Amazon store to sort out ideas for toys and books to go along with each unit. Many of these toys wouldn’t need to be purchased, but might give you ideas for what you could find in your own home! I also made a “Helpful Basics” section for materials that would be used week after week.
Please leave any questions related to this post here in the comments so I can answer them in the comments for all to see! I truly hope many of your tots enjoy this!
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