Tot School ~ C is for Caterpillar

~Ladybug is currently 33 months old~

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Here is her desk set up for letter C.

The items in the pocket chart are all available here on the Animal ABCs webpage {files are released for free when they are posted on the Totally Tots blog for the ABC feature}.  I added caterpillars on her desk.

We also had several caterpillar books off to the side in her pink basket. I also set up a few caterpillar themed trays for her, as well as some non-themed activities.

On her trays:

• top left {in basket}: Caterpillar Books {see widget}
• Top Right: Cookie Sheet, Magnetic Pattern Blocks
• Top Left Shelf: puzzles {from Target dollar spot}
• Top Middle: caterpillars {cut out of a bulletin board border}, and small caterpillars for 1:1 counting
• Top Right: Very Hungry Caterpillar Card Game, and size sorting caterpillars from the Very Hungry Caterpillar Tot Pack
• Bottom Left {middle & bottom}: Caterpillar Play Dough Mat/Caterpillar Songs
• Bottom Middle: Magnet Rings
• Bottom Right {middle}: Mini Caterpillar and Butterfly notebooks {no clue where I got these}
• Bottom Right: Coloring Books

Here are some book ideas for you…

 

Charlie the Caterpillar was a BIG hit, we read this too many times to count!

She loved the page that showed the sad caterpillar, on the right, she was showing her to me and telling me all about her sadness…

 

She loved the magnetic pattern blocks and the cookie sheet.

I added in some templates for her to work with too, she liked them a lot!

 

Coloring her caterpillars…   

She spent way less time with her notebook for this unit, which is totally fine!  Mostly she colored this page over and over again, I don’t even remember her tracing shapes or numbers at all!

We took her letters A, B, & C, along with the flashcards and hid them all in the ball pit!  She and Krash had a fun letter hunt together!

 

She worked with me to make the letter craft, which is basically an open ended project that you can do whatever you want with!  She chose to paint the letter C red, and then glue down the caterpillars.  She wasn’t interested in cutting at all this week, so I trimmed the caterpillars while she painted.

She glued down the caterpillars the next day with me…

Special Note: Please read my post about Following the Child’s Lead if you have a tot and need info about this.  All tots are different and what Ladybug is doing may not be appropriate for your child, even is s/he is the same age!

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We worked on a few parts of the The Very Hungry Caterpillar Printable Pack, which she LOVED!  Here she was matching food in our mini pocket chart.

We read the book, a LOT!  Here she was “reading” it to me before we made a caterpillar craft.

Painting her caterpillar…

We also made another caterpillar craft, here she was admiring them both!

One time we read the book and used our flashcards to match…

She enjoyed this a lot!

We “played” the game together too, but with no rules, just had fun moving the caterpillar around and matching up food!

Note: we got both games at a consignment sale, CHEAP, they are not fun games when actually following the games, as reviewers on Amazon stated.  I don’t recommend paying full price for them, but they are neat to add in if you find the used!

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We are taking our All About Reading Pre Level 1 lessons slowly.  I am not expecting mastery from Ladybug, just using this program as a way to expose her to the Big Five Skills.  She is a bit too young for the program and Krash is a bit too old, so that’s why we are using it together.

This week we did lesson 3, which focused on letter C and also rhyming words. With Ladybug I do tons of modeling, you can see us using the rhyming cards below.  She really enjoyed Ziggy being silly this week as he helped with the rhyming words in the wagon!  Krash really enjoyed this too!

She wanted me to color the C and the cat this week, but she asked to color the bowl of cream…

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Krash’s theme was Angry Birds and Ladybug participated with him in a lot of his activities!!  They played the game a lot together.

She painted Angry Birds, every single one of them!!

Krash had a notebook filed with his work for the week, she enjoyed looking through it and asking for certain things!

One day she put the Angry Birds on a “bus” matching them all up.  She came to get me and said, “wook they match!”

 

Our winter sensory bin was still out, as well as a salad bowl filled with jewels.  We played a lot with these.

 

We had fun working on ABAB patterns together.

 

One afternoon we finally tried out water beads!  I had seen them on other blogs and finally ordered a set from Amazon, since we don’t have a Walmart near us.  The kids were in awe, the entire time.  This is when we first put them in the water…

After about 10-15 minutes they grew to this…

Ladybug REALLY enjoyed this and sat in her highchair exploring for about an hour!

She has also played with them several times since, now that they are their full size {about the size of marbles}.  We will definitely be getting more of these, the kids LOVED them!

 

 

Working in her Tot Time Notebook…

She still loves puzzles too! {Target dollar spot puzzle}

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I love this shot of her playing on our iPod, sitting in our bean bag chair.   See more iPad apps we love here, iPad apps part 2 is here!!

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Being silly with Daddy in the ball pit!

 

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More Tot School Links…

    

• Tot School 2011/2012 Blog Roll 
• Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
• Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
• Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
• Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
• All of our Tot School Posts {sorted by ages here}
• Visit our Tot School Tools Store
• Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
• Tot School FAQ
• How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot’s age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)