It has only taken me about 5 months to finally get my toddler learning trays up! Working at home is nice in so many ways, but it definitely has cut into my mommy planning time. Here is a pic of what our trays looked like Monday morning (I accidentally put the blue piano on the tray- they are two different activities):
Piano- This tray is not really a tray. It is our early piano skills activity. Or as we simply call it- playing the piano. I have color coded squares as “piano music” that match the keys on this little tikes piano. We are currently learning the first line of Mary had a Little Lamb. I think that piano time will be the first learning activity we do each day.
Underneath the piano is the light blue tray. This is currently our religion tray that will go with our My Faith Monday activity. This week we learned about Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. I found a coloring book about this story for a $1 at a local bookstore. (we also rented the broadway production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat that was made into a movie- it is great! My little girl loved it! After watching the brothers rip Joseph’s coat she turned to me and said- “just like the stepsisters and cinderellas pink dress!”)
Yellow tray- this tray is currently unassigned to any specific activity- I just threw some sequencing puzzles on there.
Purple tray- this is the math tray. I have a tangram activity sheet and shapes. . . My Boo is pretty good about putting the correct shape in the spots,but struggles a little with orienting the shapes.
Dark blue tray- this is our alphabet tray. We are matching lowercase letters to uppercase stickers. These ABC sticker sheets have been a great way to review the alphabet letters and sounds! A great activity for anyone who loves stickers, too!
Green Tray- this tray will currently be our name recognition tray. I created a chart in a word doc program that had two rows and one column for each letter in her first name. (I blurred it out on the blog for safety reasons) I then placed a stamp pad and a letter stamp for each letter of her first name. She had to look at each letter on her sheet, find the matching stamp, and then stamp it underneath her name in the correct square (does this make sense??) It was a great way to practice spelling her name and work on orienting stamps.
The pink tray is currently unassigned to a topic. I just put on some playdough tools and green play dough and called it good. My daughter likes working with playdough- cutting it especially- but i have to be careful because she likes to eat it!
The red tray is our craft tray. We strung jingle bells on pipe cleaners and made jingly bracelets. It was cute to hear my daughter repeating the directions to herself as she slid the bells on the pipe cleaner. I see a little teacher in her already!
Some things I am noticing- I have 8 activities, and we have already gone through them all. And it is only Tuesday. So. . . . I need to either come up with longer activities, or plan more things that she can repeat, like the puzzles, piano and play dough. All in all- a good experience so far. My daughter calls these trays her “super work” and she loves to sit at her desk and do work like daddy!
Happy Teaching!!
Underneath the piano is the light blue tray. This is currently our religion tray that will go with our My Faith Monday activity. This week we learned about Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. I found a coloring book about this story for a $1 at a local bookstore. (we also rented the broadway production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat that was made into a movie- it is great! My little girl loved it! After watching the brothers rip Joseph’s coat she turned to me and said- “just like the stepsisters and cinderellas pink dress!”)
Yellow tray- this tray is currently unassigned to any specific activity- I just threw some sequencing puzzles on there.
Purple tray- this is the math tray. I have a tangram activity sheet and shapes. . . My Boo is pretty good about putting the correct shape in the spots,but struggles a little with orienting the shapes.
Dark blue tray- this is our alphabet tray. We are matching lowercase letters to uppercase stickers. These ABC sticker sheets have been a great way to review the alphabet letters and sounds! A great activity for anyone who loves stickers, too!
Green Tray- this tray will currently be our name recognition tray. I created a chart in a word doc program that had two rows and one column for each letter in her first name. (I blurred it out on the blog for safety reasons) I then placed a stamp pad and a letter stamp for each letter of her first name. She had to look at each letter on her sheet, find the matching stamp, and then stamp it underneath her name in the correct square (does this make sense??) It was a great way to practice spelling her name and work on orienting stamps.
The pink tray is currently unassigned to a topic. I just put on some playdough tools and green play dough and called it good. My daughter likes working with playdough- cutting it especially- but i have to be careful because she likes to eat it!
The red tray is our craft tray. We strung jingle bells on pipe cleaners and made jingly bracelets. It was cute to hear my daughter repeating the directions to herself as she slid the bells on the pipe cleaner. I see a little teacher in her already!
Some things I am noticing- I have 8 activities, and we have already gone through them all. And it is only Tuesday. So. . . . I need to either come up with longer activities, or plan more things that she can repeat, like the puzzles, piano and play dough. All in all- a good experience so far. My daughter calls these trays her “super work” and she loves to sit at her desk and do work like daddy!
Happy Teaching!!
