Tot School Aa and Fruit Sensory Tub

As I have stated before I love Carissa’s Tot School printables, and so does Alligator. I have come up with a couple of ideas to add to this theme.

I came up with this sensory tub for Alligator. I couldn’t even get it made before he wanted to play in it. Love the little smile that is on his face as he explores!

Since the theme is Aa and fruit, the tub has the same theme.

I gathered every A I could find in our house, as well as a bunch of plastic fruit, and small erasers that are fruit (I bought the erasers month age, figuring I would find something to do with them. I put them all in the bin.

The bin also has blue rice for a filler.

I also took each A and outlined it on a piece of construction paper.

That way as Alligator finds the A in the bin, he can try to match them to the sheet, sort of like a puzzle. Once I showed him the first one, he totally got the idea.

As you can tell, he is really thinking and studying to find the correct places.

 

    

So FUN!

Valentine Sensory Bin

I have finally made something myself! Alligator and Monkey are both infatuated with our Valentine Sensory tub. Alligator chooses it at least once a day.

The items in it all came from the dollar isle at Target. It includes:

• scatter hearts (I bought 3 boxes, pink, purple and red) (these were 2.50… who knew not everything was a dollar in the dollar isle)
• some big hearts (for making garland)
• a pack or 2 of felt heart stickers, (obviously they still have the paper on the back)
• some valentine themed erasers
• valentine ribbon (I cut it to different lengths, thinking that Monkey could sort them from biggest to smallest, we have yet to do that though)
• and some heart shaped containers.

They love it! I add some cups and Alligator loves to transfer. He was transferring them to the rug until I gave him another bin to fill.

They even enjoy playing with it together!

 

However, they get a little wild, and then it gets put away. I guess they’ll learn if I keep putting it away when they make too much of a mess.

I have to say, the boys love a sensory tub, but if the filler is to small then it is really hard to clean up, because they don’t keep it in the bin. So these hearts make easier clean up.

Preschool Corner

Monkey is 4 years 6 months.
This week has been sort of crazy. We have been sort of busy doing “life”. So there hasn’t been much Monkey/mommy time.
I did order the alphabet sensory tub from Time for Tots (this picture is from TfT’s site).

He loved that a lot.
Games we played with it:
1. He freely explored it.
2. He picked out letters with the tongs and matched them to the letter mat.
3. He pulled out letters and lined them up then wanted me to say what word it made. ( which normally went something like “NBXQT, and I had to try to say it like a word).
4. He likes to bury certain letters.
5. He uses a small car and buries it in the rice


6. He uses the magnifying glass to study the letters and the rice.

Monkey found this in our garage. We hadn’t used it in over a year. He was so excited to find it that we had to dig it out.
He had a great time making a collage with the stickers. I don’t have a picture but he also made animals out of the playdough. It really is a great kit. As you can see, Alligator liked it too!

To see what others are doing please click the button at the top of the page.

Flour and Cinnamon fun!

Alligator had a great time with the flour and cinnamon provided in the MGT kit. We decided to play with it out on our front porch. I added scoops, a funnel, and giant popcicle sticks (Alligator added the empty stapler, which he just adores). To avoid ruined clothes he played in his diaper.

 

The mixture had a wonderful smell.

He played very calmly at first without making much mess at all.

Then he really got into it!

As you can see we had fun, and we are glad we did it outside!

Time for Tots---sensory tub

I just have to write this post about a fabulous Etsy shop. It is called Time for Tots. Here is the link.

The site offers game packs and sensory tub fillers. They are fabulous!

Over the last several years I have spent time researching, creating, collecting and making games for my boys. It is a lot of work, and it takes a lot of time. Well, now you can go to Time for Tots and they have done all the work for you. Not only that, but each activity comes with suggestions to use these materials in other ways. The other positive is that it saves you money. The materials that you would have to buy to create these games and tubs would cost you more than they charge, because of the nice variety.

The first item I will post about is the autumn sensory tub. It comes with fillers which are yellow and green beans (I have no idea what kind but they are cool and colorful). You also get a bag of autumn themed things to put in it. Some leaves, a few fruit and pumpkins, some fuzzy balls and much more.

Here is an upclose shot.

I put mine in a tuperwear bin. You supply the bin, the rest is supplied by Time for Tots. It even comes with a tweezer.

I had really bought this for Monkey who is 4.5. But Alligator saw me putting it together and kept yelling “DAT, DAT” and pointing. So I watched him closely and played with him and let him go at it. As you can see, he was so pleased to get it placed on his tray.

He very carefully started picking at the items. 

Alligator isn’t one to put a lot of things in his mouth, so I wasn’t too concerned with him. But I did watch him closely. He was having so much fun, picking up things and laughing.

He also enjoyed pulling thing out and throwing them in the floor. After the second time, I gave him a bowl, and he had fun putting things in there. It seemed he just wanted a place to put them.

As you can see he had a great time.

Again, I am so thrilled with this purchase. I will be featuring the other items I bought as we get them out and play with them.

I purchased the items on my own, and loved them so much that I chose to post about it. I did not receive any reimbursement.