Cat theme

Luv Bug is 43 months old

 

Luv Bug has always loved cats. She has a large family of stuffed kitties as well as several kitty cat Littlest Pet Shops. Last year we did a cat week and she enjoyed it so much, I decided to do another.

 

I set out 6 trays but only remembered to take pictures of a few:

 

 

 I put an assortment of discovery bottles on her science tray.

 Glitter bottle. So pretty in the sun.

 Wave bottle. Blue water and baby oil.

 Relaxation bottle. (corn syrup and confetti)

 Density bottle. (hair gel and marbles)

I spy bottle

 

 I printed out pictures I had taken of Luv Bugs LPS cats and put them together on a tray. We played a few games with them. First, I'd set them up and have Luv Bug find the matching picture.  Then I set some up with a few changes and had her tell me what was wrong or missing.

 

 I asked Luv Bug to copy one of the pictures. She did a great job.

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Other cat activities:

 

 Playing veterinarian

I printed a few things from Sandra's Savvy Teaching Tips All About Cats unit.

I also printed a few from 1+1+1=1's Cat Preschool Pack. I wasn't able to access her site to link to the actual post. Here's a link to her preschool packs page.

 

 

 

I traced her hands on foam and we made these cute handprint cats.  We glued magnets to the back. Super cute. She did everything except for the mouth and whiskers. She was ready to move on so I finshed them up.

 

Our lowercase c craft.

( I noticed we've been doing a lot of crafts and not nearly enough open ended art, but she does enjoy making these alphabet crafts.)

 

We also read several cat books and spent a lot of time outside.

 

Next week is our 8th anniversary and will be away most of the week. We'll begin our Dinosaur theme before we go and finish it when we get back, so there will not be a post next week.

Happy Autumn!!!

 

 

I'm linking up to the following blogs:

 

Tot/Preschool Carnival theme

Luv Bug is 42 months old.

 

This weeks post is going to be tiny compared to my last one. After we did our big bear theme, I wanted something easy. I chose a carnival theme because we had just been to a local farm show and an amusement park and Luv Bug is still talking about both. I couldn't find too many resources, so I pulled out her Team Umizoomi Carnival Pre k math kit. We read the book, watched the episode and completed a few pages is the activity book.  I planned a fun backyard carnival for the end of the week. We were going to make it a playdate and invite a few friends but Luv Bug got sick at the beginning of the week. Poor kid has an upper respiratory infection, congestion in the ears and pinkeye. She's mending nicely but we did no preschool for 3 days. Here are the few pics I have before she got sick:

 

I set out 4 trays this week:

To the science tray, I added some stones Luv Bug got to 'mine' at the park we visited.

 

 

 Luv Bug loves puzzles so I planned to put out a different one each day. She got into them though and did several at once.

 

 

 

 

 I bought this fraction pizza game at a book sale for less than a dollar. She'd been asking to play with the pizzas, so I threw them on a tray.

 

Luv Bug does well with recognizing beginning sounds. She loved this game.

 

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The few carnival activities we were able to do:

 

 

Once Luv Bug was feeling better, we set up her carnival outside. Since her pink eye was a mild case the Dr. didn't precribe drops so we decided not to chance getting her friends sick. We put out 6 games and found some things I had bought on clearance or at the Dollar Tree and had set aside for prizes. We had some tickets and Luv Bug figured out how many she would need for each game. Sometimes we'd give her too many or not enough and she'd tell us either how many she needed or how many she had left.

 

I just realized this is her Daddy's hand. He was demonstrating the game to her. The bat didn't work too well, so we had to find something else to pop the balloons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We're on letter c for our alphabet crafts. For the capital letter we decided to make a camel. Luv Bug saw some at the zoo we visited last week and has been talking about them.

 

 I decided to let her draw the tail and legs.

 

 

 

 One day when I had to be in the kitchen for a bit, I set up this sink/float activity for her.

 

Although my poor baby was sick, we still had fun snuggling, reading and just being together.

Linking up to:
 

Tot/Preschool Bear Theme

Luv Bug is 42 months old.

 

We recently spent a long weekend at one of the Jellystone Park's Camp Resorts.

( Luv Bug went on a hay ride with Boo Boo)

 I thought I'd come up with a little theme for the week before when I'd be busy packing. Taking into consideration that we'd be seeing Yogi and Boo Boo and that our letter that week was B, I chose a bear theme. When I looked in my files though, there were so many fun things I wanted to do with Luv Bug that we continued with it another week. WARNING: this will be a long post with many pictures.

We started off the week with bear pancakes


I didn't have too many ideas for bear themed trays, so I didn't change them out between weeks. I set out 6 trays:

I bought this from Scholastic. It's similar to hot dots. Luv Bug knows some of the words, but I just let her play with this. She loves hearing the beep when she touches the sight word.

Magnetic pom poms. Idea from here.

Balancing marbles on tees.

 Color Bears Bingo, also from Scholastic.

Luv Bug loves those pureed fruit pouches. She always takes the lids to play with. I started saving them and put them out for her.

She combined a few trays.

I bought this magnifier for Luv Bug's science tray. I wasn't sure what I wanted to add so I just left it by itself to see how she'd use it. Later, after we went on a hike, I set out some natural items that we had collected.
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We read MANY books and did a lot of activities with them.

I started with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We also read Jan Brett's The Three Snow Bears and compared them. I can't remember where I found the other Goldilocks book. Most printables were in my files from my pre-k days. I'll post where to find them when I can.

 

 I colored and laminated these story props and gave them to Luv Bug while I read the story. the next day she asked to play with them. She lined them up in story order, by size.

 

 The night before we read Corduroy, I set up a mini toy department for Luv Bug.

She loves playing 'store'. We took turns being the customer and played this for a long time,

 We also read Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? I found this weather bear in my files. Luv Bug really loved this.

 

  We love Bluberries For Sal. We also watched the scholastic video and then made blueberry snack cake. Luv Bug was into everything so I only got one pic:

 Trying to sneak a taste.

 Of course we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We did some of the activities from 1+1+1=1's Brown Bear Printable Pack. We also watched a video on You Tube to learn the story in ASL.

 I was so excited to read We're Going on a Bear Hunt since I had so many ideas to go along with it.
I had these number bears in my file. I hid them around and Luv Bug found them and lined them up.

 I hid the bears from her Color Bears Bingo game in with her ball pit balls.

 We played our own version of Guess Who with her teddy bears. We waited for Daddy to come home since I thought she'd need help, but she did pretty well.

 We went outside and acted out the story. Our lawn needed to be mowed, so it was easy finding long wavy grass:)

 I made a foil river for the cold river. Idea here.

 Mud.

 I wasn't sure what to do for the forest. I didn't want Luv bug to walk barefoot on a bunch of sticks. I found this piece of log instead.

 Shaving cream for the snow.

 And her little tent for the cave. I put one of her stuffed bears in there. This was probably her favorite activity. We did this SEVERAL times.

 To end our bear theme, we read  The Teddy Bear's Picnic and had our own teddy bear picnic, We made bear paws. We (including Daddy) dressed up and Luv Bug invited 3 bears.

 We played a few more bear games and had a nice evening together.
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   Letter B alphabet craft. Found this here.

I wanted to do the beaver too, but needed to make my own for lowecase b. I try to let Luv bug do the crafts her way, so I put it together first just to see if it actually looked like one. I mixed up the pieces before I gave them to Luv Bug, so she could come up with her own ideas.

Here is Luv Bug's version.

We spent a lot of time outside. One day, she asked if she could make footprints. Much easier to clean up outside with a hose.

Homemade silly putty.

One especially nice day, I set up some activities outside.
She loved the tray I set up with colored vinegar and baking soda. Idea here.

 She started out using the droppers, but found that she'd get a bigger reaction if she dropped handfuls of baking soda into the vinegar.

She still loves water beads.

Luv Bug loves to sit and read books. I set out a few in for when she needed a break.

Another bear themed book we read one day was Jamberry. I brought out her instruments and we had our own Berryland Band.

This old outdoor stone grill is in our backyard. I needs some fixing before it can be used. We rent, so we haven't decided if we want to put our own money into fixing it. I decided for now to make a mud pie kitchen for Luv Bug. It is a work in progress, but she's been making mud pies, cakes, muffins......since we put a few old pans in it.

 

We had a busy but fun 2 weeks with this theme. We threw in a trip to an amusement park and another to a zoo (no bears:( ). It was one of my favorite themes, but we are both ready for a more restful week.





Some bear theme books we enjoyed:

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