Luv Bug is 34 months old
I love the book , The Mitten by Jan Brett and I knew I wanted to read it during our winter theme, but, because I found so many cute ideas (Thank you Pinterest), I decided to do a Mitten theme. We had so much fun, we're definitely doing this again next year.
Luv Bug had 5 trays this week:
I don't usually like flash cards for Luv Bug, but she loves Winnie-the-Pooh, and asked for these. We found them at Dollar Tree.
As the name implies, you match up the pairs that go together.
They are self-correcting. If matched correctly, they make a scene on the backs.
I had these out last week and kept them out since Luv Bug enjoyed them so much. Another Dollar Tree find.
She measured how tall her animals were,
built them houses,
and made paths for them to follow. So simple, but such fun.
I had these foam handprints that we used as 'gloves' for making patterns.
I made alphabet cards by tracing Luv Bug's bath letters and we used them to play a matching game.
I love how cute she is when she's thinking.
I took the tree from one of Luv Bug's games and placed pairs of mittens I had made from construction paper on it. We read The Mitten Tree, then she matched up the pairs.
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We also did some fun mitten related activities:
I set aside a few pairs of the mittens I had made and hung 1 from each pair on this 'clothesline'. Luv Bug would find the match and (with Mama's help), hang it next to the other one.
She can manipulate the clothespins, but needed help holding the mitten in place and keeping the line steady. She really liked this, so it stayed up all week.
Another mitten matching game.
We did this years ago with the pre-k class I worked with. I went right out and bought The Mitten so that I could one day do this with my own children. You can find the printables here.
Luv Bug did very well. First we laced the mitten up, then she listened as I read the story and added each animal as it came along.
We had 2 sets of the animals, so we flipped one set over and matched them to the first set by their shape.
I always prefer real pictures of animals, so I was SO excited a few weeks back, when I was searching for Mitten activities, to see these ones that Carissa over at 1+1+1=1 created. (I love how she had the animals all on one page, because it saves on ink and paper. I did print an addtioional badger that I found on google images, just because I wanted on that showed his 'diggers'. I made these into felt board pieces and we acted the story out as I read it.
Luv Bug's favorite part, flinging the mitten into the air after the bear sneezes. We read the book every day this week and did several activities, but this was definitely her favorite. (mine too)
Mitten sequence cards that I found here. Click on free printables, then click on flash and sequence cards. Scroll down and click on "The Mitten" sequence cards.
Again, we read the story and Luv Bug would put the animals in order.
I made some mitten cutting practice strips for Luv Bug.
She's really improving in her cutting skills.
Mitten mini books I found online. The first I found here, scroll down until you get to Previous Thematic Booklets, the link is about 5 down on the right. The second one (top right), I found here. The third (bottom left) found here and the fourth I found here.
As soon as I saw this idea, I knew I wanted to do it with Luv Bug. I love any craft that involves her hand or footprints.
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A few other pics of our week:
Luv Bug loves puzzles. She just kept pulling out more and more. By the time she was finished, she had probably put together ten.
Before naptime, I always ask Luv Bug to get a small stack of books to read together. This is her idea of a small stack:)
Our local grocery store had these on holiday clearance. Originally priced $19.99, marked down to $2. We've been having a lot of fun with these.
We baked cookies together for Daddy.
Waiting patiently:)
Sensory bin fun.
Starfall. We love this site!
We made cloud dough. I had made it once before after reading about it here. It is such a nice sensory experience. Luv Bug will play with it for at least 30 minutes. I can't resist joining in. It is so soft and smells so good. I learned though, that it's something we need to do before bath ;) I don't know how it ended up in her hair, but she smelled wonderful.
We both really enjoyed this week. Next week we'll be doing one of my favorite themes- penguins. Gotta go check out ideas on pinterest.
