Tot School

Upper and Lower Case ABC Matching Sticks

August 16, 2015 By Thaleia 12 Comments

Today I am going to share with you a very simple activity to practice upper and lower case ABC. I had two sizes of popsicle sticks and leftover scrapbook stickers. Sometimes an educational activity practically falls right into your lap. This activity used items that we had leftover from other projects and so the cost is negligible. You wouldn’t even need stickers if you have nice handwriting! I do not care for my handwriting or the time it would take for me to write tiny and neat so I choose to use stickers.

[Tweet “Quick & Easy Upper and Lower Case ABC Matching Sticks #Preschool #alphabet”]

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Toddler Sous Chef aka How Toddlers Can Help in the Kitchen

July 25, 2015 By Thaleia

If your toddler or preschooler are anything like mine then they want to help mom with whatever I am doing. Sometimes this isn’t a good thing but sometimes it’s very good! Having your very own toddler sous chef can help speed things up for meal prep as well as get those mundane tasks accomplished. This will keep your toddler happy and you will be happy knowing that they are safe in your sight.

I am sharing with you some of the many ways that a toddler can help in the kitchen. As soon as your child is able to sit up and grab things with their hands they can be taught how to help!

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10 Creative Homemade Geoboards

July 22, 2015 By Thaleia

Well, it looks like we are on a geoboard kick right now! I thought it would be fun to share some creative homemade geoboards that I found. This should save you time and money by making your own! You can use this post as a quick reference this Fall when you need a fun Math or STEM activity for your preschool or young school-age child.

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Homemade Clay Animal Tracks

July 14, 2015 By Thaleia

We are gearing up for a fun unit about Woodland animals and I wanted to create a hands-on way for my tot and kindergartner to learn about animal tracks. I decided to use a white clay recipe from The Imagination Tree to create homemade clay animal tracks.

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Homemade Geoboard Fun

July 9, 2015 By Thaleia

A couple of years ago I decided to make a Geoboard when I saw the price of them in the educational catalogs. We just so happened to have a wooden cutting board from a local discount store. This wooden board had already been an artist canvas at one point and now would be turned into a homemade Geoboard!

How to Make Your Own Homemade Geoboard:

Get a thick piece of wood that is square and well sanded.

Gather some small finishing nails, ruler, pencil, and hammer. (I tried to use thumb tacks like I saw on Mama Jenna but they just broke to pieces so I switched to nails.)

Mark your grid on the piece of wood. You can measure out your marks or print a Geoboard Pattern.

We used fabric hairbands but you could easily use loom bands or small rubber bands depending on what you have on hand or can buy cheap locally.

How to Play with your Homemade Geoboard:

The first time I showed my kids our homemade geoboard they made a lot of free form designs which I would consider ART more then MATH but I am totally fine with this idea as well.

You can show your child a shape and see if they can recreate it or a letter or a number. You could ask them to make a design with only orange bands. You could ask your child to make a pattern with two colors for a different game.