Weekly Activities: Easter Theme

I have been reading a lot of tot school blogs this past week. I really found a lot of good ideas on this blog and other links on her blog. I have started to incorporate the "tot tray" idea. Instead of trays I am using colored buckets, since that is what I have. I am going to fill 4-6 new buckets each week with different activities and let the kids choose what they like to do. I had great success with some and not so much with others, but that is what learning together is all about. We were also all sick this week, so I didn't do everything I had planned.

Jaxon's absolute favorite thing to do this week was put noodles into this water bottle lid. He chose this activity almost every day. Sawyer enjoyed it too. He would put 4 or 5 noodles in at once, but Jaxon took his time and carefully put one noodle in at a time. We used spaghetti and small shells.


In another bucket I hid small toys in this Easter grass. I drew pictures of the objects and had Sawyer match the object to the picture. J had fun just digging in the grass for the toys. We did this once and only once, because the grass was a mess. I am still finding it all over my house. Next time I would just cut up green paper for the grass. They enjoyed it and I am glad we did it, but I hid it in the closet the rest of the week, because I just couldn't handle the mess it made.


Another big hit this week was play-doh. I gave the boys Easter cookie cutters, a few play-doh tools, and play-doh and they had a blast. J was concentrating so hard.

I filled another bucket with plastic Easter eggs. On each egg I wrote a capital letter and the lower case letter, so they could match the eggs by color and letter. I knew this would be too hard for Jax, but thought Sawyer would enjoy it. Well, J enjoyed throwing the eggs around and so did S. He matched a few of the eggs, but it didn't hold his attention for very long. He only chose this activity once or twice. He did have fun sorting them into colors.
S also enjoyed cutting paper this week. Another activity I had that neither boy chose was putting stickers on egg cut outs. Usually S loves playing with stickers, but he wasn't interested this week.
He did really enjoy playing with his opposite puzzle and stamping. These were unplanned activities that he asked to do.

All in all it was a good week and I look forward to changing out the buckets and trying some new activities. We also did structured crafts and activities that I posted through out the week. I enjoyed teaching Sawyer about the true meaning of Easter this week. Today he has been telling everyone, "Happy Easter, Jesus lives!" Indeed He does!

More Easter Crafts

We have all been sick this week, so we haven't been able to do all the things I planned. On the other hand we have been home non-stop, so we have done quite a bit. Yesterday I started feeling better, so I took Sawyer outside to pick dandelions. There weren't too many dandelions, so he also picked some grass.

I let him paint with them when we came inside. He wasn't interested in it at first. Then I tried it myself. I guess it looked like fun, because he joined in.

This week I have been telling the boys about the Easter story. We have read a little part each day. Today we talked about how Christ's tomb was empty. We also did this craft.

The boys painted each side of a paper plate. Neither of them wanted any help.
I used a rolled up paper sack as the stone. I also drew my own angel. I am really a pitiful artist. I am not very crafty either, but my kids don't seem to mind. I hope that it helps Sawyer to remember the story.

Hand Print Bunnies

I helped the boys make bunnies using their hand prints. I just painted their palm, pointer finger, and pinky with white paint and placed them on the paper. I had them paint a nose on and I drew the eyes and mouth. I cut them out and let them glue them to the paper.

Then they colored the paper. There are cuter things with this I could have done with this, but this was simple and fun for them. We are all sick this week, so simple is good.

Sweet Art

After we did the jelly bean graph I decided to let the boys paint with peeps.
Sawyer saw these and wanted me to buy them. He doesn't like marshmallows and I think they are gross, but I saw on someone's blog that they painted with peeps.
They work like little sponges and make cute bunny prints. I didn't get any pictures of Jax, because I didn't want to leave his side. I was so afraid he would try to eat the paint covered peep. He didn't seem to realize it was edible though, and enjoyed painting.
I also let them glue a few jelly beans on the paper.

Jelly Bean Graph

Sawyer loves jelly beans, so I knew I needed to think of some way to incorporate them into a lesson. I decided to teach Sawyer how to make a graph. This was the first time I had ever done this with him and it went really well. First, I let the boys separate the jelly beans by color. They each snuck one to eat.
Then I showed Sawyer how to put the beans on the graph. He counted them as he did this.
Next, he colored in the graph. The last thing we did was look at the graph and talk about what color we had the most and fewest of.

I let the boys eat one of each color, so Jaxon was happy with that.

Eggcelent Colors and Shapes

I love this time of year. I love the beautiful weather, flowers, and colors. I bought some plastic eggs and other Easter materials the other day. There are so many activities I can use them with.
First, I played a color match game with Jax. I put colored paper at the bottom of these ramekins and had him match the colored egg to the paper. He did a great job with this. He got them all right on the first try and was so proud of himself.
Next, I let him put the eggs in the spoon and drop them into the containers. Sawyer did this once too. It was really easy for him, but still fun.
For Sawyer I filled the eggs with pictures of shapes and hid them around the house while he was sleeping. I could have done letters, numbers, or really anything. I had him find the egg and then tell me what was inside.

Bunny Ears

Last week the boys and I worked on the letter x. We talked about xylophones and x-rays. I didn't take any pics. The only letters we have left to review are y and z. This week I decided to focus on Easter activities. Tuesday I helped the boys make bunny ears. I found the idea here. We also sang, "do your ears hang low?"
First, they colored construction paper with chalk.

Then while I cut the paper into headbands, they glued cotton balls onto the ears.

I stapled them all together. I think I put the ears on backwards, but they didn't care.

Then we hopped around the house pretending to be bunnies. Jax and Sawyer practiced wiggling their noses like little bunnies.