Looking Back: Valentine's Day for Tots and Pre-K



Valentine's Day is not a huge deal in our home, but we have enjoyed some fun learning activities over the years.  Here are some of our favorites!  (Most everything you'll see here is either a free printable or uses materials purchased at the Dollar Tree.  Also, the stages listed are general guidelines... feel free to play fast and loose with the age ranges.)

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Ocean Life Theme Highlights



We had so much fun during our laid back month-long Ocean Life Theme in July. Here are a few of the things we did:

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Our Ocean Life Sensory Bin



I thought I'd share a bit about what's in our Ocean Life sensory bin.

We used blue 1cm gram cubes as our base. I thought it was an interesting water substitute. There are also some blue and aqua pony beads mixed in for "bubbles". The creatures are from our Ocean Life Toob. Some blue foam shapes as well as a few squiggly pipe cleaners for waves and beading round it out.

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Outer Space Theme Highlights

Preschool Space Unit

We just finished up our June Outer Space theme and I thought I'd post a bit about the things we enjoyed the most.

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Mardi Gras!!!!

Sensory Bins



Here is our Mardi Gras Sensory Bin. It has lots of beads, masks, a feather boa, plastic coins and other festive items from the Dollar Tree.



See our other sensory bins


Some Links:
Mardi Gras Crafts
Mardi Gras Word Search
Mardi Gras Coloring Pages

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St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin and More!

Sensory Bins

Robbie and I were both anxious to move on from all the Valentine's Day stuff, so we were super excited to bring out the first of the St. Patrick's Day items.

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Sensory and Discovery Bins

Sharing Sites


This week, I wanted to share some of my favorite links for gathering ideas for sensory bins (and so much more, but we'll focus on the bins today).

Counting Coconuts

No Time for Flashcards

1+1+1=1

Play Create Explore

Tactile Toddler

My Obstacle Course

I Can Teach My Child


These are pretty cool posts as well:

149 Sensory Bin Ideas @ Living and Learning

Our Worldwide Classroom

See our sensory bins

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Valentine's Sensory Bin

Sensory Bins


I only made a small bin for Valentine's play. Robbie isn't crazy about hearts and pink stuff, so I didn't want to go overboard. Plus, I still haven't figured out if he really likes these or not.



All items came from the Dollar Tree.

The base material is made up of small white decorative stones. They have a slightly rough texture and seem to be his favorite item in the bin so far. I also included a few closed heart ball mazes (the kind where you tilt the item to move the ball through the maze). He's enjoying these as well. The white heart containers came from the wedding favors section. I thought the clear decorative stones looked like diamonds. I also put a few Valentine's erasers in for good measure.

He also has a set of clear plastic tongs (also from the wedding section) and an ice cube tray for sorting. I keep the tray on the shelf below his sensory table.

He seems to like it, but he really doesn't spend much time with these bins. I really like having them around for him, though.

See our other sensory bins

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Snow and Ice Sensory Bin

Sensory Bins



I tried to keep the items either white, silver or clear. I also dripped white school glue down the actual bin itself to simulate icicles (it looks better in person). I will be adding to and taking from this bin until he is bored with it. He doesn't play with these all the time, but he does enjoy exploring them.





Contents:

White gift basket shred (Dollar Tree)
Clear glass "rocks" (Dollar Tree)
Styrofoam balls to build snowmen (Dollar Tree)
Hot glue sticks
Imaginext penguins
Silver glitter ball ornaments
Clear tongs, spoons and a glass (Dollar Tree)

See our other sensory bins

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Nursery School Wrap Up


Robbie is 3.5 years old.


intentional learning

Pre-READING

Robbie played around on Starfall.com this week. That's really as close to reading instruction that we got.

I picked up the top three books for reading aloud at the Dollar Tree and the Golden Book for a few dollars at another store (probably Walmart).

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