Happy March teacher friends! Although it is snowing here in WI today, spring is within reach and this snow better be melted by the weekend! With spring comes lots of exciting celebrations: Dr. Seuss, St Patrick's Day, Easter...Spring Break ;) So to go along with St. Patrick's Day, here at EE we are sharing why we feel lucky to teach in our current grade level/other teaching position.
While I absolutely LOVE kindergarten, many of you already know that I am not currently in the classroom. So I could share the million reasons I love kindergarten, but I will leave that to our current kindergarten bloggers. I've started a new teaching adventure this year..Tot School and wanted to share why I love it so much!
What is Tot School? You can read all about how I got started with Tot School here, but this is how I try to explain it: For me Tot School just means a time each day where we explore and learn together. Of course there is LOTS of learning sprinkled through all of our other playtime and interaction throughout the day, but this is a special time that I spend 1 on 1 with Madelynn exposing her to all sorts of skills and concepts. If you'd like to learn more about where this idea started, you can check out this post from 1 + 1 +1 = 1.
I feel SO lucky to be able to spend this time with Madelynn watching her learn and play. Plus it really helps me get my teacher side out, and plan lots of fun learning activities each week. With baby number two coming in just a few weeks, I hope to continue to spend this time being intentional about our learning activities each day. Here are just a few of our favorite activities so far:
Sensory Bins:
These have been Madelynn's favorite activities by far because they are usually so much different than any of the other activities we've done together. They also take me out of my comfort zone and allow Madelynn to be a messy toddler and play/explore. They are also perfect for Madelynn to use while I prep dinner or check a few emails ;) They keep her occupied the longest which is a toddler win in my book!
Themed Snacks:
I've also been having lots of fun incorporating themed snacks into our days. Sometimes we make them together and sometimes I prep them while she is napping. Here are just a few of our favorites!
I also plan activities for Fine and Gross Motor skills as well as find Books that we can read throughout the week. Here is a quick peek at just a few more of our fun explorations:
I'm lucky to be at home to spend an hour or so each day on these activities, but if you have little ones at home and are looking for a few fun ideas to try at night or on the weekend you can find all of my ideas on my blog. I share a summary of our week and our plans for the following week each Tuesday.
You can catch up on my tot school posts here:
And if you take a look at my year long plans, you can see what is coming up in the next few weeks:
Thanks for checking out my new teaching adventure. If you have little ones, I hope it inspires some fun activities for you to try together!
Your tot school looks like SNOW much fun! I can't wait to use some of these activities with my two tots :).
ReplyDeleteStephanie
The Learning Chambers