Christmas Learning Activities

~Alex is 33 months~

We've been so busy lately with getting ready for the holidays, Christmas shopping, and my insanely late nights at work that we haven't done as many activities I would have hoped but here is what we have done.

I did get Alex to sit still long enough to get a Christmas card photo taken and I got Christmas cards printed.

 

Today we looked at My First Jumbo Book of Christmas

Not much of a storyline but it is interactive, with lots of little flaps to open, textures to touch, tabs to pull and turn,  pop up illustrations and a little present at the end to open with 4 ornaments inside. I got it at a discount store for a couple dollars and it was worth the money.

We also did a bunch or worksheets. We did a Alphabet Christmas Tree Mat We only did the abc one because that is the only letter that we have really worked on. Alex did great with it, we used Do A Dot markers to match the letters.

We did a Do A Dot Christmas Tree printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

A Rudolph Color Matching worksheet from Little Piles Everywhere Alex did great with this too, but he still calls colors by the wrong name at times.

and we did some free drawing with markers on a craft foam shaped Christmas Tree.

C is for Cold

~Alex is 33 months~

So we started working on the alphabet again. Today we did C is for Cold. Partly because Alex loves to watch Leapfrogs Letter Factory (the letter C's are cold in it) and partly because it is cold out now.  We bundled up and took walk in a nearby small downtown area. It was nice to get some fresh air, and we did a little window shopping. When we came back Alex did a letter C with his Do A Dots.

We read Winter Friends by Carl R Sams II. Its a cute little board book with great illustrations

Then we made a snowman out of cotton balls. I drew the snowman shape out on a piece of blue construction paper with a piece of chalk then I painted on the glue and let Alex apply the cotton balls. I helped him add the felt and foam details and he drew some snow on with chalk.

I also froze some little trinkets in a piece of ice for Alex to explore. I used a few glittery craft foam snow flakes, and trees, a letter C that I cut out of foam, a red jewel, a little gingerbread eraser and a piece of red string. I gave Alex a bowl of warm water and a turkey baster to use to melt the ice. I also gave him some tweezers to help get the trinkets out of the ice.

 

B is for Bubble

~Alex is 32 months~

We read Sesame Street's Bubbles Bubbles

I think I got this a couple years ago in the Target dollar section. Alex still likes it. It has cute rhyme and illustrations.

We also watched these videos. B is for bubbles a classic Sesame Street clip and Salamander's Bubble Counting Song.


We attempted to do some bubble painting. Alex ended up taking a sip of the soap bubbles through the straw, gagging and then throwing up. (Worst Mom of the Year award here)  So if you try this make sure your little one doesn't drink it! Alex is fine, he drank some juice, ate some snacks and quickly recovered. Hopefully I didn't traumatize him about using straws.

Before the incident photos

Then we tried to do some bubble stamping. This didn't work too well either. You are suppose dip a paper towel roll or tp roll in paint. It is suppose to create a bubble that you can stamp on paper. Our paint didn't make bubbles but Alex had fun making circles anyway.

I got these bubbles at Michael's and we decided to check them out. They are suppose to last longer then regular bubbles and not leave a wet sudsy mess. They do leave little sticky white spot on things though. We had fun though chasing and catching them.

and of course we played in the sink with some bubble bath

Lastly we lined up some paper bubble in order of size. I found a bubble clipart and just printed out a sheet with 6 different sizes and then cut them out. Alex had never tried sizing items before and he did surprisingly well once I told him how it was suppose to go.

A is for Alligator

~Alex is 32 months~

We've been potty training so I have been slow posting what we've been up too. We are still focusing on the letter "A"


A is for Alligator

We read There's a Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer

Mercer Mayer is better known for his "Little Critter" series but his other stories are great too. This one is very cute and we love the illustrations.

We did an "A" dot worksheet that I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler

We did an alligator puzzle from here.

We made an Alligator "A" that I've seen on many different blogs.

and we watched Sesame Streets Alligator King I remember watching this when I was a kid and I was delighted when I found it and could share with my son. :)

A is for Apple

~Alex is 32 months~

This week we started working on the alphabet. Today we did "A" is for apple.


We read and played with the book Magnetic Alphabet Farm

and we watched Leapfrog's Letter Factory. We love this movie, its a great learning dvd that teaches letter sounds in a fun way.

 We did some worksheets that I got from Confessions of a Homeschoolers Blog

Apple shape puzzle

Colored a red "A"

We don't have dot markers so we used paint and a round sponge on a stick

We practiced balancing like a Acrobat on a masking tape "A".

and we did this new alphabet puzzle from the Dollar Tree at least 3 times.

As a treat we all sat down as a family and watched the new Toy Story 3 dvd. Alex is a big Toy Story fan and was mesmerized.  I thought it was a really cute and a great ending to the series.

Dinosaur Day

~Alex is 32 months~

Today we read Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Stickland

We enjoyed this book. Its a cute book that teaches counting backwards. It has cute colorful illustrations.

Today we made a hand print dinosaur. I got this adorable idea from No Time For Flashcards post. I cut out the dino shape out of construction paper and let Alex glue it to a piece of white paper. Then we added his hand prints. He loves making hand print art.

Alex wanted to add some orange "rocks"to his picture with a foam brush.

We also worked on some dinosaur shape worksheets that were made by Yellow Mums. She has some great printables and a Etsy shop too. Check her out.