Tot School-Textures

This week we've been working on textures.  I was really excited about this week as the last was quite busy and I knew we'd have a chance to slow down a bit and really plan some fun activities.  Also we just got in a lot of supplies from Amazon so our scope of projects widened drastically.

On Monday morning we started with a texture sort of hard and soft toys.  I laid out three bins.  One with the toys in it and two others for the sort.  I grabbed one soft toy and squeezed it saying soft.  I then did the same with the hard.  Mara figured this out instantly.  She went through all the toys quickly.  The only downfall of the activity is she wanted to put all the hard toys away where they go instead of the bin I laid out.  No biggie!  Guess it was just less work for me later on!

Right before nap time we got out a few of her usborne texture books.  She wasn't entirely interested and wanted to read her current favorites instead.  I pushed through and by the second page she was feeling the different textures and saying, "Ohhh."

After nap time I let her explore a "hard" sensory bin I had put together.  I dumped a bunch of my decorative rock vase filler into a tupperware along with all of her letter puzzle pieces.  She didn't spend much time with this but used her dump truck to load up the rocks from the bucket.

The last activity of the day was another "hard" craft.  (I'm trying to get more structured in an activity and a craft per day)  Previously I had cut out the letter "M" from construction paper and taped it to a piece of cardboard.  I put some uncooked pasta in a bowl and smeared some glue on the paper.  From here I let her place the pasta in the glue to make her own macaroni art.  After it dried we talked about how hard and bumpy the letter was.

Tuesday was by far the best start to tot school yet.  On Monday I had prepped some play dough while she napped and set up a play dough texture invitation to play.  I simply put a ball of dough on a place mat in front of her.  I also gave her some dough tools, spiky balls, legos and a fork.  She dove right in using the tools to make different textures in the dough.  I was so surprised how much she loved this activity and it kept her busy for close to 45 minutes.  Her favorite tools to use were the fork and the spiky balls.  With the balls we called each imprint fireworks.

We then put together a "hard" sensory bottle.  I let her fill an empty bottle with craft gems and sea shells.  As she put them in we talked about their textures and shapes.  We then filled the bottle with water and sealed it.  She spent a few minutes playing with it but I think it's something she'll come back to as time goes on.

Right before nap time I introduced some texture songs.  I don't know why I haven't done this the past two weeks as she loves music and to dance.  She asked me to play it five times.  From there it was a search for more songs and we probably listened to an hour's worth of children songs before she finally settled down to sleep.

After her nap we did our craft activity.  I had her color on a piece of sand paper.  We talked about how rough the paper was and she spent some time feeling it before actually doing any coloring.  Once she was finished we took the paper upstairs and heat transferred it to a kitchen towel.  It turned out great and she was pretty proud of her towel.  Grandparents I see presents in your future!

Wednesday we didn't do any activities until after nap because it was Mara's birthday! Instead we spent the morning at the park but after nap we did our bible verse for the week. Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer makes anger disappear, but a rough answer makes it grow. For this activity I printed out a picture of a sheep and gave her some cotton balls.  We rubbed them against our cheeks and talked about how soft they were.  I read the verse and compared the soft feel of the cotton balls to using nice words.  Then we glued the cotton balls to the sheep!

I had also filled some of her birthday balloons with different things (hand sanitizer, coffee beans, rice, and sugar) I didn't give her much direction with this activity but just let her explore.  She loved these!  She squeezed them and shook them.  We still have them in tact and she comes back to them occasionally throughout the day.

On Thursday we did some painting.  I haven't done any painting with her mainly because I was scared of the mess.  I bought some highly washable paints and decided to get over it lol.  My original plan was to have her finger paint so she could really feel the paint.  She tried this but didn't like it much wanting me to keep washing her hands.  I grabbed some brushes and let her truly paint.

I also laid out another ice cube tray sort.  I bought these spikey colored balls and I wanted her to feel the textures and match the colors.  She kept calling the balls bumpy so the texture was understood but she didn't match the colors but rather put the balls in whatever open hole there was!

Our last activity of the day was the biggest hit of the week.  I created a slippery sensory bin filled with water beads and rubber duckies.  If you're not familiar with water beads they are typically used as vase fillers but are great for preschoolers!  Mara loved it.  She dug in with both hands scooping and dumping the beads into new containers.  We talked about how wet they were and how they bounced.  She played with this bin for close to 2 hours!  I did eventually have to take it away because she tried to eat the beads after being told not too.

Friday was busy for us but we managed to fit in one texture activity.  (In the morning we had a play date where we picked apples and did some apple painting) Mara has always done well with contact paper crafts so I created a face and cut out the area for the hair.  I adhered the contact paper to where the hair should have been and cut up some yarn for her.  She did great picking up the yarn and sticking it to the hair.  Not only did we get to talk about the textures but she got some fine motor skill practice!

Saturday isn't usually a school day for us but Mara needed a distraction so we did some bubble wrap painting.  I taped a roll of bubble wrap to her play rolling pin and let her dip it in paint.  We also had cookie cutters and her usual paint brushes.  This painting activity didn't last long but she's really starting to like to do crafts!

Next week is going to be one of the more difficult themes as we are talking patterns.  I think it's going to be a hard concept for Mara to grasp.  We don't have many projects planned as it was also hard to think of things but again we'll just see how it goes!