Bugs and Insects Theme Activities Part 1

And yes, I'm a mother of 2 now. I'm still pretty overwhelmed with two little beings wanting my attention all the time and hopefully, things will get better or I will get used to this new life. So this is a rare afternoon where both of them are napping at the same time (number 1 in the room and number 2 in my sling) and I better cut the story short and finish up this post about our Bugs and Insects Theme Activities.

I really want to write this post to document this theme because this is by far my most elaborated in terms of planning and preparation. So happy that my effort paid off when I saw Xue having fun learning and the learning objectives achieved. In part 1, I'm sharing about all the activities on his shelf. Most of these materials are created and set up as 'invitations to play' - activities that hopefully will trigger the kid's curiosity and 'invite' him/her to explore the materials on his own. On top of that, I usually laminate or use velcro dots on the materials so that Xue can work on them as many times he wants. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking. Here's a photo the invitations to play on our shelf this month.



1) Color Sorting Worms in Holes

2) Counting Spots on Ladybugs

3) Shapes Sorting Butterfly
*Drum rolls* Sharing this resource that I created for the first time!! If you like to make this too, you can download the file here.

4) Learn to Count Butterflies to Flowers

5) Sorting the Colors of the Bugs
Counting Chip Printable from Intentional by Grace

6) Pre-writing Insects to their Food
Another printable I created, you download it here.

7) Books on Creepy Crawlies and Insects

8) Bugs Sorting Busy Bag - I forgot to take a photo of this but I bought this busy bag from Curious Minds Busy Bags. Here's a photo from the shop. It's pretty difficult to buy insects manipulatives in low quantities and I was happy to find this busy bag. To top it off, it came with a sorting case too!

That's all for Part 1. Will be back with Part 2 to share about all the crafty Creepy Crawlies activities!

ABC and numbers with stickers

Honestly, I don't know any toddlers who don't like stickers. Give Xue some stickers and he will be happily peeling and sticking away. I like stickers too! There are so many activities we can do with stickers, other than simply sticking them all over the place and on mummy. Lol. Yes my little Xue loves to decorate me with all his funky stickers and there's a high chance that you will see a giraffe on my blouse, a star on my face or a Lightning McQueen on my bump.

Xue has taken interest in the ABCs and 123s he sees around the house and this is one good activity for toddlers like him who are learning to recognise alphabets and numbers. I gave him some alphabet stickers with an alphabet chart and some number stickers with a number chart. There are plenty of alphabet and number charts online, just google for them and print the ones you like. One suggestion here, do the number chart first as 10 numbers are more manageable as compared to 26 alphabets and do the alphabet chart on a separate day. This will keep them interested in the activity. Also, if possible, find stickers that do not repeat the alphabets and numbers. The alphabet stickers I used had multiples of some alphabets and it's increased the difficulty level for the tot who is learning to differentiate 26 alphabets.

I showed him how the alphabets/ numbers stickers match those on the charts and how we then stick the stickers on the chart when there's a match. Very quickly, he understood the activity and got to work immediately. He was pretty excited whenever he found a match.

Once completed, these alphabets and numbers charts looked pretty good as posters on the wall!

Tools and Construction Vehicles Part 2

This month, we expanded from tools to construction machines. He was so fascinated with all these big trucks. Whenever we are on the roads, we will be looking out for these construction vehicles for Xue. Sometimes, he is quicker than us to spot them and will be squeaking with excitement as he points them out to us.

Here is a round up of the rest of our tools and construction theme activities:
1) Totbooks
The idea and most of the resources came from the amazing 1+1+1=1. A totbook is basically a small self made book for a toddler that is filled with early learning printables to expose early learning skills. I made the construction theme totbook first (you can download it here) and added three more activities to the original construction theme totbook package:
i) match the machines line drawing page
ii) big or small machines
iii) spot the machines

Seeing how Xue had fun and learnt so much from his first lapbook, I quickly followed up with a second Handy Manny tools totbook (you can download the resources here) and added the following pages:
i) match the tools line drawing page
ii) spot the tools with a photograph of the real tools

 

2) Cut and paste number charts
Another cutting and pasting activity where Xue cut up different numbers of tools and made a number chart. I divided this activity into 3 sessions, so he did numbers 1 to 5 first, then 6 to 8 and finally 9 to 10. For numbers 8, 9 and 10, he probably got tired with the cutting and decided he wanted to stick the strips of papers on the chart immediately.

3) Construction sensory bin

I couldn't believe it when I saw that these 5 mini construction vehicles were going for only $6 on Amazon. They are just what I needed for my sensory bin! I used green beans here as the fillers which were good to demonstrate the different functions of the machines and clean enough for us to do this activity indoors. I also planted some pink pebbles which added a dimension of treasure hunt to his tub. Xue had a lot of fun digging and scooping up the beans. Of course lots of beans ended up on my carpet but they were easy to clean up with my vacuum cleaner.

 

And here is a photo of Xue waiting so eagerly by the side as I take some photographs before he can get to play with it.

4) Construction theme party
Xue turned two last month and we held a construction theme party for him! The highlight must be the cake with the safety cones and dump truck on it. He was beaming with joy when presented with his cake and that made the effort all worthwhile.

5) Books, books and more books

Fortunately for us, the town library is just 5 minutes drive away and visiting the library is a weekly affair for both of us. The library placed the toddler books according to themes and this made my search for tools and construction vehicles books a breeze. We got some great books at home too like The Usborne Big Book of Big Machine. Xue still loves listening to us naming and explaining the functions of the different machines in the book. Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site is another of our favorite. The rhymes and illustrations in the book are too cute!

We have moved on to another theme now, I'm just really slow with my updates. I must say these construction and tools theme months have been a lot of fun for us!