New Works

On Sunday I took the boys outside to play, and while my back was turned, Bumblebee opened the door to go inside and do some work!  I added several new works to their shelves over the weekend.  For some reason the one that captured Bumblebee was the golf tees and foam.  While we were there, Link of course checked out all the new things on Bumblebee's shelves without even looking at his own.  With some encouragement we did his works together.

To Link's shelves I returned the felt and push pins and added sandpaper numbers (missing from pic), matching sandpaper letters to little wooden letters and an acorn counting activity.

Link's shelves

Link seemed to enjoy doing his work today, but I was very involved.  We also didn't make it through the entire box of letters for matching.  For each letter that he matched he volunteered a word that began with that letter :)  He worked very intently on the felt and push pins though.

Link's push pin work

To Bumblebee's shelves I added a bit more.  Starting on the far left top the new things are: an object box, shape puzzles, and a small abacus.  On the bottom shelf the balancing cactus and belt box are new.

Bumblebee's shelf

On his other shelf I added the foam and golf tees, with no hammer, the peanut can has small holes and toothpicks, and next to that is the lacing orange.  The bag below contains cubes and rectangular prisms for sorting.

Bumblebee worked with the foam, peanut can, cylinder block one, and shape puzzles.

After the boys seemed to be winding down I set up an activity for them that I had been thinking about.  I set up two stools on one end of the classroom, with a bowl of macaroni on one stool.  On the other side of the classroom I set up two stools, with an empty bowl on one and a tray with a measuring cup on the other stool.  I showed the boys how to get one scoop of macaroni and set it on the tray.  Then I walked carefully over to the other side and set the tray down on the empty stool.  Then I poured the macaroni into the empty bowl.  I put the scoop back on the tray and took it back to the other stool.  Both boys did this about four times.  Carrying the tray without spilling the macaroni was the tricky part for both boys.  I plan to continue this in various ways, adding a line and changing the measuring cup and macaroni out for other items.

Link is a very active little boy and I thought it might be more fun doing things that involved moving :)  Today I decided to try something to peak his interest in his sandpaper numbers.  First, I brought 0-4 to the kitchen table.  Since it was just his birthday, he's pretty interested in these numbers.  Baby Bear is 0, Bumblebee is 1 and about to be 2, and Link was just 3, but is now 4.  He learned these five numbers very quickly.  Then, later today we played hide-and-seek with the numbers.  I brought up the rest and we'd take turns hiding them.

Link closing his eyes while I hide the numbers.

First, I would hide them so that he could see the numbers when he found them.  That way I could say "Bring me number 3" and he'd look for that one specifically, passing the others up when he found them.

Sequencing the numbers

 He is at the stage where he knows what order they go in and can identify them if I say the number.  It is harder for him to remember the name of the number when I point at them.

Tracing

Proud of his find

Having fun with numbers!

Link LOVES hide-and-seek!  I think he could play it all day.  We played for a solid hour, then I thought we should take a break so he didn't get too burnt out.  I think I'll try this again with some letters and number rods.