Tot School Assessment Checklist

So I just wanted to share another tool I am using that helped me a ton today! Now that my "tot", CA, turned three we had his 3 year well check appointment with his pediatrician today.  Where did the past three years go? I loved that when the sweet nurse asked me all of the developmental questions I was able to pull out my handy, dandy Tot School Assessment Checklist that I found in August at 1+1+1=1-Tot School. You can click on the link and scroll down to see it on the left. The assessment assesses colors, shapes, physical skills, counting skills, letter identification, and body parts knowledge. It has check lists to use for three times a year. The former teacher in me has loved giving him these informal assessments at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and I look forward to the end of the year assessment. I love to see his growth!!!

I loved being able to pull it out and share all of my sweet tot's skills and abilities at his 3 yr well check! It was a proud mama moment as he is learning and growing so much and I am so blessed to be his first teacher!

Thank you, Carisa for the awesome, usable checklist! You and your site rock!! 

A Giveaway I would love to WIN!

 I have found a blog that I love written by a talented, sweet, speech pathologist! She writes an shares amazing ideas. I have a special place in my heart for SLPs as they helped me many times during my teaching days, especially during the eight years teaching special ed! Many days the SLPs and I would coordinate and collaborate all day!

Ok, I ramble! Sorry! There is an awesome giveaway going on at
Playing with Words-Giveaway!  I would love to win! Hop over to Playing with Words and check it out!

Dental Health Activities

This week we focused on :

•  Celebrating CA's 3rd birthday!
• Dental Health Awareness
• Letter W
• Character Development-Obedience
• Memory Verse-Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20

February is dental health awareness month. So we spent a week discussing teeth and the importance of taking care of our teeth. Thankfully the boys LOVE brushing and flossing their teeth and have had pleasant dental visits in their lifetime. :)

Here are a few books we read:

I used a few activities/printables from these awesome sites:
2 Teaching Mommies:Dental Theme
Kids Soup-Dental Activities

We made our own tooth art project with googly eyes and foam for a mouth.

We made a paper mouth with marks and mini marshmallows for teeth. I saw this cute idea at From the Hive. She has some awesome dental health ideas for preschoolers.

We worked on a few W activity sheets from Preschool Palace.

JP loves the sheet protectors and dry erase markers!

We also played this very fun Elmo brushing teeth online @ Sesame Street Brushing Teeth game.

I have been inspired by Mama Jodi at meaningful mama with all of her awesome character development ideas. I am closely following her lead, although I am now one week behind her as we needed 2 weeks to work on obedience. We have been focusing on one trait each week. At the beginning of the week we put write the letters of the trait on an index card and discuss the meaning of the word and the memory verse that correlates with it. I then put it in a magnetic frame on the refrigerator. So far here are the character development traits we have learned:
 

 This week we focused on obedience. We discussed that obedience is doing what someone says right away, all the way(correctly) and with a happy heart. We played "Mother May I?" and "Yes, Mommy." During the "Yes, Mommy" game I gave the boys instructions and they had to respond "Yes, Mommy" and then complete the task. It was a fun, yet meaningful way to reinforce the concept.  We also discussed that obedience in our home is expected right away and that it is important to learn this skill now to make their lives easier in the future.

This week we also celebrated this blessing's 3rd birthday!

It is hard to believe that this sweet, adventurous, curious boy is now 3!!! Where does the time go?! We celebrated God's gift to us in this precious boy by making banana pancakes together and then singing to him at breakfast. We also allowed him to pick out a balloon at the Dollar Tree. He chose our family favorite place to eat out for dinner, Chick Fil A! We also hosted a family Tonka themed birthday party on the Saturday before his birthday. He was blessed with family loving on him and gifting him with new toys and games. He was so cute as he said, "Happy Birthday to me!"

Birthdays are so fun, especially through the eyes of my children!

 

It was a beautiful week weather wise in our "neck of the woods" so we played outside a lot, especially on CA's birthday! We also enjoyed story time at our public library. Both times I forgot my camera! Oops!

I hope your week was awesome too! Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you've been up to with your blessings! 

Linked up to these awesome sites this week!

Our 3rd Blessing joining us in April!

In April these two sweet blessings will become big brothers and we will welcome our 3rd blessing of another baby boy into our family! We are thrilled, excited, and still in awe at God's goodness to our family! JP and CA went with us for our sonogram a few weeks ago. They are so sweet to pray for "baby brother growing in Mommy's tummy" daily. They say these same words every night. Too precious!

February Fun!

We have had a lot of fun focusing on Valentine's day, Love, Friendship, hearts, the colors red and pink, and 1 John 4:7-8.


We made heart shaped decorations with beads and pipe cleaners.

The boys have loved poking these sticks over and over again into the Styrofoam.

We worked on a few Valentine's activities from Get 'Er Done Momma!  The boys had a great time putting together these puzzles.

 CA is practicing opening and closing the plastic heart containers in our sensory bin.

This picture cracked me up because JP asked for a tray while he was working on a Christmas puzzle of his choice! I loved it and quickly moved V-day things off a tray for him. I have got to get a few more trays for all of our fun!

We had a blast with this Valentine day card tray! This past Sunday we were asked to bring a surprise for our children's Sunday school teachers. We were asked to make a homemade card or do something special for them, so we had a blast making cards for them with all of our foam stickers. I allowed the boys to be creative with their cards and then I wrote messages inside of appreciation.

I also printed these very cute candy wrappers from Anything but Perfect. She has some amazing, super cute printables for gifts!! Check it out!

So I got some Hershey's candy bars and wrapped them up and added another foam sticker for a little more color. We usually attend both services at our church as we teach at one service, so my sweet boys have quite a few teachers. :) Gotta share the love!

JP asked to work with our salt trays and use the animal erasers from the sensory bin! He LOVES the salt! Can you tell from this face?

Then one day we made Silly Heart Puppets. I got this awesome idea from My Creative Family.

These puppets were a hit! They have now been named and are played with often! Meet "Orange" and "Blue"! Quite fitting!

We also used our heart shaped ice cube trays to make red ice cubes. The boys thought this was so fun! Ice is such a fun thing to work with! I think I may have used too much red food coloring as I got too nervous about the food coloring staining my tile, so this activity ended faster than they would have liked. :)

I found the coolest activity with Hershey kisses, and a paper plate at Reading Confetti called Hunting for Kisses! The boys absolutely LOVED this game! I used our red bingo do-a-dot marker to make a heart shape with numbers inside it and then placed numbers on the bottom of the Hershey kisses. I then hid the red and silver kisses around the house while the boys stayed in one room. Then they ran from room to room to find them all! They loved searching for them! Then when they found them all they matched their numbered kisses to the numbered slots on the heart. We played 3 times the first time I introduced the game and then again twice the next day.

I can see this activity modified for so many fun activities. And the Hershey kisses were a gift to my hubby and I at church on Sunday, so it was frugal too! :)

We also made a "Heart Attack" door of love as a welcoming Valentine's gift to Daddy! I saw this idea somewhere in blogosphere (sorry I don't remember where or I would credit that blogger). So we made this "door of love" on the door entering our home through the garage for Daddy who works so hard for our family so that I can be home with these precious boys! We cut out hearts and wrote what we love about Daddy on them. He said the best part of his day was driving in the garage to see all of these notes! 

We still have more Valentine's activities to finish the rest of this week! I think we could work on hearts, love, friendship and Valentine's Day all month, but we will switch gears next week. But I have loved it and I've LOVED all the amazing ideas I keep seeing on blogs!

What have you and yours been up to this week?

Linked up to these great linky parties!