ELC Toddler Twos: December 2012

Hammer and Nails

It looks like we have some handy men and handy ladies in our class!

The older toddlers seemed to like this activity more than the younger toddlers.

Maybe we can have them build an addition on to the school for us!

This guy spent the longest time hammering compared to everyone else.
Can you tell that his dad is an architect?

You go girl!

I think he is prying out the nails with his hammer. Impressive!

She knows exactly what to do.

Check out the strength in his arm!

You are never too young to learn a new skill!

Motor Development: Small Muscle and Large Muscle
-Touch, grasp, reach and manipulate: The child will coordinate the use of his or her hands, fingers and sight in order to manipulate objects in the environment.
-Movement, balance, and coordination: The child will coordinate the movements of his or her body in order to move and to interact with the environment.

Cognitive Development: Attention and Persistence
-The child will be able to remain focused on a task or object and to persist in the face of obstacles.

Painting Turkeys

Painting is a fun way to practice early writing skills. We painted pictures

of turkeys during our turkey week. One of the older toddlers selected

the paint we were going to use for the activity.

He chose to use all of the paint colors!

I think she is just about to lick her upper lip!

We have observed her using both hands during painting and writing activities.

He was the one who picked out the paint colors for this activity.
He started out just painting with purple.

Another lefty? This guy is our newest addition to our class.

He is having so much fun!

So is she!

Blue is one of his favorite colors.

I think his paintbrush got a little bent somehow.

You can see that everyone had to share the colors with each other.
A great way to encourage communication between each other and
sharing, an important social skill.

The Big Turkey Hunt!

We created a fun way to represent an old tradition of Thanksgiving,

hunting for turkeys. But we did it in a very humane and innocent way.

We hid laminated turkeys throughout our trails and had the

toddlers "hunt" for them. The toddlers loved this activity so much

that we played this game several more times both outside and inside.

The tree snagged his hat off his head when he ran under it!

We used a lot of language in this activity.

The children were encouraged to tell us what color turkey they found,

we also used directional phrases and words.

Problem solving techniques were used and a lot of physical activity!

Big Trucks and Thanksgiving Feast

The lot next to ours is getting prepared for construction. We watched the bulldozer flattening the area. We noticed the trees, shrubs, tall grass all getting torn down. The children also noticed bunnies scurrying away. We talked to the children how the rabbits are not able to live in the tall grass anymore. They are going to find another home. The children were very intrigued about the truck. All of them watched the truck with increasing curiosity, but some were a bit frightened by it. Those children stood by either me or Kris to feel more safe. We have a front row seat to watch what will be happening to the land next to us. There will be many discussions and learning opportunities to come our way.