Monday, January 30, 2012

Valentine's Love

We are feeling the love around here!
By second week of January I hung all of my Valentines decorations,
I was feeling the void of all those Christmas Decs,
So I decided to spread the LOVE!

And now we're ready for Valentines learning time!
We started by sorting these hearts by colors.
She was into this!

I have seen lots of fancy products out their for sorting,
and they are great,
and expensive,
So I was thrilled when I found these hearts at our craft store.

While she was sorting,
he was doing some fine motor work
by putting the hearts into a jar.
'

Sorting is so good for everyday life,
Think about it, when you are cleaning your house,
You are sorting.
 (This goes in the bathroom, this goes in my room, this needs to be thrown out.)
So it's a great life skill.

Here is a great book I recently found about sorting:

It's called Sorting by Henry Pluckrose.
It helps children understand the idea of sorting.

Next we did some fine motor skill,
and sharing work.
I found this canister and these hearts at the dollar store.

Both of them loved taking turns to put them in the holes.

They were so sparkly and pretty,
so that didn't hurt the appeal factor either!

So the great thing was, these two activities didn't take too long,
but it was a definite boredom buster.
Once I got them started on the last activity I went upstairs and started dinner. 
Because they got a little brain candy, they played together nicely for a good half hour.
And that, is why I do learning time!

So how do you start?
Pick a book, an idea, or an art project.
Read the book,
then extend the learning.
It could be as simple as getting out the playdough,
and retelling the story with playdough figures.
Simple good fun. :)

4 comments:

  1. I really do love all your ideas! Thanks for sharing them with us!!

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  2. What a great sorting tray! Thanks for linking up at Thematic Thursday. I'm a new follower!

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  3. These are great activities! We do a lot of sorting and fine motor poking with our trays too. I am a new follower :) I would love for you to share these at my tray link party.

    http://his4homeschooling.blogspot.com/2012/02/whats-on-tray-wednesday-6.html

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  4. Your explanation about the importance of sorting as a practical life, everyday activity is so true. Did you find that the sparkly heart sticks dropped glitter everywhere? I think I might get the fuzzy ones instead next year. Still sensory fun, less mess. Thanks for sharing at WOTT!

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Thanks for your great comments!