Mama’s week in review – letter T

Touch. Tinker Toys. Triangle. Train Tracks. T-Rex. Telly (Sesame Street). Trout. Trumpet. Trombone. Tuba. Twirl. Tootsie roll. Ties. Tightrope. Trampoline. Textures. Ten. Toe. Teacher. Tango. Turn. Tape. Taste. Test. Tool. Thomas. Tie dye.

We had a lot of fun this week with the letter T and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. For some reason this week was a little more difficult in the Bible story area and pretty easy in the letter learning area.

Bible Story – The Parable of the Good Samaritan has always seemed like an easy one to me, since Jesus explains what the parable means. Cutie Pie seemed to ‘get’ it in that we help those who need it, by offering assistance to even people we may not like a lot and that this shows God’s love. We related the letter T to the story by talking about Jesus as a Teacher and what it means to be a Teacher. Cutie Pie has been doing great with Sweet Pea, helping when he needs a little extra help, being an encouragement when he learns something new, but also has been Teaching him a few bad habits. We talked a little this week about how Sweet Pea is learning from him and even though he’s only 4, that he is still Sweet Pea’s Teacher. (Not in a way that puts pressure on Cutie Pie, of course, but in a way that hopefully encouraged him to be a good big brother!)

Gross Motor – We have a small exercise Trampoline that we brought out for the boys to jump on. Of course Sweet Pea absolutely loved this! I can’t get him away from the Trampolines at his gymnastics class! It was also a good Tool for Taking Turns! I also used masking Tape in a straight line on the floor and we pretended it was a Tightrope!  Sweet Pea did great with this, walking on it like his gymnastic balance beam. Cutie Pie found this a little more challenging, but enjoyed it nonetheless! We also watched some (safe) Youtube videos of Tightrope walkers and people jumping on Trampolines, just so they knew what a tightrope walker was.

Train Track Town – complete with fire station, zoo, Tunnels, Twists and Turns

Science/Art – Textures – (fine motor) We played with some textures this week in a couple of ways:

Cuttlebug dump Truck and Texture Ts

• First, we got out my Cuttlebug texture folders and felt them. Were they smooth? Bumpy? The boys thought they would make smooth cardstock bumpy when we used the machine with a texture folder. We ran the cardstock through and, sure enough, the cardstock was made bumpy (texturized)! This kept them entertained for almost an hour! At the end we cut out a capital and small T and ran them through the Cuttlebug. Then I used my dump Truck die to cut out several, which they glued onto their Textured T’s. Cutie Pie loved the dump Trucks! 
• Second, we did roller pin painting so the kiddos could see how to make Textures in paintings. (idea from Strong Start website.) I got out my rolling pins, sponges, rubber bands, textured cloth, kitchen utensils and forks along with some paint, a couple trays and paper. I wrapped the rolling pins in rubber bands and the textured cloth and poured some paint into the Trays. I showed the boys how to gently roll the rolling pins in paint and roll a texture onto the paper. I did the same with the sponges and utensils, and showed them how to pull the fork Tongs through the wet paint to make a design. They loved making Textures this way!

Science – Experiment – I had seen a taste experiment on Kid’s Science Experiments website a while back and referenced it for this week. It’s called Wake Up Taste buds and lists several different foods to use. I didn’t have all of those on the list, so went with what I had. Here’s what I did:

• In several small dishes I placed small amounts of salt, sugar, honey, syrup, chocolate syrup, vinegar, lemon juice, grape juice, milk and silk (lactose-free soy-based ‘milk’).
• First I put a small amount of each food, one at a time, into the palm of their hand. They told me what it felt like (solid, liquid, granular, etc) and made a guess as to what it was.
• Then, I dipped the end of a straw into each, one at a time, alternating sweet and sour, for the boys to taste on the tip of their tongues. Basically I just put a drop on their tongues. I did this right after they felt it in their hand.
• I asked them what it tasted like – sweet, sour, etc. and had them guess what they were tasting. It was interesting to see what they thought. I think having the sweet and sour alternating made the tastes more intense, sour seemed more sour and whatnot, based on their reactions.

Tie dye coffee filter ‘Tulips’

T week was pretty fun. Cutie Pie doesn’t really like to do crafts, and I was afraid he wouldn’t like the texture things I had planned, but he ended up loving them!