Skip to main content

November: Leaves Theme

Month three! I am very happy with our progress so far! As month three rolled around we had a bit of a hang-up with teething and an ear infection so we are a little behind to start! I decided to keep it simple with a leaf theme. I did not want to get into a real Thanksgiving theme because it would be too complicated for a 14 month old. 


I have broken my plans into the same three groups; Literature/Music, Crafts/Games, and Dramatic Play. The activities are not ordered and do not need to be completed in any particular order. Just watch your child's mood and your time availabilities for the day and pick the activity that works! Some activities should be repeated multiple time and sometimes even daily to reiterate the skill.


November Plans
This document includes the games, crafts, as well as book titles and song lyrics. Remember not to have too much planned for one day. You do not want to burn yourself out or get frustrated if things are not going as planned. Remember this is Structured Play! Take time to put the supplies together before you begin because some day he/she might surprise you and be ready for more. If you have activities ready to go you will have a great learning experience. Do not forget that this time is to remain fun, when things get frustrating (for you or him) please stop for the day and come back at it later. You always want to walk away while it is still fun and exciting, that will help your child to want to come back day after day. 


November Resource Document
The resources page includes the coloring pages, the leaves and turkey cutouts. Some of the pages can be printed in black and white. I was not happy with Clip Art collection so I did buy some paper leaf cutouts from a teacher store. 


Hope this helps! Enjoy your November and enjoy your Structured Play time!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing for Jak

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be.  As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back.  Readers are not born, they are made.  We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to show them th