Sunday, September 17, 2017

Tot School Letter C Theme {18-24 Months}


Tot School 18-24 months old | Letter C Theme | seriously-lovely.blogspot.com | activities, crafts, and supplies ideas for a week of Tot School with the Letter C as its theme

C is for: Cats, Cacti, Coloring, Cupcakes, Cauliflower, Cars, Cups, Crayons, Cookies, Cherries, Caterpillars, Circles, Clouds, Computers, Carrots, Cows, Corn, and more!

It's time for Week 3 of Tot School with the versatile Letter C as our theme. Keep reading for ideas on activities, snacks, field trips, and more to make this week fun and successful!

I'll be honest: we didn't do much in the way of tot school last week. Even though I was really excited about all the fun Letter B themed activities I had in mind, the week just didn't go as I'd expected and we only did a few minutes of tot school here and there. But you know what? I'm okay with that. The nice thing about tot school is that there's no pressure. And I plan on going back through the alphabet again in the future as a second round of tot school and/or preschool, so we'll have more opportunities to revisit those activities in the future.

On the positive side, even though we didn't do a lot, I noticed that my son has picked up some new skills. This morning he ran up to the magnetic letters on the fridge, pointed at them, and tried to say "A" and "B"! And the last time we got out our three-part cards, he grabbed the one with the bunny on it and started making the sign for bunny. So I know he's learning even when we keep our sessions short and to the point. (Maybe even especially when we keep our sessions short and to the point.)

So I'm excited to move on to Week 3 with Letter C as its theme and I hope you'll enjoy the ideas I have gathered below to make it a fun week! And for more information about what tot school is and why we're doing it check out my post about our Tot School Plans for 18-24 Months Old or my Tot School page, which has links to every post I've written about Tot School so far.

Our Tot School Goals for 18-24 Months

  • learning to identify lowercase and uppercase letters
  • learning the sounds of each letter
  • learning new signs
  • connecting signs with objects
  • using markers/crayons
  • fine motor skills 
  • learning about colors
  • counting 
  • most importantly--to have fun!

Activities


Sign Language/Verbal Skills

Here are our new signs for the week, words starting with "C":

Cup
Car
Cook

For more ideas, check out this list on the Baby Sign Language website.

Books

We like to let our son choose two to three books to have us read to him before his nap and at bedtime, so the books on our weekly book lists won't be the only books we read each week. I will be pulling the books in this list and keeping them separate and handy to read throughout the day as part of our tot school. Books with an * are books we own, the rest we'll be borrowing from the library.

*The Very Hungry Caterpillar
*If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
*Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Cat in the Hat
Corduroy
The Carrot Seet
A Color of His Own
Who Made This Cake?
Caps for Sale

Skill Building Activities


Use Magnetic Letters
This week we'll be using the letter C magnets from this magnetic letter set plus the A and B magnets from the previous two weeks.

Use Three-Part Cards/Flash Cards
As always, we're using the three-part cards from Simply Learning - here's the link to the Letter C Preschool Unit.

Lacing/Fine Motor Skills
I printed the letter C lacing pages from the Learning the Alphabet Letter C Printable Pack from thisreadingmama.com. However, this time I cut the letters out without punching out the holes for lacing. Little Buddy is showing no interest in doing the lacing so far, so I'm just skipping that for now. I'll simply use the letter cutouts to get him familiar with the shape of the letter and some items that start with that letter (they're printed on the cutouts.)

Color Sorting/Collecting
I've seen this idea in a few places and we may try it to really start learning about colors. You set out different colors of construction paper and then gather items around the house and sort them onto the correct color of paper.

Crafts/Snacks/Indoor Fun


Bake Cookies/Cake/Cupcakes Together
I never really thought about it before, but there are a lot of baked goods that start with "C!" We still haven't gotten our Guidecraft Kitchen Helper stand set up yet, but it's on my to-do list this week so that hopefully Little Buddy and I can bake something yummy together.

Make Cotton Ball Clouds
Similar to last week's Bunny craft, we can glue cotton balls onto some blue construction paper to make our own clouds.

Play With Toy Cars
We have lots of Hot Wheels cars plus some other toy cars and I think we can have plenty of fun with those this week. 

Coloring
I purchased these Dab and Dot markers and we used them a little last week but I plan on letting Little Buddy experiment with them more this week. And of course, he loves using his crayons and Color Wonder markers.

Outdoors


Look at the Clouds
This one might not last long with a toddler who doesn't want to stop moving, but we can try putting a blanket down on the grass and looking for clouds with different shapes as they float by.

Look for Caterpillars
I haven't seen any in our yard, but it would be fun to look for some.

Field Trips


Visit a Corn Maze
There are a few in our area so maybe we'll try one this week.

Buy a Cactus
We may stop at a local greenhouse or garden center and buy a little cactus to bring home. (On a side note, cacti are ironically the one type of houseplant that I can never keep alive. Anybody else have this problem?)

Scavenger Hunt at the Store
Little Buddy goes with me to the grocery store each week, so I plan on looking for items that start with our current letter, plus different looks for that letter on signage.


Additional Ideas

  • This Printable Letter C Crafts post from Fun With Mama has lots of great ideas for Letter C activities, especially for older children.
  • You can also find more Letter C inspiration on my Letter C Theme Pinterest page. (And feel free to follow me because I'll be creating boards for our future themes as well!)

Resources/Supplies


Here are the free printables we'll be using this week, as well as others that you may find useful. There are also links to the supplies we're using this week in case you'd like to give them a try.

Free Printables/Instructions

Letter C Preschool Unit from Simply Learning Kids
Learning the Alphabet Letter B Printable Pack from This Reading Mama
My Letter C Book from The Measured Mom
Printable Letter C Crafts from Fun With Mama


Supplies

magnetic letter set
twist-up crayons
Dab and Dot markers 
laminator
laminating sheets
Guidecraft Kitchen Helper stand
North American Wildlife and Pets Safari Ltd. Toob Animals

I'd love to hear what you think about our plans for the Letter C and any other ideas or suggestions you may have! Feel free to comment below.

xo Sarah

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