Here comes the Firetruck!

DAY ONE

I like to cram ever since I was in college, so the night before we start the Ff Week I quickly made up my mind to create a Firehouse from an Annie's cracker box. I painted it with 5 coats of acrylic paint to entirely cover the box but somehow the letters on the box is still very visible. So I printed out windows, a flag and a Fire Station sign to cover most of it...then I was happy with the outcome!

Before I let Lia play with it, we watched a video together- It was of a firetruck that's about to respond to a fire alarm. Then we intently listened to the sound of the Firetruck, and I asked her in turn what sound it was.

We got this little firetruck and a fireman at a dollar store for $5. Just the perfect accessory for our Firehouse!

 Lia immediately started playing with it, pushing the firetruck in and out of the entrance. I included the police car, as most times, they come together.

Don't you think it's cute? I think so! 

 Then I printed out these awesome Fire Safety Word Cards from PreKinders, another amazing website for printables! {Check out her other fun printables!} I introduced them to Lia, just for exposure. 

Then we sang the song "Five Little Firefighters" using our own version. We got this one from Homeschool Creations' wonderful website of printables!

 Of course Lia danced along with the song...She would run when she hears the word!

DAY TWO

All set for Day Two! We are going to paste firetrucks in the letter F and do some pre-writing practice with this Firetruck-themed worksheet from Royal Baloo's Zoomin'-Moving Alphabet! Then I'm going to attempt to read Kersten Hamilton's "Firefighters to the Rescue" and hope she sits through it! {she actually did, yay!}

She has been asking me for glue when she saw me holding it. "Lia's turn, Lia's turn!" she pleaded.

...and this was her finished product!

 Then we headed off to our pre-writing practice activity. I started with the first line so Lia would watch and follow the strokes. She actually did very well!

The fun part...Lia is going to help Mr. Fireman put out the fire with a water sprayer!

 It was her first time to actually use one properly, so she was exploring this little water gadget. She not only sprayed on the "fire", she included the table and the rug was wet...Haha!

Trying so hard! She was enjoying the moment!

DAY THREE

 Started Day Three with this simple 2-piece Firetruck puzzle, still from Royal Baloo's Zoomin'-Moving Alphabet printable pack {scroll up for the link}. 

 We also tried lacing again. Baby girl is interested, but still couldn't do it perfectly as expected. Trying it again next time!{my goal is to keep exposing, that's all}

Doing her own thing!

 Then came the fun part! What do I do with these?! Set the building on FIRE! Mix all colors with shaving cream and...

 The building is on FIRE! Can Lia and little fireman put it out?!

Little Firefighter to the rescue!

and the fire is almost out!

watching the water flow!

Now the building is swimming in water...Haha!

That caps off our Firetruck/Firefighter Theme! That was fun! Lia is only 2-years old so eventually we will be learning about fire safety at home when she's a little older and could understand how things work.

The E...lephant!

I have originally planned to do one theme a week, then decided to do one theme a day to expose my little girl to a variety of things. But some days, I opt to do one theme per two days! Either I have a long list of activities that would be too overwhelming to squeeze in an hour or two, or a new idea just popped. 

I have printed various Elephant printables from the very creative Confessions of a Homeschooler in the beginning. As the weeks went by, I decided to cut down on printables and focus more on Lia's interests, which were gross motor and sensory play. But since these printables are readily available, I decided to use it now {and maybe sometime again in the future}.

 I actually love these magnet worksheets. They're so fun to do! Now if only my little girl would feel the same way!

This is her perfect idea of playing with magnets...stack them! Why need a worksheet?! {I'm still trying to get her to focus...everytime!}.

I've had these cards printed out from Confessions. Originally, the numbered elephants were meant to be sorted out in order, while the colored elephants are to be cut into 2-piece puzzles, and they were to be matched. But since Lia just turned 2, I made a different plan. I put these cards in a pocket chart, on the wall.

I would call out a number and she would give me the corresponding card. Same goes with the colored elephant cards...and she did perfect!

She liked it, so we played with this game for awhile till it was time to take a nap!

DAY TWO

We started Day 2 with our elephant mask and Barney's elephant song, which has been so familiar to us for the last couple of months. The song perfectly describes what one could expect from an elephant: big and strong, great big feet! Lia enjoyed the wearing the mask that she didn't want to take it off...and she danced along with the music, acting like an elephant herself!

 Too bad this was the only picture I took that wasn't too blurry! 

Gotta love action songs! Super fun!

But then when it was Mama's turn to wear the mask, she got all the more delighted! We chased each other in the room!

 When it was time to settle down, I gave her an activity sheet from Confessions. She were to match the cut-out letters with that of the worksheet. She also requested to wear her tutu...Love toddlers!

 She did great! I had to put a tape on the back so it wouldn't slide.

Toddlers got problems too, you know! 

 We also tried the 6-piece Elephant puzzle. I set it out for her so that all she has to do is to put them together and see the image unfold.

 Then we read Mo Willems' Elephants Cannot Dance...or I tried. Haha. 

Well at least she was pretend reading in the end!

Ee is for Earth Activities

After a two-week break from the Letter of the Week activities, we are back to our usual routine! We are on our fifth week, with the letter E as the basis for our themes. Looking back, I have discovered what Lia likes best, and that is sensory and gross motor play. I would still be injecting all sorts of play at this point, but minimizing them in a day instead of doing too many varied activities daily. She liked all the fun things I give her, but I feel like we need some time to snuggle in the couch especially that the cold season is here! 

Anyways, back to the topic. I had a hard time finding E things that had a book to go with, or something that is interesting for Lia. I chose from doing eggs, eggplant, electricity, Elmo, engine, earth, elephant and more. There are actually a lot out there, only that few of them caught my attention.

So I decided with Earth. We painted a picture of what looked like an Earth, with green and blue paint. I poured some paint on the back of a paper plate and let Lia mix them altogether.

We used these paints for our activity. Made sure they're washable!

Just adding drops of both colors around...

...and there's that hand that just couldn't wait to touch the paint!

 Then she went to town!

 We pressed the bottom part of the plate onto a clean sheet of paper...

 ...and it created this beautiful effect!

 Then I prepared this simple garden sensory bin for her. We were going to pretend to plant flowers, to help make the Earth a beautiful place to live in.

Of course, she would rather scoop and pour those beans!

I originally set out a plan to do gross motor play with her by scattering pieces of paper on the floor and in turn, ask her to pick them up and throw them in the garbage. But we were too tired from the weekend birthday celebration we had, so we opted to nap after this activity!

DAY TWO

For the second day, I opted to do a Bible story theme, which was the Days of Creation. It was really simple, but Lia enjoyed it nonetheless. I grew up attending
Sunday School and I remember how I love listening to Bible stories as a kid.

I read the book while she was enjoying her Creation-themed sensory bin. It wasn't the best, but it depicted the creation story.

I made a division between land and see, put in flowers and plants, man, animals, stars and sea creatures, as well as the seven days of creation printable from Christian Printables.

 A closer look. Most of these toy animals are Safari Toobs or from the dollar store.

Little fishies and shells!

Lia played with the bin for around 20 minutes and she was done. She is used to my sensory bins, so it's not something new to her.