Tot School – Letter N

For Letter N week, we haven’t done a whole lot of “letter work”.  We have, however, been focusing on fun, outdoor water and sensory play, math manipulatives, and practical life, Montessori learning.  Like I said before, during the summer months, we are only focusing on about one activity a day, but I still want to slooowly work through the (uppercase) alphabet.

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We focus on a letter every week and do fun activities based on that letter.  I set out “Tot Trays” for my son to play with and learn as the week progresses.  My trays try to promote the four Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.  I have decided to only put out one or two trays out at a time. Some children would thrive with all six trays out, as I was doing up until Letter K, but my son needed less in front of him.  My child thrives with less choice and I have found that one or two trays engages him more than six trays.  This week we tried three.

(I bought my six trays from Oriental Trading.)

Here are his trays:

Numbers: Lego counting from All Our Days.

Colors: We laid these cards (from Confessions of a Homeschooler) out on the floor and found objects around the house to match the color.

Shapes: I printed out music NNNote cards from Memorizing the Moments and matched shapes to the cards.

I made this schedule to organize our Tot School time, according to the Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

You can read my post about it and download the free Tot School Planning Form here.

Also, at the beginning of a {normal} week, I cut out each of the following from our Tot School ABCs curriculum — this makes Tot School time easier for me, when we are “in the moment.”

• Numbers: for using manipulatives in 1:1 correspondence  with our adorable bear counters or other math manipulative.
• Colors: coloring with markers or crayons (we usually use our triangular crayons).
• Shapes: gluing onto a piece of paper

Bible verse of the week:

Apart from me, you can do nothing. John 15:5

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.

We put up our bible verse, a Nn small poster from Tot School, a Nn sign from my Kindergarten teaching days, and these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters.  We put these up on the wall so he could feel the letter every morning and trace his fingers on the letter.

I also changed things up by putting all of his letter magnets on a magnet board instead of the refrigerator.  (You can find many of these from Melissa & Doug.)

Bible Story of the week: We started on the story of Abraham this week using our Betty Lukens’ Bible Felt Set.

**I will have a bible post coming soon explaining our Bible Time routine.**

Letter of the week: Nn

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures this week.

We did most of the printables but I only got a picture of him coloring one.  I was pretty excited about this quadripod pencil grip above :)

We had a lot of sensory time — with water and sand — and this awesome, easy gelatin play.  Click on the below picture to bring you to the post:

Did I mention that we don’t wear clothes during the summer?  Not me, the kids : )

John was sitting quietly in his room for about a half hour, and I came in to find this.  A castle.  His personal creation.  I was so so proud of him!

Click on the below pictures to get to the post:

John got a letter in the mail from his aunt!  He loved learning how to open it.  It was about a letter from his Great-Aunt about Music, which really excited him!  He very own mail : )

Have a wonderful week,

Check out my posts on the Early Literacy Stages:

This post is linked up at the Tot School Gathering Place and check out my Link-Up page for the other wonderful places I may link this blog post!

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!  ♥