Are You My Mother? Tot Bag

My final tot bag creation before the summer is based on Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. I recently bought the board book at a used sale here and thought it would make a great tot bag for the upcoming school year. The board book is not as lengthy as the hardcover book and is perfect for the introduction to mother and baby animals. This is what I included in our tot bag.

I made a silly bird bean bag/block. It is basically a soft block with wings and legs. I added some lentils that I had in the bottom to weigh it down some. This will be used for games. I also made a bird pom pom for a milk jug toss game. I know this will be difficult at first but he will get the hang of it. It is just fun trying to get it into the milk jug (the whole family played, I may have made my bird a little too fluffy). I also laminated some pictures of animals so Kaleb can match the animal figure to its picture. I only chose the animals in the book (board book version) so I wouldn't overwhelm him.

I made a pom pom push game where I found some bird clipart and added it to an ice cream lid. The holes I cut in the bodies of the birds range from small to large to give it a range of difficulty. This will also be used later for a color matching game. I used the same bird clipart and made a tonging exercise. Kaleb will use the tongs to "feed" the birds pipe cleaner worms. The cards are for matching mother animals to baby animals.

I couldn't help myself, this book was just begging for some finger puppets. I made these in a night watching a BBC episode of Sherlock. I made a mother bird and a baby bird plus a hen, cow, cat, and dog. These are the only animals in the board book version. I also made a felt board activity. I cut several different colors of bird bodies and accessories (wings, eyes, feet) so Kaleb can create his own bird on our felt board.

The last thing I added was a magnetic game of matching the birds to the correct colored nest (which I colored myself). I love the portability of the cookie sheet magnet board so I try to include some magnet activity in most of my tot bags. I also made egg sound shakers. We do not have plastic eggs where I live so I used the insides of the chocolate eggs that hold those mini toys. I have been saving them for a while, J just loves the chocolate eggs! I added small items that would make a distinct sound when shaken. Each one sounds different. I also taped them closed to prevent any choking hazard should my little one open them.

I tested the pom pom push game on my tot. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too hard or too easy. He loved it and kept at it for a good half hour. He definitely loves activities like this.

Here is my bin with all of the tot bags that I have created so far. They are ready and waiting for the new school year. In each bag, I added everything I needed for each activity to reduce the time spent searching for materials. I labeled the bags with the books and will add the books when the time comes (we are still reading these).

I am all most sad that the school year is over, I have so many new ideas for more tot bags but they must wait until August/September. I hope these encourage you to try to make your own for your tots. They are a lot of fun to create. Here are the links to help you create your own. Questions, problems, or ideas for new tot bags, please let me know.

Are You My Mother? links

You Can Make This - this is where the idea for the silly bird bean bag came from, I didn't use a pattern.

Play Eat Grow gave me the idea of the milk jug toss, I just made the pom pom look like a bird for the game.

Counting Coconuts is where I found the printable adult/child cards to use for a matching game.

The Activity Mom gave me the idea for matching the animal to its picture. It has a printable included but I wanted to use real pictures which I found at The Moffatt Girls.

1plus1plus1equals1 has a printable adult/baby animal matching game, I like the real pictures of each animal. She also has a free printable pre-k pack on baby animals.

Homemade by Jill has a pattern for farm animal finger puppets, scroll down some. Hers are great and I especially love the barn quiet book page to go with them.

The Moffatt Girls has the printable animal pictures I used for the matching.

Engaging Toddler Activities gave me the idea for the pom pom push, I just added the bird clipart.

Sweet Clip Art is where I found the bird clipart that I used. I used the line art bird and added my own colors. I used this bird for my tonging exercise (made him small and cut off his legs), the pompom push game (added my own colors to match the pompoms that I had), and the felt board activity (made him big and used him as a pattern for the pieces). I have a pdf of the big and small birds if you would like it, leave me a message.

LDS this is the link to the color bird matching game that I added magnets to for the cookie sheet. It is a black and white pdf, you will have to color. It could be done the computer but I just colored it by hand.

More ideas for Are You My Mother?

I Can Teach My Child has a sensory bin idea for the book that I will probably do when the time comes.

Part of the Main has a button snake idea using animals instead of shapes, this would go great using the animals from the book.

File Folder Fun has a farm animal game, you could cut the animals in half and have tot match the animals.

I Can Teach My Child also has a great idea making animal mixed up legos, complete with animal printable. I love this idea and may still do it using the animals for the story.

Please visit my tot bags page for more ideas on other bags you can create. My interest board for tot school.

Small Friendly has an idea using feathers to practice color sorting. I forgot to add this activity to my tot bag but I plan to do this.

Monday's Discovery

This week's discovery is one of the best - chocolate. I don't give it to him often but when I do, he makes sure he gets every last bit.

He really loves it, can you tell?

What have we been doing lately?

I know it looks like I have dropped off the face of the earth but it isn't so. We are still working here trying to finish up school. We have had guests from the states for a week and we have some old friends move back here as well. We celebrated my birthday (not something I want to discuss) and we are getting ready to celebrate my anniversary. We have had trips to the doctor, visits to the dentist, and just plain life. We are getting ready for a long trip to 'Merica to see family and friends so even though I haven't been on the radar, I am still here, plugging away, counting the days (I need a break)... Here are some pictures of what we have been doing recently.

I found this the other day...J reading to Kaleb on her bed. So sweet.

Kaleb has been busy pouring and sorting bottle caps. This really seems to hold his interest.

J being silly.

J playing with her doll house.

J's fat lip from an "animal snowball fight." Don't ask....

Kaleb testing a homemade toy for my last tot bag of the current school year. The last tot bag will be based on Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. This activity requires him to push the pom poms through the holes in the bird bellies. He really liked this.

Playing with legos that we recently acquired in a yard sale. So we are still learning and playing and slowly getting things done. Hope your week is full of sunshine and warm weather.

The Napping House Tot Bag

My next tot bag is based on the book The Napping House by Audrey Wood. This is a cute book about a napping family who is startled awake. We own the board book version of it, so I thought it would make good tot bag for the following school year.

These are the activities I included in my Napping House Tot Bag....

I made blocks using an old Jenga game that I had. Each block has one of the characters of the book. Kaleb will stack them and, of course, knock them down. I found this idea, as well as the printable pictures which I colored at The Art Annex. I made the bed from duplos. I also made a sensory game where I cut out circles of cardboard and added different types of sensory materials such as sandpaper, corduroy, tinsel, fleece, the scratchy part of the velcro.... I made two of each so we can match the different materials. At first, we will do this with the pieces out in the open but I would like to put the matching pieces into a bag and see if Kaleb can match them just using his sense of touch.

I sewed a silly looking felt mouse and created a game - Where's my mouse? There are all  versions of this game going around the internet. I mainly want to use this to teach Kaleb his basic colors. I may only start with two of the houses as to not overwhelm him. The mouse idea came from Craft Jr.

I am a quilter at heart and while working with this book, I kept thinking textures and quilts. I sewed this together very quickly in the fashion of the rag letters, no binding or quilting. I made shapes using different textures of fabrics and all of the items I had on hand. I chose a silky material, fleece, corduroy, flannel. Each shape has velcro on the backside so Kaleb can rip it off the main quilt piece and stick it back on. This will be good to work with shapes as well as textures.

In the beginning of the book, it is raining and at the end, there is a rainbow. I laminated a pom pom rainbow sheet to use with our cookie sheet magnet board (on the back is the N for Napping House magnet page from MakingLearning Fun) and I made a felt rainbow that Kaleb can take apart and put back together. Right now, the felt rainbow arches are just placed on top of each other but I am thinking of either using a button or snap for Kaleb to practice.

I am hoping to create one more literature based tot bag for the month of May but I am planning to be back in September with some new tot bag creations. These have been fun to put together and I am looking forward to using these with Kaleb for "Tot" school. I hope that these encourage you to create your own and if you have ideas or requests, please contact me.

The Napping House Links

One Fine Day the idea for the felt rainbow came from here.

The Art Annex - the Napping House blocks idea complete with jpeg that you can print to make your own.

Craft Jr. - the felt mouse pattern that I used to create my Where's Mouse? game.

Making Learning Fun - this site has a lot of ideas for this book, a magnet page, story stick idea, felt board, check it out.

Kiz Club - has patterns that you can use for felt boards or even downsize them for your blocks. I did this originally but the Grandma block required two blocks so I went with the other site.

Making Learning Fun rainbow magnet pages.

1plus1plus1equals1 - rainbow tot pack if you would like to do more rainbow activities.

I Can Teach My Child great idea of a peek-a-boo house using the plastic flip lids of wipes containers, I would have done this but I don't have the lids. I finally bought some wipes with these lids and when they are done, I will create this will pictures of family behind the doors.

No Time For Flashcards this looks so much fun, a rainbow gelatin sensory bin, am I brave enough....maybe when the time comes to use this tot bag.

All Join In this is where I got the idea for the sensory game, she used bottle caps for hers.

Engaging Toddler Activities another set of magnet pages, another rainbow page here.

The Iowa Farmer's Wife where is mouse felt game idea can be found here.

The printable of the color houses is a Mailbox file.

Monday's Discovery

I am constantly on the look out for interesting and easy learning toys to keep Kaleb busy especially when we are doing school. One such toy was J's learning links and a milk jug. I cut a hole in the bottom to make it easier for the links to come out, which I probably shouldn't have since half the fun it getting them out! I kept the links linked together by threes just in case he wanted to try to eat them.

Learning, loving, such a sweetie!

Chicka Chicka Boom Tot Bag

My next tot bag is based on another favorite book of ours - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. I told myself that I was only going to create tot bags for the board books that I own but this book was truly begging for me to create something. So here is the big reveal.....Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tot Bag....

I could have went on and on with activities for this book but I had to stop. Before I write what is in my bag, I want to make sure that you know - in no way am I suggesting teaching the alphabet to toddlers. I just wanted to expose my little one to letters in a fun way. I do not expect him to master the alphabet with these activities. All files and links will be at the bottom of this post.

The idea behind a tot bag is to have everything contained in a ziplock bag or rubbermaid box. I plan on adding letters to our rainbow rice bin - our bin is bigger than shown but I wanted to include this activity in my post. I have small magnetic letters as well as the big ones shown. I will add them to our bin for Kaleb to search them out. Underneath it is a puzzle that I found in my files. I printed it, laminated it, and glued magnets onto the back for our cookie sheet magnet board. Having it magnetic will reduce the stress of the puzzle moving around while assembling. The puzzle comes from Alphabet Learning Tree Printables but I am unable to find a link. If you know where I got this (I would love to give the proper credit) or would like the puzzle, let me know.

I made palm tree for a bowling game. I already had a set of bowling pins but this could easily be made with milk jugs or water bottles. I wanted to create these tot bags with whatever supplies I had on hand. I love the idea of using an actual coconut for the bowling ball. This will probably be added later since I am going to use these in the upcoming school year.

I printed a palm tree for our cookie sheet. Kaleb will play with the magnetic letters to retell the story. I also made magnetic letter puzzles from fun foam. I only made the letters of his name. I did not want to overwhelm him with all of the letters of the alphabet. These letter puzzles are only two pieces and each letter of his name is a different color.

These are rag letters on a smaller scale (about 3 inches each). I have made rag letters before but my original ones were large. I wanted to make a small set that could fit in a ziplock. Again, I only made the letters of my children's names (I had to make both or it would have caused problems), These are relatively simple to make and they only took me less than an hour to put together. We will use these to play games. I will probably add other letters later.

And my absolute favorite item of our tot bag - a homemade felt palm tree. I stressed over this part of the project. I knew I truly wanted a palm tree of my own with letters but we don't have teacher stores here and I was sure I didn't want to spend the money. I searched and searched for a pattern but could not find one so I created my own palm tree by guessing. I used all materials I had on hand to make this - it isn't perfect but I love it. The tree is basically a cylinder - I wanted to taper it at the top but didn't. I filled it half with lentils that I had in the kitchen and stuffing. The lentils make it sturdy since I am making these bags for a toddler. I cut letters from felt and added velcro to the back to make them stick better. Again, I only cut out the letters of my children's names but my older child has already asked for the other letters (guess what I am doing tonight). I also thought to use the rag letters I made, which is possible as well (so you only have to make one set of letters). I hope you enjoyed my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tot Bag as much as I have enjoyed making it. My wish is that these encourage you to make your own for your children. If you have any questions, or ideas for another book based tot bag, I would love to hear from you. I have more tot bags in the works....next one The Napping House by Audrey Wood. If you have any suggestions, I would love them.


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom links

Kiz Club  here is where you will find the upper and lower case alphabet puzzles in both color and black/white.

Kiz Club you can find the printable palm tree and the letter templates that I used for the magnetic cookie sheet. I used these letters for my felt tree.

Making Learning Fun there is so much here for this story - play dough mats, clip cards, etc... I used the palm tree template to make my bowling game.

Happy Together this is tutorial for the rag letters - she has upper case, lower case and numbers too. These are easy to make, if you need the template for my letters which are a smaller scale, let me know. I can't find the link so I don't feel right to post it.

Em Culver I found this picture of a homemade palm tree after I created mine. Hers is so much better.

Hostess with the Mostess this is where the palm tree bowling idea came from.

Other Chicka Ideas not included in the tot bag

Dmiller 317 this is a Chicka Chicka glogster, an online poster with activities to do an a mini movie. I really want to try to make one of these. They look cool.

Lightning Bug Lit has a Chicka Chicka sensory bin.

Sweet Serendipity created a paper towel tube palm tree for retelling the story.

The Teacher Express make a felt palm tree for a felt board instead.

Over the Big Moon has two part printable alphabet puzzles.

My Pinterest board for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (for some reason I haven't been able to add the interest button on my blog, still working on it though).

Monday's Discovery

A friend revisited - Kaleb is becoming more attached to his friend than ever. He loves to have his mouse when he sleeps and he carries it around during the day. I know that I will have to bring it when I go to the states this year, I just hope he doesn't lose it (until he is ready to). Here are a few more pictures of his special friend.

He is making sure his mouse eats with him.

He is feeding his mouse breakfast. Isn't that sweet? Hope your week is full of special friends.

Sonlight Bible Tracers weeks 10 - 18

I just finished the bible tracers for Sonlight Kindergarten (Core A). Some of these verses were pretty long. It could be too much writing, just use these if you want handwriting practice for your kindergartener.

I also finished the bible charts. You may have to trim the sides for them to fit into the mini pocket charts. I hope this doesn't give you too much of a problem. If I have time, I will create these charts using a smaller template. As always, if you find any mistakes, please let me know. Hope these are helpful to you. Please click on my Sonlight Kindergarten page.

Sonlight Kindergarten

Goodnight Moon Tot Bag

Another one of our favorite books in this house is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I recently acquired this book in board book form at a book sale here. We already own the paperback version. I love the board book - they are practically indestructible....I say practically. My son loves to chew books and even though the edges get frayed, we can still read them. My next tot bag is based on this book. I am having fun creating these tot bags and I hope that Kaleb will have fun playing with them. These are the activities that I planned....

I started with a moon and star button snake that I made. I cut simple shapes of moons and stars from yellow and orange felt. Then I sewed two large buttons on the end of yellow ribbon. Kaleb will practice his buttoning skills by placing the shapes on the ribbon. We can also practice patterning with this activity. I made a story cube using graphics from the story. We can use this to find the characters in the story, practice rolling a die etc... I made some mini bottle caps with moon and star stickers. Kaleb will drop these into the bottle for fine motor skill practice. (He loves this activity.)

I made a mini clothesline for him to match the mittens, which are just cut from fun foam. This clothesline is just two skewers stuck into play dough. (I don't have plaster of paris but it might be something to invest in if we are to do other clothes pinning activities.) I found this idea here. An added bonus is that it is portable. I liked the idea from SomeWhat Simple to make a "stress ball" so I added some play dough to a red balloon for Kaleb to squeeze and shape. And, of course, Goodnight Moon would be complete with out a red balloon to play with.

I found a cute moon printable which I printed onto yellow paper, laminated, and punched holes into it for a sewing card. This is a difficult activity for Kaleb but with Mommy's help, we can do it. I also added some pompoms to pick up with tongs and practice spooning ping pong balls (they kinda look like moons- I didn't have white ones) into a ranch container. If this is too hard to do, I might switch to spooning the ping pong balls into bowls. Hope these inspire you to make your own literature based tot bags. My next bag in the works.....Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Goodnight Moon links


Pre-K Pages this is where the idea for the portable clothesline came from.

SomeWhat Simple homemade stress ball for lots of fun.

The Adventures of Bear not pictured here but I plan on creating a Goodnight Moon Sensory bin for Kaleb. She made a great one.

Harper Collins I used this picture for my story cube.

Mother Lode she made story blocks using a book that was damaged. This is a great idea - puzzle blocks but I didn't have a damaged Goodnight Moon book.

Monday's Discovery

Kaleb loves putting things into things. He will spend some time doing this activity with great precision. This day, I gave him a bottle and the pom poms that I made with magnets.

This was a good activity for him and, as you can see in the background, his friend is never far behind.