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.