Gingerbread Tot Week

This past week, J and I worked through our first Christmas fun theme of gingerbread. I thought that my tot should be able to join in the fun, so I created the Gingerbread Tot Bag for his enjoyment. Here are some of the activities that Kaleb did.

First, I changed the sensory bin for the month of December. I dyed twisty noodles (all I had on hand) green and red. Then I scoured every drawer and bucket for items to put into our bin. I made candy canes from pipe cleaners. I added red and green shiny pom poms, bells, and buttons in the shapes of stars. I added red and green counting bears for fun and a small piece of tinsel for good measure.

Here, he is checking it out....will it pass the test? Will he take all the stuff out just to play with the noodles?

I think he likes it! This time, he didn't take everything out. He just scooped and poured with all of his cups and such. He has played with this every day since I have changed it. The only thing I don't like about it is the smell - to dye the noodles, you add vinegar and food coloring. I left them out to dry all night but the vinegar smell is still there. Hopefully it will go away soon.

I gave Kaleb the gingerbread cookies I made from felt, a spatula, and a cookie sheet. He had fun with this - picking up the cookies and placing them on the plates.

He is telling me to eat!

Next, we worked with the shape puzzle. He liked matching the shapes but I wish the shapes were somewhat larger.

He worked with the gingerbread puzzle. I made this magnetic so it would be easier to put together. This didn't hold his interest as long as the shape puzzle did though.

On to dressing the gingerbread with all of the clothes!

We worked with the size sort. We talked about big and little but Kaleb was more interested in sticking the pictures to the cookie sheet (his favorite thing to do). We worked with these activities all week, some he liked more than others.