Riley's Rhymes - Wheels on the Bus

In case you missed the explanation - Riley's Rhymes is a tot school based on rhymes and songs with a focus on colors and shapes. My tot is just about three years old and he asked to do "school" just like his brother and sister. It is a gentle "school" and we do what Riley wants. I do not force him to do it - if he asks, then we will.

Our first unit was Wheels on the Bus - fitting for the first month of school. We took a month to complete it because of hurricane Irma and no electricity for 14 days. But that's okay - we were flexible:) Here are some of the activities that Riley did for our unit.

The Wheels on the Bus unit was based on the song. The focus color was yellow and the focus shape was a circle.

At the beginning of each session, I sang the song while looking at our books. I took this time to point out circles and the color yellow. After a day or two, I noticed him singing the song on his own (loved it:).

My plan was to begin the unit with a new sensory bin. The sensory bin that I had planned was a wagon wheel pasta bin. But I was unable to find the pasta so I made the color yellow sensory bin. I included everything I could find that was yellow - counting bears, blocks, linking blocks, circles etc...

I made some simple 2 part puzzles of circles (included in my download). I laminated them and added magnets to make them easier to assemble. He also had a 3 part bus puzzle that he did. I kept the activities simple as to not overwhelm him and to make it fun.

He was really interested in the lacing bus card (in download). I showed him once how to do it and then let him "sew" away.

He worked on a q-tip painting picture of a circle. He used the bingo markers in the color yellow. He went around and dotted each circle which surprised me. I thought he would get tired of it - nope:)

 He worked on a torn paper bus which will go into his paper bag book pocket. I thought this activity would have been easy but he had some difficulty tearing construction paper. Maybe next time I will have him tear printer paper. He glued not he pieces himself with a large glue stick.

He stacked yellow blocks into a tall tower.

He matched the tire colors using pom pom magnets, a cookie sheet, and my printable.

He painted a bus using the tires of a bus. He wasn't sure about this - he kept asking me to clean off the tires of his bus. He didn't want it dirty.

Here is the beginning of our paper bag book - as you can see where I got the large paper bags (thanks Publix!). All of his crafts will be placed in the pocket of the bag book. They all fit except for the big bus which I will have to fold. You will also notice that I have included extra activities that aren't on my visual schedule. The reason for this is that Riley wanted more than just one activity. So, I had to get creative and add a few items.