Ten Dirty Pigs

This week at the library, the theme was "pigs". The librarian always sets out a variety of books relating to the theme for the children to check out. We picked out the book Ten Dirty Pigs by Carol Roth. It is really 2 books in 1. If you flip it around and turn it upside down, it is another story called Ten Clean Pigs.

After reading it,  I thought C would love to make her own muddy pig (she had lots of fun with all the pig activities they had at the library!)

All I did was print a pig on pink paper and let her sponge paint brown paint on it

Pig found here - I enlarged it

The only brown paint we had was acrylic, I added dish soap hoping it would make it more washable. And wouldn't you know, the one time I do this, she hardly makes a mess.

Tot School

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Updated 5.21.14
I created a Teachers Pay Teachers store to hopefully eliminate some downloading issues. For now only the original version (with a few edits) is available. You have to sign up, but it is free. Check it out here



**UPDATED**

A-Z paths ~ D’Nealian font
 (I used a free font called Block Letters Tryout)

A-Z paths ~ Zaner-Bloser Font

Go to my "printables" page for individual letters

 C had to dot over the letter A's along a path using our dot markers. I told her the lower case "a" (which was first) had to find the upper case "A" at the end. Idea similar to this idea at A Mommy's Adventure, which C also did.

 I also printed out the letters of her name multiple times, upper and lower case, randomly on a piece of paper. Then she had to follow my directions "Mark the letter "C's" green" and "Mark the letter "o's" yellow", etc.
**Updated 11.12.12 ~ if you are looking to do a similar activity, check out Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten, she created a free printable that includes all letters.

*You can find dot markers here

 I made this fridge magnet chart, idea found at Chalk in my Pocket. After she completed it, I mixed up the letters for her to fix. She thought that was pretty silly and enjoyed fixing my mistakes :)

 I also made some word charts. This idea is from Camp Slop.

I also  made these block puzzles for C, idea from Activity Mom. I used 1 inch foam blocks I found at Goodwill. I found these on Amazon, but they are pretty pricey. You could make this activity to fit what you have on hand.

C thought the puzzle she is doing in the top picture looked like hopscotch, so I made her an indoor hopscotch using painter's tape (since it still looks & feels like winter here)

And that's about it, my mom visited us Wed-Fri, so we took a few days off.

Tot School

 When I saw this idea at The Activity Mom, I knew C would love it.  She enjoys numbers and stickers. She wanted to do more, so she did it again on the back.

 We rolled a ball to each other through a tunnel (We tried to include J, but she just wanted to crawl through it)

C loves mixing colors and is constantly asking me what color you get when you mix certain colors together. I knew she would love this, and I was right. I painted each of her hands a different color and then she rubbed them together to see what colors was made. We might do this again with other colors later. I saw this idea here, but have seen in on other blogs.


We did do this awhile ago but I wanted to try it again with her now that she has better fine motor skills. When she did it before, she just poked holes where ever she wanted, this time she had to poke holes on the letters of her name using a toothpick (I made dots on the lines where she was supposed to poke) I hung the letters in the window so she could see the sun light through the holes. Another Activity Mom activity 

 I made this "hungry green monster" using an empty elbow macaroni box. I took out the plastic window, turned it inside out, taped and glued it back together and painted it to look like a monster (I have tried painting boxes before and the paint would peel off). Both girls had to feed it. J fed it colored blocks (I said the color as she put it in the box). C fed it numbers from a puzzle (she had to say the number she was feeding him).

C wanted to do Tot School with Daddy, so he helped her play with some nuts, bolts and washers.

We made this jumping frog together,
find out how to make it at Book House Craft Projects

Quiet Box #4

 matching pon pom colors in an ice cube tray

 puzzle

 beans (painted pink with pig faces) dropped in a creamer container

 pig lacing card

 Stencils

 hair ties on the mallet of another toy

 abc magnets

 foam numbers, flat marbles and a counting sheet

 ice cream erasers and letters to trace

 I made these a long time ago, I made 1 set for every letter of the alphabet using a variety of colors. They are supposed to be double Popsicle sticks. On one side is the lower case letter on one and the upper case letter on the other. On the other side is a picture that starts with that letter on one and the upper case letter on the other. C really wanted to play with this when we came across it in my collection, so I decided to add it to her quiet box.

another one

Tot School

 C helped me start some seeds.

C traced her left hand, I traced her right hand. Then I traced over the pencil line with a sharpie. I had pieces of paper with numbers 1-10 written on them. C put them in order and glued them over her fingers. She really liked this activity. I thought it would take us about 5 minutes and it ended up lasting about 45 minutes (she traced all the numbers and colored both hands) Idea found at House of Baby Piranha

 This activity didn't go as planned (idea found at The Chocolate Muffin Tree). Instead of having C do Tot School during J's nap (like we usually do), I thought maybe I could let them both paint at the same time. That wasn't really a good idea. C wanted a washcloth, so while I was getting that for her, J made a huge mess (picture below)  While I was cleaning J, C decided finger paint instead of using the blocks. Oh well :)

 I made this shamrock game to play on St. Patrick's Day (somewhat based on this idea I found at Along the Way) I made 2 blank shamrocks on the paper and told C that each of us got 1 of each color heart (made of contruction paper). I made a shamrock that C had to replicate. Eventually she started making one so I could make one that looked the same. I tried to have her make 2 that looked the same, but she lost interest after doing that once. 

 She glued shades of green paper on a shamrock

Now that J is 12 months, I plan on including her in some Tot School posts.  I have been trying to do more during my rare 1 on 1 times with her, usually is when C is doing a quiet box.


messy finger painting


I put tape on J and let her take it off (idea found at The Activity Mom)

Shaking seed packets