Treasure Basket - October

 This month's treasure basket was a book with stuffies to retell it.

We started with reading the book called "That Apple is Mine" 

by Katja Arnold.

Then the Little One pulled out the characters, from the book, that were in the basket.

A rabbit, a crow, a hedgehog and a bear.

 But her favourite thing in the basket is the apple (it's really a pear, since I didn't have an apple).

I believe it is a Melissa & Doug toy and it is special because it is cut into 4 pieces and velcro holds it together.

Which means she can cut it apart over and over.

 In the story the bear solves the dilemma of who the apple belongs to by suggesting they cut it and share it.

They are all happy in the end.

Except the worm.

He doesn't play a big part in the story unless you look closely at each picture but I won't ruin that for you.

The Hungry Caterpillar

I'm late but this is August's Treasure Basket.

Inspired by Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I created some puppets for her.

Oh she loved the look of this big pom pom caterpillar.

She tried to pull the pom poms apart.

I encouraged her to continue to empty the bag and she found the tiny pom pom caterpillar.

Also in the basket were the pictures of the food that are in the story.

Yum the tiny, hungry caterpillar ate it all.

And then it became a great big caterpillar.

That was as far as we got with our puppets and story.

Next year we will have to create a butterfly puppet to add.

Treasure Basket - Sensory Tubes

 This month's treasure basket is full of test tubes.

I found these wonderful test tubes at our local parent/educator store called Planet Kids.

I've had them for almost a year before deciding that they work perfect for this idea.

Each tube is filled with items I had around the house.

Items that may or may not make noise when the tube is shaken.

As she took her tube out of the basket, for the first time, she tried to unscrew the lid.

That is one of her favourite activities.  She is fascinated with taking lids off and putting them back on.

I knew that so I made sure these were screwed on really tight.

Also items that I believe she would be interested in, like these tiny babies.

They were left over from her mom's baby shower.

As she played with the tubes she began to look at them longer and noticing more about the items inside, like the babies with bottles.

Or the colour of the buttons in the tube with pipe cleaners.

Or pompoms of different shades of blue.

Bells from my Christmas decorations. I filled the tube too full and had to remove some so they would make a nice jingle sound.

Plastic straws make a very slight sound.

There is a tube with rice and foil and another with purple sand.

And the last tube has coloured bow tie pasta.

With these tubes we worked on the concept of loud vs quiet, upside down and turn over, identifying objects and sounds, body movements, and putting things in and out of the basket.

May's Treasure Basket - Bugs

The weather is warmer and we are seeing life happening around us.

On our daily walks we spot a variety of bugs, all new to this little one.

Perfect time to put together a basket of items about bugs.

I included a bug house, magnifying glass and a net.

 

And of course bugs!

I was excited to show her the worm in the basket and we pulled out the Grumpy Bird book.

A worm is what Bird offered his friends for snack

and we hadn't seen a live one yet.

Her favourite item in the basket are these little bug holders.

She loves opening and closing them.

Especially after she puts a bug inside.

We found this great book called "big bug" that is all about big and little.

 It is about perspective.

The book starts with a big bug but on the second page it becomes a little bug on a big leaf.  Then the next page is a big flower and a little leaf.

This continues till they reach the big sky then it reverses back

to the little bug.

Later we went outside to catch some bugs.

We managed to capture these teeny tiny bugs in her net.

When mom and dad got home we shared the basket and showed them how we caught the bugs.

March Treasure Basket - Balls

In January I made a card board box house for my grand daughter 

but she never was comfortable going into it.

I tried poking lights in the top but that didn't interest her

so I thought balls might do the trick.

I spent the past month searching for a variety of balls,

some from my own bins and others from dollar stores.

We set the box on it's side and cut holes for these two big tubes

to fit through.

Then I showed her the balls.

She took each from the basket and showed me her favourites.

Then I took one of the balls and rolled it through the tube.

She copied me.

A couple of balls have lights inside them.

She figured out how to activate them.

I thought they might motivate her to go farther in to the box.

As you see in the video she is stretching into it but I wouldn't say she is

comfortable.

Do you have any suggestions on how to encourage her to go in the box?