Practicando Sonidos y Números

 

As I am lying on the sofá, letting my poor foot heal, I had to “invent” things to do with Sofía to keep her entertained-and off my leg!

Really, this is easy as she loves to help out.  In addition, give her a task and she will bounce all around the house to accomplish it!
We played for just a little bit, but it was divertido and educational of course!

First, I printed out a few letters and números in a light color so that Sofía could trace them.
I let her choose a letter or número.  After she traced it, we talked about it.  The números were easy.  Sofía gathered objects to represent each número. 
When we did a letter, we discussed objects that began with each letter. She then went around the house gathering objects that began with each letter and sound in Español.  She got creative with the S.  She cut out a foto of herself to represent the S of Sofía!

Pintando con Canícas

Pintando con canícas has always been of interest to me.  Pintrest is loaded with lots of pins of very chévere ideas.  In fact, I can’t even remember what blog I read that finally inspired me to go for it.  But we did and the results were fantáticos!

We really used 3 different sized balls and not all canícas so that we could guess what size line each would make in the paint, and then compare to see if we were correct etc…

 Sofía was really so-so with the actividád, so I had to really, really, really hype it up. 

What she LOVED was using the canícas to paint.  Instead of letting the balls roll, she dipped them in paint and like one would a paint brush and painted her canvas that way.

She also used her fingers and hands and the caníca.

 It ended up being a sensory, science, painting actividad!

La Letra C with a Cámara

A while ago Sofía and I were doing an actividad for the Letra C.  I had something planned out, but as we were doing it, something else occurred to me us, and so we followed the tangent!  We were cruising the casa for objects in our daily life that begin with the letra C.  There are quite a bit en Español!  I ended up giving the cámara to Sofía and she (with only a poquito of my help) took fotos of the things around us that began with the Letra C. 

Here are the results! 

caramelos

 

 carrito

 

coche

 

 

café

corazón

 

corazón

cuchara y cuchillo

 cepillo

celular

 

As a follow-up to this actividad, you can make your own flashcards with fotos or make a collage of the letra C fotos that the niño has taken.  Sofía LOVES to look at the fotos that she has taken and reviews the names of the objects and practices the sound of the letra C!

El Imán

The other day, I created this fun little Science Imán (magnent) box for Sofía and she loved it! I had puchased the imanes from Discount School Supplies and then used a small compartment craft box for the magnetic and non-magnetic gadgets. (If I were creating this specifically for imanes, I would puchase a very shallow box) The big hit with Sofía was the multicolored cut-up pipe cleaners. We did lots of fun things with the imanes both inside the box (with lid open as well as closed) and outside the box. This actividad will no doubt make an appearance at our breakfast table often!

Notice the I for imán! That alphabet keeps popping up everywhere!

Playing with Water Beads

 

 Sofía loves this actividad!  We use one packet of floral water beads, which you can find at Michael’s, and let them sit in a large storage container filled with water.   We usually let them soak for about 2 días.  

Then Sofía adds what she wants to the tub—usually some small cups and bowls—but sometimes, she just plays with no other toys!  The beads are soo much fun!  They are slippery and bouncy and provide a different sensation.  Adults and niños both enjoy relaxing with a water bead tub!

 

 Our favorite color for water beads is blue.  I tried out the red ones (shown  below) and we really don’t like them as much.  They changed the color of the water which made me apprehensive about staining. 

We play with our water bead tub both indoors and out!  Store the water bead covered in water when not in use and they will last about 2-3 months!

 

 

Pica Pica: A Rainy Día Actividad

 

¡Gúacala! We hate rainy días, but luckily we had a fun actividad to save the día! Our Pica Pica de Colores (confetti  or Pica Pica as we like to call it) cutting is something Sofía really enjoys doing,asks for it ALL THE TIME, and is really simple to prepare.  Since Sofía is only three-years-old, she isjust learning how to use preschool tijeras.  I give her a variety of paper with differenttextures to cut such as tissue paper, construction paper, laminated strips, Xeroxpaper, and textured thin paper.  When shehas a pile cut-up, she puts the Pica Picain one of the containers, a tub or a an empty water bottle.  All are great actividades for developing fine motor skills and hand-eyecoordination.  I have found that the Pica Pica actividad also leads to muchcreative and imaginative play as well. Although I MUST sit next to Sofía while she uses her tijeras, this open actividad really allows her to be theboss and make decisions of how and where the actividad will go—something three-year-olds really, really, REALLYlike to do!