More flashcards - clothes, dogs, birds and more

I coloured the clothes flashcards, but that was the end. I'm not going to colour more cards... I've had enough. So I asked D. to have them printed on the way home from work. And here they are!
I just needed to laminate and cut them up. It was easy-peasy. What's more, they look more professional ;)

So here are some ideas what to do with the clothes cards:

1. just show them one by one saying their name
2. show the real items and match them with the card (once I lay down and E. put the clothes cards -the items I was wearing- on me. It was a little chill-out time for me :) this is why I have no picture of this activity)
3. group them according colour, sex or where we put them on (upper-body/lower-body, feet etc.)
4. put together matching outfits: white and red hat, red jumper, blue jeans and red boots or orange blouse, yellow skirt and brown sandals (she got some weird combinations too: bra, slippers, tights).
5. select the ones you can wear in the swimming pool, or what daddy wears at work, what we wear when it rains etc. - kind of situational usage of clothing

I was fed up saying "It's a doggy" while we were walking in the street and saw different breeds of dogs. It must be strange for a child to see a Westie and a Bernese Mountain dog and hear that Mommy calls both of them a dog.

And what we do with the doggie cards:

1. just show them one by one and say their names
2. identify the size, colour and length of their fur
3. group them according to colour, having a tail or not, met them in our area or not
4. give them dog names (we have the picture of our dog, M. and at Grandma's place she's got a plush dog called Bobby, and a sleeping toy called Morzsi, so after naming all the dogs we know we give the other dogs different names. We've got a lot of Bobbies, some Georges - after Peppa Pig's brother etc.)
5. pat and stroke (E. picks few dogs and pat them or stroke them, nowadays she started to kiss everybody and everything, so the dogs cannot miss her kisses)

Bird cards: - we haven't used them, but I plan the following activities:

1. just show them one by one saying their name
2. identify the colours on them
3. listen to the sounds they make on youtube (I put together a playlist on youtube with the sounds of the birds - She loved the sound of jays so much she laughed out loud)

Bird cards in autumn light

Household appliances:

I cannot add anything new to the activities we do with these cards. Sometimes E. takes the washing machine card to our washing machine and throws it inside. :)

Insects:

The 'nice', not too disgusting insects

I have made some more cards in the topics we already had as well as new ones. E. loves them but gets bored of them quickly (she knows all the dogs and clothes already...) so we have baby objects, furniture, vehicles and famous building flashcards too. If I have time I'll take photos of them too. However, we do the same things with them. And there are more to come: tools, kitchen utensils, geographical features, famous people, paintings - just to mention some which are on my mind.

What's the weather like?

The weather is getting more and more changeable. So here is how we deal with it.

I found some really inspirational ideas on this blog about displaying what the weather is like in a child's room. So I've made it myself too, but I'll do the date and days later on, introducing them gradually, just like the feelings.

In the mornings we look out of the window (She points at the window and says "window") and look at the sky. I tell her if it's sunny or cloudy, rainy or windy.

First, I drew some of the weather features on the window pane with special Crayola Window Crayons On the other window we have some other pictures: a butterfly, some fruits and bugs etc. E. loves to look at these as well, so I don't want to wipe them.






















To make the weather display a little bit more interactive, I made this:

I printed the weather pictures from this blog and laminated them.

 After that I glued them on  special magnet sheets that can be cut (and one side is sticky).

We had this old and rusty steel tray (lucky I didn't throw it away) and its back served as the display surface.  (With two sided sticky tape I fixed it on the wall.)

I put green and yellow stripy electrical tape on the sides because of the rusty edge. I placed the weather board in the living room next to E.'s toy boxes and books. I wrote: Today it's ... and E. is ... with a permanent marker.

Location

Every morning after looking out of the window and checking the weather ("It's rainy today" or "It's sunny, but there are some clouds in the sky", "Look at the trees, it's very windy today" etc.) we go to the display and E. puts on the weather signs and how she feels (mostly happy). She needs time to understand the concept of changing weather and feelings (I have more heads showing feeling I'll add them gradually)

First, she put all the magnets everywhere, but the time will come when she can do it on her own without my help.

When we have time and the weather changes we go back to the display and add or change something if it's necessary. She enjoys it a lot. Whatever involves magnets, she is into it.



Final result

Days and the date are coming soon.