Starting Tot School – Plan and Items
As a former preschool and elementary teacher, I have been having a blast putting a plan together for tot school with Elani. I found some great resources online, but many of them did not suit my exact needs. As much as I know that you don’t have to do everything and that it is important to be flexible, I still found the curriculum that was planned out with multiple activities, themed foods, sensory projects, and crafts every single day of the week to be incredibly overwhelming. Oh yeah, and I’m 26 weeks pregnant. Again, you don’t have to do it all, but I didn’t even want to look at it all! I needed some breathing room. I needed to see empty space that allowed for moving things around and being flexible. That’s why I created my own plans for each week. And even those are not written in stone! I have extra books and activities in mind that are not listed because I know that things are constantly changing when you’re dealing with a toddler.
*This post contains affiliate links. When you click and shop through my links, you’re supporting Autumn Romano Blog at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
My first step was to list out all of the themes that I wanted to do. I used Mrs. Plemons’ blog to help with some of my brainstorming. I had over 30 themes (including holidays) so I just assigned seventeen of them to different weeks for each month. I only planned to the end of 2020 for now, but I have the rest of the themes waiting for when I plan them out for next year.
From there, I made a more detailed plan for each week. This is a rough draft for the first week of school, but it is close to complete.
BOOKS: Our libraries are not open due to the pandemic, but I just browsed the library website and created a list of books that I wanted for each of the themes. Since our library is doing curbside pickup, I set the dates that I will need to pickup my September books each week. Once September arrives, I will do the same for October (and so on). I did not include the books that we already have at home in my plans because we have no problem reading multiple books a day. We will read our books from home as well.
ACTIVITIES/CRAFTS: I planned only one activity or craft a day that matches the theme (most of the times based around the book for that day) because I know it will not be the only thing that we do. I see some plans that have a different sensory item and thing to cook/bake on top of a planned activity and a craft. It is great to have all of those things to choose from, but I needed a more simplified plan. Many of the activities or crafts were Pinterest finds, so I can easily look at my Pinterest boards and plan out what I need for the week.
FOOD/SNACK: My goal for the “food/snack” category was to have one recipe that we made together each week and one or two themed foods/snacks that she got to eat. For me, that is the most manageable and if we do more, then great!
OTHER: The “other” category is meant for things that I did not want to assign a specific day to focus on. As you can see, I am not going in alphabetical order. We will focus on letters that make sense within our theme. Same for shapes and numbers, though I have not chosen which number(s) we will focus on yet for the first week. I think that it is important for learning to have context. Since we will be reviewing her name and reading “M is for Melanin” (a full alphabet book), I decided that our focus letters that week would be the letters of her name, as well as “m.” Since we will be talking about feeling, I decided that the heart would be the best shape to focus on that week. I also chose songs that complement our theme.
Though we will be using a sensory bin, I am not changing it daily. I am hardly changing it weekly. Dried corn will be in her sensory bin for all of September. Each week, there will be different items added in. She has eggs with different faces on them, so those will go in for the first week because we will discuss feelings. Sensory activities don’t have to be a bin of “sensory items,” changed daily. Painting and making cookies, as well as the many other activities that we will be doing count as sensory activities.
Side Note: Many of these things also depend on your individual child. Elani already knows all of her letters and some of the letter sounds. She also knows all of her numbers up to 10. This allows me to easily work on multiple letters or numbers a week. Consider what is best for your child.
I bought these items knowing what I already have and the themes that I plan to use. I still have purchases to make, such as additional pom poms, tissue paper, and other items like that. Most of these items are not craft related and not all of them are themed. I purchased them as additional activities as well as to supplement the learning the we will be doing. Unfortunately, I am unable to link the many items that I purchased in the Bullseye’s Playground section of Target, but you can see what those items are in the video at the top of my post. I included a link for Elani’s kitchen helper stool, which I talked about in this post, because it is great for any activity (especially cooking/baking) that you are doing with your toddler at the counter.
Here are the links for all of the items in the picture above. You can see a more detailed description of each item, as well as how I intend to use them, if you watch the video at the top of this post.
1. Disney Backpack
2. Disney Lunchbag
3. Target Watercolor
4. Match It! – Counting Puzzle
5. 101 Trucks Book
6. Kitchen Helper Stool
7. IKEA Fruit Basket
8. My First Memory Game – Ocean
9. Crayola Washable Paint
10. IKEA Veggie Basket
11. America ABC Book
12. Crayola Washable Paint – Glitter
13. Floor Puzzle – 123 Zoo
I have linked these items merely for you to have an idea of some of the things that I will be using during the school year. I do not believe that you need every single item, especially because every child is different and has different preferences and learning styles.
I wish you the best of luck on your homeschooling journey! Make sure to check back for more ideas and resources. If you are not yet subscribed, make sure that you subscribe to access my growing library of free printables.
2 Comments
Kelly
I found you randomly on YouTube while searching tot school resources. I couldn’t resist getting the Disney backpack and lunch bag you showed. I’m excited to follow along with your tot school adventures. You seem very knowledgeable and I am always looking for new ideas for my little. We started doing tot school in January but then stopped in March because COVID shutdowns meant big changes for our routine. We definitely have more successful days when we have a plan though so I’m excited to get back to it.
autumnyromano
That’s wonderful! So glad that you got your hands on those Disney things. We love them! Yes. Having a plan and a routine definitely helps my little one as well. And me!! Haha. Thank you for your sweet comment. It means a lot to me!