Strawberries and Milk

I had some of our learning tools out on the table from the day before, which was fruit day.  They were green and red heart shapes.  We talked about how strawberries start out green and when they ripen they turn red. 

When Adam got up to the table he was looking for something to do and was interested in these fruit baskets with hearts in them.  So I dumped the hearts on the table and he separated the fruit baskets.  I put one green foam heart in one basket and a red foam heart in the other. 

Lachlan and Peter were both at the table working on their cow craft.  They folded a paper plate in half for the body and provided a cut out sheet with 4 stomachs and 1 heart.  This lead to a fun conversation!

  

Adam and I soon got started on a great conversation.  Here is the play by play, because if you know me or have read this blog at all, you know my inability to pick and choose photos of my children. 

First we had to smile for the camera.  

I tried to use really basic and simple vocabulary, although Adam can follow directions with multiple steps, my hope was for him to possible learn the name of these two colors.  He picked up a green heart first so I said green and pointed to the basket with the green heart. He followed my lead and put the heart in the correct basket. 

 He tried to stack the baskets back together now but I encouraged him to let us continue. 

 He studied the hearts on the table to decide which to pick next.

 He grabbed a red one and put it in the green basket and then stacked the baskets together. 

 I said "uh oh" and pointed to the red heart in the green basket. 

 He took a closer look. 

Eventually I took the red heart out, called it red and placed it in the red basket.  Adam also chose a red heart to put in the basket.

 Yay! He lifts his arms up in joy. 

 He pulled another red out of the green basket and moved it. 

 I love these moments and opportunities I get to have with my children.  I would have never purposefully gotten out two baskets and two colored items and thought this would be something to do with my almost 2 year old.  But since they were sitting out from lessons the previous day it turned into a cherished moment and a wonderful lesson in colors.

After Lachlan finished his cow craft I had him follow the journal prompts in the Mother Goose Time teacher guide and draw a picture of a cow using shapes and write a sentence.

I changed the recommended sentence to better fit Lachlan.  He has loved cows ever since he was tiny because he used to spend one day every week at his Aunt and Uncles farm where they had cows.  I had him write "I have loved cows since I was a baby."  I use a dry erase pouch with a blank paper in it as our chalk board since our classroom is in the dining room.  I can use both sides of the pouch to have plenty of space.  I just propped it up against the cup of markers for him to copy. 

He used the back cover for writing.  There were no lines but I still think it's valuable practice in learning to form the letters.