Chika Chika Boom Boom

Time for New Units!  It really was sad to put away his Farm and Insect activities, they were really fun to put together.  But they had been out for a while, and he was losing interest.

Cameron has been *obsessed* with numbers and letters lately.  He sings his ABCs constantly and points out letters he knows whenever he sees them.  "Look at those ABCs Mamma!  What are they doing up there?"  He watches that Super Why cartoon religiously (he even sings along with the songs!)  

For a while now, Cam's had a really good grasp of numbers 1-10.  He counts  everything.  Sometimes, he would get too excited and count too quickly so that he would have a larger number than objects.  We have been working on that and now he is counting slowly and using his little pointer finger to keep track. 

I am amazed every day at how quickly these little toddlers learn.  I suppose it goes hand in hand with how astonishingly fast time is passing.  I feel so much internal pressure to keep up with his development and thirst for new knowledge...it's hard even with a three 12hr shift per week schedule.  

This post will focus on out Chika Chika Boom Boom activities.  Cameron *loves* that book, we read it constantly.  So, in perfect Montessori fashion, I am Following The Child.  Ha!

Here is a shot of our Chika Bookcase.  I probably could have filled up at least another one, there is so many great ideas and printables out there.  On that note, many thanks to makinglearningfun.com.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I am desperately short on trays... and that is sadly still the case.  I have found a set that are the perfect size, colorful, and not horribly expensive but I just cannot quite justify the expense.  However, clipboards are about $1 and have worked really well for this mostly-printable unit. 

Here are some sequencing cards that I laminated and made number chips to go with.  Like I mentioned above, Cam is great at counting but I don't think he can relate a written number to an amount.  So, I found some foam numbers and stickered them to those wood rounds from Hobby Lobby.  The zero is red because it is an entirely new concept for him.  Numbers are taught to start at 1, the absence of a number has been confusing for him.  

This one might be a bit of a reach:)  I think it is supposed to be card game for older kiddos; I am having him find the shape from the card and color it the appropriate color.  

Here is another Chika shape activity.  Cam has a good grasp on the basic shapes... too early to learn hexagons and parallelograms?  I cut out the corresponding shapes, colored them the same colors as the worksheets, and laminated them.  

Here is one I have been wanting to do for soo long!  Finally found jumbo push pins at Office Depot (duh).  The coconut tree is thumb-tacked down to two sheets of corkboard.  They fit really snugly inside the lip of the tray, so they stay put.  He likes it so far!

Again, I am trying to 'Follow The Child' and incorporate his love of Play Doh.  Seriously, that kid and his Play Doh.  Anyway, the stamps are these cute little alphabet stamps from Michaels.. they are less cute now that Cameron opened them up and destroyed the original box.  The roller and scissors are from a little kit from Target's Dollar Spot.  On a side note, Cameron is *rocking* scissor practice!  I wan't going to set those out, but he found them in my school supply piles and wanted to use it.  He was able to hold it correctly with his right hand only, and cut completely through!  So proud :)

I really enjoy using these magnet/Do-A-Dot pages whenever I can find them.  I don't currently have enough magnets, so I am planning to glue some to Pom Poms.  That keeps making Pinterest appearances, so ya know I gotta try it:)

Coloring pages

Matching specific colors to their names.  Too advanced, I know... But if he can recognize the first letter of the word, I think he can muddle through

The purpose of this activity is letter recognition; he matches the letters on the worksheets to his Melissa and Doug magnetic alphabet.  I need to break this up into 2 or even 3 different trays, cuz it is just too overwhelming to sift through 24 letters.  But I don't have any more paper trays.  Sooo....we will see:)

Coconut counting and number recognition.  Cameron is supposed to roll the dice and then put that amount of magnets on the coconut tree.  I made the die with a little craft paint and some foam number stickers.  It reminds me of the HIT trademark that is on all the Thomas and the Train stuff...

Same activity, different tree.  Makinglearningfun.com had coconut tree templates, so I had to make a few:)

Sorry this picture is soooo awful!!  I promise it was cute before my toddler stumbled across it.  I found a Chika coconut tree window cling *with* coconuts!  I was so excited, I actually bought this several months ago cuz it was too perfect.  Cam loves those crazy window gels.  There are still a few surviving fall leaves that are stuck up on top.

Here is a shot of his magnet/Dri Erase board that is in his 'cwasswoom.'  I cut out another coconut tree and am using his lower case Melissa and Doug magnet letters to go with.  I'm hoping to have Cam put up the letters as we read the book... Let ya know how that goes:)