Tot Trays

This is what we had on our trays this week:

An assortment of wooden cutouts from Michael's.  With J, I let him pull them out and explore them, and we would say the name of each one together (and make the animal sound, if it was an animal).  With K, I showed him how to use these to make up simple stories.  For example, "Once upon a time,  there was a bee chasing a cat.  The cat was scared and hid behind a tree ..." and so on, using as many of the cutouts as you can).  He was pretty good at it!

We had another Open/Close basket, except this time the containers were all the same.  They were heart shaped containers I got at Wal-Mart during Valentine's Day clearance sales.  I put a little foam shape inside each one so that we could also talk about shapes.

I recently purchased the Melissa and Doug Magnetic Hide and Seek Board, so I introduced it on their trays.  It's a good matching activity (i.e., the cow goes in the barn, the gold goes in the treasure chest, etc.) and both boys like opening and closing the doors.

The Hide and Squeak eggs are always a hit with both of them as well.

The Favorite

The favorite tray has definitely been this one.  I paired a golf tee play set from the Dollar Tree with some marbles.  The boys put the golf tees in the holes on the triangle, then balance a marble on top of each tee.  I mainly thought K would use this one, but have been surprised by how much J loves it too!  That little hand in the picture is actually J's - what great fine motor skill work for him!  (By the way, this is NOT my original idea.  I've seen it in a few places, but unfortunately can't find where I saw it to link back!)