Mavi is 16 months old.
Theme: Jungle| Vocabulary: Vines| Color: Green| Letter: B | Number: 2 |Nursery Rhyme: The Little Nut Tree
MONDAY
Theme: Jungle
Vocabulary Word: Vines
The theme for this week is Jungle and the vocabulary is Vines. I introduced to him the theme by showing pictures of jungles and vines, read a book related to the theme, sing songs and do some activities related to the theme. Per usual, Mavi immediately got excited seeing the pictures. He pointed out to the written words and tried identifying the letters all by himself. It's just confusing to teach him the vines versus the jungle by just looking at the pictures because I mistakenly printed out similar pictures of jungle and vines, plus they're all green! I should have printed out a more discreet picture of the vines.
Anyway, he can properly say "vines".. as in "vayyynnnns" but he didn't manage to say jungle correctly, he's version was "dader".
Months ago, husband and I were able to buy the book "Just Like Me". It was on sale, so instead of 1k rsd, we bought it for 500rsd only. I used this book as my tool of teaching him the Jungle. It's about an armadillo, lost in the forest and is looking for something that looks like him. He likes this because it's a look and feel book and he loves to rub his fingers on the photos' surfaces.
TUESDAY
Shape: Green
Up until now, I find it difficult to teach Mavi about colors. I don't know if he can understand it yet because he doesn't respond that much . I mean, he can point at the colors I'm asking him first, then the second time around, he will miss out.
To introduce him to the color green this week, I first tried to show him my cut-out of leaves printed in green art paper. Then I started to put glue into it and demonstrated to him the proper way of putting it in the paper. But he wasn't interested on the leaf or on the gluing activity. Instead, he finds the glue stick more fascinating and he took it away from me. He played it for the rest of the day, and gets mad if I ask for it.
When he was already calm, I attempted again on teaching him the green color by showing the square shape that we have on our previous lesson. When I have his attention, I showed him the green colored pen, the green colored-crayola stamps and the green crayon. I told him "Mommy will color the square GREEEEN". Then I started putting stamps on the square and shaded it with a green crayon. Enticed, he took the stamp from me and started tapping the paper with the stamp. Sadly, the stamp was too small, I expected that it would produce a larger and more visible stamp, but it's too small and so light that Mavi can't barely see the effect if he taps the paper with the stamp. When he was tired, he took the crayon and started doodling on the square.. and on the table as well.
This is what he loves to do most, removing the cap from the pen or glue stick and putting it back again. He keeps doing it again and again, somewhat fascinated and that he can do it by himself. I allowed him to do it anyway, so he can practice his hand and eye coordination. I tell you, he's really good at it.
We also did "find a green color object" activity. We looked around the house for toys and objects that's colored green. Everytime we see one, I would say "green car", "green cup" etc. Then we collected those objects and put it in the paperbag. Since he likes car, I also cut out square shapes from a piece of green art paper and constructed a car. He doesn't like pasting the squares on the paper, but he loves the end product... green car. Even if I use stickers, he doesn't know how to paste the on a surface yet. . Hmmm, I wonder why. And I wonder how I can teach him to do that.
Wednesday
Letter: B
Letter B was introduced and I didn't print the letter, I just wrote it and made him trace the letter with his finger. He already knows the letter so teaching him was not that difficult. Same thing as letter A, he matched the right hole for the letter B by successfully dropping the letter B on it.
Since we still got enough time, we read his favorite Nursery Rhymes book and ask him to identify the letter B on the writings. So far, he's doing well with the letters because he didn't miss any.
Thursday
Number: 2
As I mentioned earlier, to prepare for this lesson, I printed out two sets of matching frogs and clover leaf pictures on a piece of green colored art paper. I put numbers 1 and 2 at the center of the picture. These actually have dual purpose, first that is for counting, and then the other for our matching game.
When I showed it to him, he was amused. I showed to him the frog in sequence, "1 frog", "2 frogs"... "1, 2". In effect, he keeps on pointing at the numbers and saying it out loud. After I while, I tried showing to him that we can match the two items. I demonstrated this by placing the two frogs together at one side of the table and the clovers on the other side. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the idea. This is the first time he encountered a matching game so I know that he couldn't grasp the thought at first. I kept on pairing the frogs and the clovers... but he just grabbed the frog and run away shouting "2!" "2!".
That afternoon, after his nap time, we draw the number 2 on a piece of paper. I let him held the colored pencil and moved his hand to draw the number 2. Then I cut out small squares on a piece of green sticker and instructed him to paste it on the paper below the number. I peeled the sticker; put it on his finger indicating that he should paste it on the paper. I guided his fingers while he put the sticker, and then we counted "1 square", and then followed by the second square "2 squares". When we were on our last number 2, he immediately run to his other days and doesn't want to do the counting activity. He definitely doesn't like the sticking activity and he still has difficulty in pasting the stickers.
Friday
Nursery Rhyme: The Little Nut tree
I posted the rhyme on our learning wall, and I kept on reciting it to him every time he plays around the house. He keeps on pointing to the tree picture that I put beside the poem. He's not much into the poem, even on the previous poems that we've been reading. I think the reason for this is that there's not much picture or colors on the printouts that made. Mavi usually prefers a book and sad to say, English books are scarce in this country :-).
We didn't do any motor skill today for I was not feeling well. Mavi just spent the day doing free-play. Still, I wasn't able to plan for motor skills activity because I didn't have the time to prepare. Hopefully by next week, I will be in the mood to do some fun activity with him.
