The Day of the Turtle

Does this ever happen to you;

Driving down the road and come up on a turtle trying to cross, you swerve to miss him and watch in the rear view mirror to make sure the car behind you does the same as you let a strange sound escape your mouth. Yeah? Me too. The other day, we actually turned around and was going to assist the turtle across the street. I realized that Little Mister has never seen a turtle up close. So, we brought the mobile-home guy home for the day. Don't worry, when the day was coming to a close, we let him go (far from busy streets)!

Confused about what to name your turtle? Luke or Lucy?

 Finding this creature lead to many learning activities:
Sensory play : cold vs. hot (warm actually) with frozen turtle eggs
Language: the letter T
Math: counting turtle parts, 1 head, 2 eyes, 4 legs...
Literature: Look Out for Turtles by: Melvin Berger and Yurtle the Turtle by: Dr. Seuss
Science: where do they live, what do they eat, etc...
Good Stewardship: we are all part of this beautiful planet! Let's take of all things that live here!

**Featured at The Good Long Road, Kids Co-Op
in honor of World Animal Day

Smelly Socks

Little Mister is discovering his sense of smell. I absolutely love the faces he makes when he "smells" a flower! I decided to do some sensory play today and made some smelly socks. I used some things we already had in our kitchen: Cinnamon sticks, Garlic, Crushed Mint and Apple extract. You can also try things such as lemon, pickle juice, oregano, vanilla extract and actually, the list is limitless! Just have fun.

I used some socks that have become too small for his precious feet. I filled them with 4-5 cotton balls then added my liquid to another cotton ball or placed it in the sock. Then, I added a few more puffs into the sock and sewed it closed. I stored each sock in a separate baggie until play time. If adding solids, like spices, I just placed them between some cotton balls inside the socks.

Objective- Uses all available senses to explore the environment (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers; Scientific Development 3.3.4)

Explain that we smell things with our noses. Ask them what they smell. Can they describe what they smell? You might be surprised by their responses!