Tot School--Big Machines Week

**Joshua is 41 months old**



I have always loved having a theme to our school days...the educational jargon for this is "thematic units."

Themes keep me organized, focused, and excited.
Themes are fun!

This week, our Tot School theme happened quite by chance--if you believe in chance. I don't, so I guess I should rephrase that. This week, our Tot School theme was God-ordained.

I hadn't really put much thought into having a weekly theme for Tot School since we had only just begun this new venture. Then I visited Carisa's blog and saw her wonderful lapbook on "Big Machines."
I've only dabbled a bit in the lapbook world, but what I have done, I have loved--because Joshua has loved lapbooking.

So, I printed out the pages of Carisa's "Big Machine" lapbook (THANK YOU, Carisa, for making it so easy!), and Josh and I got started. Here's a picture of him coloring his bulldozers. Look how focused he is!



Then, on his very own, he went in search of the Tonka books that we have. He loves these books...and throughout the week, we've read them over and over and over and over... You understand, I'm sure.



Of course, when the kids woke up to the almost 12 inches of snow on Wednesday, we strayed from the "Big Machines" train of thought and made snowy day pictures.

First, Josh drew on black construction paper with a white crayon. He also added some yellow for the sunshine. Then, he painted some glue onto the paper and shook on some silver sprinkles. Lots of silver sprinkles.




Here they are hanging to dry on a stretchy line over the sink.



Back to the "Big Machines!"

Almost a year ago, I decided to pull out the cornmeal and have Joshua draw in it with his finger.
That activity gave way to Josh and William driving their Hot Wheels cars through it...which gave way to a HUGE mess.
We put the cornmeal away for a very long time.

I thought that now might be the time to pull it out again. This time, I put it in Matthew's old bathtub (can it really be called old when he's only 9 months?)and placed it on the vinyl floor where it could be "easily" cleaned up. Josh picked out some construction vehicles from the Hot Wheels box and...ta da!! A construction site complete with hills and valleys.

As you can see, William is having a pretty good time too.



On Thursday, my friend, Tonya, came over to talk lesson plans for big kids.

Josh was just getting ready to go down for his nap when she arrived, but he made sure to ask her if she would play with him when he woke up.

Thank you, Tonya, for playing with Josh. You are such a sweetheart. He is still talking about it!



Next came all the construction vehicles...big and small.

I no longer think that the boys need their own bedrooms. After all, they are always bringing out their toys to play in the middle of the family room where we are.

I wouldn't have it any other way.



Reading some more...



And lapbooking some more...



The funniest quote of the week?
When Joshua was looking through the construction paper box to choose a color, he asked, "Do you go any 'struction trucks in here?"
CONSTRUCTION paper...CONSTRUCTION trucks!
It took me awhile to get that one.