Each Peach Pear Plum- 1

Today was our first day of "school". I feel really lame referring to doing "school" with a 2 1/2 year old, but it is our own little version of school I suppose. Anyhow, we read Each Peach Pear Plum which was in our Peak With Books book, and it was a lot of fun to read with Anastasia. It is a short read, with "I Spy" picture riddles on each page. Some are harder than others but with a little help we had lots of fun! We had fun seeing some of our favorite fairy tale characters in some of the pages... like Jack and Jill, Old Mother Hubbard, Cinderella and the Three Bears. I liked a lot of the questions listed in PWB (Peak With Books) and skipped the ones that were really complex.

While she was playing this morning, I hid A's animals in the kitchen and made little rhymes in the same manner as Each Peach Pear Plum for her to find them. Here they are:

Banana, Apple, Pot of Honey, I spy a furry bunny!

Shiny grapes, pretty sequin, I SPY a snuggly penguin!

Strawberry, Peach, Yogurt Swirl, I SPY a nutty squirrel!

Plum, Pear, Applesauce canned-a, I SPY a cozy panda!

Blueberry, Raspberry, a tub of butter, I SPY a silly otter!

Cherry, Apple, Vanilla Pear, I SPY a teddy bear!

This game was a definate hit! I asked her to go hide her animals for me to "Spy" but she didn't quite get the concept but I think it would make a great adaptation for an older child. A school-age child could even make up their own rhymes as well. I also made a shadow matching game that she did really well with:I just put fruit images into Microsoft Publisher and did 2 for each fruit. Then I darkened one of the two images for each fruit and printed them out. If I can figure out how to do it, I would love to have one uploadable to share. We aslo made a fruit salad and compared peaches, pears and plums... sizes, textures and shapes. And this afternoon I set up some montessori-style baskets and taught her how to do each one:

Spooning Apples:

This was a huge hit! I thought it would be too easy, but Anastasia loved it. She has done this basket over-and-over again!

Apple Tweezing:

I found this activity at My Montessori Journey where I was overall inspired to do seasonal Montessori-inspired activity trays. I thought this would prove too difficult, but A adapted it by picking up the apple to get the tweezers around the stem. Since she has never used tweezers before, I thought this was an acceptable way to learn.

Animal Sorting:

I thought A would enjoy sorting animals. She enjoyed playing with them. It would be great if I had tiny tongs for moving them into the sorting spots. I hope to find some, somewhere soon!

Fruit Puzzle:

I found this puzzle at the thrift store for 95 cents last week and a matching Vegetable one. I thought it went along with the "fruit" theme we seem to have going this week. The puzzle seemed easy, but actually proved a little difficult for A as some of the more round fruits only fit one way.

I also did a split-pea pouring tray and a lacing card tray. The pouring was too easy and the lacing very uninteresting apparently. Tonight I am going to try and have A help me make some Apple Pie filling to freeze for a friday pie party! We will also be making scones to go with applesauce we made last night to accompany our Butternut harvest soup! Mmmm. Tune in for more fruit-ful activities!

Here are some fruity coloring pages:

Elmo and Grover Fruitstand and Fruits of the Spirit