Tator Tot Time

Glasgow has a fabulous public library that happens to be located right around the corner from our house.  A few weeks ago, I signed Hadley up for their Summer Reading Program.   From a very early age she would sit in our laps and let us read entire books to her, cover to cover.  Part of our bedtime routine is reading two books each night.  This is a ritual Justin and I often switch up on (depending on nightly responsibilities and such), but is something we both cherish with our sweet girl.  This love of reading may or may not stick with her, but I intend to encourage it as much as I possibly can in the meantime. 

Tator Tot Time, a class for 2-3 year olds offered on Wednesday and Friday mornings throughout the summer, is an interactive program that includes songs, rhymes, and fingerplays.  It is so much fun!  The short and sweet pace of the activities helps to hold their little attention spans.

They sing songs about fishies swimming and frogs hopping.  The teacher models all the hand motions and movements.  I had to keep reminding Hadley to watch Miss Adrien and not the other kids in the class.  Most of the songs had counting involved, too.  Music and Math combined...this teacher/mommy was so proud! 

Listening to directions for the upcoming matching game.  We play our own version of this at home, too.  We turn the cards face up to make it easier, and limit the number of cards we put out at a time.  Hadley loves to find a match, though!

Being timid to get started in an activity such as this, I picked the first card up for her and then she found its match.  All the cards had different animals on them.

Bingo was very simple for this age group.  The cards were covered in different animals and when the teacher called out a specific animal, the children located it on their cards and covered it.  

Four in a row equals Bingo and that's exactly what she got.  She is so proud of that bracelet...she has talked about it nonstop.  Ah, the little things!

Next was craft time.  We colored the front and back of a coffee filter and used a pipe cleaner to make a butterfly craft.  She is intrigued with The Very Hungry Caterpillar right now, so I was able to remind her how the caterpillar turns in to that beautiful buttefly at the end of her book.  A Text-to-Self connection for sure!  

The parachute was the last activity and kids love it!  They hold on to a handle while walking clockwise in a circle singing Ring Around the Roses.  They fell down on the cue, "all fall down."  They also loved shaking the parachute up and down, with great vigor, and walking underneath it. 

After class, our last stop is checking out new books.  Hadley proudly gives the librarian my library card.  You have to be five years old to get your own library card but I let her think it's hers. 

With her two new books in tow, she is ready to go!  We are loving our local library and look forward to filling up our Summer Reading Log!