Adventures in Tot Trays

I'm finding myself with less and less time for photo editing, computer time, and blogging. It's time to switch gears. If any things going to get posted, it'll have to come directly off the phone :)

Lately we've been having fun learning time with Tot Trays. They are Montessori inspired activities concentrating on self-led exploration and building fine motor skills. Here are a few of our recent adventures in Tot Trays.

Tot Tray 1-

Squeeze a medicine dropper full of vinegar onto a tray of baking soda. We used food coloring to dye our vinegar pink for color practice. This provided about a half hours worth of bubbly fun and fine motor practice. Once all of the baking soda/ vinegar reaction happened, I gave Fisher a toothpick to stir with. He played for an additional 15min breaking up the clumps. Truth be told, he shoved as many clumps as he could into his mouth everytime I looked away. Mac n cheese... Too mild for this culinary adventurer. Vinegar soaked baking soda... Delish! 

Tot Tray 2-

Use an ice cream scoop to place large pom-poms into an egg carton. After about 10 min, Fisher became obsessed with trying to hold more than one pom-pom at a time in the scoop. There were tears.

Tot Tray 3- 

Tea bag painting! Tape white cardstock to tray to keep it from sliding around. Place tea bags onto paper. Use a medicine dropper full of water to soak the tea bags and get the "paint" flowing. Use a paint brush to move your paint around. We used different fruit flavors of tea which provided a variety of colors and smells. This activity became more about smell and taste for Fisher than anything else. He enjoyed tasting the tea bags while we talked about the flavors and pointed them out on the tea box.