This week is all about the colors of the rainbow! Colors are everywhere. When I was planning for this week, I didn’t want to make it too complicated. We are going to do many of our routine activities for the week with the goal in mind to be purposeful when talking about colors. For example, we are adding on to a bank of two-word combinations

Black-Cat

Yellow-Banana

Orange-Hat

The goal is to be more mindful in the hustle and bustle of the day to talk about colors, label colors as we see them, and try to work in some silly games that we may not have had in the plans originally. Our little one knows her colors already, but I am learning that language is all about confidence when it comes to speaking. I want to build her assurance when it comes to speaking, and also add on to the knowledge that she already has been working on so far. This post includes book recommendations, day-to-day activities for the morning, and some links to music from YouTube to get you and your little one moving.

After 13 years in secondary education, you start to feel like you know a thing or two about working with kids. You feel good about your strategies, you revise lessons that have already been made, and you hone in on your craft as an educator and a teacher of reading and writing. You have a pile of successes and losses that you can relate back to when you feel like you need direction. You understand the work that goes into helping students in grades 6-12 learn how to really care about reading and writing.

Then, you realize after having your own child that it is possible to start over. To be a beginner again. There is something amazing about starting at the beginning of something. The beauty in starting over is that you are humbled by the idea that you are a constant student of learning. I know I said this for years in my own classroom, but feeling like an utter beginner in many senses has been exciting, but also frustrating.

I have a toddler, like many toddlers, who loves all things sensory. She is sensory seeking in many ways. She loves books, but she is also on the go. I wanted to start introducing her to more ideas that were themed or grouped together to help her with learning her words and put ideas together. We also needed to insert something into our daily mama and daughter routine that we could look forward to each day either before lunch or after the nap.

Cue early literacy learning bins for our weekday unboxing during downtimes.

By incorporating sensory activities into her early literacy world, I can create a stimulating and engaging environment that enhances their cognitive, language, and motor skills. In this blog post, I present a 7-day overview of sensory early literacy learning bins tailored specifically for toddlers aged 1-3. Each day focuses on a different theme, allowing a little one to explore and discover various concepts while having fun. As always, take what you need from my ideas.

Let's dive in!