What's On The Trays- Post 8

On our trays for this week:

1. Playdough, playdough tools, large google eyes, & cut up straws

2. Our Shapes File Folder Game & our Shapes Chunky Puzzle (I think our is actually Creatology brand from Michael's, but Melissa & Doug makes a similar puzzle

3. Wooden Stacking Clowns (I bought these a while back and can't find anywhere that sells them now, but Amazon has these Wood Stacking Robots that are made by the same company and seem to be exactly the same except for the paint.)

4. A 3 section tray from Dollar Tree, pony beads, tweezers

5. Lauri Tall-Stacker Pegs Building Set

6. Wooden Geoboard, rubber bands

(These are some new goodies we were able to buy thanks to a giveaway over at Serving Pink Lemonade. Thanks Amy!)

  

    

Dude first tray choice was these stacking clowns . These things are SOOO neat! They stack and connect in a bunch of different ways. These are great for teaching balance, hand-eye coordination, and they're just plain fun! I couldn't resist playing with them myself while I was setting up his trays ;)  I was proud and happy to see Dude also doing some problem solving with these.  When he was working on the configuration in the second picture he had several crashes, then I noticed him stacking the pieces for the second layer over to the side and moving the entire set over to stack. That worked!

   

Oh, and the drama the follows each crash! (for all of about 3 seconds)

Does anyone else get these sorts of faces on a daily basis?

It took Dude awhile to warm up to using the tweezers to transfer the pony beads. He transfered 2-3 beads with the tweezers before ditching them and just using his hands. After doing that for a little bit he did pick the tweezers back up. I had given him a 3 sectioned tray and 3 colors of beads for sorting but he wasn't too interested in that part.

    

The Lauri Tall-Stacker Pegs Building Set is a new tot toy for us, but it's something that's been on our wishlist for a long time. Both boys had opportunities to play with it this week. I only gave Dude a few of the rubber pieces for now. Dude was really fascinated by using the pegs to make different shapes, mostly squares and triangles. Spudder just liked putting the pegs into the holes and then pulling them back out.

....and peg punting!

This Wooden Geoboard was another new tool for us. I bought it with the intention of using it with our Letter of the Week studies, but I thought I'd put it out on a tray to let Dude explore freely first. Stretching rubber bands is great for working the muscles in those little hands.

    

The shapes tray was more geared toward Spudder, but a little review for Dude is never a bad thing. I had Dude call out the names of the shapes as he completed the file folder puzzle. As for Spudder, well he tried pretty hard to get the pieces into the correct holes of the Shapes Chunky Puzzle. He was successful about half the time.

I was inspired to put out a bug making tray by a post I saw over at No Time for Flash Cards. The google eyes made this one hugely popular with Dude. I think my once anti-playdough kid might be coming around. 

I'm linking this post up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1, Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity.