What's On The Trays?- Post 3

D is 32 months
S is 12 months

In addition to doing Tot School with Dude we also do Tot Trays as inspired by Carisa over at 1+1+1=1.

I try to put these together with both boys in mind. Although there are obviously some small items that are reserved only for my older son.

On the trays this week:

1. Counting links from Oriental Trading (I bought ours on sale so the colors are a bit different than normal) & a juice bottle

2. Heart picks from Dollar Tree and pony beads

3. A popsicle mold set from Dollar Tree, 8 matching pom-poms, tongs, & a wooden popsicle stick

4. Melissa & Doug Deluxe Latches Board

5. Pipe cleaners made into loops, mini clothespins colored to match

6. Stack & Roll Cups , 10 plastic straws

Both boys did like playing with our counting links. Dude hasn't necessarily figured out how to make a long chain yet. Instead he tends to just pick out one ring and connect lots of rings to it. Right now I think the fact that he ends up with chains is almost more of an accident.  I had included the bottle thinking of Spudder, but Dude also really seemed to enjoy trying to lower his chains down into the bottle. So in addition to the fine motor skill of connecting the links, he also got some practice with hand eye coordination. Gotta love that!

 

Spudder tried pretty hard to get the links into the bottle and had some success. He also really seemed to like trying to pick up as many links as he could with one hand, even when they were spread out. That desire wasn't helping him too much when he eventually tried to put them in the bottle though.

Dude also really enjoyed his beading. I think he spent the most time with this tray this week.

  

 

I included the wooden popsicle stick with this tray for Dude to use as a "tool" to get the pom poms out of the popsicle mold. After I showed him how to do it a couple of times he worked at it for a minute or two and quickly became a pom pom retrieving champ. 

 

Spudder also played with the popsicle mold set a little bit. He was most interested in trying to chew on it though. The poor little fella is cutting several teeth right now.

Color matching & fine motor work opening the clothespins. Check, Check. (This idea was from a picture I saw on the 1+1+1=1 blog.)

  

The Melissa & Doug Deluxe Latches Board is always a popular choice. I left all the latches undone for Spudder and just let him have fun just playing peekaboo with the doors and fiddling around with the latches. 

  

This was the last tray that Dude choose, although the Stack & Roll Cups have become one of my personal favorite toys for the infant/toddler stage. There are just so many ways to use them. You can stack, nest, sort, order from 1-10, and snap them into balls. Dude didn't seem too excited when he was getting these off the shelf but he did play with them for quite a while in different ways. I was excited to hear him explain how this one was too big or that one was too small as he matched them up into balls.

I never got around to offering this tray to Spudder, although he and I have played with the cups extensively in the past. As I said, I'm a big fan of this toy!

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