Teaching Together: Animals & a Giveaway!!

Olive's favorite toys lately have been these fun sets of animals from Wal-Mart.  My MIL bought them when we were in Florida a few months ago and Olive still plays with them almost daily.  The brand is Spark Create Imagine and we have the Safari and Farm Animals.  There are 12 in each set and they are so affordable.  You can find them in the toy section with several things in this same brand.

 My 3 year old plays independently with them by 

sorting - by color, wings vs no wings, color, etc.

organizing

pretending she's a zookeeper

animal conversations & noises

and lining them up all over the house

She shares them with her 4 month old brother.  He loves to chew on them and try to hold them.  It's sweet to see her naming the animals and showing them to him.  She's a cute little teacher making animal noises and asking what each animal eats.  This is one of the first toys they've played with together.

 The animals still look brand new after months of playing with them, they're squishy and we are having so much fun with them.  The learning opportunities are endless.  I'm planning to have Olive tell stories about them, to organize them by categories I determine and categories of her own, talking about where they live, counting them, lining them up, etc.  SO many fun options!!

 GIVEAWAY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a while since I did a giveaway on the blog so I'm excited to share a DARLING Thanksgiving board book with you today.  I realize Thanksgiving is months away, but I got a copy of the book to review and a copy to give away.  This way you'll be way ahead of the game when November rolls around.  Plus all the craft stores already have out Fall/Halloween/Christmas so I'd say it's time to start planning.

To enter: 

Leave a comment saying who you'd like to win this book for and I'll announce a winner Tuesday, August 9th.  Be sure to leave your email address in your comment if you are a no reply blogger so I can get in touch with you.  If there's no email, I'll have to draw another winner.  Good luck!!

for US residents only

 

The book is called One Big Turkey by Anne Kennedy.  The illustrations are so cute and the Thanksgiving story is really sweet.  The lines rhyme, it's a counting book, there's new vocabulary to introduce your child to and there are so many things to talk about on every page.  My toddler loved naming the animals, counting along with me and though the story was funny.  We have already read it aloud several times and I know it's going to be a holiday favorite this year.  It's challenging to find cute Thanksgiving books for little kids and this one is perfect.  The book is very durable, colorful and I'd recommend this to anyone with little kids. 

 Linking up Beth for Teaching Together today.