G is for Grape

For the letter G, Grapes was to be the main theme we would build around, but I wanted to use other foods as well. I also thought todays theme would be a good one to incorporate more fine motor skills into for Mew. 

As usual we stared with the magnet letters. Jocie and I showed Mew how to look at the letter in his wipe off book and match it to the proper magnet on the fridge. He took a while, but did find the G on his own. Writing a G was a little harder for him, but Jocie had no trouble with her paper and finding pictures that started with G. She even flipped over to the other side and found all the G pictures there as well.

I then got out their food trays. (I picked these sturdy plastic trays up at the grocery store on clearance for 1.25 each- best 2.50 I may have ever spent!!!) I gave them each some grapes and plastic knives so that they could cut them into smaller pieces. This was really good for encouraging them to use BOTH hands, as they both tend to only want to use their right for these activities. It was also a good way to work on Mew's fine motor strength. Plus, they both really LOVE to cut things into pieces. I then gave them each some grape jelly and grape jam and we talked about the difference between the two and how they were both made from grapes like the ones they had just cut. After letting them explore these for a little while(jocie was not to into touching those AT ALL) I gave them Graham crackers so they could spread the jam and jelly onto those. Also a good fine motor activity for Mew and another way to get them to use both hands together.  At this point, Jocie was pretty much done for the day. Mew wanted to play a little more and used his crackers and jam to make a 'house'. 

We didn't get any real tasting done today but that is OK. They still had fun.

There were a few more activities I had planned on doing but never got to. I didn't want to overwhelm Jocie- she had a busy week and was at her limit after the above activities.

Activities we did not get to- making grilled cheese sandwiches and Garlic bread(we have done these before anyway) and making shapes out of grapes and toothpicks (the grapes as the corners to hold the toothpick sides together). I also had some Gouda cheese for them to try.