February-Themed Units for Toddlers

Welcome to What We're Leaning Wednesday!

I've been busy coming up with "exploration themes"to do with Z over 2016. First of all, I want to express that the goal is not for him to end the month with a complete knowledge of the themes we focus on.  The kid isn't 2 yet.  That said, his mind is growing like crazy and the best thing I can do for his development (academically speaking) is to put new things in front of him for him to explore, not memorize. I don't expect him to retain a good 90% of what we look at. I am just using these themes as a guide to help me come up with fresh, new activities for us to do together.

We'll explore each theme for one week, but I may leave some of the activities we make out for a while so that he can get a good mastery of them if he's so inclined. Hubs and I have a serious case of wanderlust (we met on a trip to Peru, after all) so I'd like to include a cultural exploration theme for each month. 

Our themes for February are:

02/08 - 02/12    China 

02/15 - 02/19    Valentine's Day   

02/22 - 02/26    Transportation

02/ 28 - 03/03   Teeth

I'm excited about the China theme for next week! We have a laminated map up in Z's play area now and I've outlined China with a dry erase marker to make it stand out a bit more. We will listen to Chinese music, look at pictures of the people, architecture, and food, eat some Chinese food at home, and complete a few Chinese New Year inspired crafts that I found on Pintrest. Check out these links for some inspiration!
Nurture Store: Chinese New Year Sensory Painting
Learning and Exploring Through Play: Chinese New Year Dragon Art for Toddlers
The Gingerbread House: Chinese lantern sun catcher

I'll keep you updated on how it goes!