Theme Queen

Like any Elementary teacher, especially lower elementary ed, themes are what we are passionately in love with. Everything has to connect in some cutesy fun way. So, why not do the same in potty training? My little ones get so excited and motivated when it comes to animals, especially jungle animals, but yet never had one apart from a jiggly baby giraffe rattle. So, the past two weeks everything we did was focused on jungle animals, including our potty training. Each successful day of potty training, when E would communicate her need to go all day long she was able to choose one new animal a day. BEST STRATEGY EVER for my little E, talk about the biggest motivator! It was toward the end of day two she finally understood when that urge was to go and how to communicate to me her need to use the toilet without me asking. You better believe by day two she had already earned three animals! The first day, if she communicated all morning, boom animal! Afternoon, boom animal! So much positive energy and motivation, made her want to learn quickly. By day two, if she would communicate all day she was rewarded one animal of her choice in the evening. This Saturday marks one week of potty training and we haven’t had a accident since Monday, even at night time! That includes going to the park Tuesday, running a gift to a Doctor friend, and having two meals with the grandparents this week. Praise Jesus for Jungle Animals and Emma’s hidden readiness. My closest childhood friends, the MACK girls, knew how much anxiety I have had over the potty training topic over the course of the past months because of so much travel and instability. Wanting to potty train, but not having the consistency in a schedule to be able to stick with it. I am so glad they gave me the advice and confidence I needed to take that step and go for it. I was 100% convinced I wanted to make potty training a FUN and MEMORABLE memory even if it was just my memory. I didn’t want this to be wasted days sitting on a toilet “waiting” to go or fighting her to sit on the potty when she was scared to death of it. Yes, there were definitely a few times this week where there was a battle of the will, but we pushed through those moments and have enjoyed seeing her growth, obedience, and making fun memories as a family in the process. Plus side too, being able to incorporate our theme into so many fun activities throughout the day.

Music: I incorporated lots of animal songs and dances. The Girls’ Top Favorite songs:

Walking in the Jungle
La Serpiente de Tierra Caliente
La Iguana y el Perezoso
Jungle Animal Song by Kiboomers
Jungle Song
Animals in the Jungle

Activities: I made a bunch of Jungle activities and resources you can find on my TpT store. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mamas-Bilingual-Play-school

Jungle animal: Patterns

Jungle animal: Diet
Jungle animal: Physical attributes clip cards

Spanish emergent reader for jungle animal names and colors
Jungle animal: English/Spanish Bingo game

Sensory: Jungle animal’s bath time in shaving cream and water

Here are some of the other activities and crafts we did with Jungle animals. A lot of what I did was just hand drawn, please check out my TpT store for some of the other stuff. I included other attachments below of other resources I used.

My hand drawn Snake Name, Emma had to put her name together
Tower building by color and number on snake name
Pattern stickers on snakes
Number ordering with hand drawn snakes, then painted that number of spots on each snake
Snake craft with links of paper
Jungle animal creations with snap cubes
Jungle animal pattern block mats
Snakes and Ladder game