Friday, March 18, 2016

Learning About Camels Through Individualized Instruction

One of the reasons I love Mother Goose Time so much is because I can use it with both my 6 and 2 year old.  The lessons can be adapted and made easier or harder depending on your child's ability.  Despite the fact that my girls are at two very different points in what they know, they both love the lessons Mother Goose Time provides.  This is an open and go preschool curriculum that both my toddler and first grader are benefiting from it.  On day 7 we learned about camels.  During circle time the global friend from Yemen was introduced.  I called out continents for Addie to point to on our world map, and with Elli I called out the colors of the different continents for her to find.  
The girls learned how to say camel in ASL.
We talked about how many humps camels have.  Addie read the rhyme time poster, Sally the Camel, out loud.  This is a great way for her to gain confidence in her reading.  The girls took turns picking number cards to change the rhyme.  
  Addie helped Elli put the number cards in numerical order after they were done with the rhyme.  I made up simple math problems for Addie and she was able to use the number line to calculate the answers.
Camels humps store fat.  I filled a paper bag with scrap paper and the girls had to try to balance it on their back and crawl around in a circle.  They both had a terrible time getting the bag to stay in place, so we wound up sticking it under their shirts while they were crawling. They both thought this was a pretty funny game.  Once they went around the circle they rolled a dice and removed the corresponding number of paper pieces from the bag.
A lot of times there are ideas for simplifying or making a lesson more challenging.  This makes it easy to individualize the lessons based on the child's level.
Addie picked out the letter cards to spell out the word hump.  Then she and Elli worked on creating the letters and putting the finished word together.  
I hid the hands on letter H card under a pillow hump and then the girls had to sit on whatever pillow they thought it was under.  If they were wrong they had to come up with a word that started with H.  Elli is able to come up with words that start with certain letters if you give her a few examples first.  Addie can easily come up with words so to make it more challenging she had to spell out the whole word.
The girls love making crafts.  Today they made camel puppets.  Addie is really into what the finished product looks like, and usually tries to recreate the example.  Elli is only 2, so the finished product isn't as important as the process of making the art.  With this project she got to use markers, scissors, glue and tape.  
Addie used her camel to put on a puppet show.  She also added some plastic people to the show.
The girls were able to use their camels to follow directions.  With Elli they were simple, like put the camel on the table.  With Addie they were more complex and had multiple steps.
The girls completed the number 13 page in their my little journals.  Elli spends most of her time trying to trace the numbers and letters on these pages.  She's learning to use a pencil properly so this is great practice for her.  Addie spends more time working on the prompts, in this case it was making a 13 humped camel.  
Mother Goose Time also makes add ons that you can use.  Addie gets extra practice with the more math and more literacy workbooks. There is also the little goose book, which is a supplement for younger kids.  I used to use this with Elli, but now she is able to complete enough of the activities without modifications that we no longer need it. 
We also managed to find a camel book at the library.

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