Bee Basics

We spent a week learning about bees with Mother Goose Time.  

The kids made bee headbands and flew around the room.

They used bubble wrap to paint beehives after we spent time talking about bee homes.

The kids made bee puppets with weather cards.  They glued tissue paper to a cup and added a bee on a craft stick.  They could pick weather cards, and if the weather was nice the bee could come out of his hive, and if it was cold or rainy he would pop back inside.

The kids got to make a counting game to take home.  They decorated hive pictures and added a number strip and the same number of bees to their hive.  

We learned about drones who are the worker bees.  The kids used hexagon stencils to make a hive and added worker bee stickers.  

Literacy is practiced all month long with Mother Goose Time.  The letter K was introduced, and the kids colored their letter K books.

They did work in their little journals.

In addition to the literacy work, there are always games and activities to increase math skills.  The kids played fill the honeycomb to practice counting and number recognition.

We played bee careful where the kids took turns saying a number and flipping over the same numbered flower looking for the hiding bee.  

The kids always love the look and find glasses and theme poster that come in every Mother Goose Time box.  They take turns looking for the pictures and completing prompts, like buzz like a bee or flap your wings like a butterfly.

The kids designed their own bees and then flew them to whatever color I called out.  

When learning about bee homes the kids designed houses to hide bee and butterfly magnet pieces that go to this months book of the month.

What's in the Box: Bubbles, Boats and Floats

The Mother Goose Time theme for May is bubbles, boats and floats.  

The teacher tool bag comes with four lesson plan books, each for a different weekly theme.  It also includes a themed music CD, loose letter parts with cards, theme web, activities calendar, supply list, list of skills, and alphabet cards.  

Week one will be spent learning about things down on the river.  The kids will get to make beaver puppets, use look and find glasses, read the story book of the month, and much more.

Week 2 is on the lake with activities such as making a duck headband and fishing for shapes. 

Week 3 will be spent learning about soapy water.  The kids will get to make bathtub puppets, work on patterning, and play plenty of games.

For the final week everything will be wrapped up with wonderful water.  Mother Goose Time provides themed activities for a months worth of learning.  Everything is organized and the lesson plans are easy to follow, with engaging games and craft projects.  

Desert Night

We finished up learning about deserts with Mother Goose Time.  Our final say was spent learning about desert nights.   

We played desert bingo.  The kids love this game so we played it a few times so the kids could switch cards.

The kids made desert night pictures by drawing a desert scene with crayons and then painting over the whole picture with black paint. 

The kids loved searching in the (somewhat) dark for pictures and then matching them to the corresponding beginning letter.  

They finished up with some journal work, today we focused on the color black.

Desert Hares and Snakes

Mother Goose Time is a theme based, complete preschool curriculum.  This month we've been learning about the desert.  The lesson plans cover literacy, math, science, social and emotional skills, music and art.  

The kids played a game to work on number recognition.  They took turns picking a coyote card and then had to find the same numbered rabbit.  They took the rabbit and had him hop away into the desert (sand table).  

They worked on building _un words by adding a bunny tail with either and s, b, f, or r.  The older ones were able to sound out the words themselves and after a few turns the younger kids were starting to get it as well.  This is a great introduction to beginning phonics sounds.

The kids finished up the day by making their own rabbit puppets out of paper bags.

The kids slithered around the room while listening to the monthly CD.  When they would pass a friend they would high five them and count how many high fives they got before the music stopped.  We played this quite a few times since they had so much fun with it.

They did some patterning work with rattlesnake and scorpion pictures.

The kids made rattlesnake shakers.  Some of them hid around the room, and when the other kids would walk by they would shake their rattler to let them know they were nearby.  They also played this a bunch of times since any game with hiding is always lots of fun.

Every month comes with a new easy reader that focuses on certain sight words.  The kids get to take these simple books home to continue working on their literacy skills.

The math cards that come every month are a great way to introduce the younger kids to counting and the older kids to more complex math skills like addition, subtraction, and even the idea of multiplication.

The kids designed post card pictures to take home.