Finishing up May

We finished up bubbles, boats and floats with Mother Goose Time this month.  

The kids used pipettes to suck up water colors and make pictures of rain out a window.  

You can't have a rainbow without rain.  The kids made their own fuzzy clouds with rainbows.  

The kids took turns rolling dice with different shapes on it, and used those shapes to design their own shirts.  

They made puppets of themselves getting a bubble bath that fit inside a bathtub cutout.  

One of the letters this month is V, the kids colored their letter V books.

The kids all took turns playing dominoes.

We played a game like follow the leader.  The kids would spin the spinner and then come up with an action for whatever body part it landed on.  

Our shape of the month was a diamond, the kids used with bodies to try and make diamond shapes.  

And when you have a theme involving water it only makes sense to use the water table.  We had a car wash where the kids cleaned cars, and then later they played in bubble water.  

Beavers and Bubbles

This months Mother Goose Time theme is Bubbles, Boats and Floats.  Everything we're learning about has an aspect of water associated with it.  

The kids always love using the look and find glasses with the monthly theme posters.  3 of the magnifying glasses have an object to find with prompts on the back to make it more engaging.  The last magnifying glass is blank allowing the kids to find whatever they want on the poster and tell their friends about it.  

Would you rather is a monthly game where the kids get to vote on things like would you rather have a pet duck or a pet alligator.  All the kids vote, we tally up which choice is the winner, and the kids get to discuss why they voted for their choice.  Sometimes after a discussion they will want to change their answers because they think about the options in a new way thanks to a friends explanation.

When learning about rivers, beavers were a natural animal to talk about.  The kids made paper bag beaver puppets.  

One of our monthly letters is Y, so the kids were able to color their letter Y books to add to their collection.

We did some patterning work,

and also practiced finding sight words in the I Can Read book for the month.  These easy readers are included in every monthly box and are a great way to introduce high frequency words to beginning readers.  

The kids took turns rolling the pocket cube and then drawing the same shape on a bubble card.  They loved putting it in bubble water and washing it clean.  We had to play this quite a few times because they had so much fun with it.  

Fishing and Rivers

May's Mother Goose Time theme is bubbles, boats and floats.  We spent a couple of days learning about rivers and fishing.  

The kids loved fishing for shapes.  They would roll the pocket cube and then using a magnet on a string they had catch the fish with the right shape on it.  We had to play this multiple times because they loved it so much.  

They designed their own fish and worked on their fine motor skills by lacing a piece of yarn around the fish.  

On the back of the fish was a poem that we went over when looking for rhyming words.

We played an animal river matching game.  If the kids found matching animals they got to put them in the "river" so they could swim away.  

We read books related to the monthly theme during circle time.

Every monthly box comes with a themed book and matching puzzle.

The kids had to swim under the blanket river and collect puzzle pieces.  They all worked together to build the puzzle and put their pieces in.

They made river collages using tissue paper and pebbles.

The first day of any new theme comes with a name tag to practice writing on.  The older kids have mastered their first names at this point, while the younger ones are working on tracing the letters.

Finishing up Bees and Butterflies

 We finished up bees and butterflies with Mother Goose Time this past week.  We've done a lot this month learning about these insects.  

The kids made bee puzzles with pieces they could change around to make different bees.

They loved making bee shakers that were filled with rice to make rattling sounds.

The kids used eyedroppers to suck up paint out of muffin cup flowers and spray it around their bee picture, pretending it was pollen.

We spent time learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.  The kids made caterpillar eggs on decorated leaf pictures.

They used starch noodles to make caterpillars.

And they made collages of butterflies using shape cutouts.

The kids did basic math problems using the math story cards and using the monthly manipulatives to help figure out the word problems.

The kids took turns voting for their would you rather choices, like would you rather have a pet bee or a pet butterfly.

The kids loved using sticky butterflies to catch words or pictures that matched the letter they rolled on the pocket cube.

The kids worked together to build a caterpillar.  They would add whatever shape was rolled on the pocket cube to the caterpillar.  Once it was done they took turns measuring themselves to see who was longer than the giant caterpillar. 

The kids colored their letter M and X books.  These were 2 of the letters we focused on this month.

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with a puzzle that goes with the story book of the month.  The kids always work together to find the pieces that get hidden around the room, and then put the puzzle together.  This teaches them to work together and take turns.

The kids practice finding sight words in the I can Read books using sight word pointers.  This helps them recognize high frequency beginner words.

All year long we have been working on patterning.  The patters have been getting harder as the year goes on, but the kids figure them out quickly.

There are always fun games to help increase math skills.  The kids had fun picking numbers and finding the corresponding flower. 

In addition to using the loose letter parts, the kids got to make letters using wax sticks.  They made the letters of the month, and then tried building their names.  This is just a snapshot of some of this months activities, there were lots more.  Next we'll be starting bubbles, boats and floats.