Doors and Windows

So far this month with Mother Goose Time we've been learning about different homes.  With week 2 we've started leaning about different rooms.  We started with doors and windows.  The girls used playing cards to try and build houses.  Addie made a few, but Elli just kept knocking them down before she could add to them.

 Then they made their own paper-bag houses.  This was such a cute idea, and they turned out so well.

working on a door

 The girls used the plastic key manipulatives to practice counting to 20.  We put them in piles of 5 and worked on skip counting.  We also worked on sorting them by color.  I also brought out the shape manipulatives and shape mats from last week to practice counting.   After they were done with that we used the keys to make imprints in kinetic sand. 

sorting by color

using the foam shapes to count

making key imprints

 We played guess which door, which the girls loved.  There were 12 doors that each had a different animal on the other side.  I put the doors on the floor and then said different characteristics until the girls could figure out which door needed to be opened.  They used the key manipulatives to pretend to unlock and open the doors, and then acted out the animal on the other side.

trying to figure out which door needs opened

pretending to be a kangaroo

We had a lesson fail today, which doesn't ever happen with Mother Goose Time.  The girls were supposed to use their breathe to fog up the windows and practice writing letters on them. Unfortunately it was so hot out that we couldn't get them to fog up. 

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Houseboats and Castles

We just finished up our first week of alphabet house with Mother Goose Time, and so far the girls are loving it.  Each day we start off with circle time.  An added feature this month is an alphabet house that the girls add a letter to every day.

Addie never realized that some people live on boats.  She thought either living on a boat or taking a vacation on one would be fun.  The weather was beautiful so I grabbed the bag for day 4 and we took it out to the boat.  I love that each day is separated into its own bag so you can just grab and go. We used shape manipulatives to make houses, put different objects in water to see what sinks and floats, and also made a boat out of foil and tried to sink it with coins.

The girls loved castle day.  They made crowns that they wound up wearing multiple days in a row.  Anytime a craft has glitter or gems the girls will love it. 

Dragons are one of Addie's favorite things.  Her room is decorated with dragons, last year she wanted a dragon birthday cake, and she has a lot of dragon books and stuffed dragons.  So when I said we were making a dragon puppet that we would be using the rest of the month she was thrilled.  We talked about Poland and learned about the Wawel Castle, which has a tunnel that many believe leads to a dragon's den.  I made a tunnel for the dragon and after the girls were done playing in it we built a cave and watched How to Train Your Dragon.

We wrapped up the day reading a book about castles, building castles out of blocks, and completing workbooks.

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Houses and Apartments

We've started a new month with Mother Goose Time, and that means a new theme.  This month's theme is the alphabet house.  The girls loved last months growing garden theme so much that a lot of our lessons wound up getting extended by a day or two, so we weren't quite ready to move on.  I'm hoping to finish some of the lessons we didn't get to when we have extra time this month. We started off with circle time.  This month there is a new feature, a house with a different letter on every piece.  Each day the girls will get to add 1-2 letters, building the entire house by the end of the month.  On the first day of every new theme the girls get a name tag.  This was the first time Addie was able to correctly write our last name without any help. She was so happy to show me that she remember how to spell it correctly.

We also always get a monthly theme poster with look and find glasses.  The girls both always love this.  They find the items on the front of the magnifying glasses and then on the back there are questions/activities.

pretending to be a sleeping owl

The girls also got to complete an art project.  They painted a house cutout.  After the houses were dry they were able to add our house number and also any other details they wanted.  Addie already knows our address, but this was a great way to reinforce and review it.  They both had a lot of fun making the houses;  I think they liked using different brushes than what we usually use.

We also read the 3 Little Pigs and We Were Tired Of Living In a House. 

Day 2's topic was apartments.  The girls each got an elevator with different floors separated by color.  They were given number cards in different colors and then found the corresponding letter "living" on the color and floor number they picked.  There was a provided alphabet sheet to write down the letters as they were found.  Addie doesn't like writing, but had so much fun with this she asked if we could save the elevator and do it again.  We'll have to use blank paper to write the letters on next time.  I love that she was practicing writing her letters, but didn't even mind since it was like a game. Elli just practiced matching the colors up on her apartment building.

 Every month Mother Goose Time provides a new book.  This months book was Goldilocks.  I loved that it was a different spin on a classic story.  Goldilocks's room is so messy she can't find her little bear.  She winds up having a dream where she cleans up everything in a bear families' house and when she wakes up she finds her bear.  She also learns that it is important to keep her room clean.

Next we talked about living in a city versus the country.  In the city people frequently live in apartments because they can hold more people.  There isn't enough room for everyone to have their own house.  To demonstrate this the girls put 2 houses on 1 piece of paper (country) and then 20 on another (city). 

The girls also added the rabbits, from last months manipulative pack, to the apartments.  They spent almost an hour reconfiguring the building with the rabbits and trying to figure out the best way to hold them all.

The tallest apartment is 89 stories tall.  The girls tried to stack blocks as high as possible.  This proved to be very difficult with a 2 year old who likes to knock things down.

Destroyed by a 2 year old

 Addie decided it would be more fun to live in an apartment than a house because there would be all kinds of people she could be friends with.  Addie worked on her math and reading workbooks while Elli put the rabbits into an egg carton apartment.

Tray play activity from Little Goose book.

 Every month there is a list of corresponding books to use each day.  Unfortunately our library rarely has any of the books mentioned, so we read Eddie's Kingdom instead.

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