Horses and Rodeos

After learning about cowboy boots, cowboy hats and lassos, we moved on to horses and rodeos.  During circle time the letter H was introduced.  If the girls picked the card with the horse on it they got to gallop around the room.  Addie knows her letters so this was easy for her, but Elli is still learning what letters make what sounds, so it was a fun way for her to practice.

The girls tried to balance small objects on the horse manipulatives that came in this months Mother Goose Time box.  

We talked about how sometimes cowboys ride wild horses that try to buck them off.  The girls took turns picking the hands on letter H from the pile, putting it on their backs, crawling to the letter flag H and then bucking the H off their back.  

The girls had fun making their own horses that they used to race with.

The hands down favorite activity of the day was counting horses.  The girls started off by building a stable for the rubber horses.  They pretended to sleep and the horses escaped.  I hid them around the room and when the girls "woke up" they ran around collecting them.  We did with with 13 and then 14 horses. As they found the horses they would put them on the counting cards until they were all found.  Then we'd do it all over again, and again, and again.  

I was only able to get the girls to move on to horseshoe toss by promising we could hide the horses more when they were done.  They actually wound up having a lot of fun with this game as well, and played it for a bit before going back to the hiding horses.  I called out a shape and the girls would take turns throwing the provided horseshoes on to the matching shape.  

The global friend from Hungary was introduced during circle time.  Horseback riders in Hungarian rodeos do tricks on their horses.  Elli dressed as a cowboy and pretended to do tricks of her own.

Apparently jumping off an object counts as a trick when you're 2.

Elli loves to do puzzles.  She actually did the provided cowboy puzzle 5 times in a row before I told her it was time to move on.  

Elli used the horse manipulatives more today.  She worked on sorting them by color and size and then color and size combined.  We also practiced counting them.

The horses also got to compete in their own mini rodeo, complete with barrel racing and and a lasso contest.  Both Addie and Elli LOVE these horses and they get played with on a daily basis.  

Elli used the rodeo storytelling set to make up her own story.  It involved a clown who liked to race horses around barrels.  

Elli practiced using her lasso and doing tricks on a stuffed horses.  She also held on tight and rode a "bull" that jumped around the room.  She had such a fun time with the days lesson.  

Elli finished the letter H page of her my little journal.  She taped popsicle sticks to the page to make an H and practiced tracing the ones on the bottom of the page.

We read quite a few books over the past 2 days.

Lassos

For day 3 with Mother Goose Time we learned about lassos.  One of the numbers of the month, 13, was introduced today during circle time.  I tied 13 knots in a rope and the girls counted them while touching each one; a great way to teach one to one counting.  

The girls practiced making shapes with twine.  They rolled a shape cube and then tried to recreate the same shape.

 The girls also worked on the covers of their my little journals today.  They were to draw pictures of themselves as cowgirls.  

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time includes a new story book.  This month it is Who Am I?  There will be a page with a description, and then when you turn the page you find out who the animal is.  There is also a prompt that gets the kids up and moving by acting like various animals.  It's a fun interactive book with great photos.  

After reading a book about animals in the desert, the girls played with the rubber horse manipulatives from this month in a tub of sand.  Sine our sand box is still covered in snow we just used pink kinetic sand, which is also less messy.  Of course the horses needed baths once they were done in the sand.

We talked about different things you could catch with a lasso, and then the girls make their own with a paper plate and yarn.

Then they put their newly made lassos to the test.  They lassoed the few stuffed horses we have, and also the rubber horse manipulatives.  They had a lot of fun trying to "catch" the animals.  

We finished up with a book about cowboys.

Cowboy Boots and Hats

This months Mother Goose Time theme is discover the desert.  We started off our first week at the rodeo.  Day 1 was spent learning about cowboy boots, and day 2 was cowboy hats.

 The girls wrote their names on the monthly name-tags and then practiced stomping out the syllables on different mediums, such as bubble wrap, the floor, paper, etc.  They also looked at the shape of the month, a square, and practiced working together to make squares with their feet.

The girls, and one of our dogs, had fun square dancing on crunchy paper.  

The girls had fun painting their own cowboy boots with a pokey ball.  

The girls thought it was great fun to try on different pairs of boots.  Then they each picked a boot and practiced tossing cubes, one of this months manipulatives, into the boots.  They each got 10 cubes and worked on counting how many they made in the boot.  Addie worked on her subtraction skills by calculating how many shots she missed.

The color of the month is brown.  The girls went around the house using the circle time paintbrush to paint objects that were brown.  They also gathered brown objects to fill up a cowboy hat.

They always love using the look and find glasses with the monthly theme posters.  On the back of each magnifying glass are different tasks, such as stand like a cactus.

The girls played a matching game, where they paired up cowboy hats with the person wearing the same colored boots.  

The girls worked on measuring by taking the connecting cubes and finding things longer and shorter than what they built.  They also measured their heads with the cubes, and worked on making them the exact same length.

We continued with measuring, but switched to using a piece of twine.  

After they were all done measuring objects, they used the twine to paint their own cowboy hat headbands.  Elli is really excited to learn about lassos later this week, and Addie is looking forward to learning about her favorite animal, horses.  So far they are loving this new monthly theme.

What To Do With All That Art

One of the things I love about Mother Goose Time is that it keeps my girls engaged.  They love to do art projects, and every month there are a bunch of new ideas to keep them entertained.  Instead of spending time getting ideas off pinterest, and then going to the store to get supplies, I can just open the monthly box and go.  No planning required.  The only problem with all the fun art the girls make, is that they never want to get rid of ANY of it.  I used to sneak old projects into the pile for starting bonfires, until one day Addie saw an old mask she made burning and started to cry.  Now they each get 6 magnets and a side of the fridge.  They get to pick what they keep and I don't have to worry about them seeing their beloved crafts going up in flames.  Some of the stuff they keep for months and some only a few days, it's entirely up to them.

Of course this doesn't help with all the things they make that can't be hung on the fridge.  They keep their headbands and other projects on their bed post and also the window ledge in their room.  This keeps the clutter out of the rest of the house.

How do you display your child's art work?