In The Kitchen

We've been learning about health and fitness this month with Mother Goose Time.  Week one was spent learning about the food groups.  We also spent a week learning about things in the kitchen, like mixing and stirring, chopping, etc.

The kids took turns using the look and find glasses with the monthly theme poster.  

We finished up week one by learning about the dairy group, so it was only fitting the kids made cows.

We've also been learning about health and germs.  The kids traced germ letters and then sprayed them clean.  They had so much fun spraying the letters they didn't even realize they were working on writing and letter formation.

They also made germs out of the monthly manipulative, which was shape pieces.  

The  door hangers they made were to remind them to wash their hands.  We've had a lot of kids out sick this month so a lesson about germs was a good reminder on washing hands and covering your mouth.

This months character trait is kindness, and we read the provided book.

The kids made their own stories about the fox and worked on their scissor skills.

They also cut out foods and took turns using a menu to order from their friends.  

They all worked together to find puzzle pieces that were hidden around the room and then worked to put the monthly puzzle together.  This was a good way to work on taking turns and cooperating.

One of their favorite projects we've made this month was pizza.  They used red paint as the sauce, chopped up yarn for the cheese, and added mushrooms and pepperoni. 

They got math practice with the math story cards.  They were able to use the shape manipulatives to figure out basic addition and subtraction word problems.

For literacy practice they used the I can read book and sight word pointers to look for familiar words.

The letter G was introduced and they colored in their letter G books.

They spent some time chopping playdough food and counting out the pieces with the counting cards.

They really enjoyed stirring soup, which was shaving cream, paint and glitter.

And like every month they've been getting additional practice in their my little journals.

Valentine's Day

We spent a day celebrating Valentine's Day.  Mother Goose Time included a celebration pack in their monthly curriculum with ideas for games, songs, snacks, crafts, etc.   It was a busy day so we didn't get to do all the suggested activities, but had fun getting through a few of them.

We started by warming up our hearts with some exercising.  

The kids all worked together to build heart puzzles by matching lower and upper case letters.

We read a Valentine book.

The kids all decorated envelopes to put their valentine's in.

Then the favorite part of the day was handing out and getting valentines.

They finished up by painting valentine bouquets. 

Nutrition

We started a new theme for February with Mother Goose Time.  This month we're learning about health and fitness.  We started off by learning about the food groups and nutrition.  The kids worked together to sort healthy foods into food groups.

We started day one by learning about grains.

The kids worked to make sandwiches and had menus so they could decide what they wanted to put on theirs.

They practiced writing their names on the monthly name tags.

They worked together to find all the plastic shapes (this months manipulative) that were buried and find the matching shape on the map.

The kids love playing with the parachute, and used it to toss a salad.  They picked "vegetables" to put on the parachute and then shook it to mix it all up.  

We played vegetable lotto, which helps teach patience.

The kids enjoyed planting a vegetable garden.  they took turns picking cards and finding the matching picture on a stick.  If it was a vegetable they planted it in dirt.

They all worked together to sort foam "fruit" by size.

They used the foam to work on patterning.  

We do journal work every week.  This week the kids designed their covers and worked on the color purple.

One of our letters this month is A.  The kids make their letter A books, and later in the month will work in their journals on the A page to reinforce it.  

When learning about the protein group the kids made their own fishing game that works on counting and number recognition.  

Thematic Units

Mother Goose Time uses thematic units to teach children basic literacy, math, science, social/emotional skills, motor skills, and art.  Themed studies help the kids retain the information, since it's repeated throughout the month and certain points are expanded on.  A lot of the learning is done through playing games, reading stories, and making art.

Games like memory help with taking turns, patience, memorization, and this particular version focused on colors and shapes.

The kids had to cooperate and work together to build a hut strong enough to withstand a lion attack, and big enough for all of them to fit in.  Once it was done I rolled the "lion" ball and tried to get into their fortress.  

Using this months manipulative the kids were able to copy or make their own huts.

We also used them when voting in "Would you Rather."  In this case, would you rather buy a hat or a cheetah?  

Every monthly box comes with simple games the kids can play in small groups.  I leave these out during the day, and whoever wants to play can.  These games usually work on counting, following rules and taking turns.

The kids made flamingo puppets this week.  They got to use their feet to color them, which they thought was funny.  

Since we were learning about the grasslands the kids made their own grass headbands and added bug stickers to them.  Cutting the grass fringe was a good way to work on fine motor skills.

They got to get creative and design beetles using sequins, paper, twist ties and markers.

They spent a day learning about huts, and made their own mini huts covered in sand with tiny people to go inside.

The kids had fun taking turns as the leader in simon says, all prompts had to involve a feather.

And we also got some counting work in by matching the number of giraffe spots to the number of ladybug spots.  In February we're starting a new theme, health and fitness. 

Grasslands

We're on our third week learning about the safari with Mother Goose Time.  While learning about the grasslands we spent a day learning about beaded necklaces.  

The kids used beads and pipe cleaners to work on patterning.  They also made their own colored bead patterns.  

They looked at pictures of people wearing elaborate, thick beaded necklaces.  They made their own by painting a paper plate with a cotton swab.  

The letter C was also introduced this week, and the kids colored with letter C books.  

We talked about predators and prey and the kids completed food webs with African animals.  We also came up with other food webs using local animals and the things they eat.