Dance N' Beats

We get the dance n' beats add on every month with our Mother Goose Time box.  This is actually Elli's favorite part of the curriculum, and when we get a new monthly box she immediately digs for the DVD and has me turn it on for her. 

The DVD has all the same songs from the monthly CD with complete dance routines for the kids to follow.  There is also a book that comes along with the DVD.  It has craft ideas and games that tie in to the song.  To be honest I rarely use the book because it always seems to wind up on the bottom of the box after the kids go through everything, and then I forget about it.  I'm making a more conscious effort to incorporate the extra ideas into some of the lessons for next months bees and butterflies theme.

Every DVD has the same warm up song.  The girls were both sick so they were much less animated than usual.  I also think Addie was camera shy (for the first time ever) since I was recording instead of taking pictures.  

Every time Elli dances to this months discover the desert DVD she runs and puts on her cowboy clothes.  These DVD's are great ways to get the girls up and moving, increasing gross motor skills and coordination.

Easter Fun

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time includes a bonus pack.  This months was for Easter.  There is a complete lesson plan with activities, snack ideas, games, and crafts.  We started by reciting the 5 Little Bunnies.  The girls got to use the finger puppets to act it out.

They had a bunny pancake meal.  The suggested snack was a cute rabbit made out of an egg, but my kids don't really like eggs so we skipped that.

They had so much fun playing pin the tail o the rabbit.  They played it a bunch of times before we moved on.

I hid an egg with the first initial of each girls name.  They had to find their egg and then use them in an egg spoon race.  After they finished the race they took turns hiding the eggs for each other and racing around our table.

We added some rocks to the eggs and the girls turned them into egg shakers.  

They had a lot of fun playing Easter charades.  They pretended to be things like bunnies, chicks, flowers, etc.

Mother Goose Time has created 4 free printable pictures for Easter.  You can get them by clicking here.

The Mojave Desert

 If you've ever wondered what a week with Mother Goose Time looks like, then you've come to the right place.  This months theme is discover the desert, and week 3 took us to the Mojave.  The girls learned about desert tortoises, burros, cacti, and plants of the Mojave.  I apologize for the the many pictures and lengthy post, but it's much easier to show what a week is like with photos.  Every day we start with circle time.  This includes going over the weather, putting up calendar pieces, and singing songs as well as introducing topic questions.  After that we move on to the activities that are provided in the teacher guide.  Each week the girls make crafts, it's one of their favorite parts.

 Elli loved making a pet tortoise.  She named him Turtle the Tortoise.

 The girls painted some gravel gold.  The fun part was adding it to sand and water and then using the provided dishes to go panning for gold. 

Their favorite craft of the week was definitely the cactus sculpture.  These were made by wetting cornstarch noodles, sticking them together, and adding toothpicks.  

There are always activities that help strengthen literacy and writing.   The girls work on their my little journals throughout the month.  There are prompts to help them fill out the pages.

 There are stories with prompts to act out as well as discussion questions at the end.

 Every month includes a new storybook and story telling pieces to go along with it.  This month the book is Who Am I?  The girls had fun using the pieces to make up their own stories about the different desert animals.

Elli also completed a bilingual book this week.  It was about desert animals and was written in both English and Spanish.

We were also able to add some more sight words to our set.  The girls used them to make up sentences.

Mother Goose Time is great at making learning fun.  Elli always loves the math games.  This week she worked on colors, patterning, and the numbers 13 and 14.  She and Addie also played memory.

There are also activities related to science.

Elli learned the difference between a tortoise and a turtle.  I was amazed that she was actually able to sort out the different attributes of each without help.

The girls learned about quicksand and made their own batch.  They used it with the horse manipulatives that were included in the monthly box.

We talked about how cacti have pleats that help them retain moisture.  The girls completed an experiment spraying a straight and folded papertowel with water and seeing which one stayed wet the longest.

The girls also studied and then planted cactus seeds.

Every month there is a new friendly bee introduced.  This month it is the wise bee.  The girls learned what it means to be wise.  They also played a would you rather game.  They had to use their brains to figure out if they would rather jump over a scorpion, camel, or cactus, as well as many other questions.  

This is just a sample of what our week was like.  There were a bunch of other activities that we did, but it would take far to long to document each and every one.  There are also global friends every month that introduce geography, themed CD's, shapes, etc.  If you think Mother Goose Time would be a good addition to your preschoolers weekly routine, then follow the link here for more info.