God Asks Me To Listen

 Mother Goose Time has different add on options to help customize your curriculum.  One of the add ons that we've been getting is the Experience God pack.  For June the theme was God asks me to listen, and the story it focused on was Noah's ark.  This was a perfect fit for the A-Zoo theme.  The teachers pack includes a lesson plan book, memory verse poster and 4 different story cards.  This month also had some really cute animal cards, one for each letter of the alphabet.

The child packs are ordered separately, so we get 2.  This includes all the materiel needed for the crafts as well as direction sheets and take home papers with pictures to color and additional games.  We are actually going to be going on vacation this month, and I'm saving the child packs to bring with us for when it rains.  This will give us some quick activities to pass time inside during the brief showers that happen.

Dancing Out the Alphabet

 This months Mother Goose Time theme is A-Zoo animals.  This theme has been so much fun and is definitely a favorite.  Elli always loves the dance n' beats DVD's, and I'd have to say this has been her favorite of them all.  It has 26 choreographed songs, one for each letter and a corresponding animal.

I don't normally remember to use the accompanying book, but this months has some serious cute craft ideas.

 26 songs with dances will get your preschoolers up and moving.

What a great way to get some exercising into your little ones day.

F is for Fox

Day 6 with Mother Goose Time brought us to the letter F.  Since this months theme is A-Zoo animals, the animal for today is the fox.  Elli has been loving getting a new animal card to add to her ring everyday.  

Elli used the provided materials to make her own letter F fox.  This went straight up on the fridge when she finished it.

Elli made a den out of play dough and I hid the letter tiles from this months box in it.  She had to find the letters, which spelled the word fox.

There was a really cute storytelling set in today's bag.  Elli played with the animals for awhile.  Then I pulled out the storytelling prompt set to go with it.  Elli would roll the 2 dice, pick out the corresponding animals, and then pick a prompt to answer.  She decided the tiger and fox would be friends.  The tiger was hungry so the fox made him a pie, and they both shared it.  I almost skipped using the storytelling prompts because I didn't think Elli would be able to do it, but she LOVED making up stories with the different animals.  She spent a lot of time coming up with some pretty detailed stories.

Elli practiced writing the work fox in her my little journal.  

We also read some books from the library.

E is for Elephant

Today we learned about elephants with Mother Goose Time.  Elli started off by adding the elephant card to her animal ring.

We used the animal card and also the letter tile to look at the letter E.  Elli tried to recreate an E using straws.

The girls used the provided supplies to make their own elephant masks.  I cut the ears and trunk out for Elli.  Addie made the whole thing herself.  

 

Elephants are herbivores and eat plants.  For a snack the girls made elephant wraps.  They used a lettuce leaf and filled it with carrots, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes.   The girls loved this delicious, healthy snack.

 Elephants have tusks that they sometimes use to dig and search for food.  I buried the rubber animal manipulatives from this months box in kinetic sand.  The girls used chop sticks as tusks, an dug through the sand trying to find them.  They had a lot of fun with this and I buried the animals many times in the sand, and also in play dough. 

We used the same animal counters to act out a rhyme.

We finished with a book about elephants.  Tomorrow we start week 2:  fox, gorilla, hippo, ibis, kangaroo and jellyfish. 

Dolphins

This months Mother Goose Time theme is A-Zoo animals.  Day 4's lesson was D for dolphin.  We started the day by adding a dolphin to the animal ring.  We also read a book about dolphins.

We watched some youtube videos of dolphins and listened to the different noises they make.  Elli decorated a paper cup and used it to make her own dolphin noises, which she thought was super funny.

We talked about how dolphins are playful.  Elli matched the included shape cards to the toys shaped like them.  She also went on a shape hunt around the house.

I put all of the letter tiles, one of the manipulatives for this month, in a tub of water.  Elli used a slotted spoon to catch the letters and then feed them to her dolphin.  After the dolphin ate them she would write the letter in her my little journal.  After she did all 26 letters, she dumped them all back in the water and did it again.

Elli pretended to be a dolphin jumping through hoops and swimming.  She also took a turn as a dolphin trainer and had me jump through hoops.  We finished up by reading another book about dolphins.

C is for Camel

Today with Mother Goose Time we learned about camels.  We started the day by adding the camel card to the zoo book.  We went outside and practiced drawing the letter C in sand.  I hid the rubber animal manipulatives from this months box in sand.  Elli worked on finding them all, and then gave them all a bath.  She played with them in the sand for awhile and we talked more about a camels' habitat.  

Elli collected items from nature:  sticks, ferns and lupins.  

She drew a cat on her My Little Journal and added the nature items to make its habitat..  She also practiced writing her name.

The girls always love using the look and find glasses with the monthly theme posters.  This month it's a cute poster with all kinds of zoo animals.  Elli had fun searching for the animals.

I numbered cups 1-5 and we used them to sing Sally the Camel has 5 Humps.  Each time we sung a verse Elli would take a cup away and we would count how many were left.  

The helpful bee was introduced today.  We talked about how camels can help people by carrying things.  Elli helped mop our floors and earned her own helpful bee badge.

Birds

Day 2 of Mother Goose Time's A-Zoo animal theme was birds.  Elli added the bird card to her zookeeper ring.  She also used feathers to make the letter B.

Elli used the included materials to make bird puppets.  We used them with the Two Little Birdies rhyme.

Elli loved the color birds that came in today's bag.  She would pick a bird and then use her "eagle eye" to fly around the house looking for things that were the same color.  She did this with all 10 birds.

 Elli used play dough to make worms and also some beetles using a mold we have.  She would pick a number card and feed the same number of bugs to her bird puppets that she made earlier.

We read a bunch of books about birds and practiced making our own bird sounds.  We also went outside and looked for birds to identify.  Tomorrow we move on to the letter c.

 

Alligators

I am so excited about this months Mother Goose Time theme, A to Zoo Animals.  Each day introduces a new animal.  This month there is an alphabet animal pack for each of the girls.  During circle time they each get a new photo card to add to their ring.  On one side is a photo of the animal and on the other is the alphabet letter for the day. 

We talked about what we know about alligators and Elli practiced tracing the letter A.

We talked about what zoo keepers do and then Elli created her zoo keeper ID badge, which is part of her A-Zoo animal book that we will be using all month.  

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time includes a new book.  This month it is A to Z Animals.  Every animal we will be learning about this month is featured on a new page with a beautiful photo.  Elli used the included letter tiles from the monthly manipulative pack to look through the book and hunt for whatever letter she had picked.  This was a fun way to help with letter recognition.

Elli used the included paper plate and supplies to make an alligator puppet.  I give her the instruction page for a model, but let her make the projects however she wants.  She asked me to help her fold the paper plate and also to tape the face on, but the rest she did all by herself.  

Elli gathered items from around her room and made an alligator nest.  She decided that some of her stuffed animals needed to live in the nest with the alligator.  I hid cut out eggs with the numbers 1-5 written on them around her room. I also gave her a set of eggs with dots on them for each number.  When she found a matching pair of eggs she put them in the next with her alligator (and all the other animals).

 We finished with a book from the library.  Tomorrow we learn about birds.