Family Tree

 We started the Me and My Family theme for Mother Goose Time a few days early.  September is the beginning of the new school year and Mother Goose Time has made some minor tweaks to their program that make it even better, as if that was even possible.  For day 1 we started by learning about family trees.

The teacher guide has been slightly changed, making it even easier to use.  Now the recommended story and the daily stations are added right to the lesson page. 

During circle time the girls completed their name tags.  I write with highlighter on the tags and Elli traces it.  Addie has been trying to learn cursive, so I wrote her name in cursive for her to trace.  

For the circle time finger play the girls would pick a number apple card and then act out Who Shook The Tree.

One of the included supplies in this months box was this cute set of rubber stamp people and an ink pad.  The girls love using stamps so I know these will be used a lot in our house.

We talked about the different family members who make up our family.  The girls drew pictures of a house and then used the stamps to add people to their scenes.  After the pictures were done the girls explained where the people were located, using words like next to, under, etc.  One of the new features for this year with Mother Goose Time is a portfolio for each child.  This was stared as a piece of work to save and to assess how well positional vocabulary was used.

Invitations to create are also new this year, and it's only the first day, but I already love them.  The girls get a photo to study and then various art supplies.  There are some prompts, like tearing up paper, or using hands to make leaves, etc.  What the girls create with the supplies is entirely up to them.  This focuses on the process, not the project. The girls really had fun making their own pictures.  Initially I thought Addie might have a hard time since she always tries to recreate exactly what the sample crafts look like, but she said she loved being able to make what she wanted without any guidelines to follow.  She even suggested they go outside and gather real leaves to add to the pictures.  I like that they got to use their imaginations and get as creative as they want.

One of the letters for the month is A.  I traced the letter A outside in the sand and the girls walked the outline.  They also worked on kicking a ball, that we pretended was a large apple, around the letter A.  I'm so excited to see what the rest of the month brings.  The girls had such a great time with the days lesson.