God is the Father

 Every month we get the add on Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time.

This month's story was about Moses when he was a baby.  The teacher pack includes lessons plans for 4 separate days, as well as a memory verse poster and story telling sets. 

The child packs include the materials to complete the major craft for each week as well as a take home sheet with games and a coloring page on the back.  I keep the take home sheets in a bin with our coloring books, and the girls work on them throughout the month.

Dancing With Mother Goose Time

Mother Goose Time is a complete preschool curriculum that has a new theme every month.  One of the great things about Mother Goose Time is that there are add ons to enhance the program.  One of the add ons we get is the dance n' beats DVD.  This comes with a DVD of choreographed songs and an instructional book with the dance moves broken down and additional activity suggestions.  

Elli loves these DVD's and it is always one of the first things she digs for in the monthly boxes.  

The dancing DVD's are a great way to get preschoolers, and even older kids, up and moving.  They are a great way to burn off extra energy on cold or rainy days.  They are also good for increasing gross motor movements and coordination.

Dogs and Cats

This week we started our third week with Mother Goose Time's me and my family theme.  This time it's all about pets.  We spent the first 2 days learning about dogs and cats.

We reread the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Lonely Wolf.  Included in the day bag for dogs was a very sturdy puzzle with a picture from the book.  Elli loves puzzles, so this was especially fun for her.

The girls made dog shakers filed with rice.  We listened to music while they shook them to the beat.

Elli has really been enjoying the invitations to create, which are new this month.  She used the included supplies to make her own cat picture.  

The girls worked together to give their stuffed animals check-ups.  They both love playing veterinarian, and actually play this all the time. 

We talked about how cats lick to clean themselves and also to drink and eat.  We mixed up fruit and yogurt in the blender and then froze it in cups with a stick, perfect for licking.

Elli collected different colored nature items outside.  I placed them in a paper towel and then she smashed it with a rock.  When she was done we opened it to see what colors were left behind.

We playd the included cat and rat game.  Elli and I took turns rolling a dice and moving the right number of spaces.  We each had a card with words and would cover the word that started with the same letter that we landed on.  This was a good way to get Elli used to recognizing letters.

Elli had so much fun playing cat and rat that I brought out a game we have, Feed the Kitty.  She did really well with taking turns and we worked on counting out the wooden mice.  We'll finish up the week with fish, birds, and rabbits. 

Mad, Surprised, and Scared

We had fun finishing up our week about feelings with Mother Goose Time.

For math practice Elli worked on patterning and also counting to 10.

We played a game where Elli would roll a feelings cube and a body part cube and act out what it landed on.  

The girls LOVED playing find the spider.  I hid the included spider under a cup and the girls had to climb into a yarn web and guess where it was.  If they were wrong I would call out a color and they would have to run around the house and find something that matched before they could go again.

For literacy work Elli used the story telling set to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Lonely Wolf.  She also used the included letter cookie cutters to make M, A, and T.  If I called out the letter M for mad she would crush the letters up in her hand.  The girls also worked on completing more of their my little journals.

Elli made her own birthday crown, which she wore around for most of the day.  When Addie got home from school and saw it she had to make her own.

We read My Many Colored Days.  Elli made her own many colored person and asked me to help her replicate the inspiration picture.  I told her how to mix the colors to make the ones she saw on the color wheel.  She loved being able to make her own piece of art and also being able to duplicate another piece.  

We talked about different things people are scared of,  like the dark.  The girls made puppets and then we took them into a dark room and used a flashlight to make shadows and tell stories.  They had a lot of fun with this.

They also had fun making their own "scary" monsters out of play dough.  Next week we will learn all about pets.  Since both the girls love animals I know it will be a fun week for them.

Happy and Sad

For the second week of Mother Goose Time's me and my family theme we're learning about feelings.  Days 6 and 7 were happy and sad.

Elli worked on using the magnet set that was included in this months box to duplicate the pictures on the shape mats.  She also made some of her own creations.  

We read an interactive story about a sad giant.  There were actions included in the story, such as use blocks to build a turtle shell.  At the end there were comprehension questions that we went over.  

After the story Elli practiced making tears using water and a dropper to fill up cups.

For the invitation to create we looked at a painting by Picasso and talked about how it made us feel.  Elli used the provided materials to make her own picture, she said the plate was her and the red shape with eyes was a cat.  

We watched The Quit Story on youtube and then Elli made her own quilt picture using tissue paper and yarn.  She glued the tissue paper to the front of her paper and continued the quilt onto the back with more tissue paper and yarn.  She has lots of fun using the materials however she wants.

Elli also worked on making circles in her my little journal.  We will finish the week by learning about scared, mad and surprised.