Mittens and Snowshoes

In keeping with Mother Goose Time's winter in the woods theme, we spent a week learning about winter gear.

We read The Mitten, and the girls made their own mittens and then filled them with the animals from the story.

They also made their own snowshoes.  Both of these crafts featured lacing, a great fine motor skill.

The girls played an animal matching game, working on their memory skills.

They loved playing tic tac toe.  It took awhile for Elli to understand she needed to get 3 in a row, but after a few games she even started winning.

The Story of Mary

 One of the supplements we receive with our monthly Mother Goose Time curriculum is the Christian add on, Experience God.  This month the theme was serving others, and it focused on Mary's role in the Christmas story.  The girls used the story telling sets that came in this months teacher pack to retell the Christmas story.

Normally I follow the teacher guide and complete activities once a week, for a total of 4 mini lessons.  This month I saved all the crafts for one fun filled crafting day.  The girls worked on retelling the story and then got busy making crafts.

The girls made Mary puppets.  Elli thought hers looked like a boy and wouldn't let me take a picture of it finished.

 They created their own nativity pictures.  

Glitter is always a hit, so they loved making ornaments to hang on our tree.

And their favorite craft of the day, which I saved for last, was making a donkey.  They made them by stuffing a paper bag with paper and then adding ears, hair and eyes.

Winter Woodland

 This week with Mother Goose Time we learned about pine trees, snowflakes, pinecones, icicles and snowmen.  Elli investigated pine needles and pine cones with magnifying glasses and tweezers.  She also observed how they felt, smelled, what they sounded like, etc.  

We talked about the life cycle of a pine tree and Elli made her own 3-D pine tree life cycle.

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with a puzzle based on the book of the month.  Elli loves puzzles and these get used a lot through out the month.

The girls made their own glittery snowflake crafts.  

The girls loved the homemade snow that we made, using baking soda, glitter and water.  They made snowballs with them and also used the nesting cups that came in this months box.  

We read the participation story, Bear Loves the Seasons, and the girls had to walk towards the bear cave whenever the story said baby bear.  By the end of the story they had made it inside the cave.  

We talked about sharing and the girls took turns sharing pom pom pinecones with each other.

The girls played pinecone math, which helped reinforce counting addition and subtraction.

We did an experiment to see what happens to a pinecone when it gets wet.  We submerged a pinecone in a tub of water for about an hour and then compared the wet one to the dry one.

The girls made pinecone bird-feeders.  They spread peanut butter on the pinecones and then rolled them in birdseed.  Afterwards we went outside and picked a spot to hang them.

Elli worked on her patterning using the pattern cards and pieces.

She had lots of fun painting with colored ice cubes.  

Elli made her own icicle wand that she danced with, but then she decided it made a better lasso and went around catching things in the house.

Elli worked on dripping watery paint onto letters.  We talked about how icicles form when ice melts and refreezes.

 Elli did some literacy work in her my little journal.

The girls made snowmen crafts and also made postcards using fingerprint snowmen.Next week we learn about winter gear.

Winter Dancing

Every month we get the dance n' beats add on that Mother Goose Time offers.  It comes with a DVD of choreographed songs, which are from the monthly CD.  It also includes a guide book with the words to the songs and additional ideas.  The girls love to dance and we use the DVD's a lot, but I usually forget to use the guide book.  

I've been trying to remember to incorporate the extra ideas from the book.  This month I went through it when I got it, picked out the extra ideas I wanted to do with the kids, and then made a note in the lesson plan book for the days the activities would best tie in.

And I finally remembered to use the book.  On pine tree day I noted there was a hat craft the girls would like.  And on owl day there was a cup owl craft I knew they would love.  This month there was also a snowflake wand and a few other ideas we've been adding to our regular day.  

Now that I've finally figured out a way to use the guide book that works for me, the girls get to have fun dancing and also doing extra activities that I would normally forget about.

Owls

We finished up week one of winter in the woods with Mother Goose Time by learning about owls.

We talked about food chains and what sort of things owls eat.  The girls played a game of Who Eats Who.  They would each turn over a card, and whoever had the animal that was higher on the food chain won the cards.  We also talked about the difference between carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores.  

For today's invitation to create the girls were given paper, feathers, cupcake liners, markers and glue.  They had a picture of an owl for inspiration.  Elli glued her cupcake liners onto her paper and added some feathers and said it was an owl with a baby.  Addie made a baby owl by gluing the cupcake liners together and adding feathers.  She attached it to a paper with the mother owl she drew.  The girls both love the invitations to create, which are a new feature this year.  Addie always asks if we can save them for when she gets home from school, and has even asked if I can give her random objects with a picture so she can make her own invitations to create.  She has started saving all kinds of little bits and pieces from around the house and glues them into different animal shapes, or objects like airplanes and boats.  

One of the letters of the month is O.  The girls took turns rolling the pocket cube, and if it landed on O they had to run around the oval made of blocks and pretend to be an owl.

The girls completed the o page in their my little journals by tracing their hand and turning into a tree.  Then they drew O eyes in the tree and made them into owls.  Next week we learn about the woodland.