Caterpillars, Moths and Butterflies

We've been loving learning about bugs this month with Mother Goose Time.

 Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with a new book of the month and a heavy duty puzzle to go along with the theme.  Elli loves doing these puzzles.

It's always exciting when you get the piece in on your first try. 

We talked about camouflage and played a matching game. 

We also talked about symmetry.  Elli painted a picture and then folded it in half to create a mirror image.  She loved making this and thought it was so neat transferring paint from one page to the other just by folding it and pressing down. 

We talked about the difference between butterflies and moths and then played a game to reinforce this idea.  Elli would roll the pocket cube, decide if it landed on a butterfly or math, say how she came up with her answer, and then run to the butterfly or moth photo hanging on the wall

She had lots of fun decorating both sides of her moth wand.

We played Go Home, Bugs a few times.  You have to move your piece to the letter that starts each word you roll, until your bug makes it home.

Elli loves using cornstarch noodles in crafts.  She's always really excited when she sees a daily bag contains these.  She used them to make a caterpillar by adding them to a cardboard tube.

One of the monthly manipulatives from this box were insect builders.  They are little plastic disks that can be hooked together to create all kinds of bugs and creatures.  Elli made a bunch of her own designs and also used the shape design mat to duplicate the suggested bugs.

I read the I Can Read book to Elli while she used the sight word pointers to try and find matching words.  These are super simple books designed for beginning readers. 

Bug Homes

This week with Mother Goose Time we learned about bug homes:  plants, dirt, hills, webs, and hives.  

This month we've been working on the number 9.  Elli hatched 9 "eggs" into different bugs.  She also worked on visiting all 9 chambers in the ant tunnel maze.  

We also did an experiment with freezing honey.  Elli mixed honey with different amounts of water and then predicted which would freeze first.  We checked on them throughout the days lesson until they were all frozen and then compared the results to her original guess.  This is a very easy way to start teaching kids about the scientific process.  

Elli practiced her handwriting in her my little journal, used the included cookie cutter letters to make mud cookies, and did more writing on a postcard which she decorated using one of the shape stamps from the monthly box.

And as always there were lots of crafts to be made.  This week there was a leaf picture with string and beads for inspiration, an ant hill with black bean ants, a rubber worm with lots of dirt and glue to create with, a honeycomb picture with rice babies and pom pom bees, and a make your own web project complete with jumping spider.

This week the look and find glasses were introduced to use with the monthly theme poster, Elli did some patterning, and one of the girls favorite things was pretending to be a spider and eating different insects after rolling the cube containing the insects names.  Next week we learn about camouflage bugs.

Grasshoppers, Ants and Bees

We finished up our first week of Mother Goose Time's May theme of bugs and crawly things by learning about grasshoppers, ants and bees.  

We read the book of the month.  A new book is included in every monthly box, this months was There are Bugs!  We actually already had a copy of this book and it's great to use when learning about bugs.  On every page there are numerous photos of bugs that are mixed in with cute illustrations.

Elli worked on designing the cover of her my little journal, and also completed the number 9 page.

We read the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.  Elli used the story pieces to retell the story and we talked about working hard.

Elli really liked playing ant colony.  We took turns spinning a spinner and adding the same number of "ants" to our ant hill.  After we each had a turn Elli guessed which one had the most ants, and then we counted to see if she was right.  We played this a bunch of times, she loved dropping the ants into their colony.  I love that she is having so much fun learning math skills

The girls had lots of fun trying to see how far they could jump while pretending to be grasshoppers.  They also worked on jumping to each number while counting.  They were laughing and playing this for a long time until they crashed and smashed their heads together.

Elli loves the invitations to create that come in every monthly box.  She has a great time and will spend long amounts of time working with the different materials to create her own art.  

Elli used play dough and beads to create ant colonies with little ants.

Bingo was definitely the favorite game of the week.  We played it SO many times before Elli was finally ready to move on.  

Elli always has fun making bee hives out of egg cartons.  She also has a little wooden bee set with hives, which was a great addition to the days lesson.

Ladybugs and Spiders

This months Mother Goose Time theme is bugs and crawly things.  We just picked up this great bug box on vacation last month, and it's already been a great addition to this months theme.  Days 1 and 2 were spent learning about ladybugs and spiders.

 Elli completed her name tag and then gave it 3 spots, since she's 3 years old.

She worked on counting to 19, one of the numbers of the month.  We took turns spinning the spinner and adding spots to the ladybug until he had all 19.

Elli also made a ladybug headband.

I hid the bug counters from this months box outside.  We talked about where bugs might hide, and then Elli ran around the yard collecting all the bugs she could find.

I read the monthly rhyme time poster, Little Miss Muffet, to Elli.  We talked about which words on the poster rhymed.  

Elli thought it was funny that spiders have more than 2 eyes.  She had fun making her own headband with 8 eyes and 8 legs.

We used the bug counters again to work on sorting color and insect/arachnid type.  Elli used the spiders to "eat" similar colored items around the house, and then other bugs that were the same color.  She ha a lot of fun with this game.