More Math and Literacy

 Even though I'm using Mother Goose Time in a preschool setting now instead of at home, Elli is still using the More Math and Literacy add on.  

The workbooks work great during nap time to keep Elli busy, but quiet.  She hasn't napped in 2 years, so getting her to sleep with the other kids is not going to happen.  Once all the other kids are asleep I pull out the workbooks and let her pick what pages she wants to do.  

Elli also likes to get homework just like her big sister.  I tell her these are her homework books, and she is always pleased to be able to work on them when her sister does homework.  The work books help with fine motor skills like cutting, gluing, tracing and writing, in addition to the math and literacy work.

Learning about the Senses

We finished up our week learning about the senses with Mother Goose Time.  

The kids used the I Can Read book and sight word pointers to find words.

They got some more literacy work by using the I Spy posters to find different letters and pictures.  

While learning about sight the kids got to get crazy with different types of glasses.

 They also made binoculars and colorful artwork.

The kids painted their own flowers and used gelatin to sprinkle over them to give them a scent.  

We used flowers to do some patterning work.

The monthly manipulative, tanagrams, were used with the pocket cube.  The kids took turns rolling the cube and collecting different shapes to use and build something bigger.

 While learning about taste the kids got to use apple slices to stamp and paint their letter A pictures.

Sense of Hearing

After years of using Mother Goose Time at home with my girls, I've just started using it in a preschool setting.  We start each morning with circle time, where we talk about the weather, days of the week, and work on counting and patterning with the monthly calendar.  

Today's topic was hearing, so I gave the kids instruments during circle time and they had to practice playing them softly, and then super loud.

After circle time we painted bowls that are going to be turned into either a guitar with rubber bands, or mini drums, depending on what they wanted to make.  

We also played a sense matching game and reviewed all 5 senses.  

We experimented with loud and soft sounds.  The kids picked different items and took turns dropping them into a container.  We separated them into piles of whether they were loud or quiet.

The Ear Book is a perfect choice when learning about hearing. 

All About Me

We've been using Mother Goose Time at home for almost 3 years, and my girls have loved it.  I just went back to work this week after taking 7 years off to raise my girls.  I'm now teaching a local preschool and will be using Mother Goose Time in the classroom.  I'll be using it starting next month, but have been incorporating a lot of the material from Septembers theme into the lessons.  

The kids all enjoyed looking in mirrors and drawing their own self portraits.  We talked about what color to make their hair and eyes, and the different shapes needed to draw their faces.  

They all worked together to measure each other using blocks.  First we'd try and guess how many blocks tall each person would be, and then we'd measure and record everyones results.  This is just a small snippet of our week, but I have very few pictures with just Elli in them.  As soon as I get the releases back from the parents there will be many more pictures to come. 

Starting a New Year

We've been using Mother Goose Time for almost 3 years now.  Each September starts a new year, and with that comes new circle time displays.  For the past few years we've been using a trifold board for circle time.  This year I am going to be working in a preschool, and will be creating a wall display with the provided materials. 

You get everything you need to create the perfect circle time setup, calendar pieces, letter cards, weather pieces, topic posters, and monthly numbers.  It's a great way to start the morning.  You also get a circle time CD in your first box, which has all kinds of kids songs on it.  

A new feature from this years lesson plan book is a page of STEAM stations.  Last year everyday had a STEAM suggestion, but I like that this years has pictures and great descriptions to set up discovery spaces throughout the classroom.  These will work great for independent exploration among a variety of ages.

If you'd like to see more of what exactly you get a monthly box, then click here for a sneak peak.