Learning Math With Mother Goose Time

We've been using Mother Goose Time this week at home since it's Christmas break.  There were 5 days I didn't get to with my preschool class, so I brought them home to use with the girls.  Every monthly box comes with all kinds of materials to build math skills.  There are games that work on counting, hands on numbers, counting cards, shapes, patterning cards, my little journals etc.  We also get the more math and literacy books which help increase the skills with prek kids.  This week we got to use a few of the math items.  The girls used the colored cubes to build on the shape design mats.  This helps with spatial awareness, and the cubes can also be used for sorting by color.  

Every monthly box also comes with math cards and counters to help problem solve.  Elli is not able to do the easy and hard cards.  The easy ones work with counting, and the hard ones work on adding and subtracting.  She was very proud of herself when she flipped the cards over and saw her answers were right.

The girls also got to count out blocks while sewing their own designs.  Addie made a unicorn and Elli tried to make her name.

The girls got to make funny snowmen by swapping different pieces.

And they were able to design their own postcards.  

Winter Animals

This month with Mother Goose Time we've been doing winter wonderland.  We spent a week learning about winter animals:  polar bears, penguins, arctic fox, yaks, and snowy leopards.

The kids made polar bear masks,

paper plate penguins,

arctic fox inspired art,

and design their own yak sacks.

We acted out different polar bear feelings,

played arctic animal memory,

and did more work in the my little journals.

One of the favorite games of the week was papa penguin egg protector.  This worked on letter recognition.

The kids also completed the letter P coloring page to add to their alphabet books. 

They made their own fox books.

We worked on counting and number recognition.

And had fun playing arctic animal bingo.

Mother Goose Time for PreK

I've been using the more math and literacy workbooks from Mother Goose Time for about 7 months.  Elli's writing is already starting to get better, and she has started recognizing more numbers and letters.  The first few months I had to help her a lot with the workbook pages, but now she's doing really well at finishing them by herself.

There are a variety of activities in the books that help with math and literacy skills.  They have things like mazes, dot to dot, color by number, etc.  The page are fun for Elli, so it doesn't seem like work to her.  She especially loves the pages where she gets to cut, like the one pictures above where she sorted trees by size.

There are pages that focus on rhyming, beginning sounds, color by letter, mini letter books, etc.  

Elli's absolute favorite page this month was when she got to tear up a kleenex and glue it to an arctic fox to make his fur all white.  I love that these books make learning fun while building basic math and reading skills, as well as helping to develop fine motor skills.

Winter in the Mountains

This month with Mother Goose Time we've been learning about winter.  We spent the last week talking about tree lines, mountains, hiking, icicles, etc.  The kids always like using the monthly theme poster, which I keep hung up at their height all month long.

The kids used aluminum foil to make icicle pictures.

They used eye droppers to drip water colored paint on paper  while learning about water drops and melting ice.  

They used refrigerated paint to finger paint a paper plate and add white rectangles to make it an igloo.  They colored arctic animals to live inside the igloo. 

While learning about tree lines the kids painted their own Van Gogh inspired pictures. 

 They also used triangle shapes, pebbles,cotton balls, and green festoons to make mountain pictures.

The kids had a lot of fun painting ice with watercolors while learning about igloos.  They were easy to wash off and repaint when they wanted to redo them, which made for an activity that took up a lot of time. 

They got some patterning work by using tree shapes and play dough, which made it extra fun. 

They also got math work in by rolling the pocket cube and stacking the same number of cubes into igloo shapes. 

The kids worked together to build a big chain, and pretended it was a tree line they had to hold their breath and jump over.  They spent a lot of time building the chain and loved jumping over it.

And no week would be complete without a little work in the my little journals. 

Winter Wonderland

We just started a new month, which means a new theme with Mother Goose Time.  For December it is winter wonderland.  Since we have a shortened month of preschool due to Christmas break, I'll be combining some days to get through as much as possible.  Mother Goose Time creates parent newsletters that I send home at the beginning of each month.  This lets the parents know what our monthly theme will be, as well as daily topics.  I also write up a newsletter for the parents with upcoming dates and any important information.

Every month the kids get a new nametag to practice writing on.  I've started having them see me individually to practice their writing, so I can help them with forming letters and pencil grip.  

For day 1 we learned about snowflakes, the and kids made their own glitter snowflakes. 
In addition to the parent newsletters, Mother Goose Time provides creative mind cards for each day.  These get sent home with their projects to explain to the parents what we made, and the process behind it.  I don't always get to talk to each parent at pick up, so this is a good way for them to see what their kids are learning about.  I also have a board where I write what we did throughout the day and list the book we read and any games we've played. 

One of the new manipulatives for the month were snowflake connectors.  The kids got to use these to sort by color and to build and make creations.

The kids practiced writing their names more with a snowman craft.  They got a circle for each letter of their name, and made them into snowmen with button eyes.  

With a new month also means new math and literacy workbooks for Elli.  These are geared for 4-5 year olds who are starting to recognize letters and numbers.  She uses these when we're alone or at home when her older sister is working on homework.