Mother Goose Time Add Ons

 I love that Mother Goose Time is a customizable preschool curriculum.  They make a number of different add ons to tailor the curriculum to meet your child's needs.  There is a Little Goose guide for toddlers, more math and literacy (which we use) for prek kids, a Christian program, toy box with themed toys, dance n beats DVD's, and an experience baby program.  

The more math and literacy books are geared for 4-5 year olds.  They provide additional math and reading activities.  

Elli uses these books at home and also during quiet time at preschool.  She enjoys the activities in the books.  There are things like mazes, dot to dots, mini books, puzzles, etc. 

Dinosaur Tails and Dinosaur Feet

We're almost done with January's dinosaur theme from Mother Goose Time.    We spent time learning about dinosaur feet, tails, bodies, etc.

The kids made their own giant dinosaur feet and then tried walking around the room in them.

They also used stilt cups while pretending to have dinosaur feet.

They spent a day making paper chains, which were turned into dinosaur tails.  They wore them while dancing to this months dinosaur CD.  Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with a new themed CD.

The kids used different shaped pasta pieces to create their own dinosaur skeletons.  

The whole class worked together to create a giant dinosaur tail using this moths link manipulatives.

They also used the links to count out tail pieces for their own dinosaurs,

and also to make some of the letters we've been working on this month.

The color of the month is purple, and the kids got to cut out purple pictures from magazines and glue them into their my little journals.

They also completed the letter V coloring page and added paper scraps to make it look like the letter V was an erupting volcano.

They partnered up to play dinosaur tic tac toe.  We only have a few more days left from the dinosaur unit before we move on to it's a small world in February. 

Dinosaur Eggs and More

The kids have been having lots of fun learning all about dinosaurs this month with Mother Goose Time.  They made their own dinosaur head bands.

And one of their favorite things was rescuing dinosaurs trapped in ice.  

We spent a day learning about triceratops, and the kids got to sponge paint using dinosaur stencils.

They played a dinosaur memory matching game,

worked on rolling and graphing dinosaurs,

and worked on patterning.

We worked on the letter E,

and also used the my little journals to practice making ovals, the letter E, and the number 9.

The kids designed their own dinosaur eggs and then cut them apart and tried to glue them back together.  

The kids made their own egg shakers.

They had lots of fun putting the corresponding number of "baby dinosaur" pom poms into the same numbered egg.  They played this a bunch of times and loved hatching the eggs when they were done.

They also used paper shapes to design their own dinosaurs.

The kids worked together to build a giant nest, and then pretended to be baby dinosaurs.

Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus

This month we've been learning about dinosaurs with Mother Goose Time.  I've had a lot of kids out sick over the past week, so we're running a little behind this month.  We spent a day learning about brontosaurs, and the stegosaurus.  During circle time each child decorated a piece of the brontosaurus neck.

The kids got to made their own brontosaurus puppet with leaves to eat.  We talked about what  being an herbivore means.  

The kids got a new I Can Read book this month.  I worked one on one with them to find the sight words for the month in their books.  

One of the letters we're working on this month is L, and the kids completed a new page for their alphabet books.

They got more practice with the letter L in their my little journals.  

The kids used paper plates and google eyes and made their own stegosaurus inspired art.

 We've also been working on our field journals all month; whenever we learn about a new dinosaur the kids color it in their books.

The kids had fun adding spikes to a stegosaurus cutout.  We worked on counting to 17. 

Dinosaurs

We just started a new monthly theme with Mother Goose Time, dinosaurs.  We've been learning about bones, fossils, paleontology and the tyrannosaurus rex. 

The kids cut out their own bone pieces and then assembled them to make a full dinosaur skeleton.  They glued sand on the top and we talked about excavation and paleontology.

 Every child received their own paleontologist notebook, which has different dinosaurs we'll be studying this month in it.  They worked on the first page, and will spend the rest of the month completing the rest.

At the beginning of every month the kids complete a name tag.  The older ones can write their own names, but the little ones are still working on tracing their names and holding their pencils correctly.

We talked about how fossils are imprints, and the kids made their own stamps and imprinted them on paper.

One of the monthly manipulatives are small dinosaurs.  The kids used play dough to make dinosaur fossils and also foot print impressions.

I hid the dinosaur counters in the sand table.  The kids used a brush to excavate them, and then used them with the counting cards to work on the numbers 9 and 10.

A new month means a new theme poster with look and find glasses.  The kids always have fun finding the different items on the poster.

While learning about the tyrannosaurus rex the kids got to make their own t-rex teeth necklaces.  This was a good activity to help develop fine motor skills.  

The other manipulative in this months box were links.  The kids used these to make different shapes in play dough.

Another item we will be using all month are the my little journals.  We use these to work on writing letters and numbers.