Encouraging Literacy in Preschool

Mother Goose Time includes so many great tools to help promote literacy in preschoolers in every monthly box.

The lesson plan books have charts to help assess your child's progress in each domain of learning.  

Each activity in the book shows you what areas are being worked on and can be observed.  There are always lots of activities to help increase literacy.

Each month focuses on 3 letters.  There are letter cards, cube cards, hands on letters, coloring pages, and games all designed to help reinforce the selected letters.

The hands on letters can be used to make simple words, which helps introduce the concept of letter sound and phonetics.

They can also be used in during the games to help with letter recognition.

Kids get to practice writing and letter formation with monthly name tags, post cards, and in their my little journals.  The younger kids started by scribbling at the beginning of the year, but as the year as progressed they have improved their fine motor skills and are able to trace their names.  The kids who were tracing their names at the beginning of the year are now working on writing their full names independently.  Repeated practice has leg to huge improvements.

Every month also comes with sight word pointers and easy to read books the kids are able to take home.  They are starting to realize that letters in a certain order form words.

Another resource that goes home are the monthly newsletters that have a list of suggested books parents can read at home.

The lesson plan books have suggested books, and online there is an even bigger book list that suggests books to read in class on each daily topic.

At the beginning of every month I pull out the new book of the month, puzzle, and magnetic story teller set.  When kids are done early with projects they can use these items independently.  We read the book during circle time and they can make up their own stories with the magnetic set, or retell the story I read.

If you have older kids who need a bit more of a challenge or more practice there is a workbook add on that goes with each monthly theme and reinforces the monthly letters and works on letter sounds, writing, etc.

Salt Water

We started a new theme with Mother Goose Time, oceans.  Day one was spent learning about salt water.

During circle time the kids each took a sip of plain water and salt water.  They agreed the salt water did not taste good at all.

We listed to the new ocean commotion CD and I called out different sea creatures for the kids to move like.  

We always start out a new monthly theme by writing our name on our name tags.  After the name tags were finished they were put "under water" and the kids took turns swimming under the blanket and finding their name.

We talked about the oceans of the world and located them on a map.  The kids took turns rolling the pocket cube and adding the same number of shells to the different oceans.

The kids made salt water paintings.  They used eye droppers to drop paint on a paper and added salt.  

Everyone found an object they thought would float and one they thought would sink from around the room, then we tested to see if they were right.  We talked about how adding salt makes items float easier.

I picked up some books from our library to go along with this months theme.

Astronauts and Space Shuttles

We finally finished up Mother Goose Time's space theme.  

The kids loved taking turns rolling the movement cube and doing the corresponding astronaut workout.  They worked on walking backwards, standing on their heads, doing the superman, etc. 

They also used paper bags to create their own astronaut puppets, complete with cellophane face mask.

I read the would you rather scenarios, and the kids would use chips to vote on what they would prefer.  

They also did some patterning work using planet pictures.

And we did a little work with the letter Z by completing our monthly coloring page.

The kids made their own rockets and then used them to dance to the monthly space CD.

They also worked together to build a space shuttle out of blocks, and then took turns being the captains and counting down from 10 to blast off.  They loved taking turns as captain and telling the passengers what planet they would be flying to.

The kids took turns rolling the pocket cube and building shapes using this months manipulative.

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Mother Goose Time makes some great add ons for their monthly curriculum.  One that we have been using this year are the more math and literacy workbooks.  They are recommended for ages four to five and a half and are great for kids getting ready for kindergarten.  They provided a little extra work than the regular curriculum, and are a great value for the price.  Each month comes with 2 workbooks, that correspond to the monthly theme.  

The math books have activities to work on beginning math skills like basic addition, number order, patterning, puzzles, etc.

The literacy books contain pages to draw pictures and write short stories, work on the letters of the month, follow verbal directions, identify rhyming words, etc.

I like that these books are fun for Elli.  She loves to "do homework" and always asks to do one more page, and then another one, and another until I finally say it's enough for the day.  Another nice thing about the workbooks is that they both have a place to track your child's progress and skills learned in the back so you can see what they need to work on.