Extra Math and Literacy Help

If you are looking to make the Mother Goose Time curriculum a little more challenging, I suggest adding the more math and literacy workbooks to your daily schedule.  

Each book comes chalked full of activities geared for 4-5 year olds.  They get to work on counting, matching, rhyming, letter recognition, etc.

Elli has been using these books at home in the evenings when her big sister works on homework.  They are great for practicing fine motor skills and gaining more confidence in math and reading.

At the back of each book is a skills assessment area so you can track your child's progress and see if they are where they should be.

Garden Fun

We've been having a fun month with Mother Goose Time learning about gardens.  We've talked about soil, sun and water, worms, seeds, stems, the list goes on and on.  

We always start the day with circle time where we look at the topic poster and discuss what we know.  The kids take turns picking out the weather, day of the week, and date.  We also read a related book on the topic during this time.

After circle time we work on the art project for the day.  This way they have time to dry if paint it used.  The kids loved using rubber worms to paint giant worm pictures.  

They also made root pictures using cupcake liners, string and buttons.

When we learned about stems they made growing onions using paper plates, tissue paper and straws.  

All month long the kids work in they my little journals.  They practice writing the letters and numbers of the month and do work on the monthly color and shape.

I leave the theme poster up within easy reach so the kids can look at it and ask questions all month long.  They also used the look and find glasses to figure out where different items were on the poster.

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with 2 new manipulatives.  This month came with base 10 blocks, that have been used for measuring, patterning and counting so far.

Soil

We finally started Mays' growing gardens theme with Mother Goose Time.  Day 1 focused on soil.

During circle time we talked about the weather, day of the week, completed our calendar and figured out the pattern, and talked about things that grown and live in soil.

We also read The Tiny Seed, which was the suggested book for today.

After circle time we moved into the daily activities, each day has 3 suggested activities as well as a STEAM station idea. 

We went outside to make soil collages using nature items.  After the pictures dried picture frames were added.  The kids had fun collecting their own items and deciding where to glue them.

Since it was the first day of a new theme the kids were given new name tags and practiced writing their names. 

We finished up with seed exploration. I left a bunch of seeds out on the table for the kids to examine, feel, count etc. by themselves.  We also talked about the different types of seeds we eat.  Tomorrow we learn about seeds so this was a good introduction to the topic.  

Learning About Oceans

We've been learning about oceans with Mother Goose Time.  We spent 2 weeks learning about different animals that live in the ocean and before that we learned about things like coral and other underwater formations.  

Every week the kids work in their journals.  I usually have them write their names and design their covers as a class and then work with them individually when we do the inside pages.  Inside each journal are pages for the letters, numbers, color and shape of the month.

The kids are almost done with their alphabet books, which they have been working on all year.  Just 2 more letters next month and it will be complete and ready to go home.

We've used the cornstarch noodles in class before, and they are always a hit.  The kids used them to make coral reefs. 

They worked on stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner and decorated a folded paper plate to make an oyster with pearls.  

We spent a day talking about ocean zones and the kids made their own pictures representing what they knew.  

Paper bags were turned into caves, complete with ocean creatures to hide inside.

They're played ocean matching games,

gone cave diving for shells,

which they then worked on counting,

and also used the look and find glasses with the monthly theme poster.