In the Orchard

We've been learning about animals and trees in the orchard this month with Mother Goose Time.  In each thematic unit the kids get exposure to art, science, math, reading, etc.

Every month comes with different word families that the kids are able to build words with.  

They look for sight words in the monthly I Can Read book.

Monthly games help reinforce the letters of the month.  

Every letter of the month comes with a corresponding letter book.

Every monthly box comes with a book that introduces a character trait, this months was patience.  We read the book during circle time and the kids made their own story about patience complete with a bear puppet.  

The monthly journals the kids work in help reinforce the numbers, letters, color and shape of the month.  

Games help introduce counting, number recognition, patterning, etc.  

Every month comes with a new pattern to work on.  The class worked together to figure out what would come next.

The puzzle that comes in every box is good for small group work and also individual use.  

Every day has a new craft.  We've made things like raccoon masks, porcupine puppets, oranges, and play dough porcupines in addition to many other crafts this month.

Trees

We've been learning about the parts of trees and different kids of fruit trees this month with Mother Goose Time.

We learned about leaves, and after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the kids made bead caterpillars to eat holes in their leaf.  

They also used their senses (not taste) to explore their leaf.  

The kids loved putting leaves on the parachute and shaking them off to watch them fall.

The kids learned how to count the rings on a tree trunk to determine it's age.

They loved making their own trees with a little creature to live inside.  Most of the kids wanted to play with them after they were done.

The kids have worked on sorting branches by size and measuring them.

They also colored their letter E book.

Throughout the month the kids work in their journals, they worked on creating the covers.

We made popcorn and the kids used it to paint cherry blossoms.  Some of them also glued the popcorn to their cherry tree pictures.

The kids worked on recognizing letters by playing a simple game during circle time.

We've also been working on the color red this month.

Learning About Plants

We've finally started October's Mother Goose Time theme of orchard harvest.  The first week was spent learning about parts of a plant:  seeds, leaves, trunks, etc.  

With every new month comes a new theme poster.  The kids get to take turns finding the objects on the look and find glasses and following the prompts on the back.  

On the first day of every monthly theme the kids get new name tags and practice either writing or tracing their names.

When learning about seeds the kids made apples out of paper plates and added bean seeds to their paintings.  

They also played an apple matching game and practiced taking turns and waiting patiently.

The kids always love when play dough is involved in a lesson.  They liked making different plants.

Month 1 Wrap Up

We just finished up our first month of Mother Goose Time for this school year.  We're a little behind since two days a week I take the kids out in the community to participate in outside activities.  This first month we learned about friends and feelings.  It was a good topic to start the year on, since we have quite a few new kids this year.  It gave us a chance to ease into the year, teach the new kids our routines and rules, and talk about making friends.

We've made lots of crafts this past month, usually one a day.  The kids have worked on painting, coloring, cutting, gluing, etc.  The art projects that are included are great for improving fine motor skills.

This month the kids were introduced to 3 letters, the color blue, and circles.  We also worked on the numbers 1 and 2.  The kids made their own phones with a phone book for one of the days.  We talked about calling 911 and also practiced identifying numbers on the phone and pretended to dial our own phone numbers.  I like that this was a fun way to work on number recognition.

Mother Goose Time includes numerous games to play throughout the month.  The younger kids needs lots of help on these, but the older preschoolers are able to play these once I go over the rules.  These games are good for teaching rules, taking turns, cooperating, etc and they usually help reinforce an element like letter recognition, counting, etc.