Thematic Units

Mother Goose Time uses thematic units to teach children basic literacy, math, science, social/emotional skills, motor skills, and art.  Themed studies help the kids retain the information, since it's repeated throughout the month and certain points are expanded on.  A lot of the learning is done through playing games, reading stories, and making art.

Games like memory help with taking turns, patience, memorization, and this particular version focused on colors and shapes.

The kids had to cooperate and work together to build a hut strong enough to withstand a lion attack, and big enough for all of them to fit in.  Once it was done I rolled the "lion" ball and tried to get into their fortress.  

Using this months manipulative the kids were able to copy or make their own huts.

We also used them when voting in "Would you Rather."  In this case, would you rather buy a hat or a cheetah?  

Every monthly box comes with simple games the kids can play in small groups.  I leave these out during the day, and whoever wants to play can.  These games usually work on counting, following rules and taking turns.

The kids made flamingo puppets this week.  They got to use their feet to color them, which they thought was funny.  

Since we were learning about the grasslands the kids made their own grass headbands and added bug stickers to them.  Cutting the grass fringe was a good way to work on fine motor skills.

They got to get creative and design beetles using sequins, paper, twist ties and markers.

They spent a day learning about huts, and made their own mini huts covered in sand with tiny people to go inside.

The kids had fun taking turns as the leader in simon says, all prompts had to involve a feather.

And we also got some counting work in by matching the number of giraffe spots to the number of ladybug spots.  In February we're starting a new theme, health and fitness.