What's in the Box-April

We just got our April box from Mother Goose Time, and the theme for the month is birds and eggs.

The teacher tool bag has the planning journal, teacher guide, theme web, monthly CD, shape stamp, continuum of learning, and the monthly manipulatives.  For this month the manipulatives are colored links and rainbow feathers.

The circle time bag has everything you need for the monthly display board:  calendar and pieces, circle time songs, shape cloud, gosling friend, number fish, color wand, theme poster, and letter cards.  It also contains cookie cutters for each letter we'll be focusing on.

Week one is in the nest:  nest, egg, hatchling, bird food and learn to fly.

Week two is bird parts:  head and beak, body, wing, feet and claws, and tail.

Week three is tree birds:  blue bird, woodpecker, eagle, hummingbird, and chickadee. 

For the final week we will focus on exotic birds:  ostrich, penguin, blue crane, peacock, and birdwatcher.

The celebration pack this month is for Easter.  It includes a complete lesson plan for the holiday with songs, snacks, crafts, and games.

Also in this months box was a list of the new themes for the 2017-18 school year.  I'm especially excited for it's a small world and growing gardens. 

Bear and Mouse

 Mother Goose Time offers a complete comprehensive monthly preschool curriculum.  It encompasses social and emotional development, physical development, language and literacy, mathematics and reasoning, social studies, science and creative development. 

Every monthly box contains a book of the month. This months story is Timber, which we read on day 3.  Another way literacy is incorporated every month is with a rhyme time poster.  The girls read Hickory Dickory Dock and then played a game to work on number recognition.

The girls took turns rolling the number cube and running to the mouse with the corresponding number on it, which also is great for gross motor movement.  Elli is just starting to recognize numbers so this was a good game to make math fun.  We did more math work by playing with the included bear manipulatives in a tub of water and scooping them out.  Elli had to decide if she had 4 bears in her spoon or not, and then she used the counting cards to verify.

Elli helped me make play dough, which is great for learning about measurements and how to follow a recipe.  She made logs out of play dough and pretended to chop them down; she also made caves for the bear manipulatives.  Using play dough is a good way for increasing fine motor skills.

Elli was given materials for an invitation to create.  I thought she would use the bowl to make a bear den, but instead she turned it into a bear with lots of hair.  We talked about hibernation, which teaches about basic earth science.  Photos of bears were also included for the craft, but she didn't want to use them.  I love the ideas she comes up with when left to her own devices.  The girls also used a mixture of shaving cream mixed with glue to make footprint pictures.  For the tinker and scrap station Elli was given materials to make a teddy bear.  She thought it would be better to cut up a piece of paper and then glue it back into the shape of a bear.  She actually makes different animals out of paper shapes all the time, so this was nothing new for her.  She loves cutting and gluing. 

Playing Together

The girls and I had so much fun with today's Mother Goose Time lesson, playing together.  We read the book of the month, A Big Problem.  It was about an elephant that gets stuck in a tree and a group of kids that come up with different ways to try and get it down.

After we read the book the girls used a variety of household objects to come up with ways to build playground equipment, just like in the book.

They had so much fun with this that I extended the idea and gave them marshmallows and toothpicks to make whatever they wanted.  When they were done they ate their creations. 

We took a field trip to the playground and the girls practiced climbing.

We talked about what it meas so be a good friend, and what respectful means.  Then they made puzzle friend headbands, and exchanged one piece with each other.  

We also read The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Friends.

An InLinkz Link-up

Nature Detectives, Learning with Themes

I love that Mother Goose Time uses thematic learning.  I can't wait to start next months nature detectives theme.

Every month has a new theme and each day has a different topic related to the theme.  When our box arrives each month the girls are so excited to get it open and see what we will be learning about.  Addie loves to find out what our new theme will be.

I love that all month long we will be learning about one theme, it's a great way to increase knowledge on a subject and makes it easy to add on to the individual topics that interest the girls the most.  All month long we will be making crafts, cooking, reading books, completing science experiments, playing games and signing songs that all relate to nature.  Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice so we can take a lot of the lessons outside.  Each day comes with a topic poster and is in its own bag so it is super easy to pack up and go.  I put the topic poster on our circle time display and when we start our day we talk about what we will be learning about.  All the lessons for the day revolve around the daily topic, while also relating back to the monthly theme.  Using thematic learning is a great way to reinforce what has already been learned and you can tie something learned on one day into topics on the following days. 

Day 2 bag

fun activities all month

book of the month

There are also add ons avaialbe which also are theme based.  I use the Little Goose book with Elli and Addie gets the more math and reading workbooks.  These resources are a great way to tailor the lessons to your childs ability.

An InLinkz Link-up