Safari Vehicles

During circle time Elli identified the yellow animals from this months manipulative bag.  Yellow is the color of the month, and it is reinforced throughout many lessons this month with Mother Goose Time.

Elli used the safari picture cards from yesterday to pick an animal she would like to see.  She drew a picture of herself and a gorilla on the cover of her my little journal. 

We looked at pictures of wild animal that live near us and talked about what we would do if we saw a lion in our yard.  Elli said she would hide.  Elli used the looking glasses to find different items on the monthly theme poster.  She always loves using these, and each month Mother Goose Time sends a new poster with magnifying glasses.

We talked about watering holes and I gave Elli a bowl of water and the animal manipulatives.  She gave each one a drink of water, complete with sound effects.  Once each animal had a drink she decided they all needed to go swimming at the beach.  She had so much fun with this that every morning since we did this she has asked for a bowl of water and the animals, so they can "drink" and "swim."  

Next we used the animals to work on counting to 9.  The counting cards that come every month work great to practice one to one counting

Elli loves playing in boxes, so we drew some windows and doors on one and she used it as a safari jeep.  We played a game called roadblock.  Elli pretended to be driving on a safari, but had to stop whenever an elephant got in her path.  The elephant stayed in her way until she was able to roll the number 5.  Tomorrow we wrap up week one with safari safety.

 

Game Reserve

Today we learned about game reserves.  During circle time I hid the animal manipulatives that came in this months Mother Goose Time box under cups with different colors on them. I would call out a color and the girls would lift the corresponding cup to find the hiding animal.

 

We read the board book that came in our box this month, Giraffes Can't Dance.  Both girls liked the book and when we finished reading it they both danced around the house for awhile.  

The girls each paid $9 for tickets to go on a safari.  Elli practiced counting to 9 and Addie worked on subtracting the right amount of money.  They each got a ticket and walked around the safari road, marking off animals on their cards as they saw them.  

Next the girls used the animal manipulatives to sort them by animal type, and then by color.  We talked about how animals group together for protection.

For the last activity I hid one set of animal cards around the room.  The girls took turns picking from the second set of cards and then trying to find the same hiding animal.  They LOVED this game and had me hide the animals 4 different times so they could keep replaying it.  After that they continued to hide the animal manipulatives as well as the cards and took turns finding them.

Packing Up

We continued our safari theme with Mother Goose Time by talking about packing up.  During circle time I introduced the letter S.  I helped Elli on her letter S hunt, she went around the house trying to find things that started with the  s sound.  

Elli had a blast making her own safari hat.  She used the provided tissue paper and also added pom poms and glitter.  She always has so much fun with the crafts that come every month with Mother Goose Time.

Elli used some bowls to make safari hats for her stuffed animals.  We looked at pictures of African animals and read Honda's Surprise.  This was the suggested book for today, and I'm so glad it was because both my girls loved it.  

Elli got a Dora the Explorer backpack for Christmas that she was able to use for some of today's lesson.  She used the included packing list to pack her bag, she also found the matching items around her room and added them.

She also worked more with the color yellow that was introduced yesterday.  She found yellow items in her room and then packed them up in her backpack.

We worked more with the letter S, which starts sock.  Elli tried to make the letter s with socks and also worked on matching pairs and folding.

An InLinkz Link-up

Passports

We started our new theme with Mother Goose Time for January. This month the girls will be learning about safaris. Day 1's topic was passports.  This actually was a perfect topic for the day, since we took Elli to get her real passport picture taken in the morning.

During circle time the color of the month was introduced.  Elli used the yellow paint brush to find yellow objects in the house and paint them.  She always has fun going on color hunts.

We sang I Need a Passport and then started the lesson.

 Mother Goose Time provides a new name tag every month.  I write Elli's name with a highlighter on these and let her practice tracing the letters.  This is great for reinforcing the letters in her name.

Elli got her own passport with each continent in it.  She would roll the continent cube, find the matching continent on the world map,and then stamp it in her book.  We talked about what colors the different continents were and what sort of animals live there.

Since Elli had so much fun stamping her passport, I gave her a bunch of African animal stamps for her to use.  

We continued working with the world map for our next game.  Elli threw a pom pom on the map and then used inchimals that we had to measure how far it had landed from Africa.  She had a lot of fun with this game and played it for a long time.  She loves using the inchimals.

I made a tape road for Elli and she used cars travel to other locations.  Elli had a great time starting the safari theme;  it's going to be a fun month.

An InLinkz Link-up

Service Stations

Today with Mother Goose Time we learned about service stations. Today Elli got to look at the monthly theme poster a little more closely with the look and find glasses.  She loves using these and gets very excited when she finds the correct picture.  On the back of each magnifier there are short activities to do, which makes it extra fun.

There was a cute tool-box/cat carrier craft that Elli made today.  She was so happy to have somewhere to hold her stuffed cat that she never actually got around to putting the play tools in it. She carried it around all day and even slept with it when she went to bed.

We used the hands on letter C and came up with words that start with C.  Then Elli put toy cars in sand and got them dirty, and then washed them in a bin of soapy water.

We talked about how cars need gas to run and Elli worked on sucking up water and transferring it to different containers.  We were supposed to play a game outside with water, but it was too cold for that.

An InLinkz Link-up

Traffic Signs

Today's Mother Goose Time lesson was about traffic signs.  We did this lesson while out of town, so I didn't have our circle time display to use at the start of our lesson.  I like that it was very easy to just grab the day bags and manipulatives and pack them, making it easy to do the lessons while traveling.  

The girls made traffic lights that were later used to play a dancing game.  Green meant you dance fast, yellow slow, and red you freeze.

I set up the wooden road sign manipulatives around the bedroom.  The girls would weave in and out of them and then when I said to stop they would freeze.  I would call out a shape and color and Elli would find it and Addie would estimate how many steps she thought it would take to get to, and then they'd check the guess.  

The girls painted cone cups orange to resemble construction cones.  We set these up as a fake construction zone and played their favorite game of the day.  They would take turns rolling a cube and then performing the action down the side of the road once the flag holder waved them through.  They had a lot of fun with this game and played it for quite a bit.  Addie was upset when Elli decided she wanted to play something else, but I told her they can always play it again.

An InLinkz Link-up