Building With Trees

Day 2's Mother Goose Time topic was building with trees. We talked about the different parts of a tree and the girls used foam manipulatives to complete a tree poster.  They also used the shapes to make their own pictures.

We went on a hike outside and collected nature items that we used to build leaf animals.

We also used the nature items to build a fairy house, which Addie made blue prints for last month during our alphabet house theme.

We talked about how animals build with trees and read Beaver at Long Pond.

Then the girls made birdfeeders out of pine cones and hung them outside.  Then we read Birds. 

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Climbing Trees

Yesterday we started the new Mother Goose Time theme, nature detectives.  We started off with looking at the theme poster.  This months kit included a real magnifying glass, which the girls had a lot of fun using to look at the poster.

The girls made their name tags that we will use all month.  We always do this the first day of each new theme.

It was raining outside so we used pillows to make a tree on the floor.  The girls pretended to be different animals climbing to the top.

acting as inchworms climbing the tree

Next the girls made koala puppets and pretended to eat eucalyptus leaves off the wall. We also used them to read Koala Lou.

In the Little Goose book it suggested making trees and using animals to practice positional terms. Elli has a Playmobil set with animals and trees so we used that instead.  She practiced putting the animals, in, on, under and beside the trees.

 There was a recipe for salt dough that we made and the girls used it to make different animals to climb in their cardboard trees.  After they spent over an hour building and playing with the animals I baked them and let the girls paint them.

It finally stopped raining and we went outside in our backyard and looked for animal homes.  We found a squirrel nest, some animal holes in the ground, and a pool full of tadpoles.

 I also drew a tree with sidewalk chalk and the girls would climb it to whatever number I called out.

We finished up the day with more math and reading workbooks. 

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Experience God

We finished up the last 2 complete lessons from the Mother Goose Time add on, Experience God.  The girls really enjoyed the lessons.  I don't think Elli really understood anything we were talking about, but Addie loved listening to the Bible stories and verses.  I even overheard her telling one of her friends about God's house when they were playing.

We did a lot of activities related to passover and heaven.  The girls favorites were making footprint pictures, fruit of the spirit crowns, and paper plate harps. 

We'll be using the Experience God add on again next month and will be learning about God the creator.

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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

God Cares About My Home

One of the add ons available through Mother Goose Time is their Experience God program. This is our first month trying it.  The lesson plan book is broken up into 4 lessons with 5 activities in each.

Teacher Pack

Child Pack

Week 1

We started by reading the back of the story cards and completing the accompanying actions.  The girls made heaven bracelets, representing the gold roads and pearly gates.

We also talked about the Book of Life and Addie made her own, writing down the names of people who love Jesus.

The girls also built block roads, all leading to God.

Then they colored the provided picture and we cut out the story telling cards to retell what happened.

Week 2 we talked about God's house.

We talked about how God's house is big enough for everyone and that Jesus died on a cross to create a way to heaven.  The girls made a drawing of heaven and Earth separated by a cross. Then they used a magnet to move a paperclip representing themselves, from Earth to heaven. 

In heaven all things are clean and pure.  We talked about words that can be hurtful and words that are pure.  The girls found the hurtful words that were around the house and crumpled them up and threw them away.

The girls also made a cute house craft.  God's house is filled with love, so the girls decorated the inside of a house with things they love.

An InLinkz Link-up

Father's Day

One of the things I love about Mother Goose Time is that they provide bonus days for the holidays.  Since Father's Day is tomorrow I pulled out the extra bag and used it with the girls.

I painted the girls feet and they made foot prints to go along with a Father's Day poem.

They also made cards and came up with words that started with D like Dad.

The girls favorite activity of the day was putting shaving cream on kick balls and pretending to shave them.  They had so much fun with this that they did it multiple times.