Jumping

This week with Mother Goose Time we're learning about fitness.  Day 12's topic was jumping.  The girls started off by seeing how high they could jump.

After they were thoroughly exhausted I tied the jump rope between 2 chairs.  There was a pack of word cards that came in today's bag.  If the girls picked a card with a picture they had to climb under the rope, and if it had a word they had to jump over the rope.  They had a great time with this game and asked to play it again tomorrow.  

In addition to seeing how high they could jump, we also measured how far they could jump.  They took turns jumping, and after each jump we marked a dot on the tape.  When they were all done we measured them.  It's always good when you can sneak math into a lesson.

After all that jumping the girls needed a break.  They painted frog masks using bunched up plastic wrap.  They always have a good time when experimenting with different implements to paint. 

They finished up their frag headbands by curling a tongue, adding eyes, and decorating.

The girls pretended to be frogs and jumped to the pillow lily-pads.  

One of this months manipulatives are geoboards with different colored rubber bands.  The girls made designs and then followed directions like jump your finger to a blue band, etc.  The girls always love the manipulatives that come in the Mother Goose Time box.  We have a whole bin filled with past months goodies that get played with quite frequently.  

The girls did the letter J in their my little journals.

They also charted their bean seed observations.  

Addie completed the pages from her more math and literacy books.

In the Kitchen

  This week with Mother Goose Time was all about things that happen in the kitchen.  Elli completed pages in her my little journal.  This helps with writing, letter recognition, and fine motor skills.

 The girls documented their observations for their bean seeds, which we hung in the window last week.  They have started sprouting.

 They made their own lemonade stands and practiced counting money.  They took turns being a customer buying lemonade, and the person selling it.  

 They worked more with money later in the week when they made their own pizzas and took turns selling them.  One of them would pretend to call the pizza shop and the other would deliver the pizza.  The pizzas turned out to be a great craft that promoted lots dramatic play.

They learned about volume by pouring water into different containers.  They predicted before hand how many cups they thought would fit in each.  It turns out the long skinny container held the same amount as tallest container, despite their guess that it would hold a lot more.

They also created building and then observed what happened when water was poured on them.  When it was a steady stream the building collapsed, and had to be rebuilt.  This led to a discussion about storms, tornadoes and hurricanes.  

We worked on letter and sound recognition.  If I said a word that started with an L they would pour their water into another cup.  They also come up with a list of L words.

They worked more on word recognition with the I can read book that came this month.  These are a great tool for beginning readers.  

We did some math work with patterning.

And more math work by counting play-doh that they cut with corresponding food mats.

What happens when you mix blue and red?  It turns purple.  The girls LOVED playing with shaving cream mixed with paint.

Even though Addie is 6, she struggles with certain fine motor skills.  Cutting is a great way to help strengthen her fingers.  After the vocabulary cards were cut the girls worked on setting the table and also selecting the right food groups that would include the foods I asked for.  

Every month Mother Goose Time sends a new book with their monthly box.  This month it was How Are You Peeling?  This has been the girls favorite book so far and it has already been read many times.  They just love all the funny faces that are made out of foods.  The book has also helped launch some conversations about feelings and how you can tell by facial expressions what others might be feeling.  There was also a story telling set that the girls had fun using to make their own faces.  Of course after using the paper foods, Elli decided she needed to get out her Mr. Potato Head and make more funny faces.

 In addition to the book of the month, I was able to find some related books from our library.  Next week we'll be learning all about fitness, and I know there will be lots of fun games to get the girls up and moving.

Celebrating Valentines Day

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time includes a bonus celebration kit.  This month the kit was for valentines day, and the girls had a blast.  They made love bug headbands.

We read a story with story telling pieces that the girls were able to use to bring it more to life and make it interactive.  

I hid half of the heart shaped letter puzzles around the house.  The girls would find pieces and then come back and make a match.  They always love playing games where they have to find things that have been hidden.  This game also helped with recognizing upper and lower case letters.

Instead of making paper valentines, the girls made some out of clay and play-doh.  After they dried they got to paint them. 

They played a healthy heart game.  They would roll a ball, or in our case a stuffed animal, onto the board and then complete whatever exercise it landed on.  They thought this was great fun and played many times.

We finished up with some related holiday books.