Feelings

This month with Mother Goose Time we have been learning about friends and feelings.  

The kids used the I Can Read books to find sight words.  These books are a good start to beginning reading skills.  They help with word recognition and have repetitive sounds.  

We also worked on letter recognition.  The kids loved using a fly swatter to smack the letter they were supposed to be searching for.  

Every month introduces 3 new letters.  The kids get to make their own letter book to take home.  

We also spend all month working in the my little journals.  There are pages to practice writing letters, numbers, drawing shapes, colors, etc.

The kids made their own mirrors and practiced making faces in them.

We looked at art by Picasso, and the kids used shapes to make their own abstract art.  

Each monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with 2 books.  One of which introduces a character trait, this months was kindness, using forest animals.  The kids got their own rabbit puppet and made their own picture and story after listening to the book.

Using the parachute is always a hit.  We talked about being excited and bounced balls off it, hid under it, etc.  

We also played a letter match game where you had to avoid finding the surprised face.  

And we've used this months tanagram pieces quite a bit.  The kids have use them for patterning, making faces, designing shapes, etc.

Discovering Happiness

Every morning we start with circle time using our yearly display from Mother Goose Time.  The kids figure out the weather, day of the week and date.  They also work on counting up to the date and figuring out the pattern piece for the following day.  

During circle time the kids all get a chance to share one thought or story with the class.  Then I read a book related to what we are doing.  Today's was My Many Colored Days, and we were talking about happiness.  This is a great book that lets the kids get up and act out different feelings associated with animals.  

The letter H was introduced today and the kids made letter H horses.  

The kids got a chance to do small group work to complete different emotion puzzles.  

A New Year With Mother Goose Time

We just started a new school year and will be using Mother Goose Time as our main curriculum this year.  For the month of September we are learning about friends and feelings and also just getting used to class rules and routines.  

On our first day the kids made friendship puppets with googly eyes and feather hair.

They practiced writing or tracing their names on their monthly name tags.  They get new ones every month, and at the end of the year I give them all back so see how their writing has progressed.  

This week the kids worked together to draw a classroom map where they could add and decorate their own houses.  

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with a new theme poster.  The kids used the look and find glasses to find the different faces and complete the tasks on the back of them.  

We made apple trees by tracing hand prints on paper and then adding paint and apple stickers.  

One of the letters we're working on this month is F.  The kids created their own letter F books and practiced tracing the letter F.  We will do more work with this letter throughout the month.

 We finished up the week by making friendship headbands and learned about being kind.  

Extra Math and Literacy Help

If you are looking to make the Mother Goose Time curriculum a little more challenging, I suggest adding the more math and literacy workbooks to your daily schedule.  

Each book comes chalked full of activities geared for 4-5 year olds.  They get to work on counting, matching, rhyming, letter recognition, etc.

Elli has been using these books at home in the evenings when her big sister works on homework.  They are great for practicing fine motor skills and gaining more confidence in math and reading.

At the back of each book is a skills assessment area so you can track your child's progress and see if they are where they should be.

Garden Fun

We've been having a fun month with Mother Goose Time learning about gardens.  We've talked about soil, sun and water, worms, seeds, stems, the list goes on and on.  

We always start the day with circle time where we look at the topic poster and discuss what we know.  The kids take turns picking out the weather, day of the week, and date.  We also read a related book on the topic during this time.

After circle time we work on the art project for the day.  This way they have time to dry if paint it used.  The kids loved using rubber worms to paint giant worm pictures.  

They also made root pictures using cupcake liners, string and buttons.

When we learned about stems they made growing onions using paper plates, tissue paper and straws.  

All month long the kids work in they my little journals.  They practice writing the letters and numbers of the month and do work on the monthly color and shape.

I leave the theme poster up within easy reach so the kids can look at it and ask questions all month long.  They also used the look and find glasses to figure out where different items were on the poster.

Every monthly box from Mother Goose Time comes with 2 new manipulatives.  This month came with base 10 blocks, that have been used for measuring, patterning and counting so far.

Soil

We finally started Mays' growing gardens theme with Mother Goose Time.  Day 1 focused on soil.

During circle time we talked about the weather, day of the week, completed our calendar and figured out the pattern, and talked about things that grown and live in soil.

We also read The Tiny Seed, which was the suggested book for today.

After circle time we moved into the daily activities, each day has 3 suggested activities as well as a STEAM station idea. 

We went outside to make soil collages using nature items.  After the pictures dried picture frames were added.  The kids had fun collecting their own items and deciding where to glue them.

Since it was the first day of a new theme the kids were given new name tags and practiced writing their names. 

We finished up with seed exploration. I left a bunch of seeds out on the table for the kids to examine, feel, count etc. by themselves.  We also talked about the different types of seeds we eat.  Tomorrow we learn about seeds so this was a good introduction to the topic.