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

What's In The Box - January

Every month we receive a new Mother Goose Time box delivered right to our door, and it is packed full of goodies.  So what exactly comes in the box?  Take a look below if you want to find out what is in the January box.

The teacher tool bag has the monthly lesson plan book, a planning journal, gathering list, theme web, CD, skills overview, and manipulatives.  My girls are always excited to open the box and see what the new manipulatives are for the month.

In the circle time display bag you'll find a monthly calendar and pieces, theme poster, letter flags, hands on letters and numbers, global friends, friendly bees, number tree pieces, monthly shape, monthly color, and phonics cards.  If it is your first month ordering for the school year you will also receive a welcome kit with all the needed materials to create a circle time display as well as a planning book with ideas.

Each month comes with a bonus celebration pack.  For January the pack is about peace.  There is a detailed mini lesson plan book, game and snack ideas, crafts, and invitation cards.  My girls always love the celebration packs;  they have so many fun, engaging ideas.

Mother Goose Time provides a lesson plan book with ideas for 20 days.  Each day has a corresponding bag with everything you need to complete the lesson.  This month the theme is Going on Safari.  For week 1 the topic is getting ready for safari.  The 5 daily topics we will be covering are passports, packing up, game reserve,safari vehicle, safari safety.

Week 2 is safari animals:  lion, elephant, rhino, zebra, and giraffe.  I think this will probably be the girls favorite week sine they both love animals.  But the whole month looks like it will be super fun for them.

Week 3 covers life in the grasslands:  beads, hut, migration, music and food.

The final week will be backyard safari.  Daily topics covered will be grass, birds, water, beetle, and trees.  By the end of the month the girls will have worked on reading, writing, math, fine motor skills, gross motor development, science, geography, etc. etc.  Mother Goose Time makes learning fun by creating a comprehensive, complete curriculum all based on a monthly theme that's sure to delight preschoolers.  

There are even add on's available, such as the dance n' beats DVD.  My girls both love getting up and dancing to the songs they hear all month from the monthly CD.  It even comes with a book that has extra ideas to add to the lessons.

My 6 year old gets extra practice with math and writing with the more math and more literacy books.  Mother Goose Time also has a toddler supplement that I used to use, but my daughter does well enough with the regular curriculum now so we no longer get it.  

You can also add on the experience God pack, which is a Christian supplement that you can use alone or pair with the monthly curriculum.  They really thought of everything when they put this curriculum together.  I love that everything is included so you can just open the daily bag and go, with very little prep work.  My girls both love Mother Goose Time and constantly ask to "do school."  My 2 year old loves it so much that on Christmas, right after she finished opening her presents, she began asking to "do school."  She was quite upset when I told her we were taking a day off.  I am so happy that I found a curriculum that my kids love so much, one that has made learning so fun that they would rather spend the day doing school stuff than playing with brand new toys. 

Learning About Math With Cookies

 Cookies, a delicious treat and also a great tool for learning math.  

We always start each day of our Mother Goose Time lessons with circle time.  Everyday the girls put up a calendar piece, which is a great way to practice counting and patterning.  Today I put different cookie shapes into a bag and the girls had to guess what they were without looking.  We also sang One Cookie, Two Cookies, which further helped enforce counting and numbers.

The girls made their own cookie plate art.  This was a good way to review shapes with Elli.  They had a lot of fun decorating the cookies and then using them to play bakery later on. 

The girls used the shape manipulatives from this months box to work on the provided shape design mats.  Elli worked with the simpler mat, just matching shapes and colors.  Addie was able to complete the harder shape map that required manipulating the shapes and spatial awareness.  

 The girls completed the star page in their my little journals.  They used sponges to decorate the page with pretend cookies.  There was tons of shape recognition and practice in today's lesson.

Elli did some work with the hands on letters.  She used yarn to recreate v and x.

While Addie was out at the movies Elli helped me make a few different types of Christmas cookies.  She worked on counting cookies and measuring ingredients.  Her favorite part was licking the bowls.

We had a book about counting cookies that went perfect with today's lesson.

We finished up the day with dance n' beats.  I cut out and numbered 9 cookies and put the corresponding number of chips on the back of each one. The girls worked together to put them in numerical order.  Elli worked on counting the chips and Addie worked on adding them together.  Then they danced along to the DVD.  The girls had so much fun with today's lesson, and there were so many opportunities to learn math.