Service Station

This month with Mother Goose Time we've been focusing on the theme transportation station.  We finished up week 1 by learning about service stations.

The kids took turns using the look and find glasses to find items on the monthly theme poster and performed the actions on the back of them, like build a bridge with a partner.  

They worked on assembling transportation puzzles.

I added soap and cars to our water table for the kids to clean.  They pretended it was a car wash and used cups and tubes to clean them.

We finished up by making tool boxes to hold items to fix cars.

Transportation by Road

We've just started a new theme with Mother Goose Time, transportation station.  For the first week we're learning about things associated with roads, such as maps and bridges.  

The kids used paper rolls to paint roads.

They made traffic lights using paint, paper plates, paper and stickers.

They drove cars in play dough to make different tracks and roads.

They worked together to create a giant road system that they could drive the train and bus manipulatives that came in this months box, and also used the plane and boat counters.  They had a lot of fun with this and all worked great together to build an area that had room for everyone.  

We talked about draw bridges going up and down and the kids for to limbo under a string bride while it moved.

We also worked on matching rhyming words by building stick bridges to the matching pairs.

The first letter of this month is D, and the kids were able to make their letter D books.

What's in the Box- December

The theme for December with Mother Goose Time is sights and sounds of winter. The theme web shows a break down of each weekly theme and all the daily topics that make it up.

The daily activities calendar is a good tool to help plan out the month.  It shows a breakdown of each days activities.

The teacher tool bag comes with the lesson plan books, cube cards, monthly CD, supply list, and the loose parts letters and cards.

Week one is orchestra.

Week two focuses o outdoor sights and sounds.

Week three is about indoor sights and sounds.

The final weeks theme is light and dark.  I can already tell the kids are going to like this months theme.  It has a lot of activities that I know are going to be fun and engaging.  

Assessing Your Preschooler

Mother Goose Time comes with tips to help complete an assessment on your preschooler.  Each lesson plan book comes with a guide at the back showing you all the domains of learning.  

Through out the monthly lessons you will find activities that are starred.  If you complete observations on every starred item, you will cover all the topics that need focused on.

Avocado pit art focused on physical science and fine motor skills.  

I was able to observe the kids using small balls to paint with, and see if they were able to manipulate the tray to make the balls go where they wanted.  

For a great explanation on how the assessment system works check out the youtube video above.

In the Orchard

We've been learning about animals and trees in the orchard this month with Mother Goose Time.  In each thematic unit the kids get exposure to art, science, math, reading, etc.

Every month comes with different word families that the kids are able to build words with.  

They look for sight words in the monthly I Can Read book.

Monthly games help reinforce the letters of the month.  

Every letter of the month comes with a corresponding letter book.

Every monthly box comes with a book that introduces a character trait, this months was patience.  We read the book during circle time and the kids made their own story about patience complete with a bear puppet.  

The monthly journals the kids work in help reinforce the numbers, letters, color and shape of the month.  

Games help introduce counting, number recognition, patterning, etc.  

Every month comes with a new pattern to work on.  The class worked together to figure out what would come next.

The puzzle that comes in every box is good for small group work and also individual use.  

Every day has a new craft.  We've made things like raccoon masks, porcupine puppets, oranges, and play dough porcupines in addition to many other crafts this month.

Trees

We've been learning about the parts of trees and different kids of fruit trees this month with Mother Goose Time.

We learned about leaves, and after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the kids made bead caterpillars to eat holes in their leaf.  

They also used their senses (not taste) to explore their leaf.  

The kids loved putting leaves on the parachute and shaking them off to watch them fall.

The kids learned how to count the rings on a tree trunk to determine it's age.

They loved making their own trees with a little creature to live inside.  Most of the kids wanted to play with them after they were done.

The kids have worked on sorting branches by size and measuring them.

They also colored their letter E book.

Throughout the month the kids work in their journals, they worked on creating the covers.

We made popcorn and the kids used it to paint cherry blossoms.  Some of them also glued the popcorn to their cherry tree pictures.

The kids worked on recognizing letters by playing a simple game during circle time.

We've also been working on the color red this month.