Jaguars in the Rainforest

The kids were really excited to start another month of homeschooling. Noah was most excited about our new calendar. The kids get to glue a new number to the calendar each day and it's a favorite for Noah. Our calendar, like many of our new great manipulative tools and crafts come from Mother Goose Time.

We are receiving Mother Goose Time curriculum free in exchange for sharing our journey here on the blog. Having a completely organized curriculum that is "ready to go" has been a life saver for me while I navigate my first year teaching different ages & being pregnant.

The Mother Goose theme for November is Rainforest Adventure.  The first day's lesson focuses on an animal from the forest floor layer of the rainforest: the jaguar. My kiddos love all things animals, so it was a great place for them to start. 

Here's what we learned about jaguars...

1. Community Challenge with a focus in Life Sceince & Social Relationships:

Where would you sleep if your home was destroyed? That certainly gave the kids pause. After a moment Noah said "outside!" and the girls immediately copied him. We talked about where jaguars sleep and how they have become endangered as a result of deforestation. 

The kids had fun showing me how they thing jaguars move, sound, and sleep!

2. Make & Play with a focus in Creative Art, Gross Motor Skills, and Literacy:

This was definitely Ada Grace's favorite activity of the day! She loves learning about the alphabet and quickly committed J is for Jaguar to memory. 

We spent extra time talking about the shape and colors of jaguar spots. 

These were so cute that I quickly decided to add them to the children's portfolios when they finished "playing" with their new art.

3. Wiggle & Giggle:

We all listened to the Jaguar Crawl song on our Dance n Beats cd while the children crawled around the yard pretending to be growling jaguars before dissolving into giggles. 

It was adorable to watch and a great way to burn off any extra energy before nap time for the little girls.

4. Small Group Literacy with a focus in Emergent Writing:

I admit, I tweaked this activity a bit. While the children were participating in the Wiggle & Giggle song, I hid their name tags in our bushes (a pretend rainforest!) and they got to explore the rainforest searching for their names. 

It was a bit like hide and seek. My kids love hide and seek!