Friday, March 2, 2018

Traveling the World With Mother Goose Time

We have spent the last two weeks traveling the world with Mother Goose Time and the February "It's A Small World" theme. In exchange for our curriculum, we agreed to tell you guys about our learning adventure. I'd love to share with you today some of our favorite world landmarks and activities.

We received cute "passport" books and stickers for each day's lesson with our curriculum kit. Each day the children drew a picture of the place we visited and collected their "stamp" sticker. They loved it!


Every day we had new activities related to the landmark we were visiting. 

When we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa the kids created their own leaning towers with foam craft peanuts and toothpicks. 

Noah worked very hard to create a structurally sound tower, but Ada Grace had more fun spearing her foam peanuts with tons of toothpicks. 




We also visited natural landmarks like the Grand Canyon. Noah made me promise we could visit the Grand Canyon in real life when he gets older. 

I really appreciate that our curriculum not only teaches them about fascinating places but inspires them to dig deeper and explore the themes in reality as well. 

When we visited the Grand Canyon, the children created layered paper art collages to mimic the sunset over the canyon. They turned out nicely and I loved that they were virtually mess-free!

I think Ada Grace's favorite part was tearing the paper and applying the glue. She's becoming quite the artist!

Finally, we traveled East to visit the Great Wall of China. We talked about just how big the wall is. The kids were amazed that you can see it from outer space! Then, in our community challenge activity, Noah and Ada Grace worked together to build their own wall out of blocks. I love watching them work together to create!


We had so much fun traveling around Earth that we can't wait to explore Outer Space with March's curriculum box from Mother Goose Time. Don't forget to check back next week to see what we are learning about stars and planets!

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Learning About Drums with Mother Goose Time

Drums are much more than just musical instruments. Did you know that many tribes use drums to communicate? In a recent lesson with Mother Goose Time, the kids and I experimented with drums as we explored other cultures.
Remember, our Mother Goose Time curriculum comes to us each month in exchange for sharing our journey here on the blog. This month we have been learning about the world! We are exploring travel, other cultures, and famous landmarks.


We started Lesson 9 with a discussion about the role drums play in various cultures and some experimentation... everyone enjoyed "drumming" on the table using different methods to achieve different sounds. We also explored rhythm as we practiced sending each other  "drum messages." It was noisy fun for my preschoolers!


Next, we made our very own drums with Mother Goose Time's Make & Play creative art project. The kids had fun choosing colors for their drums and drawing their own designs.


These drums didn't really hold up to my rough & tumble kiddos but they still had fun creating them and showing them off to grandparents later in the evening.



Our next activity for the day focused on building early literacy with a fun I Can Read booklet. The best part? this booklet incorporated a fun "stamp" game. On each page, the children had to find a different world culture item (like a drum) and tape their "stamp" on top.


In the end, they got to choose their favorite item and explain why. Ada Grace liked the tribal mask best, because she said the face reminded her of the sun.

We ended our lesson about drums with a related math activity: Percussion Patterns. The children had fun guessing which percussion item (maracas, drums, etc.) completed the patterns and creating their own patterns for me to figure out. They each giggled when I pretended to get their pattern wrong!



We all had a lot of fun and I enjoyed hearing them share all they're learning with their Dad at the dinner table that night.


Saturday, February 17, 2018

Calendars & Coloring Pages

Every month we get a new yellow bus box of curriculum from Mother Goose Time and in return for this very cool box of tools and lessons, I share our journey here on the blog. The girls love it and while Noah is often too old for the lessons (they're geared towards preschoolers), he still enjoys participating with the girls. I want to talk about two of the activities that are always included in our curriculum that Ada Grace & Elly particularly enjoy: the monthly calendar and the letter coloring pages.


In the past, I have purchased a large felt wall calendar that was actually quite cumbersome and a wooden calendar with moving pieces to be adjusted each day. The kids didn't really enjoy either one. That's not entirely true. They loved moving the pieces on the wooden calendar so much that it rarely stayed on the wall, but in the end they learned nothing about reading a calendar from it.
Each month Mother Goose Time sends us a themed calendar with number cards for the kids to add each day. They love it! We have to keep a schedule of who added the last number so they don't fight over it. They also have great fun trying to predict the pattern. Above is a picture of our calendar so far this month...
Can you guess what the pattern is?



Another fun item always included in our yellow bus box: letter coloring pages. Each month the kids learn a few letters of the alphabet through a variety of literacy activities. Since Ada Grace loves to color, the coloring pages are always her favorite! Since each page includes things that start with the letter she's learning, she not only memorizes the letter but also learns the sound and words that start with the letter while she's coloring. This week we focused on the letter G which starts "globe" and "grape." Since grapes are purple and purple is Ada Grace's favorite color... the whole page had to be purple.




Finally, I have to apologize for not snapping a picture of the super fun "People on the Map" math game we played. My hands were full and I was busy enjoying the moment with the girls. We spent a ton of time on this game. Nobody wanted to stop playing and it was a great way to practice sorting, patterns, colors, counting, and even some early map reading skills.
We used our pocket cube and later a large foam die to tell us how many "people" (really cool people shaped counters from Mother Goose Time) to put on the map. I called out continents or colors for Noah and the girls (ie. "Put the yellow man somewhere purple," "Put the blue man on Asia").
We also used the map from the game to play "On the Map," a Community Challenge activity where the kids all got a chance to sing, dance, and put counters wherever they liked on our map poster.


Saturday, February 10, 2018

Teaching Kids About Money



When Noah was a toddler, he was fascinated by money! He seemed to have an inherent understanding that coins were valuable. I remember him excitedly "stealing" coins from the consoles in our cars and from my husband's bedside table.
Depositing coins into his piggy bank became a big event! He would excitedly count the coins with us and then dance around singing "Money! Money! Money!" Noah got a ton of satisfaction from depositing each coin into his bank. It was so fun to watch. His grandparents would give him dollars and ask him what he would buy. Then we would all smile as he announced he was putting every dollar into his bank at home.
Despite his early fascination, I wasn't sure quite where to begin explaining money to him. How could I show him that a quarter was worth more than a nickel? How would that even make sense to a preschooler? Elly and Ada Grace don't share Noah's fascination with money, so I was even less sure how to introduce the concept of currency to them. I think we can all agree that it's an important lesson for kids, but where should we begin?
Recently, we introduced the concept of money and its value in a unique way...
The kids are fascinated by learning about different cultures and our current Mother Goose Time theme (It's A Small World) focuses on famous landmarks, geography, and world cultures. Last Wednesday's lesson focused specifically on currency. We always have so much fun with the themed activities Mother Goose Time sends in our yellow school bus box. We love sharing our journey here with you on the blog and we are grateful to receive our curriculum free of charge in exchange for telling you about our journey around the world this month!


First, we decorated our own paper wallets and filled them with pretend money! Like all good Southern girls, Ada Grace needed her wallet monogrammed.

After a short break spent pretending to buy "ice cream" with pretend money... we all gathered at the table to sort coins.  For the girls, we mostly focused on separating the coins into groups of like items.


We learned which coins are pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. We talked about how to tell them apart and practiced putting quarters with quarters, dimes with dimes, etc.
Then, I gave Noah a bit more information by showing him the value of each coin and discussing like amounts (1 dime is equal to 2 nickels, 5 pennies are equal to 1 nickel, etc,).

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Dinosaur Egg STEAM Station






One of our favorite aspects of Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum is the STEAM stations. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.  Each day, our lesson includes an activity that focuses on building  STEAM skills.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'd like to reiterate that we receive Mother Goose Time for free in exchange for sharing the journey with our blog readers. With that in mind, let me tell you about the latest STEAM station that my kids are begging to do again and again...
Frozen Dinosaur Eggs!




These activities do require some prep work and materials outside of what's included in our monthly subscription box.  For instance, "frozen dinosaur eggs" required me to purchase latex balloons and spend time stuffing dinosaur counters (included in our subscription box) and water into the balloons. It had to be done the night before, in order to allow time for the "eggs" to freeze. I'm not the biggest fan of activities that require advanced preparation on my part, but in fairness... how were they going to mail me frozen eggs?

With a little prep, we had these!




The kids enjoyed exploring the eggs and squirting warm water over them using some plastic condiment containers I purchased at the local dollar store. The warm water helped our eggs to "hatch." Not to mention, my kids love anything that means they get to play with water. Why is that?

Anyway, we did several eggs. The children had so much fun that we ended up repeating the activity every day that week! Those little frozen eggs led to some fun conversations about hatching eggs, melting and freezing water, and hot vs. cold.



But the best part, was the way they helped each other! More than introducing STEAM skills or all the fun spin off conversations, I am grateful for the community that activities like this foster. Mother Goose Time already includes community building activities every day and that's awesome. But what I love is how the STEAM stations, literacy activities, and math games all foster a sense of community by encouraging the children to work together and help one another learn and succeed.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Dinosaur Math!

This month has been all about dinosaurs! We are enjoying learning about different types of dinosaurs & the world they lived in long ago. I've become a huge fan of our preschool curriculum and I recommend it to many of my friends for this age group. At two years old, our girls are learning so much and having a great time too! Not to mention it's still relevant and interesting to our five year old (although I don't recommend it as a stand-alone curriculum for kindergarten). 
So what are we using? Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum with a Little Goose adapted guide for younger children (like the girls).  Mother Goose Time comes every month in a fun yellow bus box which is super exciting for our kiddos. I write about our experiences with Mother Goose Time here on the blog in exchange for our packages but all opinions and stories are my own.


What are they actually learning? Each day we start with a short circle time discussion and a fun themed calendar, then we have a community "challenge," an art project, a literacy activity, a story, a song, and a math activity. Today I want to talk about some of our favorite math activities so far this month.

Lesson 7 of 20 focused on learning about the stegosaurus. Despite promptly notifying me that a stegosaurus is his least favorite kind of dinosaur, Noah jumped right on board with the day's math activity and all the children had fun helping each other add spikes to the back of the stegosaurus. They were all excited to reach 17 spikes (In case you didn't know, a real stegosaurus had 17 spikes!). This activity helped introduce the girls to number concepts and served as listening comprehension for Noah.

Lesson 12 of 20 focused on learning about dinosaur heads. After having lots of fun dancing around in our dinosaur headbands with sharp t-rex teeth, the children had fun learning about patterns with the awesome dinosaur counters Mother Goose Time sent this month. Each month we get fun, themed counting manipulatives to help the children with their math activities. It's probably one of their favorite yellow bus box items each month. Today, we worked together to make different dinosaur patterns. Ada Grace truly enjoyed the pattern guide included with today's activity.

Lesson 13 of 20 was all about dinosaur tails (easily the most fun part of the dinosaur). The kids spent all day wearing around homemade tails and pretending to be dinosaurs. Noah even fell asleep in his tail! The math activity for this lesson involved building tails for various dinosaurs from the plastic links we received earlier in the month. All the children worked hard to find the right colors and attach them to the dinosaurs while building sorting skills as well as fine motor skills.

Stay tuned to hear about how Tray Plays and STEAM Stations help foster community by giving our kids opportunities to explore & work together in next week's post.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Dinosaur Art Projects

Continuing with our dinosaur theme, the kiddos are enjoying creating many different types of art this month. Our preschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time, features a new art project daily.
I'm a fan of the way they are seamlessly incorporated into our lessons and the way they expose our children to a variety of artists and processes.
Their favorite part? Besides loving dinosaurs, I think they're most excited that mom is saying "yes!" to painting. (They know I can't stand the mess.)
Last week, we really enjoyed making our own dinosaurs with shape cut outs and sponge paintings with dinosaur stencils. I thought the latter turned out super cute!

 Dino Shape Art was all about letting the children look at an image of origami dinosaurs ("dinosaurs" created from folded paper shapes) and allowing them to imagine their own dinosaurs using the provided shape cut outs. All I had to supply was the glue!


Noah commented on how strange it was to make dinosaurs from shapes like stars and hearts. Ada Grace enjoyed naming the different shapes as she positioned them on the paper. It was a great way for her to build vocabulary and practice speech sounds.


In the end the children's pictures might not have looked much like actual dinosaurs, but the focus was on the process and I feel they really got a lot out of that experience.


But my favorite art project of the week by far was Dinosaur Stencil Art! In this Invitation to Create, my kids got to use cardboard stencils and sponges provided by Mother Goose time to paint dinosaurs. 


I loved hearing about their color choices and watching their unique dinosaurs come to life on paper!


Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures with Mother Goose Time and dinosaurs next week!

Friday, January 5, 2018

Preschool Paleontologists: Dinosaur Excavation Art!

As many of you know, we have been learning with Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum for several months. We receive our curriculum free of charge in exchange for honest reviews and tales from the trenches each week.
After a short break due to spending the holidays with a newborn, we are back to exploring with our January box.  This box is probably our favorite so far! My kids totally love dinosaurs and January's lessons are all about dinosaurs.
Here's a look at one of our favorite activities from week one: Excavation Dig!


This activity helps children practice fine motor skills while learning about shapes and developing their creativity.  It's part of Mother Goose Time's Invitation to Create category which is often a big favorite for my daughter. However, my son isn't usually too keen to participate in creative art activities. He's more of a "math and science" type. With that in mind, I set it up like a real dig.

The children got to be paleontologists and "dig up" the provided dinosaur skeleton pieces by uncovering them with paintbrushes.

Then, the children arranged their dinosaur bones on the provided background paper as they wished and practiced pasting the pieces to the paper. Their "dinosaurs" turned out really cute!

Noah, ever the perfectionist, carefully arranged his dinosaur skeleton as it would appear in a museum while Ada Grace experimented with placing her pieces in different spots all over her paper before finally deciding on a very "abstract" orientation.

Other favorites from the week included fossil stamp art, a t-rex teeth necklace, Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner, and (as always!) music and movement activities with the Dancing with Dinosaurs CD.
Check back next week to hear more about our adventure with dinosaurs as we explore types of dinosaurs including the Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Pterodactyl!