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.

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.

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,).