What better way to learn about nature than to learn about where it ALL began! I love how Mother Goose Time has paired the story of Creation perfectly with this month's Nature Detectives theme :) L-Bug has really enjoyed learning about how God created everything we see (including ourselves)! Check out this fun little video where L-Bug talks with me about the different things God created in the first six days.
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Each month the Mother Goose Time bloggers are given a "focus topic" to write about. Something to help us all focus on one specific "umbrella topic" with a few other topics that fall under that umbrella. This months focus topic is Professionalism. This topic is a little harder for me because I'm not a professional childcare provider. I'm just a mommy teaching my toddler! But once we started getting into each weeks discussion questions I realized there were a few that I could apply to myself and my experiences teaching L-Bug :)
I'm really excited to utilize the Baseline Assessment Kit that came with our August curriculum. This will help me to figure out where Lily is academically so I know what specific areas she excels at which topics to work more on this school year. Tracking your toddlers progress throughout the year helps you as the parent/teacher to identify their learning patterns and use them to teach that child in and outside of their comfort zone. By purposefully teaching a child outside of their go-to comfort zone you are challenging them to use and build skills they wouldn't naturally use on their own and this helps them utilize more skills while learning.
The first half of the week was so much fun, L-Bug has really enjoyed all of the sensory activities with water! These last few days we have done so many more activities while learning about water:
Then we tried to see how else we could make the water move. We blew really hard on the surface trying to create wind and we made ripples. Then we tried to reenact an earth quake by shaking the water table and we made the boats float around. We used our hands to spin around and around and make a wave pool. L-Bug really enjoyed all the water play! On Day 4: Washing with Water we had a ton of fun washing all kinds of things! First L-Bug practiced her listening and matching skills with numbers, letters and shapes :) Our focus concept of the day was the -SH sound/combination. So as found the letters on our Alphabet House Board and I wrote it on our white board so L-Bug would be able to look back as we tried to find all of the -sh combinations in our I Can Read! book "I Wash". L-Bug loves these little 3-4 page books because they are simple and fun! Every time we found the -sh combination we would either say "shhhhh" really loud or really quiet. We headed outside for some fun washing different things. L-Bug washed her toy truck and then decided that her big car need to get washed too. Then she came back and piled up some dirty dishes that needed cleaned up!
Day 5: Mixing with water we had so much fun combining colors by using food coloring and water! Then we used milk, food coloring and dish soap to watch the colors naturally swirl. L-Bug may not have understood the difference in densities, but she had fun mixing and watching the colors change! Can't wait to delve into next weeks Nature Detective lessons on dirt! I know L-Bug is going to have fun making some mud!
Here is L-Bug doing a measuring activity from Day 1: Measuring Water. I had a few empty bowls and one big bowl filled with water. First I had L-Bug practice her pouring and moving water from one bowl to another. While we did the activity we talked about a few different water formations like the ocean, lakes, rivers, pools and puddles. I explained to L-But that all of those were like our different bowls. The ocean was the biggest like our big blue bowl and the puddle was the smallest like one of our measuring spoons. I explained that the bigger ones are the deepest and the smaller ones aren't very deep at all. I reminded L-Bug of the swimming pool and how she can stand up in one part but if she walks too far out it gets too deep and her head goes under the water. She remember and told me "it's ok I blow bubbles, don't swallow the water". We also learned the concept of something being full! L-Bug got a little carried away and overflowed her small orange bowl. We cleaned up and the next time she was filling it up she knew to stop because it was "too full mommy!". So she took a scoop out and poured it into the green bowl instead of overflowing it this time.
After we finished talking I told L-Bug we were going to see which one was the deepest! When I asked her which one she thought was the deepest she told me the blue one was. I gave L-Bug a string with a washer tied to the end and let her measure how deep the bowl was that way. I told her when the washer goes to the bottom pull it up and see how far up the string got wet. She liked going back and forth and doing this. Next L-Bug measured the bowls using her hand so she could feel which bowl was deeper. Doing it this way she told me the deepest bowl every time! She was really excited when we got to dump all the water back into the big bowl :) Here is L-Bug playing about measuring. In this game we had our "start" puddle and our "finish" puddle. In the first picture we were trying to roll balls from one puddle to the next. We rolled them too hard and they would go past it, so we decided we had to be more gentle when we rolled the balls. Then they didn't go far enough so we would give them another nudge. Each time I had L-Bug tell me "Did we roll it too hard or to soft?"
In Day 2: Sorting in Water we learned about a few important concepts! One I found was the most interesting to L-Bug was floating vs sinking. She talked about how she wears a swim vest at the pool and she floats, but if she takes it off it's too deep. I was so excited that she made that connection on her own! So we talked about that a little more before we did our experiment. For the experiment I gave L-Bug a handful of rocks and said "these rocks are kind of heavy aren't they?" Then I asked her if she thought they would float at the top or sink to the bottom. She said "SINK!" Woo Hoo! So I had her plop them in and we watched them sink one at a time. Then we used our scoop to get them out and do some counting practice. Next I pulled out a pile of small leaves. "These aren't very heavy are they?" I said. Then I asked if she thought they would sink or float... again she told me SINK! "Hmm well the rocks were heavy so they sunk right to the bottom, but these leaves aren't heavy at all. Let's see if they sink to the bottom or float on the top." I said then I had her put them in one at a time. Once she put it in I asked her, "Well did the leaves sink or float?" and she told me "they are floatin' on the watey mama!". Then we talked more about how most heavy things will sink to the bottom and how most light things will float on the top. I handed her some foam shapes and asked her if they were really heavy or light? She told me they weren't heavy so I asked if they would float like the leaves or sink like the rocks and she said "float up here" and pointed to the top of the bowl with the leaves. Then I had L-Bug practice her listening skills and I had her search the "pond" for a (color/shape) "Red heart" over and over until all the pieces were gone. Then she sorted them into piles by color and we put them away. She was doing really well following directions so I had her scoop out the leaves and then the rocks. After we had counted the rocks one more time to make sure they were all there our pond was clean! :) Lastly on Day 2 we made up our own story with our Mother Goose Time story sequence cards. We took a big bowl of Ice Cubes out side onto the hot pavement. I asked L-Bug what she thought would happen to the cold ice cubes and she told me they would get burned on the hot ground without shoes on {LOL}. Then I showed had her scoop the ice onto the ground. I explained that when water is frozen it's cold and hard, but once it gets warm it starts to melt and turns into water again. We watched the ice cubes melt some more and then she wanted to splash in it. She said the water was cold, after a few minutes once the ice was almost all gone I asked her "Is the water still cold now?" And she told me "nope it's nice! I'm takin a bath!". Soon the ice was all gone and it was just water! I asked L-Bug what do you think will happen once all the water gets warm? She really didn't have much to say, I think she was too busy splashing. So I explained that once the water was all warm that it was going to evaporate and disappear into the air. I said once it disappears into the air it helps go make a cloud. Then I showed her the next story card and she immediately pointed out the first cloud and said "like that one?". Yup just like that! I Can't wait to finish this weeks projects, we've been having so much fun learning about water this week!
We had so much fun last week learning about trees! Here is a picture of the girls favorite art projects decorating our school room... they loved making the koala bears and then using their tree projects to put up for the koala's :) This week we started our Mystery in the Air theme! This week was a bit of a hectic schedule for us because it was our last week with our cousins visiting. I decided before the week started that I was going to blend the days and pull all of the air themes together so that on our long car trip taking the girls home we would be able to do a few projects in the car. Because we were so busy doing stuff this week I tried to incorporate the sub-themes anyway I could while we were out and about. We had big dust storm one day and another day we had a cloudy day so on those days we talked about the sub-theme "floating in the air". On the "floating in the air" day we did a “feather float test” where we observed feathers floating in the air and how different feathers fell at different speeds. L-Bug liked dropping all of the feathers at the same time! Because we live on an Army base we saw TONS of helicopters flying over head and of course we observed birds flying all around that covered the "flying in the air" sub-theme. We searched and searched for a rainbow, but couldn't find one at all... I was so bummed! But luckily for use we were able to use the theme poster to talk about rainbows! It has been so windy so we were definitely able to talk about the sub-theme "listening to the air" and we talked about the kite from the poster and how wind is what makes things like kites float in the air.
Taking this approach made me think a lot about how I could incorporate the themes from each day more into our everyday lives. There is so much around us we can learn from everyday! This week we started our Mystery in the Air theme! We had quite a hectic schedule because it was our last week with our cousins visiting. I decided before the week started this week that I was going to blend the days and pull all of the air sub-themes together so that on our long car trip while we were taking the girls home we would be able to do a few projects in the car. It was a great way to break up the boring car ride and do some learning on the road! On the road trip we did quite a few fun projects:
Here are the girls working on their hot air balloon art project in the car. We talked about real hot air balloons and how they operate. L-Bug said she doesn't like hot air because it would burn her, she would prefer a helium balloon :) Here is Ky reading us our Detective Air Cards. We asked the questions and through the whole car ride when someone saw something that could answer the question we talked about it.
Here is our book for the month! "Get Close to Nature!" in this book one page shows a picture of an item up close, almost like it was under a microscope. You guess what it is then on the next page you get the full view of the item and you find out what it is! After we read through it the girls all got to make their own books.
We had a fun week learning about trees. We talked about the different things you can build in a tree... like birds building nests and people building tree houses. We had fun using these giant blocks to build our own trees inside. The girls wanted to see if they could build one that would reach the ceiling but we didn't quite have enough blocks. They built it pretty tall though! Each of them had to help keep it standing by holding their part of it up.
Next we talked about different types of trees and which ones were our favorites. Ky and Kort said they liked willow trees the most. "It's pretty how the branches hang down and you walk underneath and you are surrounded" is what Ky said. I like pine trees because they have such a good smell! Then we used foam pattern pieces to make our own trees.
The girls were so excited about the bird seed project in our Mother Goose Time kit for this week! They were all excited to make the pine cone bird feeders. First we rolled pine cones in peanut butter and made sure they were covered REALLY well. Then we rolled our peanut butter in bird seed. We finished it off by tying string on the ends and we took them outside! The girls looked at the tree from the kitchen window to try and choose ta place they thought would be best to hang their feeders in so we could see the birds from inside. We knew that if we tried to go out and look at the birds we might scare them away. Once they found the perfect spot they went out and hung them up! L-Bug helped me fill up the bird feeder so all the birdies weren't fighting over the pine cones. The birds must have really enjoyed the pine cones because they were gone by the next afternoon! Later in the week we had a paint day! We did a few different projects with the paint to use a variety of materials and ideas! The first was a color game! We used these pom-pom + clothespin painters from the MGT kit. Everyone took a turn spinning the color wheel and whatever color it landed on you dipped your pom-pom painter in that color and added some leaves to your tree! We talked about seasons again and how the leaves chance colors on a tree. Then we talked about how we wish there were rainbow colored leaves like purple and blue! The girls made a beautiful array of trees :) In our next painting activity we worked with different nature items. I passed around several different paint brushes and had the girls feel the different materials. I asked "What different kinds of items could you find in nature that feel like these paint brushes?" The girls said sticks, leaves and sea sponges! Then we grabbed a few different items from our nature walk and tried to see how they worked if we used them to paint with. The girls used the nature items to paint with! And the used them as a stencil by painting around or over them to make the design pop out! They had a lot of fun trying to find different ways to use the materials. We talked about how people may have used the different items you can find in nature to make art, like before we had the ability to make paint brushes. L-Bug and I played an acorn counting game. First we talked about different things that grow on trees. L-Bug told me leaves grew on trees and she remembered from our garden themed month that apples grew on trees. I talked about all kinds of different fruits that grew on trees and reminded her that pine cones and other nuts grew on trees! Then we played this fun game! L-Bug rolled the dice, then I helped her count out the dots on the first die. She counted out that many acorns and put them on the tree. Then we did the same with the second die. Once we had all our acorns on the tree we counted them up and then used our number strip to find that number at the bottom of the tree. She really enjoyed this one and wanted to play it again, and again and again! LOL L-Bug really enjoyed this project! I started by drawing a tree on her page, then I gave her the markers. I asked her some questions and I helped her draw her answers. I also wrote her answers at the bottom so I could remember later. "What kinds of things can you do in a tree?" -Climb It. "What animals live in trees?" -Birdies & Squirrels. "What grows on a tree?" -Leaves, Apples & Acorns. "What can you build in a tree?" -House & Nest. The thing that I loved most about this was it gave me a chance to see how much she had learned from the past week! I was so excited to hear her answers because it just made me realize how much attention she is paying to the lessons :)
The new theme for this month is so much fun! I can already tell that L-Bug is going to LOVE all of the exploring that we will be doing while we act like Nature Detectives :) This first week we are exploring trees and the surroundings where we live. Desert is a very new climate and experience for us, L-Bug has only ever lived in wetter climates so the dry heat and dust is different than what she is used to! Exploring our new location is the perfect way to help her learn about her new surroundings and our new home! We have visitors! L-Bug's cousins, Ky & Kort are visiting for a few weeks and I'm lucky enough that they want to join in and help with L-Bug's school!! We had fun this first week exploring and learning about trees and the environment around us. We made some friends too.... ;) Meet our Koala Bear friends: Abby (Kort's), Geoffrey (Ky's) & Bubba (L-Bug's)! The girls had fun making there friends and we had to make sure they had some tree leaves to eat! But then we decided that we would take our Koala Bears on our Nature Walk and let them get some real leaves for dinner :) Once we finished our nature walk the girls whipped up some salt dough to create their own critters :) We talked about the different types of creatures that lived in trees and then we made a few. Ky made a giant caterpillar, Kort made a koala bear and a hedge hog, I made a birdie and L-Bug made some impressions and a fun little habitat that Ky finished up later by making some trees from our sticks and leaves!
Every month the Mother Goose Time bloggers and I write about a focus topic. This month is all about the Mother Goose Time Curriculum Design. If you can't tell yet, I LOVE the way that EVERYTHING is set up in the MGT Curriculum. There is minimal prep time, the lesson plans are laid out so well that teaching it is a breeze and everything is so wonderfully coordinated and L-Bug enjoys it and learns SO much! Each month there is a new theme that the entire month is based off of. Each week has a category that we teach within that theme, then each school day is broken up into subcategories. If you take a look at the web theme below you'll see how that all ties into each other to teach our kids a wide variety of things based on one basic theme. I love how this is broken down and just about every day when we start school I say to L-Bug "So we've been talking about Houses this month well today we are going to talk about the different kinds of houses people live in." or "You know how we've been learning about the different rooms of the house this week? Well today we are going to talk about another room, today we will talk about the bathroom." Then this ties into our "daily topic posters". When I'm introducing the topic of the day I usually draw into it with a question for her. Something simple I know she will understand. For example if it were the middle of week two and we were going to be talking about the kitchen I would start out with something like: "So we've been talking about houses right? We talked about doors and windows and the different kinds of rooms in our house. Today we are going to talk about the room where we cook our food and wash the dishes. Do you know what room that is called?" Then I pull out our Daily topic poster and show it to her! We talk a little bit about it, me asking questions and having her tell me as much as she can so I can get a baseline of what she knows about this subject. We have daily questions that come in our teacher's guides and lesson books. Some of them are a little too advanced for L-Bug at 2 years old, but others are really easy for her to answer. I like to ask her the questions and if she can't answer it then I tell her! It get's her wheels turning and makes her think. The closing questions are nice because sometimes they help you to think back about the things you learned throughout the day. Again, L-Bug can't always answer them... but I still ask the question and I answer with "Well Mommy thinks...." I've really enjoyed the way that Mother Goose Time does the theme based learning because I feel like L-Bug is able to make so many connections learning this way. She connects what we learn to real life, she connects yesterday's lessons with today's and the things we learned last week with the things we are learning this week. The correlations that toddlers can make from the lessons is incredible! Another thing I really enjoy is how all of the activities throughout the day blends different skills and domains. Because L-Bug is young a majority of the lessons and activities I choose to do include art along with the other skills. The teacher's lesson book lays out the different domains that are touched on in each activity. I LOVE this because it helps me to see what different skills L-Bug will be using so I can check her progress and to see if she has grown and learn in that specific skill set. Connecting the monthly theme with different skill sets is all about using pretend play under the umbrella of a month-long theme to support a child's growth. I feel like pretend play enhances knowledge and understanding because at younger aged children learn through play. I'm sure if you have a two year old you know you typically can't sit them down and reason with them. You can't just tell them ok I need you to do this, this, this and this. If you want your child to LEARN something they will learn it faster if you SHOW them how to do it. Nine times out of ten things will go much smoother if you make it fun by including play into showing them and teaching them.
"Mother Goose Time is an arts-integrated curriculum that uses, music, visual arts, dance, dramatic play, storytelling, engineering and construction to experience and learn about our surrounding world." ~Tracy Swanborough When we incorporate creative arts at home I see L-Bug WANT to do more school. I see L-Bug approach learning in a whole different way. It's fun and she enjoys herself!, it's almost like a playtime to her! She asks me for school time. |
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Proud supporter of Mother Goose Time curriculum!All the posts in this blog are from real life experiences. We've taken the activities and materials provided in the Mother Goose Time curriculum and modified it in different ways to fit our lifestyle. Enjoy the read!
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