Math for toddlers can be created from some of the simplest activities! I used our Mother Goose Time counting cards and a play-dough set we got to create a multi-step math lesson for L-Bug. I decided to use two play dough colors because I wanted L-Bug to use her fine-motor skills for two play-dough activities. The first step was to roll up a bunch of little balls. Then we took the number stamps and stamp out each number Once we had our numbers stamped out I had L-Bug choose a play-dough number and match it to the correct number card. Then we counted the play-dough balls out onto the card! I was impressed with how carefully L-Bug placed each ball into the squares on the card as she counted ;) An activity that was so simple to create lasted a good amount of time and encouraged L-Bug to practice number recognition, counting, fine-motor skills and matching!
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This month we have had some awesome crafts and L-Bug has used them multiple times for some great imaginative play! She had a lot of fun talking about how all of these new friends live and work in the orchard. Here is our new puppet friend Johnny Appleseed and his brother Billy :) Our Hungry, Hungry caterpillar who ate through a WHOLE lot of food and our leaf! Of course when we learned about lemons in the orchard we got to make this fun project. We practiced our painting, cutting and gluing! On our lemon day we also made REAL lemonade and it was tasty :) L-Bug loves making things in the kitchen so it was a perfect lesson addition! Another fun one that we did was actually from a few months ago, but I figured it would be fun to do now because of Halloween! Here is our lacing spider activity where we made our little spider a web. We hung this spooky little spider on her bedroom door to decorate her room for Halloween. At the end of this week L-Bug had enough friends from our crafts this month to play out a whole scenario. Johnny planted trees and the porcupines were happy because they had new homes! So much fun with arts, crafts and imagination! It's fun to hear her remember parts of the different lessons and put them all together into her own little story line!
Last week I touched a little bit on a few Language and Literacy activities that we did. I HAD to share this one too because L-Bug enjoyed it so much! It was actually a few of the different Mother Goose Time activities combined together and then modified them to challenge L-Bug a little more and we added a few of our own toys and materials.
She really enjoyed this "game" and it made me realize that I can challenge her without causing her to get frustrated, it just needs to be fun too!
We started out with several letters in our work box and a little ball for her to roll. Then we identified the letter that the ball landed on! She then found the uppercase letter that matched from a pile of phonics letters below. Once she found it we put the letter in our letter factory so we could learn the sounds the letter made.
Once we practiced the letter sounds we took the letter over to build a word. L-Bug really liked this part because it reminded her of Word World {one of her favorite tv shows}. We used the ending sound {-ig} and added our letter to the beginning. Then we sounded it out! After we read the word I had L-Bug find the full written word from a few options on the table! Then we started again at the box with our ball and letters! After we went through all of the letters we did a little review where I had all of the letters underneath the words that read. We read a word together and I had her sound out the first letter. Then I asked her what letter made that sound and we moved the word so we could see the letter and identify it! It was a great multi-step activity that was fun and L-Bug learned a lot!
I know I've talked a lot about all of the cool themes that Mother Goose Time sends out each month, but I haven't talked much about the amazing way each activity is broken down into learning categories! Their developmental continuum of skills is really incredible and makes it very easy to asses your child's learning level for each learning area! We did tons of amazing activities this week that included so many different skill areas, but I decided just to write on one subject for this week. Here is a little snap shot of our Language and Literacy learning this week.
L-Bug has really started to enjoy writing! At first this was a struggle for us because she was going through a "I do it myself" stage... SO I decided instead of trying to help guide her and show her how to do it we would turn most writing activities into a game so she could observe me doing it. As soon as she sees me write a letter she gets the gist of it and is pretty much able to trace it herself! We have been working with pencils and erasers though because if she messes up she likes to erase it and try again. She is a little OCD about her work... I wonder where she gets that from?!
We played a word letter game where we had several apples, some had -A- on them and others had -a- on them. They were all turned upside down and we took turns picking an apple and then tracing the letter on a card I had made! L-Bug was able to trace the -A- all on her own and asked for help doing the circle on the -a- because it's a little harder, but after the first time I helped she was able to do it all on her own the other few times she got to trace it!
For this activity we used several skills: 7, 11, 12 & 14 {see snap shot image below}.
This week we also got to open our new Mother Goose Time book- Johnny Appleseed! L-Bug loved this book, it's definitely one of her new favorites :) We get to go on an adventure with Johnny as he goes to spread apple seeds across the states! Daddy read the story to her on his lunch break and then we used it again during another lesson/project where we talked about the life cycle of an Apple Tree.
We used our seed manipulatives as we talked about the cycle and read through the book again!
Both of these activities used skill #13 {see snap shot image below}.
We also learned two new ASL signs this week! Well, L-Bug already knew "thank you", but she learned the sign for tree. We have been practicing it though out the week as we talked about trees. I would say something like "Today we are going to talk about _____" and sign tree and wait for L-Bug to fill in the blank, other times I would ask L-Bug if she remembered the sign and if she could show it to me. I believe this skill would fall under both 8 & 9 {see snap shot image below} and a whole other skill set (second language) but I'm not 100% sure!
One other great Language and Literacy project we did this week was using our "I Can Read" books and our sight word pointers and labels! We started off with the labels in our work box and I had L-Bug match up the arrows to the labels. We read the words on each as we went. Then we read the book used our sight word pointers to find our special word "have" as we read each page!
We used skills 9,12 & 13 for this lesson {see snap shot image below}.
Here is a quick glance at the Developmental Skills list for Language and Literacy. As you can see with all of these activities through out the week we used a LOT of different skills from this list. And that's not even including the other lessons that weren't directly geared for Language or Literacy but still used the skills in smaller ways!
One thing I've noticed since our assessment in August was that we didn't really do many technology lessons with L-Bug. So I did a little research and I found a program called ABC Mouse. You can use it on your computer or download the app for your phone or tablet! We started it this week and L-Bug has LOVED it. I really like that it's educational and not just a game for kids to zone out on...
Here is one of the lessons from L-Bug's "learning path this week. It's a story that is read to her (or you can change the settings depending on your kids technology skills. Example: they can turn the pages). The story is about the cycle of a plant. The story talks about seeds, roots and growing plants!
I love these fun little Recipe Cards we get each month in ourMother Goose Time curriculum! Before I never really knew how to have L-Bug help me in the kitchen. I was too nervous that she would get into things she shouldn't, make a big mess, or even get hurt. But these recipe cards helped me to get past all of that and I have started including her in more and more meal-time prep! She likes to help pour, stir and anything else I will let her help do in the kitchen {YES even washing dishes!!} :)
This was an easy little snack we did where I used my biscuit cutters to let L-Bug "cut" out the circles on her own. I really like that the cards have step-by-step directions and that each step has a picture. I like taking opportunities like this to teach L-Bug practically! So from the beginning we have always followed the recipe and directions. From repetition L-Bug knows we start at step one! By looking at all of the great illustration on the card she knows we wash our hands first. Then we go to step two!
It's fun to let her take the lead now because she knows the routine and then I like to let her tell me what she thinks step two says to do. Sometimes she gets it right and when she doesn't I usually say something like, "Well that is a good idea! But the directions actually want us to....."
This little snack was so easy that she was actually able to tell me each step correctly :)
I need to get a little recipe box to put all of these in so L-Bug can choose which snack she wants to make by picking a card out. I just can't seem to find a box long enough or tall enough to fit these cards! If you have any ideas I'd love to see your comments below :) Thanks!
This week our lessons have been all about trees! We started with a seed and learned about roots, trunks {inside and out}, branches, leaves {and other things that grow on branches}!
I had a little fun here with L-Bug because anytime painting is involved she gets a little excited. So before letting her dig in and grab her art smock I had her observe what she saw in our work box and then tell me what she thought we were going to be doing! She was able to name everything in the box... but she though we were going to eat the seeds :)
She had a lot of fun painting her apple, but I think she had even more fun playing with one of our Mother Goose Time manipulatives seeds! She had fun "decorating" her name with seeds and kept telling me those were her letters for her name.
Then we did some seed exploration and we sorted the seeds and looked at them with the magnifying glass. We put our senses to good use with these food safe items and we used our eyes, ears, noses and months to explore them! How do the seeds look different from each other? How do the seeds smell? What do the seeds sound like when you drop them into the pan? How do they taste?
L-Bug was so excited to pull her Little Journal out of her work box! She now LOVES tracing her name and is eager to get into the pages of her journal to trace and color!
On the day we talked about the tree trunk, bark and the inside rings of a tree we built our own "forest" with our Melissa and Doug blocks! L-Bug LOVES stacking blocks so this was perfect. We used our imaginations and mad up a "hatchet" to chop at our trees with as we read through a story about Honest George chopping down his father's cherry tree.
The Melissa and Doug blocks came in our September Citrus Lane Subscription box along with several other fun toys! See the post about it here. But while we were taking down our "forest" I realized this would be a great way to move into the rings of a tree! As we stacked the nesting blocks together I realized they were in a sense making rings inside of each other the way a tree has rings inside.
So we talked a little about rings on the inside of a tree and counted the rings of the blocks and then moved onto our next activity about the rings inside of a tree!
We had a busy week and we combined our branches and leaves day. One of our discussion questions was "What do branches hold?" I was very surprised at L-Bug's outside the box thinking when she started saying things like, "birdies nests, squirrels, kids", etc! After she told me all of those great things I asked "What GROWS on branches?"! And we talked about leaves and fruit and pine cones lol.
Here is her fingerprint painting <3
There were so many other fun activities we did this week it's so hard to choose which to write about. But I do want to share two of our books from Story Time this week! We haven't gotten to our new Mother Goose Time book for this months theme, but I pulled out an MGT book from past lessons "Timber!" to go along with the story we read about Honest George chopping down the cherry tree! We have read this a few times in the past couple of months and now L-Bug knows when to holler TIMBER!
The other book L-Bug really enjoyed was "Trees and Forests". We didn't read the words and honestly I don't agree with most of the beginning text anyway, but there are amazing illustrations of the cycle of trees in this book! It was fun to unfold flaps and see bugs crawling through the roots! Or to open up the side and see the a seed grow into an oak! And there was even a page with different textures of bark on it to feel and rub :)
I love the way Mother Goose Time creates a monthly theme that is used each week in our curriculum AND how the incorporate the theme into the additional pieces you can add on {like Dance-N-Beats & Experience God}. October's theme is in the Orchard and already this week we are just having a blast!
But having our favorite additions tie into that theme is even better because it gives us more opportunities to incorporate learning into our everyday lives and create connections outside of the school room. Not only is the theme In the Orchard fun, but it is chosen at the perfect time of the year because now is the season of fall festivals, pumpkin patches and apple picking! When it comes to tying in our Experience God addition we are still in the Orchard and they really have found the perfect way to incorporate the theme by talking about the fruits of the spirit.
Another thing that I love is how Mother Goose Time keeps the same layout and set up from month to month. When it's time for our Experience God craft and L-Bug opens her work box and sees this little book in there she knows we will be learning about God's word. That is because she remembers the layout and has made that connection! To see her light up and know what to expect is so fun and really gives her a little extra independence because she knows what area of the room will be working in and she is able to go get herself set up!
Again talking about the thought and timing that Mother Goose Time puts into their curriculum and set up I LOVE that the story we are reading is about a wolf in sheep's clothing! Most Americans celebrate Halloween and it's all about wearing a costume and dressing up. We have been talking about Halloween this past week and L-Bug is so excited that she will be Tinker Bell and Daddy is going to be Captain Hook! But she in our discussion for this activity we were able to make that connection with Halloween, dress up and pretend!
Here are all of our Story Cards laid out before I read the story. I asked L-Bug to tell me what she sees happening and to make up her own version of the story! It's fun to hear her imagination going :) She knew right off the bat that the wolf was MEAN and that he was laughing meanly at the sheep... lol
As I read each story card I give L-Bug her little ones and she lines them up in her tray.
Of course her favorite part is when we do the craft!
I love this adorable Fruit of the Spirit craft we did! Every time L-Bug would glue down a new fruit I would say whatever was on that fruit- "Patient, L-Bug are you Patient?".
I have been SOOOOO excited to get start October's theme In the Orchard! We have a field trip planned tomorrow with Daddy, we are going apple picking and to the pumpkin patch so I'm excited to start off our theme by taking Lily to SEE everything we will be learning about so she has that visual while we work throughout the rest of the month AND we are planning a second trip to a pumpkin patch when we go up at the end of October to visit family again! I just finished setting up the school room with all of our new October pieces! I always go through our curriculum box and laminate items that I know will need that extra reinforcement. Then I pre-cut everything will be using, including opening each "day bag" and prepping everything for each day too. I take out the manipulatives and put them in their areas and/or containers so they are set up and ready to use. I LOVE the manipulatives we got this month. The chunky wood fruit blocks/beads are so cute and L-Bug has already gotten into them! I also really like the tangrams we got this time! Usually we get solid colors but these clear ones are going to be fun to put onto a light up box and play with! Here is something new I've done (and is still a work in progress)! I have taken all of our months and put them onto the back of our Circle Time board. At the beginning of a new month I have L-Bug take down the past month and put it in it's spot on the board. Then we sing the months of the year song. Then she gets to take this month and put it up on the wall above the Circle Time board so we can see it all month! My "work in progress" is the other half of the board to the left is going to have an area for seasons and holidays. I want it to be interactive so we can talk about seasons changing and what holidays will be happening that month. I have a few ideas and I'm working on getting all the pieces I need to finish it up! Once I have each day bag prepped, I slip them all in order back into the Mother Goose Time box! I have tried a few different things for this, but this has been the only way that I can really keep these bags organized, in order and not falling over and spilling everything out!
At the end of our "school day" I set up the work boxes for the next day's lessons. This way if we have a busy morning I'm not running around trying to find everything I need in a scramble. I keep my Teacher Guide on the top so it's always easy for me to grab and reference back to throughout lessons. Our top drawer is for Circle Time and it has everything we need for calendar and weather. Some items stay in the box (like the rest of the calendar dates, the magnifying glass, the glue stick, etc) and finished projects get put away. Sometimes I break our Circle Time drawer up so that it's easier to move through them in order. If it's calendar time and L-Bug sees our number leaf in the drawer she gets distracted and frustrated that it's not time for it yet. So by separating them she is able to focus on the calendar and weather first and then the next drawer has the rest in it. The rest of the work boxes are set up in the order of our lessons for the day. I like to get everything we need ready & in the drawer if it will fit. For art projects I get the paint, brushes and smock ready. I like to include the project guide so that I can reference it easily while doing the project with L-Bug AND so L-Bug can visualize what we are trying to make.
And that is how my month/week and days are stored and ready to go! Sometimes items are reused multiple times throughout the day so obviously if they are in box #3 they won't be in box #6 until we have used them. I set up everything else in the box that way it's still just about all ready. Then once we have used the item that is needed later I slip it into the next box it's needed for so it doesn't get lost or taken apart during free time.
This week has been a busy one! L-Bug and I got back from our road trip visiting family and got back into our routine. L-Bug LOVED this weeks lessons about the different ways we communicate. She had a few activities she worked on in the car and a few games she worked on while we were visiting family. It was really fun to have family see her do school and play with her during the activities. While we were at Starbucks I pulled out her Mother Goose Time Story Book and story telling pieces and she got to re-tell the story to her Aunts! Then when we were at dinner with friends another night I set up her tangrams and shape cards and she was busy working away on matching shapes while we waited for our food! This week she had a blast talking about how we communicate with family and friends that are far away! When I asked L-Bug how we talk to friends who are far away she was quick to answer "talk on the phone". This is the normal for L-Bug! We communicated with family and friends via Skype, Facetime and phone calls for the first 2 years of her life (and when your only 29 months old that's a lot of time!)... She loves talking on the phone with her Grandparents! We had a blast making these cup phones! We talked about how when the string is tight you can hear better than when the string is loose! L-Bug also really loves this play phone from this week. I think her favorite part of the phone day was when she colored her phone book and then practiced calling all of the different people in her phone book! We looked at the numbers in the book and then we "pushed the buttons" on the phone. L-Bug was so fun and silly every time she finished dialing the numbers she would pick up the phone and have a little "conversation" with the person she was calling and then tell them "Bye, I have to call someone new now". So much imagination!
Today we talked about one more way we can communicate with people far away: computers! We talked about the different things you can do on a computer and how you can talk to friends. L-Bug said she wanted to play games on a computer. I put together this fun craft computer that came with our Mother Goose Time curriculum and she was so happy to play with it! Then she pulled out her Winnie the Pooh Bear computer and told me how it counts and sings for her! Lastly we did some counting and reviewed all the different concepts she has learned over this past month! L-Bug remembered the letter P for pig all on her own, counted both #1 and #2 cards, the color blue, at first she said oval but when I told her to try again she remembered it was a circle, and even though she couldn't remember the other two letters she knew what all of the pictures were and then she sounded out the first letter with me. We have had so much fun learning through the Friends with Feelings curriculum, but I have been SOOOOO excited to get start October's theme In the Orchard! We have a field trip planned tomorrow with Daddy, we are going apple picking and we will be going to a pumpkin patch so I'm excited to start off our theme by taking Lily to SEE everything we will be learning about so she has that visual while we work throughout the rest of the month AND we are planning a second trip to a pumpkin patch when we go up at the end of October to visit family again!
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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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