My FCC school room is set up in what I like to think of as three sections: my "baby safe" and explorative learning areas, our imaginative/dramatic play area and the instructional learning area.
I have a wide variety of materials in each of these sections! Let's start by taking a look at the baby safe and exploration learning areas! I have a multi-age classroom and having infants can add a whole new dynamic to running a classroom an ensuring the safety of the little ones. Infants (or in general kiddos under 16months) need more direct supervision. Well when I need to cook, clean up or am working on a preschool project where I can't be sitting one-on-one with the younger kiddos I use a tension gate and place them in the "baby safe zone". This area has lots of room for them to roam and explore. There are age-appropriate toys for mouthing, manipulating and playing with! I also have a simple sleeping area set up so when a baby is napping I can use the tension gate to keep the older ones out of the area. This gives the babies a semi-quieter space to nap in, while still being in view and it keeps the order ones from accidentally dropping any toys over the side of the pack-n-play....
The infant safe area has a variety of toys for the kids to play with! When it's not being used as a "safe zone" all of the kids are welcome in it. There are toys for counting, playing with, squeezing, reading, climbing and so much more!
Both inside the baby safe zone and outside I have exploration stations. In the baby safe area (image on left) these types of toys include shape sorters, chunky magnifying glasses, thick peg puzzles, counting eggs, blocks, Mr potato heads, etc. These are toys that encourage hand eye-coordination, manipulation and cognitive play. In essence the kids are learning different functions and skills while playing! I usually swap out 2-3 toys weekly to mix it up and give them new things to explore.
Outside of the baby safe zone (image on the right) I have toys that are geared for older ages. Letter games, magnets, etch writers, more advanced blocks, music toys, electronic reading game, etc. All of these toys are on low shelving so the children have access to them all on their own! I even have toys on the top of the shelving for the kids to access. Occasionally the tops get cleared off and I will set up investigation stations based on recommendations from the Mother Goose Time curriculum!
Next we move into imagination and dramatic play areas! These include dress up, baby dolls, barbies and the kitchen. When we are not doing lessons I find that this is the favorite area for a majority of the older kids in my care. They enjoy shopping and pretend cooking. They enjoy getting lost in a world of princesses and knights. They love bringing barbies to life and helping them climb the castle!
Lastly we have the educational area! Throughout my room you'll see Mother Goose Time music posters, counting posters, emotional posters, small toys, etc... but here in Circle Time and the educational area of the room, Mother Goose Time is pretty dominant!
This is my interactive circle time board. It's magnetic so the kids can move everything around! It's where we do our counting, letter introduction, topic/theme, etc! I've recently given it a new look from some of the yearly updates we received in our Mother Goose Time 2016-17 school year welcome kit!
Our reading nook, calendar, weather and art areas are all also located at this end of the room. I have a kid sized work table where we are able to sit for lessons, activities, projects and meal times! The kids like seeing their art work displayed
Above are a few of my favorite room resources, toys and materials! Tell me what your favorite are!
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Science is an important part of life, it's all around us! I love doing science with the kids because they get to ask questions, tell me their ideas and then test those ideas out. Without even knowing it they are building the foundations of the scientific process. In May we did A LOT of life science. We studied bees and butterflies. The kids spent nearly three weeks learning about our metamorphosis! They got to spend and entire month learning about how things grow. Our Mother Goose Time activities and discussions really helped the kiddos learn more about the basic needs and that plants, animals and even themselves have. We got to see little tiny caterpillars and talk about how they would grow. We discussed how we eat food and it helps us to get bigger and grow taller! They observed the caterpillars growing bigger too. The littles got to see the cocoons forming and a few of them even got to witness the butterflies emerging :) After our butterflies had emerged and had time to stretch their wings we talked about why we needed to let the butterflies free! We discussed places where the butterflies might like to live. We live in the desert, with very little flowers. The kids knew that the butterflies would need flowers for food so we talked about the community garden and how there were lots of plants and some flowers there. I set up a field trip with the garden and the kids couldn't wait! The kids also got to observe a little earth science during the release! Originally we were going to do our release on Monday, but it was raining and VERY windy. I asked the kiddos why today might not be a good day to let our butterflies out and they all said the rain would be too hard for them to fly in. They observed the weather on Wednesday and we decided that the nice sunny day would be perfect AND there wasn't too much wind that day. The kids were so excited to see the butterflies go free. While we were there the kiddos made a few observations: "we should let them out by the big flowers, so they have lots of food to eat", "there is a net above the garden that's nice and shady, will the flutters like that shade?", "there aren't birds in here so they might be safe and not eaten", "when the flowers get water the butterflies will be able to get a drink", and so many other cute little things were said!
The littles were all hard at work exploring the new environment for our butterflies and how all the things in the garden would work together to help our butterflies grow. Science is FUN! Learning takes place in many different ways and through many different experiences. For little ones play is a large part of the learning process! Learning through Art! When we worked on our strawberry art project this month the girls got to practice a few different skills. First I asked them to look at the strawberry. We looked at it all over and described the things we saw: the red "flesh" of the strawberry and the green leaves on the top. Then I had the girls feel the strawberry and explain what it felt like. They described a bumpy texture. We looked at the strawberry a little closer and I explained that those little bumps they felt were seeds! We pulled a few off and the girls saw that the seeds were red, just like the rest of the strawberry. Next we pulled out some art supplies and I told the girls we were going to make our own strawberries. I put the materials on the table: a red cutout paper, a green square paper, scissors, a "pokey ball" and some red paint. I asked the girls how they thought we were going to use these different materials and they started exploring them. They both immediately knew that the red paper was for the strawberry and that the green was for the leaves. But they didn't know why in the world I had a little pokey ball in there. I explained that with the red paint and the pokey ball we could make little tiny dots on the strawberry paper and it would make it look like the little strawberry seeds. This got them very excited and they were both itching to try it. One problem, both of the girls do NOT like sticky things on their fingers. Miss L dipped the ball in the paint and tried to give it a roll, but she wound up with paint on her fingers and asked for a wipe! She tried again and got frustrated that she was getting "all icky". So I wiped down the ball and asked her to try dabbing or dotting the ball instead of rolling it. She got some pain on it and started spotting the paper with tiny little dots! L-Bug had been observing from the beginning and was excited to dot her paper next. Both girls enjoyed practicing their scissor skills and cutting up bits of green to use as leaves! Learning through Music This month the girls were especially excited to do Circle Time! When I would sing the clean up song for the first time in the morning they knew it was because we were going to do circle! They would race around the room picking up toys and hurry over to our calendar. Their favorite song was the Days of the Week song! Just about every day this last month of April they would ask me to sing the song a third and fourth time :) As I pointed to each day on the calendar the girls would sing along with me, watching intently. A few days ago I asked the girls, "who knows what today is?" neither of them could remember that it was Tuesday. But as soon as I told them, Miss L shouts out, "there it is, I found Tuesday!" I picked her up and asked if she could point it out for us and bam she smacked Tuesday right on the head! It made me so happy that in just two weeks of being in class Miss L had already made a discovery: She could find Tuesday on the calendar :) Another song that the girls really enjoyed this month was a circle time song about protein building strong muscles. L-Bug has been telling her daddy all month that he needs lots of protein to help him build his muscles when he goes to the gym! It's exciting that fun songs help instill real life ideas and knowledge in these little ones minds! Learning through Dramatic Play Dramatic play is a safe way for children to explore ideas, try out new roles, build friendships and to express a range of emotions. I really enjoyed doing the Mother Goose Time activity with the girls about "Fruits and Veggies with Peelings" ;) For this activity we ready a book about different emotions. Throughout the book were funny faced fruits and veggies acting out a range of emotions. As I read through the book I had the girls tell me what the fruit or vegetable was feeling and then I asked them to show me their faces for those emotions. The girls really enjoyed experimenting with their facial expressions and would show each other after taking a turn making the face in the mirror. After our story the girls played a game where they got to put different features on fruit and vegetable pieces. Then they got to make up a story about what the produce was feeling and why! The stories were great! We had a broccoli girl who was sad because she wanted to go to the park but it was raining and we had a sick pear who was happy because he got some medicine. Among all of the dramatic play activities we did this month I think that restaurant was one of my favorite! The girls got to take turns choosing what food group they wanted to eat and then helping each other find a food from that food group in the basket. The girls took turns helping each other and listened to why the other liked that kind of food! For the girls, I think their favorite dramatic play was when we made and baked pizza! They both really enjoyed the art project, but they LOVED getting to put their pizzas in the oven, turn up the heat and watch them bake. Their imaginations went wild with this for days! L-Bug would pretend to be the pizza man, cooking pizzas and delivering them to barbies and babies all over the room!
The girl's really enjoyed the Dance-N-Beats DVD from our Mother Goose Time curriculum this month! They thought some of the outfits that the dancer was wearing were pretty funny, cute and silly :) The girls were excited to learn that dancing was considered a fitness activity! We know that the brain and body are connected. Movement based activities help children stay focused and can event help them practice language and math skills. During the Dance-N-Beats DVD the girls got to work on following directions, learn about the different way their bodies can move and just plain have fun! :) It is important for infants, toddlers and preschoolers to participate in movement and dance activities because it helps them to grow! Not only are they stretching out those muscles, but they are learning about their bodies. They might be moving their bodies in a way they have never done before! Dancing gives them the opportunity to feel their bodies movements and to have fun while doing it! It can also improve their balance and teach them to move more fluidly.
I think movement and dance is important for school-age children as well! Dance is a fun way to get the wiggles out and it's also a great way to get kids moving. Being active is an important part of health and fitness! Kids can get a great "work-out" from doing dance.
Daily Routines are important in our family because it gives us a sense of normalcy! AND as L-Bug grows and gains new skills she is able to do more and more things on her own. For example our typical morning starts with waking up, having breakfast, doing our Bible studies, getting dressed and making our beds... in that order! Months ago I did all of those steps FOR L-Bug, but now L-Bug has grown and learned new skills! After we wake up we go downstairs and L-Bug sits at the table looking at the pictures in her Bible while I get breakfast ready. After she eats L-Bug does the rest of the morning routine with minor help! She puts her dishes in the sink then she goes up stairs and helps choose her outfit for the day. She gets undressed and puts her dirty clothes in the hamper and gets dressed nearly on her own! Then she makes her bed and brushes her teach.
So what is my point in telling you this? A routine gives L-Bug the opportunity to repeat the same steps over and over each day and learn how to do them on her own! The same goes for our school room routine!
We don't always do school at the same time every day, but each week we have a general routine. Our school time routine is typically the same every day though. I have been using a "work box system" for several months now and it has really made our school day run smoothly AND it has given L-Bug a little more structure so she knows how many more lessons we have before our school time is over. She get's to help me move from one lesson to the next by getting out the next work box which I have pre-prepped with just about everything we need for the lesson!
Once our intro song is done and L-Bug has found come and sit down for Circle Time I like to play a little game to help get any wiggles out so she can focus. We use action cubes to act like animals, move in certain ways or find different items in the room. Once we've done a few different turns and L-Bug has gotten a chance to move around we jump into Circle Time!
I love how Mother Goose Time gives us ideas for our opening Circle Time routine, it makes it easier for me to jump into it on days I haven't had much time to prep and it gives me a starting place for when I want to do some modifications.
We start our school day with Circle Time. I turn on the Mother Goose Time Greeting song and L-Bug knows its time to clean up whatever she's doing as quickly as she can before the song ends. Then she comes over to our circle time board and has a seat! We start with calendar and there are a few songs we sing. If it is the first or last week of the month we sing our months song too, but otherwise it's our days of the week song. We find our day of the week cloud and put it up on our circle time board and then we put up our calendar day. Next we move on to weather and we've recently welcomed a new friend, Kyle the weather man, to help us with this task! Kyle and L-Bug look out of the window and talk about what they see and sometimes when the window is open what they feel. Then L-Bug goes through the weather symbols and gives Kyle his velcro ones and puts the other ones on the calendar board. Then she take the stick of the day and puts it in the weather cup that coordinates!
Next comes the Daily Topic Poster! L-Bug loves pulling out the photo poster for the day and grabbing her magnifying glass to explore it. She tells me all the things she sees and asks me questions. At the bottom of each poster is a question for me to ask L-Bug and talk about, which always leads right into our lessons for the day!
From there we either move into our lessons and activities OR we do a concept intro and review, it just depends on what the lessons are and whether they include the concept in one way or another.
​All of the lessons I have planned for the day are set up in the work boxes in the order we will do them in. In the very last box is typically a game or a coloring activity for L-Bug as well as a piece of candy! This gives her something to look forward to and work towards throughout her other lessons. Knowing that that last box has a special prize in it makes her work that much harder and generally keeps her focused! I also have a playlist on my computer of instrumental tracks from our collection of Mother Goose Time CDs. It has a few hours of playtime on it so I play that music quietly in the background. Once she finished her game or coloring activity I end with our Closing Time on our circle time carpet. I ask a simple question to kind of review what we have learned that day and we finish with a song!
We typically have 3 hours of school time a day in our class room. L-Bug takes short breaks in between each lesson as I get the old lesson cleaned up and put away. She either grabs a book in her reading corner, a coloring page at her art desk or sometimes plays with her manipulative or blocks in the counting station.
If there are any lessons that involve snack or outdoor play those are saved for after nap time and are our afternoon activity. L-Bug typically doesn't think of them as school because I don't think she really knows that I'm doing a lesson with her :) One thing I like about having a routine is now that I have started working at our chapel nursery and L-Bug's daddy does school some days with her L-Bug is able to help him through the school day because she knows the routine and the order of things! I set up the work boxes for him just as I do for myself and L-Bug knows to go from top to bottom!
Self Concept: How did you see your children identifying and managing his emotions this week while doing a specific Mother Goose Time activity or project?
L-Bug tends is going through a stage where she doesn't want mommy to "tell her what to do". She gets frustrated and wants to stop the activity. It's great timing because when I see these emotions I'm able to link it to the lesson. We've talked about what frustrates her how she can use her words to explain it to mommy. Sometimes it's as simple as "I want to glue it myself" and other times it's me explaining that we need to follow the directions because it is too difficult to do on her own. I explain that once I help her finish writing her name then we can move onto the fun part of coloring and she can do it all by herself! I've also realized that she is wanting more independence so instead of helping her write her name every time I have alternated letting her do it herself (even if that means it doesn't come out perfect) with me helping her do it. Sometimes I write the dashed lines for her to trace on her own, other times I have an example on the white board so she can try to write it by herself... regardless of how its done it's creating less conflict in our school room and she's proud of doing it herself! Another emotion we've gotten to work on with this month's theme is excitement! We talked about how when we get excited sometimes we get a little crazy. So we talked about other things we can do when we get excited. We can wiggle our legs while we are in circle time instead of running all over the room. We can clap our hands instead of shaking the paper and ripping our project. We can have big smiles but quite voices so we aren't talking over mommy while she is showing us the project.... and so many other ways we can show we are excited! L-Bug has been really good at working on "respectful" ways to show me she is sad, mad, excited, etc!
Social Relationships: What Mother Goose Time activity or activities did your child do this week where you noticed him playing cooperatively, taking turns or considering the feelings of others?
L-Bug has always been pretty perceptive to other peoples feelings, but ever since our second week of lessons I noticed her explaining it more and more to me as we were out and about. She would tell me that the lady in the grocery store was happy, the baby crying at church was sad or the bear in her book was scared as it ran through the forest. She has also been more ready to say sorry lately. Before when she did something that she needed to apologize for she would nearly shut down almost as if she were too embarrassed to say sorry. Lately, she is happy and ready to say it even if something wasn't her fault! She was playing in a room full of other children who were running around when one boy plowed right into her and knocker her down. She came over to me and said "that boy knocked me down and hit my face on the ground." I explained to her that it was an accident and he probably didn't mean to it. L-Bug went over to him and said "it's ok it was an accident, I'm sorry". I was shocked at my two year old being so kind and thinking about that little boys feelings! I've also noticed her happily taking turns with me! She has asked me to join in and color with her or she will tell me it's my turn to roll the dice when we are playing a game. It's fun to see her learning to share and take turns more rather than just being antsy for her turn to come :)
Self-Direction/Self Regulation: What is a typical thing that distracts your child? What do you do about that? How did you connect that typical "distraction" to a specific Mother Goose Time activity? How have you noticed Mother Goose Time help your children build and maintain attention span?
I try to alternate the activities of the day where we have a focused activity and then an "energy releasing" activity. Sometimes our Mother Goose Time lessons for the day already have these incorporated but when they don't, I find that having L-Bug do physical activities, free time or even playing a few rounds of hide and seek help get the wiggles out and when it's time to come back to lessons she is more focused. I ALWAYS start our circle time routine with some dancing and then we use "activity cubes" to burn off a little extra energy. I definitely have noticed that L-Bug's attention span has grown! She is more focused when we are practicing our writing or when we are working through a puzzle. The better she gets at something more time she is willing to spend doing it! Counting used to be the worst so we would do something physical while counting, like clap our hands or hop... but now that she can almost count to ten all on her own she is more focused and will touch items slowly as she counts!
Encouraging Choice (Investigation Stations)
**How do you use the Investigation Station suggestions in the Teacher Guide? I usually pick 2-3 different stations to choose from each week. I don't have a special area set aside for these stations, I usually just set it up in the station that it goes with. I start off by letting her play on her own so I can observe what she does and how she comes up with different ideas. After a while I sit down and play side by side with her. She usually watches what I'm doing and then mimics it OR she tells me what I should do. I also set up "Busy Boxes" for Monday-Friday. Each busy box is filled with our concept intro or review for that day. **What types of choices do you see your children making? L-Bug loves role play, so that is usually what I see her doing whether it's a box of cars or little bunnies. She also likes to line things up regardless of color, size or shape! Sometimes the investigation area is a little difficult and L-Bug needs help. Typically she'll try it a couple of times, get frustrated and tell me she needs help. Then I'll walk her through it step by step.
Outdoor Learning
**How do you take Mother Goose Time outside and continue learning? When we take a walk I like to talk about the different things we are learning in our lessons. Sometimes we talk about the weather, other times we talk about the different concepts we are learning (letter, number, shape, color, etc). We talk about stories or games we played, maybe a "question of the day" from our theme poster. I incorporate things we see on our walks that can tie into the different ideas and concepts we are learning. If the weather isn't too hot I like to pack up a lesson (something easy to bring along like a coloring page or a book) and when we get to a shady spot in the grass or at the park we pull it out and have our lesson right there in the fresh air! Messy projects that have to do with water or painting I really prefer to take out to the back yard and do if it isn't too hot!
Room Set-up:
**How do you set up your room with Mother Goose Time materials? We recently made a big move from Europe this past summer so I'm trying to set up our school room in a MUCH smaller room! I've been anxiously awaiting for our new room decorations that will come in our September curriculum box and I was into it just a few minutes after it showed up on our door step!! I love how Mother Goose Time suggests separating different learning areas! We have (going around the room to the left): --Circle Time Board (with our monthly & daily theme posters, our bible Bible Verse, our "today is", alphabet grass, friendly bees, color & shape of the month), Weather Station in the window & our calendar! I still have a few things I want to do with the calendar and I also plan on creating a weather girl and season chart for this area. --Blocks Area: I still need to do a little work in this area to find a way to keep it neat and organized. I want some kind of table here for L-Bug to stack the blocks on. She has a giant foam blocks, wooden blocks and rubber legos. --Math & Manipulatives Station: We have ALL kinds of fun things here <3 I've got a few counting charts on the wall, our new hands on number tree, puzzles, shape sorters, color bean bags, stacking cups, and all kinds of Mother Goose Time manipulatives that we have collected over the past few months! I have a small drawer shelf that has a few of the items in it and others are sorted into different bins on the shelves :) --ART Station: Here is L-Bugs table with all of her coloring utensils, scissors, glue, etc. This is where we do our different art projects! On the wall I hung a boarder and inside I put used sticky tabs to hang clothes pins on so I can swap out L-Bug's favorite art projects each month. I have all of the different coloring tools in drawers so it's easy for her to choose what she wants to color with (pencils, crayons, markers, etc..). On top I added a small jar for her to put pencils that need to be sharpened in, that way I don't have to dig through the drawers looking for broken pencils to sharpen. --On the back of the door are all of my teacher charts and the monthly theme web. Underneath it is where our map is and underneath I have a hanging pocket chart where I can add our new "friends from around the world" and "country flags"! I like keeping things lower on the wall so it's more eye level for L-Bug. --Reading Station: Another work in progress! Right now it's just where all the books go lined up along the wall, but soon it will be a fun little reading nook for L-Bug to sit and enjoy reading in! --ABC Station: I was so happy to get our tree back up on the wall! For those of you who don't know, any fabric will NON-permanently stick to the wall using fabric starch (yes the kind you use for ironing clothes). I did a little altering by adding string and clothes pins to the top of the tree so we can add our alphabet flags each month! I also kept our alphabet flip strip so that is on our ABC tree too. Next to the tree I have a white board table top for L-Bug to practice writing on! We have letter charts, toys & games here too! Whenever we get alphabet MGT materials they go here or get rotated in if we have too many :) --Inside the closet there is a shelf where I store different items that I don't want L-Bug getting into. On the left side of the closet I also have my own wall hanger for putting my teacher's journal and planning guides! --SOON TO BE-- Sensory, Science & Technology Stations: This is a project I am working on setting up! I need to find the right table to fit this area. But it will have all of our sensory items (play dough, floam, rice, beans, etc). Our science will be set up right next to the sensory area! I also want to leave a little space in here for our technology station. We don't have too many technology toys yet, but I do want space for it when we have some! --Daily Drawer Cart: Some people refer to these as "work boxes". I'm working through a few ideas to set this up so it will work for us! I'm so excited because I just got this in and I'm hoping it helps give L-Bug some independence when it comes to lessons and following a routine. -- Music Station: I have a white board here with a few music sign language pictures, this is where I set up my computer to play our Circle Time CD on and any other music we listen to during the day. Under the board are a few music toys! That brings you full circle in our School Room :)
Intentional Materials
**Which Mother Goose Time included material(s) do you find is most helpful for inspiring the mind and curiosity of your children? This one is too hard to choose from! There are so many items that L-Bug loves to do! I'd say that any of the manipulatives and art projects are her favorite and get her the most excited. Mother Goose Time is intentional about EVERYTHING they put in our curriculum boxes each month so that our kids cover a wide variety of skills and expand their learning. When my curriculum box comes in the mail I can not wait to dig in! BUT, I wait patiently until L-Bug is down for her nap or bed so little fingers aren't running off with different pieces before I've gotten a chance to start organizing... but as soon as she's in bed I DIG IN! It's usually here about two weeks before the beginning of the month and I love having that time in case there is something I need or want to get to add to the materials. This month was an exceptionally large box because it's the beginning of a new school year and we got an entire new display set up AND Mother Goose Time also sent an Open House kit for all of those who run a preschool or day care! Here is what came in our September box:
Here are our favorite add-ons! The Little Goose supplement is great for those who have little ones under preschool age. It modifies a few of the lessons in the Teacher's Guide so the little ones can do it to. The Experience God curriculum is my absolute favorite! It comes with 5 minute devotions to do with your little one for every day of the month and 4 lessons to do once a week! We also get the Dance N' Beats a fund DVD with dance videos and a teachers guide that includes 12 different activities! If you have a preschool you can include a Dance class in your routine.
Setting up for the next month's lessons is part of all the fun! You get to check out all of the fun new pieces that are in the box. I open up the box and set aside the manipulatives bag and the experience God packs! I use my Teacher Tool Guide and Planning Journal to get started and work through one week at a time. I open each day bag, and prep the materials by doing any cutting that I can, etc. I set aside any pieces I won't be needing or can't use. Then I slip all of the pieces back into the bag they came in. I like to read through each day in the Teacher Tool Guide because it gives me an idea of what we are going to be doing each week. Then I write down notes in the planning journal of things that I will need to gather each day to be ready. I also write a star at the bottom if there are any pieces from that day that need to be used in another day later so once we are finished with it I remember to put it into the day bag that it'll be used in! This really helps me because otherwise it would get stuck in a pile in the office and a few days later when I need it I would have NO IDEA where I put it!
Once I've done this for each week I put all of the days, teachers tools & manipulatives back into the MGT box they were shipped in and I put it aside until it's time to start a new month! <3 Once we have finished one unit study I usually have the weekend to finish my set up! I take out day's 1-5 and put them (inside their bags) in my wall rack. I put the Little Goose Book, Teacher's Guide and Planning Journal in the first day on the wall rack. Then I get to work on setting up the display in the room! I hang the new monthly theme web chart, poster and Bible verse card! I set up our new calendar by writing the dates on the calendar and I pop all of the date cards and put them in the back pocket so they it's all ready for the month. On the first day of lessons we sing the Months of the Year song and add the current month to our calendar board! Each day L-Bug get to swap out the "Daily Topic Poster" during circle time! I also download the monthly CD so it's on my computer and ready to use each day! I put the CD on my computer to use for lessons and put the CD in the car so we can listen to it on the go too!
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.
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.
Describe how your child expressed his ideas throughout a project. Sometimes understanding what a two year old is trying to express is a little difficult, but I like to ask lots of questions so I can try my best to understand what L-Bug is doing. Sometimes she gets annoyed with me, but other times she likes to answer my questions and explain what she is doing. During our post card coloring I asked L-Bug "What are you drawing there?" She would answer a fishie, a boat and even a snowman. Why she still thinks snowmen live in the ocean I don't know, I think she's seen Frozen one to many times ;) But as she answered my questions I would just ask more that built off of her answers. "Oh that's a fish and this one is a boat? Is there someone sitting in the boat?" "Your fish is swimming in the water? Is the water warm or cold?" Etc. Was there a challenge? How did he problem-solve? During the X-Ray Fish project the challenge for L-Bug was how to glue on the straws. She was having a hard time at first because she was trying to put the glue directly on the straw and she kept getting it on her fingers... she didn't like that very much. So after getting frustrated with it she stopped and watched me. I was putting the glue on the paper and then putting my straw on the glue. She copied me and then found that my way was MUCH easier!
What do you believe is the benefit of art in learning? I believe that there are HUGE benefits to learning through art and that we develop necessary skills for life during the different activities that we do! I love how much she has grown and developed different skill sets through our Mother Goose Time curriculum! She's learned so much, especially how well she has learned to use different art materials and tools. In just three short months my 2 year old has learned how to properly hold markers and crayons, which has improved how she colors (trying to stay in the lines) and her attempts at making shapes (mainly circles). L-Bug has learned what glue is and how to use it more appropriately (no more trying to use it as chap stick!). She's begun to use scissors and understands that they can hurt and cut if we aren't careful. She is learning fine motor skills and control. When doing art projects I typically use two general teaching methods: 1) Abstract and Free Choices or 2) Realistic and Controlled. This doesn't meant that in the first I let L-Bug run around coloring on anything she feels would make a good canvas (yeah I don't do coloring on the walls.... lol) and it doesn't mean that in the second one I tell L-Bug exactly what to do or how to do it. I feel like when learning through art, what you are doing will fall under one of these two categories and by using both we teach our children an array of skills. When you use 1) Abstract and Free Choices- freedom, exploration and imagination V.S. when you use 2) Realistic and Controlled- making connection to everyday real circumstances and a real-life view of the world. Abstract and Free Choice Art basically means that L-Bug picks the colors she wants to use and often times I put out an array of materials from her to choose from. This allows her to make her own choices, use imagination and explore different materials and ideas. Here is an example where L-Bug choose to color her flower pot with markers and was telling me a story about fairies while she colored the pot! I guess a little too much Tinker Bell gets you thinking about fairies working in the garden ;) Realistic and Controlled Art basically means that I use a real life image or idea (garden veggies or an image of an animal) to help L-Bug visualize a real world object and make the connection between what she sees and what we will create. Then we select the colors that best matches that object or thing. Usually L-Bug is able to pick out the color right away, but if not then I say something like "Hmmm, I think blue is a better color for the sky. We are trying to find a good color to use to make grass. What color is the grass?" I wait for her to reply and then I have her get the correct color out.
I try to balance these two different styles as much as possible because I feel both are crucial in the learning process. And sometimes they can even be combined! Starting out imaginative and then being drawn back in to realistic or vice versa. Here is an example where L-Bug and I were talking about cooking soup and I asked L-Bug to draw what she would put in her soup. As she was drawing I'd ask her to tell me what she was putting in her pot "Blueberries, corn, peanut butter and bacon" were all on the list of quite a few things she was spouting off.... That was the imaginative, abstract part. Then I moved into a more realistic way of thinking and showed her these veggie cut outs. I had L-Bug glue them onto her pot and name them as she put them on. Dramatic play is a safe way for children to explore ideas, try out new roles, build friendships and to express a range of emotions. What Mother Goose Time activity did you do with your children where you noticed them exploring such things? I honestly didn't think that L-Bug would understand or participate in dramatic play. I mean, she likes to play with her baby dolls. She'll feed them, pat their backs and give them a nap... she LOVES the kitchen and will make you a cup of coffee, a plate of spaghetti or bowl of ice cream any day. But I didn't expect her to act out a scenario with me. In our Experience God curriculum add on we were talking about one of Jesus' parables and sowing seeds. In the first week the farmer is trying to plant crops, but he doesn't do it the right way. His seeds are eaten by birds. As I read the story we acted it out, then we made our own Popsicle puppet birds. L-Bug loves to grab that birdie and take him around the room having him eat up the seeds, then she scolds him and tells him "naughty birdie"! L-Bug also now plays this little in our back yard. She will walk around sprinkling dirt (or her "seeds") and then stomp around saying "no, sho birdie go way!"... it's quite comical! Another fun game we played was rescuing our garden from rascally rabbits and putting those bunnies back in their holes. L-Bug seems to think she's the boss because she had a talk with those bunnies once they were all in their hole. She said "no eatin my garden bunnies, not nice". Now outside she'll peek around looking for bunnies and she tells me they are "hiding". Dance and Movement- The brain and body are connected. What movement based activity did you do this week that helped your child stay focused, practice language or math skills and just plain have fun? Why do you think dance and movement are important for a preschoolers overall development? This was actually one of the first months that L-Bug has really gotten into her Dance-N-Beats supplement. She now LOVES when we put it on and she will try to get anyone around to come and do the move with her. I thought that the video would fall under the "just plain have fun" category and while it is and she does have tons of fun, I've noticed her paying more attention to Maria (the dance instructor you follow on screen) and focusing on actually doing many of the moves! I think dance and movement are important because young toddlers have MUCH to learn about their bodies, how they work and what different things they can do, like balance, jump and spin. I prefer the Dance-N-Beats DVDs over a tv show or movie any day because instead of idle sitting and watching a show this one get's L-Bug active! It helps tone down some of that crazy energy and she has fun. I strongly believe that when we create a structured environment for our children to learn in they will blossom and grow! They will make connections that wouldn't have been made through random learning. This month with the garden theme L-Bug has learned that plants come from seeds and that fruits and vegetables come from the plants! She learned about seeds needing to be put into the soil and given sun and water to grow. If I had sat L-Bug down and said it exactly like that I don't think she would have remembered it... If I had given her a book that had a few pictures about planting I still don't think she would have remembered those things. It was through art projects, dramatic play and the getting physically involved in the processes that TAUGHT her the lesson. I love how Mother Goose Time breaks down different developmental skills in their Developmental Continuum. This is their break down for Creative Development (as described in the image above). This chart below aligns with the chart above and are the skills learned by infants (starting left) to toddlers (end right). For more information on the Developmental Continuum check it out here!
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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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