Though it may not seem like a large age difference the capabilities of children 18 months old versus 2 years old versus three years old can be VERY different! So I love activities that are easy to incorporate in my multi-age classroom. A great example an activity like this is our recent caterpillar building exercise! A simple project that really required noting more than a pipe cleaner and beads was able to captivate and challenge all the kiddos! At one level the kids are working on fine motor skills, stringing those beads onto that pipe cleaner. At another level encouraging those that can to say the bead colors as they string them on, and even helping those little learners who haven't mastered their colors yet. Yet another level, having the older range count their beads once they have finished stringing them on was one way I kept their attention while some of the younger ones were able to get caught up finishing getting all their beads on. Then we had all the friends line their caterpillars up from shortest to longest. This gave me several opportunities! 1) I was able to work with the children on positional phrases "underneath", "on top" and "next to". 2) It gave me the chance to watch some of the older kids assist the younger ones and I was able to use this time to remind the older ones about using kind words versus bossy words. Hearing these instructions don't just help the older ones I'm guiding but it helps all the children learn those important social skills.
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Recently Mother Goose Time hosted a photo contest featuring our newest process based art projects. I have LOVED these fun art projects that are all about letting the kiddos use their imagination and create something unique to them! This week my kiddos created snowflakes with just a few simple materials and a whole lot of giggles, exploring and imagination. The Invitation to create came with coffee filters, glitter, and pipettes. I just added some water and paint, paperplates to keep the mess up. After they were dry we added ribbons so they could be hung on a Christmas tree or in the window. The kids were brainstorming all the different places our snowflakes could go. We foled the coffee filters a few times and then cut pieces out of them to make fun snow flake patterns! The kids have all been working hard on their cutting skills and I was very excited to see how many of them were able to use their fine motor skill to make small cuts. While everyone was working on their cutting we brainstormed about how the other materials could be used. We had watery-paint, glitter and pipettes. After the cutting was done and we all admired the pretty designs the kids busted into the materials and explored ways to use them. One reason I LOVE this open ended, process based art is because the kids get to explore and learn. There isn't a desired end goal to follow or an exact model to try and replicate. Just and idea/theme, tools and their imaginations! KK realized pretty quick that the glitter wasn't going to stick on it's own, our visitor realized after squeezing a little to hard that too much paint made it soggy and L-Bug figured out that if she picked up her wet coffee fliter the paint dripped down the sides of it. Check out more Invitation To Create Projects by Mother Goose time by using the #invitationtocreatephotocontest on Facebook, Twitter on Instagram! And post your photo's for a chance to win a month of Mother Goose Time curriculum! From the Mother Goose Time Facebook Page: "There's still time to enter the #InvitationToCreatePhotoContest! The competition is stiff - one post already has 140 likes! Here's how it works: find your favorite picture demonstrating the creative problem solving and deep learning of process-based preschool art. Share to either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #InvitationToCreatePhotoContest. IMPORTANT: remember to make your post "public" so we can find it and tally your likes! P.S. We're absolutely loving all of the creativity so far."
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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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December 2023
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