Next week we will be leaving on a family vacation and I have been planning plane activities and some stuff to bring for L-Bug to do in our room so she isn't bored or always watching TV. I am super excited with the way these actives came out and how simple everything was to put together. It took me probably 30mins to gather all the stuff and put them in the bags! I ended up with seven activity bags but they can all be use multiple times and some have more than one game or activity. I used quite a few different bag types to fit the different materials. The left bag is a draw string bag. I needed a larger bag for this activity because of the size of the mail carrier. This is a simple lacing art activity from Mother Goose Time! Then it turns into a game Bug can play to deliver mail to all of our family and friends cruising with us. On the right I used a random bag I already had. Our vacation week we are working on reading -at words. So I included a Mother Goose Time "I Can Read" book and the Your Baby Can Read flash cards. We have been using these flash cards with our basic reading words and L-Bug has been doing GREAT!
I decided to throw in this fun travel kit I got at Costco. She used it on our last plane ride and it was easy and fun for her to play with. There are dry erase cards(numbers and letters), a work book, coloring pages, flash cards, etc.. It fold ups pretty tight and is easy to carry. Above are all seven bags packed with their activities! Everything fit nicely inside a regular size school bag and I had room in the front zipper pocket to slip L-Bugs Innotab and games into. I used another pencil pouch for all the game so they weren't just loose in there and added extra batteries too. I was inspired by this micro-training video that Mother Goose Time did a while ago! When I was watching it I immediately thought of our upcoming trip and the two long plan rides we were going to be on! Not to mention those times when we will be in our cruise stateroom getting ready for dinner or something and L-Bug will need something to do.
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One thing that really get's kids thinking are those little manipulative toys with open ended ways to play with them! When toys have multiple ways they can be played with a lot is left up to the imagination of the child. Another reason I love manipulatives is because you can use them for math! Counting, sorting (by color or size) and creating patterns are all some easy ways to teach math. Check out KK and Big Boy B using the farm animals (from this month's Mother Goose Time theme) and these awesome wood farm counter chips I got from a Citrus Lane box a while back! From lining app the chips and counting them out one by one (like KK did in the pictures below), to playing hunt and find the number (like you see the kiddos doing in the images above). Both ways were fun games that the kids enjoyed playing! Check out Baby O playing with these super fun stacking blocks! He did so well finding the hole and sticking the peg in it. After he had some time exploring and manipulating the pieces I showed him how to connect a bunch of them and I created a box with him. I noticed after he had this to grip he was able to control the pieces much better and fit the peg into the holes easily! More than focusing on math with him I worked on colors! I asked what color he'd found, showed him the colors I was using and even did a few patterns in the box I built. Speaking of stackers check out these ones that Big Boy B was using! He really enjoyed making towers, airplanes and I think he even called one a Banana :) Again here we did some counting and color identification. But he was having more fun being imaginative with this set of manipulatives so I let him lead the game. Math doesn't allows have to be about the numbers. With really little ones it is as simple as starting with colors and shapes. As they get older they'll start to enjoy counting games! Soon they'll even be able to identify the numerals! When I was brainstorming for this activity I was shocked by the amount of manupilatives I now have! My collection sure has grown over the past two years thanks to Mother Goose Time!!!
The girls learned about pairs this week! They enjoyed a few great activities that helped them to strengthen this new concept. We played a really fun "Mommy & Me" matching game. Here I gave them each the baby animal cards all lined up and then they I asked them to make a pair by matching the babies with their mommies.
Another lesson we had about pairs that the girls both seemed to enjoy was during our Bilingual Book activity! Each month we get a handful of great bilingual resources in our Mother Goose Time curriculum box. They have sparked many conversations with L-Bug about both German and Italian. While we lived there my husband and I picked up a few phrases that just, sort of stuck! I have used them quite often with L-Bug and she has even said them to us at different times. These bilingual activities open their minds to the ideas of cultural differences. We typically pick one of the words from each month to focus on. For instance the word abeja or bee. When talking about bees sometimes I will sub the Spanish word abeja and the girls have begun to pick it up already. Some words are hard for them to pronounce, BUT the fact is that they hear it and they try! So... that was a little off track! Haha Just some great info I wanted to share :) Now onto our activity that involved finding pairs. As we read through and colored our bilingual books we were on another kind of search! A search for letter pairs. On my white board I had written a few words and then I showed the girls how to circle letter pairs. Then I had them looking for pairs on the pages.
I also wanted to share my newest little update to our circle time area. I haven't used this blue stand since I got our new wall calendar. But the other day while cleaning I pulled it out and realized it was the solution to one of my biggest frustrations! I have been trying to find a good way to store our monthly concepts where the kids could see them and where I could refer to them regularly. I moved "Mother Goose's Learning Nest" onto the blue stand, the I utilized the plastic slots to add all of our lovely concepts for the month! On the top row I have our vocabulary words. The girls knew 4/6 words when I but them up, but having them displayed here we have talked about them several times this past week and they are now remembering moth and wasp more easily! They may not be able to READ or WRITE the words, but seeing images and the words together help them to build their vocabularies! I also included our friends from around the world, our friendly bee and our shape on the other slots. Behind Mother Goose's nest are our letters as well as our concept builder cards which have our letters, numbers, shape and color on them!
It has been a fun and exciting week! We finally jumped into our Food & Fitness theme Mother Goose Time curriculum box! L-Bug was so excited to welcome a friend to our preschool class. Miss L joined us just in time to learn about food groups! I also had to give a shout out to an awesome 99 cent store find! These munchkin placemats! I had been looking all over for plates, placemats... SOMETHING for us to use at meal time and I hadn't been able to find anything! I was going to just make a copy of the Mother Goose Time Healthy Plate game and laminate them as placemats, but on a quick trip into the 99 cent store I found these awesome flexible, plastic placemats. And they work PERFECT! The girls were so excited that on day one they got to get messy with grains! We talked about the different things we use grains to make and the girls talked about how the different grains felt in their hands. Rice, quinoa, flour, oats, noodles and bread were some of the ones they got to feel. On day two the girls learned about vegetables! We talked about why it is important to wash our fruits and vegetables. The girls knew that fruits and veggies grew as plants in the dirt and outside. So they knew that they were dirty when the farmers pick them. L-Bug said they weren't dirty in the store anymore! I explained that the farmers washed them, but sometimes they didn't get all of the dirt off so before we cooked it or ate it we should clean it really good! Later in the day the girls went on a vegetable hunt around the room. And then they practiced their counting skills! Miss L is such a great counter, I observed her skills and she was able to count all the way to twenty! For a three year old I think that is pretty good :) For snack I asked the girls where their vegetables were and they both showed me their bell peppers! On day three the girls learned about fruit. We worked on a strawberry project and the girls got to practice their cutting skills using scissors. On day four we learned about dairy! The girls watched a video about how farmers milk cows. The girls seemed to really enjoy watching the video and as the farmer milked the cow and they practiced by rubbing the cows belly. After the video we went outside and practiced by using a rubber glove and water. The girls thought it was so interesting the way the water squirted through the small hole in the "utter". I explained when a cow is full of milk and the farmer milks it that is how the milk comes out. On the last day the girls learned about protein! We talked about how protein is an important food because it helps to build strong muscles. I explained that protein comes from things like meat: chicken, beef, turkey and fist! I also explained to the girls that some protein comes from other things like beans :) Then we got to do a fun project! The girls took a single bean and a cotton ball soaked in water and placed them into a bag. I taped the bags in the sunniest window in our school room so the girls can watch and see what kind of changes happen. Each day the girls take a look and poke around the cotton balls. They cal it watering the beans! This week we started to see some interesting changes! It has been such a fun week and I feel like I have learned many new things! The girls have learned so much about a healthy plate and about the different food groups. I've learned so much about observing the kids and assessing the skills that they have. Before I just had L-Bug and because she was my daughter I knew many of the skills that she had and I watched new ones develop over time. But with Miss L, I only just met her and I as her teacher it's my job to get to know her and to assess the skills she has to that I can learn how to guide and teach her!
Since we started using Mother Goose Time just about a year ago I wanted to kind of take stock and see what kind of stuff we had accumulated over the past year! I was AMAZED at how much our manipulative collection has grown and these are used daily by my daughter! This picture only shows a handful of the different types of pieces we have and there are a few items that I consider more like sensory materials that I didn't photograph! I started thinking about all the different ways we use our manipulatives. We use them for counting and math of course, but we also use them in language & writing lessons sometimes! We've used them in science, pattern making, fine motor skills, free play... the list goes on and on. These little pieces are so useful because it gives the young mind something to focus and, well, manipulate while you are going through a lesson. In this photo our safari counters are set up to represent the wild animals in the African Safari as we discussed a social environment about where and how the people of the African Safari live. Manipulatives are perfect for imaginative play! L-Bug loves using her transportation and animal manipulatives to create her own games and stories.
Sometimes the manipulatives even come in handy as story props!
I have been working to get my home set up as a part-day preschool. A few more classes and inspections and we will be ready to go! While I've been doing that I have also been looking into different studies and research & taking college classes to get my degree in Early Childhood Development. One thing that is reassuring: the curriculum I'll be providing for my students is setting them up for strong foundations in the various skills they'll need to be ready for school and life! Now, let's be honest... the fact that the lessons are preplanned and all of the materials are provided makes it an ideal resource for a busy wife, mom, student and childcare provider! But I enjoy knowing that Mother Goose Time has created quality curriculum and lessons for me to use! Counting, recognizing the written number, creating patterns, sorting, comparing, measuring, etc are all ways preschoolers practice math skills. So let's take a look at a few quick examples from January that focus on how Mother Goose Time creates lessons focused on math and reasoning as the primary skill being taught AND includes some fun for the young preschool minds :) Counting! There is always something fun to count :) At just under 30 months my daughter was able to count to ten. We are up to 12 now and the teens seem to trip her up because if we are counting over twenty she gets the 21-29, 31-39, etc easily enough because it's basically 1-9! But it's because of fun games like this that she is even interested in counting. I mean if I have her sit at the table and ask her to count to ten she usually gets bored by 4 and starts goofing off. But if I put an activity in front of her she's ready to go! In this project she not only had to count the spots on the lady bugs or the giraffes but she had to find the matching number card. For a few she knew the written number and was able to line the card up that way, but others she had to count along the "number line" to find where it would go. Measuring! Bigger or smaller, shorter or taller.... these are math ideas! This activity started as a simple science project about birds and other animals that come from eggs. But while I was reading through the lesson plan in my Teacher's Guide I decided we were going to add in a little math game too. I gathered a few different items of various sizes for L-Bug to measure. Which book is bigger? Is the crayon longer or shorter than the marker? Which links have more? Which block is smaller? All of these are math reasoning questions where a child has to visually measure an item and determine the difference in size compared to the other item! Simple, but you'd be surprised at how fun it is. Creating Patterns! This is an activity that happens almost daily in our lessons. Every morning we do calendar time and Mother Goose Time has incorporated a pattern on our calendar with the date cards. L-Bug loves this and usually points at a few days on the calendar repeating the pattern she sees! Other actives like this are a great way for patterns to be observed and created! I love all of the manipulatives we get each month! They are perfect for math time.. generally we use them for counting or sorting but I really enjoyed this activity with pattern cards where L-Bug got to use a tangible object instead of paper to create a pattern. There were four different pattern cards so she was able to go from ABAB to AABB to ABC and ABCD pattern! Speaking of Manipulatives.... this is just a quick glimpse at a few of the wonderful pieces we have collected over the past year of lessons with Mother Goose Time! These are perfect for counting, sorting, pattern making, shape recognition, and even imaginative play. Sorting! Sorting objects by different characteristics is another great math skill. In this game L-Bug sorted the elephants by the less obvious characteristic... their facial expressions then by their color! And one last example of our Math lessons from January.... The written number! It's important for children to be able to recognize the numeral 9 as well as write it. Now L-Bug is quite some way off from writing it on her own, but she does have her tracing skills down (that's more for a post about Language and Writing though)! These little Journals are very helpful in teaching L-Bug how to do workbook or work sheet pages much like ones she will do in school. And it is helping her to build her writing foundations. On the math side this particular page helps her to count the number, learn to recognize the numeral 9 and the written word nine. And these are just a few of our monthly lessons that focus on math!
Sometimes a simple game like this one perfect to use for observing the things a child knows (like colors), the things they notice (like the little details of a face) and the things they wonder about. These cute little elephant cut outs came in our Mother Goose Time curriculum this week and I decided to let L-Bug lead the activity so I could do some simple observations. The first thing L-Bug noticed was that some of these elephants were asleep (far right row)! As she shuffled through more she decided that some of the elephants were happy (middle row). When it came to the elephants in the far left row she wasn't quite sure what to make of their expression. So she asked me! I asked if they looked mad, no.... do they look sad, no.... what about surprised, YES! Then I told L-Bug we should line up all of the surprised elephants and after that she started lining the others up in their own rows too! Without even realizing it she had just sorted these elephants by their facial emotions. After she finished lining them all up I asked her how else could we sort these elephants. She was quite sure so I said "Well do you have one yellow one? Yeah, how about another one? I bet all of the elephants have one special match here!" So she sorted them all into piles by their color and she knew all the colors! Next I shuffled up all of the elephants and turned them upside down. I didn't say anything I wanted to see what L-Bug would decide to do with them. Would she get bored and walk away? Would she turn them all over and continue playing how she was before? No! On her own she started playing a matching game! We've only done this type of game a few times recently, but knowing now that each elephant had a matching color gave her the idea that she could play a game and find their matches!
Again simple activities like this can be used to give your child some room and see what they know, what they remember and even wha they learn on their own! This week has been full of animal fun! we learned about all kinds of animals. There are some that she has seen before like zebras, giraffes, lions, etc and others that she just learned about like gazelles, rhinos, etc. It was fun to have her look at a hippo, an elephant and a rhino and tell me the similarities and the differences! L-Bug really enjoyed playing this matching game where she had 6 pairs of animals to find. L-Bug has observed different safari animals on posters and as she looks at them we talk about the different things she notices. It was fun to hear her realize that elephants have no fur, but they have wrinkly skin. She giggled as she told me about the giraffes long necks and the lions fluffy manes. This week there was no shortage of fun art projects! L-Bug and her daddy created lion masks. I think this one was her favorite craft! She loved mixing up the materials and drawing with chalk on the white zebra cut out! While she was coloring on the blue page she was telling me about the grass, rocks and waterfalls she was drawing! :) L-Bug loved the idea that giraffe's have very long tongues. She says she wishes her tongue would grow really long too so she could eat all the leaves on the trees like a salad.... hehe! During our pattern making game we used our Animal Fun Facts to find out which animal print went with which animal. The questions at the bottom of each card were fun! L-Bug raced around the room like a cheetah, tried to wiggle on the ground like a snake, found wrinkles and freckles on her body that made her different like a zebra's stripes and she stretched her tongue out as long as she could like a giraffe!! L-Bug thinks that being a little girl is way better than any of the animals though because she get's to play with a doll house and have lollipops.... lol Once we had found all of the matching animals to go with the print cards and read the fun facts about the animals L-Bug got to work making her pattern! This game and our new friend Ginger the Giraffe puppet made math & counting really fun! In this game Ginger the Giraffe picked a random card and turned it over. Then we identified the number and we gave the giraffe poster that many spots. Another fun game she played this week was a tour of the safari reserve. We talked about going to the zoo and buying a ticket. Then we talked about visiting the animals. Mommy turned this game into a math game too! L-Bug sorted her animal counters that came in our curriculum kit this month. At each of the different animal piles I put down a few picture cards with that animal on it. Each animal group had a varying number of cards at that pile. Then L-Bug went around to visit the different animals and collected one card at a time from the piles. She brought them back and then marked one circle off of there ticket. At the end she counted how many times she saw the different animals in the safari!
Counting comes easily to L-Bug if there is a game involved! Tell her you want to play hide and seek and you'll see just how quickly she can count to ten while you run to find a hiding place :) But when there is no fun and games counting just becomes a chore.... SO playing games is the way to go during math time in our school room! Sometimes the game is as simple as rolling a die and having L-Bug count out that many animals! Each month we learn two new numbers! L-Bug can count as high as 11 now, but number recognition is still something she is learning! So I have her practice tracing the number with her finger on the counting card, finding the matching number on her number poster, etc. Here you can see L-Bugs number card as she counts the animals and places one on each of the oval shapes on the card! She has been loving these little animal counters she received in our "Going on Safari" Mother Goose Time curriculum for January!
What games do you play with your Preschooler for Math Time?! I started snapping pics today for my blog post thinking hmmm Monday... things are usually a little crazy on Monday's but let's try it! Well I'm glad I did because today was a day full of fun in L-Bug's eyes. She really enjoyed all of the activities we did today. I'm sad I didn't get them all on camera, but I did get quite a few that she enjoyed! Here is L-Bug enjoying our search the poster activity with our magnifying glasses! I loved how Mother Goose Time included some action steps on the back of the magnifying glasses along with the questions! After the second one L-Bug was giggling as she tried to roll her arms like a choo-choo train, she even came up with a few actions of her own that she wanted me to do! A few weeks ago I wrote a little post about "Fluff in Preschool" here is just one more example of why having fun and engaging activities is important when teaching little ones. I did a small experiment with L-Bug this week. Several times throughout different days I asked L-Bug to count for me. A majority of the time she either didn't want to or she just did it really fast and jumbled and you could barely understand it. BUT the times when I pulled out a fun activity for her to do while I asked her to count I got a much better response... She would focus, she would count slowly and the right way! When kids find something fun and engaging they are going to enjoy it more! For our counting card activity on this day I had L-Bug trace the #5 with her finger and then we counted how many triangles were on the page. Then I had her count out five planes and fill the spaces on the card with them. Once we did that we traced the #5 again and then we turned that card over. On the back were tickets and I had L-Bug count them. After she counted five tickets I asked her to show me where the number five was on the bottom of the card, NAILED IT! Before when we did this activity L-Bug wasn't getting the number right. I was brainstormed about a way that I could reinforce the number in her mind without having it in front of her to look at and "match". So we tried the finger tracing on this day and it worked out so well! We will see how it does next time too. I'm hoping that by tracing the number a few times it reinforces it in her mind! Another activity that L-Bug did on this day that she really enjoyed was color sorting! I had her find her trains that were mixed in with all of the packing noodles and put each of them in their own sections. Then I asked her to sort the noodles out by color! There were so many that I figured she would get bored before she finished them all, but she actually enjoyed this a lot! Every noodle was sorted ;) I was interested to see what would happen when L-Bug came across a packing noodle that was a different color then one of her trains! She decided that they should just go into a different section. L-Bug is really good at her foundation math! She can count to ten all on her own and we are working on getting to fifteen. She knows a majority of her colors (red, purple, orange, pink, black, brown, yellow, green, blue...) and she knows a good amount of her shapes too (though she often gets circle and oval mixed up and still calls a rectangle a square).
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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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