Winter is one of my favorite seasons for so many reasons! The temperatures change and things start to slow down outside. The garden chores taper off and, though I LOVE being outside, everyone starts spending more time inside. Winter also means Christmas decorations come out, the fire inside is lit and our home feels so cozy with all the twinkling lights and the warm fire glow.
We enjoy various holiday traditions and activities but one of my personal favorites has become our kids holiday nook. I have a designated spot in my living room that is the kids nook year round. During the winter it is transformed into our Holiday nook!
The goal when choosing which items to put in your nook is to find things that will work for whatever age range of kids you have. Remember each year you can add and remove what doesn't work for your family anymore! Books
Here are some books we hope to add to our nook this year!
Some years when I'm looking for a simple advent activity each advent day (December 1st - 24th for us) gets a new book for the kids to open. I wrap them up in holiday themed wrapping paper and stack them all on the shelf. When I'm feeling really adventurous, I will correlate specific themed books with any holiday activities we have planned for various days (I usually label these on the back with the date or a brief title to remind me what it's for). When I am feeling really simple or we already have enough holiday *cheer* going on, I simply put new books out on the shelf and have the kids alternate who chooses our book to read each night. Really the delivery method ebs and flows with what works best for us from year to year! Puzzles & Games
I love to rotate a variety of difficulty with our puzzles and games that way there is something for the whole family to enjoy throughout the season. Sometimes I keep certain games or puzzles put away and swap them out later. That way the interest and newness sticks around for a while!
Toys & Dress Up
Christmas Activities
The Elf
The Elf on the Shelf has become a BIG thing for many families. I'm sure you have seen some form of the Elf and his adventures during the holidays. For us the Elf is a helper. He usually arrives shortly after Thanksgiving (the day after if I remember him or at least by the first of December)! We read the Elf book and remind the kids of his name and the rule (don't touch the elf). Throughout his time with us he helps spread the message of Christmas. He brings them notes, and sometimes surprises, that correlate to their advent each day. We do move him around the house finding new ways to pose him and every year it's a morning race to see who can find the Elf. It's a fun little tradition and even though we don't get too into all of the elves extras, we do enjoy the kids excitement as they find the elf and see what message he is bringing each day.
The ADVENTure
I love the idea of spreading the message of Christmas throughout all of December. Christmas is a big thing in America, but typically the message you see is about presents and buying things. I have a different message for our kids. The message of Christ being born for them. So I decided to take the everyday sights and sounds of Christmas and find ways that we could use them to point back to the true meaning of Christmas. For our advent we use a Christmas tree. A small table top faux tree that goes in our kid's nook. This is where we bring the elf in. Each day he brings a small item and a verse that is tied to various themes. Sometimes it is something we will be doing that day. For example if we planned a family drive to see the Christmas lights that night, then the Elf would bring the kids and strand of lights (or a small bulb ornament) for their tree and a verse about Jesus being the light of the world. We talk about how Christmas lights remind us of how Jesus lights up our lives. Other times it's a message and we might have a book to go along with the theme. An example of this would be a small candy cane to hang on their tree. We'll read The Legend of the Candy Cane and talk about the different ways a candy cane can represent Jesus. You could get as elaborate or as simple with this as you would like! The goal is that every time your kids step out of the door the sights and sounds of Christmas remind them of Christ. β If you don't want to involve the elf you could use a simplemail box to put the items in for the kids advent. Each day they could open their mail box and your family could do the advent together. We often use both! The elf's message and surprise go inside the mailbox for the kids to find. All of their advent items go in the nook. The tree sits on the top shelf of the nook with the mailbox next to it. After we read the message and do the activity if there is one, the kids put the ornament on the tree. By Christmas it's fully decorated with the message of their Savior!
There are too many amazing nook items to name each individually, so be sure to check out our list of items that would make perfect additions to your holiday nook!
0 Comments
,,I was so excited when that little yellow school bus showed up on the front porch! L-Bug was so excited to dig into the box with me and start exploring all the materials. She was checking out the Getting Started guide and spotted an old friend. She said, "mom isn't this KK?"
We worked together on setting up our school area. It's fun to add a little character back into our school routine! Mother Goose has a bright sunny window to hang out in along with our alphabet grass, weather sign and number tree. L-Bug helped me cut all the grass and put it up.
We had one last addition to our school space and I had to snap a picture of it. Many of you may remember my DIY interactive magnet board from my FCC home. Well, we don't have as large of a space as we once did so I found this great magnetic board to put up! AND I am so in love with these amazing story time pieces. They are so cute and very sturdy! I know they will be a hit with B-Mouse.
I've always loved the Little Helpers set up that Mother Goose Time sends every year with our set up materials. I've just never really found a way to utilize them in my classroom. We don't have a class pet, the kids don't help with lights... BUT I was running into some arguments about who's "turn" it was to be my big helper for snack time prep and clean up. Then a light bulb came on and I found the little helpers signs. YUP! There were snack helper and table washer signs in there that I could definitely use!!! I found this fun utensil caddy at the Dollar Tree and decided with some popsicle sticks it would be the perfect Big Helper station! I used some leftover popsicle sticks from a past activity and wrote all the kiddos names on them. Then I put them in a small box. Each day I pull out two popsicle sticks and have the kids see whose names they are. Those are my two Big Helpers of the day! One get's to be my table washer. They help me wipe down the table before snack and clean it and the chairs up after we are finished eating. The other kiddo get's to be my snack helper. They help set out the dishes we will be using and make sure every friend gets one for snack time. Then after we are finished eating they get to help me vacuum up the snack area to be sure we don't have any "squishies" on the floor :) The kids seem to really like getting surprised and seeing who's name comes out of the box each day! It's also a great way to get in some name recognition!
I'm excited to finally pull this Mother Goose Time box out and get into some science with the kiddos! I was hanging onto it until summer because I wanted to be able to do it with my daughter too, but she is now home during my tot-school so she participates in our activities. Here is what's in the Science Lab box we will be using for February! This is the Teacher's Tool bag, which includes: Theme Poster, Teacher's Guide and Planning Journal, CD, Skills List and Gathering List, and my personal favorite: MANIPULATIVES (beakers, nut and bolt set and beads). Circle Time tools include: Circle Time Songs, Calendar and Number Cards. I still haven't decided how to utilize the calendar since we use my large wall pocket calendar.... Any ideas?! Please leave a comment! If you have seen the Mother Goose Time curriculum before you know each of the 20 days are separated into handy "day bags" this makes it very easy to know what materials go with which day. Here is Day 1: Properties of Matter Day 2: States of Matter Day 3: Mixtures Day 4: Reactions Day 5: Molecules I hope by now you've caught on that each day bag has it's own topic! Just about all the materials are included in each day bag (aside from a few materials that are in your gathering list. For instance: glue, paint, crayons, tape, etc). In the Teacher's Journal there will be a note if your supposed to set aside any of the materials for an activity at a later date. I personally love materials like these from Day 7: Light. Shapes, Letter and Number cards are items that I laminate and once we have finished using them for the activity I either have them up somewhere in the room for the children to use again and again OR I tuck them away in my filing system to use later! You'll notice there is minimal prep work for the month since everything is already pre bagged into days and the activities already have instructions in the Teacher's Guide. Really all I have to do to prep is review the Teacher's Guide and choose which actives we will be doing. I also go through each day bag to find materials that need to be cut out ahead of time or laminated. That way I can get everything done in one sitting and have the entire month ready to go! Work sheets like this connect-the-dot one from Day 11 and the rainbow color-by-number sheet from day 7 I like to make a copy of and keep it in my filing system. That way when we are going on a long trip, a doctors appointment or just need a quick activity for my daughter I can pull it out, make a copy and bring it along as needed. Whenever I can I like to find ways incorporate our lessons into the kiddos lives. Finding things that they can connect with outside of the school room really help to enforce what they are learning. For example my kids are all from military families. Many of them have daddies that are paratroopers. Times like this I will send a special note to the parents asking if anyone's parent was/is a paratrooper if they could send me a picture I would love to add it to our discussion for that day. So there it is! An entire month of Mother Goose Time materials to help me guide and teach my tot-school class! I am very excited to see how the kids like these activities and too hear all their different answers to the "What We Know" and "What We Wonder" prompts each week!
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.
This week I was inspired by our new set of manipulatives from the Mother Goose Time curriculum kit. These first few images you see the kids using the shapes mat and the magnetic manipulatives on our circle time board. They LOVED this activity and were crowded around the board for quite a while! I was shocked at how interested they were and how long they continued to stay engaged. So I made a shopping list to create a new interactive manipulatives board! I used the same pan that I made the Circle Time Board from. I got a new pattern of contact paper and when I hung the board up I used hooks at the top to hang buckets from. These are going to make it easy to change out what manipulatives I have available each month! I have a few ideas about creating different texture materials for the board as well. I just have to find the right supplies to execute the idea! I also have some magnetic strips that I plan on using to make it possible to use them on the board. For example I have a 6X6 foam puzzle I could attach the magnetic strips to and we can have a puzzle on the wall. I may also put magnetic strips on our words, letters and numbers from MGT so I can put them on the board here!
Exciting! Thank you Mother Goose Time for the fun magnetic manipulatives and the inspiration! I know, I know... I've been majorly bragging on Mother Goose Time curriculum these past few posts. BUT I am just so excited with the 2016/17 enhancements and additions! I had to share this awesome new Assessment System that Mother Goose Time has launched for this year. Here are mine! It took me about 15 minutes to put all eight together :) Everything (except the binders and the sheet protectors) came in the Mother Goose Time curriculum! Here is a micro-training with the info on how to set up and use the assessment system!
Seriously, September is one of my favorite months of the year! It's the start of my favorite season: FALL. It's when Starbucks brings back PSL {Pumpkin Spice Latte}. It's when the trees finally start to change colors (well if you have trees that is)! It's the start of school... and it's when Mother Goose Time sends us our VERY FIRST curriculum box for the school year :) Every year our September boxes come with a "Getting Started" bag with a new room set up. Usually I take the pieces as additions to much of what I already have because I'm a curriculum hoarder... BUT it's nice for when my display has gotten trashed and needs a face lift. AND we also get the low-down on what is NEW for this year. Well I'm gonna share all the AMAZING new materials your kiddos are going to be using this year! First! My absolute favorite addition so far, our new stamp collections! Oi-vey I am in love with these little sets. Each month we will get a new shape stamp (so by the end of the year we will have a full set of 12) and we also get an assortment of stamps to go with our thematic study. This month is all about "My Family and Me" so we got these adorable mom, dad, bother, sister and baby stamps! To stinking cute. The kids went stamp crazy :) The size is perfect because the little hands are able to grip them easily and the pictures on the top helped them quickly identify what they were looking for. The stamps are great because we will be able to use them in lots of ways, with ink, in play dough, we can try with glue, paint, etc! Experimenting with the many uses of these new tools will be fun. Each month we learn a new set of letters. Last school year we received letter flags and miniature letter cards. I love my letter flags and they all hang on my ABC tree :) These awesome new large alphabet cards are the size of a full sheet of paper. I laminate them to help them stay more durable. We use erasable markers or our fingers to trace the letters. Now, these new set of tools are the ABC cut outs. These pieces are awesome because they are three dimensional and can be used so many different ways. We can use them alone to review the alphabet, we can use them in play dough, paint, etc. I think after we get our full set I may have to make ABC cookies with them :P I am really excited about this change! Every month last year we received a new color paint brush, while these are cute I learned very quickly that it was hard to make them durable because you had to attach the color piece to the stick. I am so excited that Mother Goose Time brought back our color wands! I remember these from a few years ago and the kiddos LOVE them. To make them last longer I fold the wand in half and then laminate it before attaching the ribbon. I am so glad we are keeping our awesome books! I love my collection of books Mother Goose Time has created. The kids love the pictures AND the stories! The books vary each month to go along with the themes and they also vary in difficulty. This little basket is perfect to keep them stored neatly. One piece I have had the most difficulty with each year was our action and concept cubes. In fact, I rarely used them because they just got trashed before each child had a turn. They were always a battle. I am so excited about the new interchangeable cube! It's a soft giant cube with clear pockets. It makes it easy to change the sides for activities AND for the different games! I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet this month, but I know the kids are going to be excited we get to use our cube! Some really fun new materials that I get to utilize as a teacher revolves primarily around art! The invitation to create prompts a more process-based art experience. Each month there are art supplies and discussion prompts to do while the children work through the activity. Mother Goose Time has also added some really fun make & play cards where the kids get to do DIY projects and then use them in imaginative play. Headbands, instruments, puppets, etc are all a part of the fun :) Every month fun manipulatives have always come included in our kit! This month I am so excited about these fun magnetic ones. I am not sure if this is going to be what we receive every month, but they sure are cute! I have been wanting to add a manipulation board in my infant "safe" area. I was thinking of something similar to my circle time board. Something magnetic that I can mix up the materials weekly! What do you think? Some other fun changes are counting fish instead of the counting tree, little character goslings to teach about character traits and fun shape clouds for our circle time board. Get a little more detail about all the new tools from the Mother Goose Time Blog Post!
One thing that has been really important lately is getting organized! I have SO many great resources from our Mother Goose Time curriculum every month and so many of the pieces can be used and played with again and again! One thing my daughter loves are the board game sand participation stories, they have been in ziplock bags, boxes, sacked up on a shelf.... etc. Finally I found an easy way to keep them sorted and stored! Folders and page protectors :) I used an Expo Marker on the outside of the folders to write what types of materials where in the folder as well as what months the materials came from (this makes it easier for me to find a specific theme if I want to). The expo marker doesn't wipe right off, BUT it will come off with water and a paper towel! Inside of the folders I used clear page protectors to slip all of the materials into. Some of the pages have "You'll Need" notes. This is a quick reminder that some of the pieces we will need to do the activity or game aren't in the folder and are somewhere else in our school room. Those were typically materials that we used all the time in our school room (foam shapes, tangrams, etc) OR they were bulky items that wouldn't fit (frog flippers, little dinosaurs, dice, etc). Check out the vide to see more! So my curriculum is ready to go and now I am working through my welcome packets and contracts! I never really realized how much goes into the "paperwork" for childcare. There are LOTS of guidelines for FCC (Family Child Care) providers, lots of papers to be signed. BUT I didn't want my welcome packets to just be all about the contracts. I wanted to include a way for me to get info about the child, their family, and for me to share with the parents what they can expect for the month and explain about my assessment process. I dug through some of my Mother Goose Time materials from my welcome kit this year and the online resources. I found some tools to include in the welcome packets! Above there are three awesome tools I can utilize! 1) Family Questionnaire: this awesome little booklet has some great questions that I can have the parents fill out and it will give me a little more info about their family and their child! 2) Family Newsletter: I get these awesome sheets each month for each child. I can send them home before we start the next curriculum theme. The newsletter has the theme web so the parents can have a good idea of what we will be learning AND there are lots of tips on how to include learning at home, some fun themed songs and even a book list if the parents want to check out the library! 3) My Baseline Assessment Overview: this booklet is all about the child who will be in my care. On the front the child get's to draw a picture of themselves and write their name. This gives me and the parents a great starting point at the beginning of the year (or when they first start care with me) for us to assess how they have grown and learned throughout the year! Inside of the Assessment booklet are the different skills from the development continuum. They aren't ALL here, but these are the four core skills (social, emotional, physical, language & literacy and mathematics & reasoning). This is the tool I will use throughout the first month the child is in my care to assess all of their different skills and see where their "baseline is". On the back of the booklet I have space to discuss the learning goals with the parents and make some notes to refer to later. Once I've filled out the book it will be put into the Child's Portfolio that I will be filling with work samples and assessment notes from each month! I LOVE this awesome tool that I found in the Assessment Section online. It gives me a great outline for what and when to collect children's work for the Child's Portfolio. And there is a great Assessment Tip's flyer that will help me to track what skills to observe each month throughout the quarter. I like these tools because they keep me organized. I can put them in the Child's Portfolio box with the Baseline Assessment booklet and each month as I do my assessments I'll be on track and at the end of the quarter I can compare the new assessments with the baseline to see how each child has grown! On the front of each Child's Folder I have a small label where I can put their names :) I also want to look at a scrapbooking store for cute little picture frames that I can put onto the front of the file. That way I can slip profile pictures into the from of each file! This is all starting to feel so real <3 I can't wait to meet the little ones who will be joining my program.
|
Check Out My Teachers Pay Teachers Store for my Digital Products!Categories
All
Disclaimer: I am an affiliate blogger. In some cases I will make a commission from external links leading to purchases. Thank you for your support to my blog! Your purchases help this mama stay at home with the kiddos and continue doing what we love.
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!
Archives
December 2023
|
Everyday 365 Life