What types of houses are found on the water? Mermaid Houses? We had a lot of ideas of how people can live on the water. Most of our theories revolved around the Little Mermaid and Sponge Bob. We learned about House Boats. Living on a boat can be dangerous especially during a storm. We set the plastic boats on the water (parachute). We moved the parachute calmly like gentle waves and then we grew the storm bigger and bigger. The boats were tossed around and most of them ended up on the ground instead of on the parachute. We met some friends at the park to help us create our "perfect storm".
Calm Waves
Stormy Weather.
The kids really loved this activity. We predicted what would happen to the boats as the storm grew. We've been having quite a few storms in our area lately. We imagined what it would be like if we were in a house boat instead of our homes. We discussed what we might do to be safe on a boat like wearing life vests and also how learning about the weather helps boaters stay safer in the event of a storm.
Neighborhood Walk on the way to the park. What is your address? What color is your house? We found numbers on each house on our way to the park. I explained that the numbers help people find your house. Your friends, family, police, ambulance and fire department all need to know your address to find your house. We painted and numbered our houses. Each one of us thinks our house is very special especially since it's where our mommies & daddies live.
We explored the house to find shapes. Doors=Rectangles, The Kitchen in our house comes to a point with a Triangle by the sink, We found square mirrors, drawers, circles on the dining room chairs.
Recognizing your own name and then learning to write it are magical things.
It's not an easy task. Try holding a pencil between your toes. Are you able to write your name easily. Adults often forget that preschool children are developing the motor skills needed for these tasks.
We play a lot, but our play has a purpose. One of the most important milestones for writing is developing Pincer Grasp. This is the ability to hold small objects between your thumb and pointer finger. We build with lego's, dress dolls, tear and crumple bits of paper, paint with eye droppers, string beads, practice opening and closing latches, play with water bottles and squirt guns etc... These are all ways we work to develop a more mature pincer grasp which is needed in order to hold a pencil correctly.
Parts of a Plant. Mother Goose Time Growing Gardens Theme.
The Art of Preschool is the fundamental building blocks of learning. Cutting, gluing, painting, crumpling, coloring are all ways we are developing our fine motor skills. This is why it's important to let them get messy and do things themselves.
Painting worms using rubber worms instead of brushes. Look at that Pincer Grasp in action!
Counting and arranging Sunflower seeds on our Sunflower headbands.
So Proud of the finished product.
Holding crayons, scissors, paintbrushes etc... develops the skills needed for later writing.
(Opening Song- Mother Goose Time Day 1, Growing Gardens curriculum)
Where do you find dirt? Many of the children have plants growing in their house. What does a plant need to grow? Soil, sunlight, and water.
The kids smelled the dirt, which smelled like- dirt. They scooped the dirt. They wrote with their fingers in the dirt and noted how the dirt changed when we added water. The water made the dirt look darker, and it looked like it got smaller.
Day One.
The kids scooped soil into containers and spread the grass seed on top. We watered them and waited for the grass to grow.
Day Five.
On Day five the grass finally sprouted. How exciting!
"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." - Confucius
Most of us remember singing songs as very young children. It's one thing we learn as children that stays with us throughout our lives. If I sing B-I-N-G-O or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little star nearly every adult would be able to finish the song. Music is an important part of our lives as we grow and learn. In the 1950's research began into what is called "The Mozart Effect". Researchers theorized that classical music may improve the IQ. It has been proven that musically trained children have higher SAT scores. Music education contributes to higher math scores, greater self esteem, creativity, and verbal skills.
Music is especially important in developing language skills for preschool age children. Children who are exposed to music have more developed language skills and are able to express themselves better than children who are not exposed to music. Music also strengthens memory and fine motor skills.
We use music throughout our day. As part of our Mother Goose Time Preschool curriculum. Included as part of the curriculum is a CD of songs to use everyday. We start with, Circle Time, Days of the Week, Months of the Year, and then "Little Helpers". Routine and repetition are important at this age. The CD also includes both sing-a-long and instrumental versions of popular children's songs like, The Muffin Man, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and many others.
Each month our curriculum also includes a CD that is part of the monthly theme. This month our Theme is Growing Gardens. We use these songs to reinforce the concepts we are learning. They love the songs. Their favorites so far this month are Rabbit Hop, Hot Potato, and Peas in a Pod.
As a part of our Add On Curriculum we participate in a Program called Dance N Beats. This DVD provided by Mother Goose Time promotes fine and gross motor skills. We are learning through dance and songs that coordinate with our monthly theme.
So much to do and so little time. That seems to be my motto. As the mother of 4 children there is always something to do, someone to take somewhere, a practice, meeting, homework, field trips, birthday parties, etc.... It never seems to end.
This past month has been no exception. My youngest daughter celebrated her 9th birthday. She has been dying to have a sleepover. I'm not a fan, but she had her heart set on it. So I did what any pushover, er mother, does and we had a sleepover.
11 kids playing twister, eating way too much, telling scary stories, listening to music, making pillow cases, & picture frame
The very next day a few of my teammates and I held a fundraiser for The Avon 39, The Walk to End Breast Cancer. Talk about busy. I started walking in the Chicago Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in 2008. My Grandmother passed away from breast cancer. In 2003 my Aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is now a 12 year survivor.
Playing games makes learning fun. Who is Hatching? Toss the pom pom onto your game board, then match the hatching turtle with the site word, letter or number.
Jellyfish are a type plankton. "I know plankton from Spongebob" Groups of Jelly fish are called a "bloom". Jellyfish look like an umbrella. Some Jellyfish are transparent and can be nearly invisible to the naked eye. We thought this was a really cool video to learn about Jellyfish.
We tried to pulse our bodies to "swim" like a jellyfish.
Scientists recently learned that 2 of an Octopus's arms are actually used as legs to walk across the ocean floor. An octopus has no skeleton but it does have a skull to protect it's brain. An octopus has the ability to camouflage itself by changing color. What letter does the Octopus remind you of? We have been working on the letter O, writing and counting to 8.
There is a commotion in the ocean. We are doing the jelly fish jiggle. Dance n' Beats is an add on to our regular curriculum. The kids love to sing and dance along with the dvd. " Dance 'n Beats is a research-bashed program that helps children learn 21 movements that increase muscle control , encourage physical fitness and foster a joy for learning.
They love to dance.
We learned that there are thousand of animals that rely on coral reefs to survive in the ocean. Fish, lobsters, clams, seahorses, sponges, and sea turtles are only a few of them.
We learned that Whales are mammals like us! They have lungs just like humans do. They use their blowholes to breathe in air. We pretended to be whales. We used a straw to to blow out air. We blew cottonballs, feathers, and paper around the table using our straws. We then used the straws to blow paint around our whales to paint them instead of using brushes. So fun.
We finished up our Outer Space unit this week. We learned so much about the planets, what they are made of and which planets have life on them. We absolutely loved learning about Astronauts.
We made our own rocket ships and flew them around the room.
This week is Spring Break for us which means we have a few less of our regular kids and a few more of our school age kiddos. It's been beautiful here so we've spent lots of time playing at the park.
Having Epic Star Wars Battles
Creating Sidewalk masterpieces
blowing bubbles
and hunting for eggs.
we still fit in our morning Circle Time routine. We love to sing and dance.
We started Mother Goose Time Ocean Commotion this week with a super cool Science Experiment. We learned that the ocean is made up of Salt Water which is not good to drink. We examined the difference between clear fresh water, water we added salt to, and water we added sugar to.
We observed how the water changed in color, smell, and clarity . The sugar dissolved, but the water looked slightly cloudy. The salt water became very cloudy. It was hard to see through.
Almost everyone thought the salt water smelled and tasted gross.
How many of us have been to the beach and collected shells? We created an Oyster shell.
We strung beads on pipe cleaners to make our Oyster Pearls.
More Ocean Commotion to come. Happy Easter.
Congratulations to our Book Hop Giveaway Winner Laura!
We've had the best time blasting off to space with Mother Goose Time this month. The kids have been so excited everyday to see where this adventure will take us. Yesterday we watched video of the Delta IV | Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF-9 rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
My friend, Stacy was there with her family and she is allowing me to share some of her awesome pictures.
How cool! The kids didn't realize you could actually go see Space Rockets.
We transformed pictures of ourselves into our very own Astronaut puppets.
We've been pretending to be astronauts all week. We've been using our imaginations to transform into astronauts returning from an outer-space adventure. In conjunction with our Space theme we created an outer-space themed Sensory tub.
This is so exciting! I'm participating in my first Giveaway! Some of the blog ambassadors for Mother Goose Time
and I are doing a Giveaway Hop. We are each reviewing a few books and
then giving them away! We are doing all of this to celebrate the
addition of these amazing books to Amazon. Previously these books were
only available in Mother Goose Time curriculum kits.
At the end of this post I will link up to the other blogs so you can hop
on over and enter all the giveaways. That should better your odds of a
win. Yay!
The best way to teach your child to read is to read to them. There is no App that can do what a parent reading to a child can. Children's brains grow to 90% of their adult weight by the time they are three years old. Parents are their child's first and most important teacher. Singing songs, reciting nursery rhymes and reading books help your child develop their literacy skills long before they are able to read.
The first book I'm giving away is Ocean Animals A to Z by Leslie Falconer. This is my sons absolute favorite alphabet book. The pictures are vivid and beautifully engaging.
Tracing letters is an excellent way for children to learn the alphabet. We use so many pre-writing skills to strengthen the muscles needed to begin writing. We love tracing letters in books, salt, or sand. Making letters out of dough, or shaving cream is an excellent way to develop fine motor skills while creating a memory of how the letter is formed.
This book is so much fun. You trace letters with your nose, toes, and fingers too. We learned about many new ocean animals like, Volcano sponges and Fugu.
Next is There Are Bugs Words and Pictures by Chris Lensch. This book came as part of our Bugs and Crawly things curriculum set.
The images jump off the page. The pictures in this book are a vibrant mix of eye catching illustrations and pictures of actual bugs. The illustrations lead to a dialogue about what we see in the pictures and what we already know about the various bugs.
At the end of the book there is a glossary of the bugs. All of my preschool kiddos are nature lovers. They love to get to the end of the book to quiz each other on the names of the various bugs and what they know about them.
Next is At the Pond by Kelly Nogoski. My little nature lovers are so excited about this book.
The pictures are fantastic. They love taking nature walks to look for the animals in the book. My son swears he has seen an alligator in the pond near our house (he hasn't). I love books that are interactive. Nearly every page asks a question or has them act like an animal.
How slow can you go?
The last page of the book is a Did you know? page with facts about the various animals. Did you know, "Dragonflies need warmth to fly and will ofter land when the sun goes behind a cloud."
Now it's time for the Raffle. Thank you for reading. I hope you win!! Entrants must be 18 years or older. Mother Goose Time is responsible for
fulfilling the giveaway. Residents of the USA and Canada only. Void
where prohibited by law. After the giveaway is over, I will be asking
the winner privately for information to get the books sent to you so
be sure to leave your email when it is asked for.
This way we save paper and get lots and lots of practice in. We use dry erase markers along with printables from 
They are so much more durable than standard crayons.
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