Nature Detectives: A Sneak Peak

July's unit with Mother Goose Time is called Nature Detectives. The above picture is a tool we get every month in the Teacher Tool Bag. The unit is broken down into 4 themes: one for each week of the month and then broken down further into one topic per day of the week. We will be spending a lot of time outside this month and I hope its not too hot or humid so we will be able to enjoy it. The boys will be mini detectives and exploring the mysteries of the trees, air, water and dirt. I anticipate a lot of messes and dirty boys.

As a member of Mother Goose Time, you have access to extra materials on the website. Above is an additional resource: the Suggested Book List. It has one title of a book that will correlate with the topic of the day. Below are additional materials that members have access too and are completely optional to use. There are coloring pages for each day and this month included a color-by-number page too. When I do use the coloring pages more often, I try to use different mediums such as paint, do-a-dots, collage materials etc so we aren't just using crayons and markers.

Every month there are Bonus Days too. Preciously they have been included in the mailed box of materials, but this month, I had to print them out on my own. I was a little irritated at that because I don't have a reliable printer at home, but oh well. I also forgot to print enough copies of the Bonus Day activities for each boy when I had access to a printer. So they'll be sharing.

The add-ons I received this month are the Experience God curriculum and More Math & Literacy workbooks. Mr A is still having trouble wanting to get his books done, but we're working on it. I am excited about the Experience God theme this month: Creation. Mr A should like it.

This month's curriculum includes a special Nature Detective Kit. The boys will use this to identify numbers, letters and shapes to review then go explore them.

The boys will like the manipulatives included this month. They are always finding bird feathers outside and they gross me out. But, these ones will be fun for them to use for counting.

Nature Detectives has many workbooks included this month too for each child. One of them is this Nature Collection book. Every page layout has a word to trace, lines to write about it or rewrite the word and plenty of space to draw your own or glue in the real thing. The boys love nature walks, so this will be great to keep them busy for a few days.

What a fun month to take MGT outside.

End of Unit Scrapbook Page

On day 20 of the monthly unit with Mother Goose Time, we are given an activity to complete in our MGT Scrapbook. We have ours almost completely done since the year is almost over.

This month the theme was Alphabet House, so we reviewed the alphabet throughout the month with various activities. The page in our scrapbook has a flower for each letter. The boys received a color key and had to color flowers the same as the key.

Mr Z just scribbled all over the place.

Mr A was rather confused with the directions actually. The key is printed in all capital letters. The letters on the flowers in the book were mixed with capital and lowercase. It was frustrating him and again he wanted to give up. It was so hard to keep him focusing.

Mr Z took a break from coloring and matching the markers and crayons to the key.

Finally, I thought of a bribe to get him to finish his page and coloring. Mr A would get 1 M&M for every flower he colored correctly. It got him to finish.

Mr Z matched his M&M's to his color key too.

What a fun month this has been. Learning about homes around the world, animal homes, how to take care of the home we live in and reviewing colors, numbers and the alphabet.
Learning with Mother Goose Time is always a happy time.

Rabbit Holes

We did some Mother Goose Time Activities that were about mainly rabbit holes. As soon as I said the word rabbit, Mr Z was off, hopping around the house like a crazy bunny.
I set out number cards on the carpet, provided by MGT. Mr A chose a different card with just circles or holes on them. He counted the holes on the card and hopped over to the number card when he spotted the correct match. Mr Z just matched colors of cards together. This activity didn't last too long though. Mr A was getting frustrated with finding the correct number. If he doesn't know the answer right away, he gives up and won't take the time to figure it out. How do you solve that problem?

Mr A wanted to make his rabbit headband though. So, I got the materials out for the project. Mr Z went straight for the stickers and ended up with 3 sets of eyes on his rabbit.
I talked a little bit about how rabbits hop everywhere, even in their underground tunnels and burrows. I also mentioned that the rabbits might have more than one way to get in and out of their homes, having several different holes. Mr A thought that was weird, or neat. He had a silly look on his face while I was trying to talk.

Mr A made his rabbit with unique designs just because that's how the rabbit is.

My carnivorous rabbits eating bacon. I asked Mr A if rabbits actually eat bacon. NO! How dare I ask a silly question like that. lol.

They have been hopping all around the house with their rabbit headbands on. The headband crafts are the boys favorite each month (if there is one).

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Spiders & Webs

Mr A chose Webs to learn about today. While I was trying to gather everything, Mr Z pulled out the Pentaminoes and started putting the shapes together. I figured it could be a "web of color". Mr A disagreed. I talked a little bit about rotating and flipping the shapes so they could fit into a space. Mr A says as he was able to get more pieces to fit, "Wow mom, I'm getting really good at this."

When pieces were getting fought over, I knew it was time for something new. I grabbed the Mother Goose Time science card to make a Stick Web and we went for a nature walk. We needed to find sticks in the shape of a Y that we could tape up to make our own webs. While we were out, we found some fun little bugs a tiny centipede and rollie pollies.

After finding some sticks, we came back home to add tape to them. The boys wanted their webs to completely filled. They ran around the yard trying to catch some flies but didn't have any luck. So Mr A decided he needed a large web in the yard. He wound the tape around the tree, a chair and the table. Mr Z was right behind him with scissors cutting the strips he had put up. Lol. Mr A was trying to make a large web to catch people food.

Spiders use webs to catch food. Mr A stated.

Mr Z colored his Web page. I never really noticed how much learning can go on in one simple activity, like coloring. So many skills are blended together in almost everything. Mr Z was using fine motor to try to trace the lines on the web. He was trying to count the sides of the web while coloring, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8!"

We made a spider and web craft today too, that was provided by MGT. All materials included! (I love that =) It makes me so happy that I don't have to run around trying to find everything and overbuy for a project. Its already neatly packaged for me.) The boys took turns with the single hole punch and made holes in a paper plate.

Mr A wanted a black and brown spider, so we used two paint colors for our handprint spider.

Googley eyes glued on and then they threaded string through the holes to make a web over their spider. We talked about what Mr A would try to catch in his web if he were a spider. Flies.
Mr A wanted to hang his in the house to scare his daddy. =) But it didn't work.

Mr Z strung up web a few times then dragged it around the yard with all the extra string.

So, we have been a little bit out of routine. I'm trying to blame the husband, but I sort of am. He's been off work. When he's off, its a bit of distraction. I get to go out and do things by myself, we do more errands, all the other kids on the street are out of school for summer or the kids are just more playful and can't concentrate. We've done bits and pieces here and there with our curriculum, but nothing consistent. I figure, we have an extra week for our unit this month, so we'll just stretch it out a bit more. And it gives me more time to plan our next unit a bit better.

Laundry Day

Our favorite activity from the laundry day was using our Laundry Letters and clothespins that was provided by Mother Goose Time.
I glued the colored letter strips to the clothespins and set up a little station. We used the piano legs to tie up our clothesline and I placed the laundry letter cards on the bench. Mr Z went straight for the pins and started pinning them on the string.
I told Mr A that people who don't have dryers to dry their clothes have to use this method of letting their clothes dry by the air. He was surprised that some people don't have a dryer and appreciated that we do because it's so much easier. Hanging clothes (cards) on a line is a lot of work for him.

Mr A chose a clothespin and found the matching laundry letter card, then clipped the pair on the line. We found out that I glued the letter labels on the pins the wrong way. (I was thinking the pins would be on top and the card on the bottom of the string.) The clip flipped upside-down to the bottom because of the weight. So, we just had the card facing properly and the pin labels were upside-down.

Mr Z picked out some matches of the letters and pinned them on the line. Most of the time he found color matches. That's when we found out that one, the letter Ll, did not have matching colors on the pin label and laundry letter card. We were confused and sang our song whenever something is wrong "One of things is not like the other!"

Mr Z also had to inspect the cards hung on the line with a magnifying glass.

 

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