More Reading Materials with MGT

Bugs and Crawly Things

Participation Story from Mother Goose Time

A Participation Story from Mother Goose Time is a short story that requires help from the kids, either movement or using props provided. This month the story is called The Little Lost Bugs and was about 6 different bugs that forgot where they lived. The bugs needed help remembering what shapes they were so that they could find their correct home.

The story came with a poster with 6 different shapes.

As we read the story, Mr Z picked up a bug card. I filled in the blank of what he picked up and then the shape bug was placed on its matching shape home. This little story reinforced colors and shapes while following one-step directions and identifying different places that a bug might live (pond, grass, leaf, log, tree, flowers).

On the back of each Participation Story are 3 focus questions to help the child with comprehension. Mr Z struggles a little bit with comprehension still, but with prompting he can figure it out.

... another easy way to incorporate reading into our day with Mother Goose Time... the participation story. It doesn't take long and Mr Z has fun.

Reading Materials with Mother Goose Time

Bugs and Crawly Things

Reading Materials from MGT

Mother Goose Time does a lot of things amazingly well within it's curriculum. Reading is one of them.

My kids aren't particularly fond of the language arts, but they like books and being read too. Some of our favorite stories to read are ones that we've gotten from our MGT curriculum. 

Each month we receive a story book that corresponds with the theme of the month. This month's book is There Are Bugs by Chris Lensch. It is a fun book which combines realistic pictures of insects with cartoonish characters and backgrounds. We love the combination, I think, because it keeps the fantasy and magic of childhood while connecting with the real world.

Mr Z liked to find all the bugs on each page as we read through the story. Life science is one of our favorite subjects. We love to learn about creatures. This book helped the boys know where could live, what they could do and what they look like.

This page we took a moment to reflect upon. We thought about and discussed what would happen if bugs were missing. It would be a different world without them, even if we don't like them all.

We liked this page as well from the storybook... a nice layout of all the bugs featured with their names.

We took a break from reading for a little bit and played with the shape manipulatives. A shape design mat was included in the Caterpillar daily bag with 4 different designs to follow and build. Mr Z figured one was a caterpillar, snail, beetle and ant.

Each month an I Can Read book is also included for each child. This one was called What Am I? Also included with the book are word pointers. There are normally 3 pointers with the sightwords featured for the month. Mr Z matched the word 'am' on each page.

We like the books for the short activities in the back of the reading book. This one had a maze connecting letters to the bug and a space to draw your favorite bug.

 Mr Z drew a caterpillar.

Mr Z's demonstration of how a caterpillar moves.

More Games with MGT

Bugs and Crawly Things thematic study with MGT

One of the things that I appreciate about Mother Goose Time is the variety it brings into our home. We are a family that loves to play games... board games, card games, critical thinking games and puzzles.

Mother Goose has such an array of different games that come with the curriculum. They may be language or literacy games or math games. These were a few of the games so far that we revisited the other day from this unit.

From Ladybug day, a counting game. The game included the large ladybug poster, a wheel spinner with number leaves and black chips. The spinner was numbered from 1 to 9 and the ladybug had 19 spots. You spin the wheel to cover up all the spots on the ladybug. Mr Z was having a hard time waiting for his turn to play.

Bingo is always another favorite around here. This bug Bingo game came in Bee day. We used our insect counters as the markers and luckily we were all able to have our own color.

I liked this card. "Game Over" If it was pulled then the game was over no matter what. This was a great way to get the boys to not fight over who had won or not. We just filled our cards with bugs until the bee was pulled from the pile.

Mr Z was irritated that his card didn't have a caterpillar or a ladybug or something.

Slugs... and Snails

Bugs and Crawly Things with Mother Goose Time

Slugs... and Snails

So, the theme this month doesn't really include snails, but my boys had to observe and talk about them because they are so similar to slugs. That and we have a ton in our yard in the mornings.

Before school we went outside to find snails. It was really successful. We lined some of them up to see how a snail race would work out. It didn't.

They ended up crawling all over each other in a ball.

Then made their way back to the grass. I always forget that observing nature and what goes on with plants or animals each day is actually considered Life Science. We love watching creatures and I'm thankful my boys are pretty nice to them. (We have one little friend that will stomp on, crush, toss or whatever to any tiny creature just because, without even really at it.) It's great to be able to learn about things and make connections with creatures without having to worry that they'll get killed in the process. I like having kids that will keep nature in tact for the most part... for now.

We made slime again too. Its one of our favorite things. Equal parts water and glue, then add equal parts liquid starch. It sure is fun slime to play with that doesn't stick everywhere. The recipe in the Teacher Guide for MGT calls for Borax. I've never used that. We used glitter glue too and that had a nice sparkly effect. Slime is fun to experiment with.

Yard-sized Spider Web

Spiders with Mother Goose Time

Bugs and Crawly Things thematic study

With Mother Goose Time we talked about spiders and their webs. One of the activities was a Make and Play spider hat. The Make and Play activities are usually fairly easy for them and usually include some kind of prop they can use for creative play or a hat to wear. The boys made them quickly after Mr A got home from school because they really wanted to make a gigantic web in the yard... because what's more fun than having a massive amount of string covering your entire front yard!? (It did stay up for 3 days and they were happy that it held up in the rain that we got over the weekend.)

Mr A wrapping the string around the trees while wearing his spider hat.

 Mr Z just mostly played in the web as it was being made.

 The spider manipulative from this month's box also got a spot in the web.

 Somebody's spider hat ended up strung and tied into the web too.

 The web spanned the entire yard, between the trees and bushes.

 Dramatic play... its the best. They created their own spider environment and had a great time playing in it
=)

Rhyming Word Families with MGT

Bugs and Crawly Things with Mother Goose Time

"Bug Family" Rhyming Word Game

Mr A has no interest in reading or learning phonics or letters or really anything that has to do with Language Arts. ...Unless... it has to do with a Mother Goose Time activity. I have not been able to get him interested in the subject on my own for basically ever. He just doesn't like it... yet. He will however push through it for a few minutes while we play a literacy game from MGT.

Here is one called, Bug Family. It focuses on the word family with the -ug ending sound. Below is the description of the activity from the Teacher Guide. (I like how it gives 3 different ways to play the game.)

I attached the word wheel together and we began to play. Mr Z opted to sit out and just watch.

These were the word cards. We laid them upside-down on the table.

We took turns picking up one card, pronouncing it and then moving the wheel to correct word (while eating ice cream).

I tried explaining that all of the words had the same ending and we were just changing the beginning sound. Somehow when he pulled the word "tug" it turned into "take". It's interesting... he knows how to rhyme and sings rhyming songs all the time, but when it comes to reading them, all the things he knows goes out the window. Mr A ends up looking up at me and just guessing words. You can't read if you're not looking at the words, silly!

Oh well, at least I got him to participate in this game once. See, he's just not into Language Arts things. It used to bother me, but he'll pick it up when he's ready. Mom's put so much pressure on themselves to make sure their kids know everything sooner. I used to be one of those moms. But, then I realized that these days, adults aren't letting kids be kids like they used too. So, we do these literacy activities as an introduction mostly. Mr A will do them once and then he's finished. I gave up on trying to force him to keep playing until I felt like he should be done. That's just us... He doesn't care for the subject, though he did like the concept of the game (me too).

This is a fun way to introduce word families. I was happy to see the wheel and the ease of the game. For a child that does like this subject and willing to learn it, this is a great activity for them. Mr Z liked spinning the wheel round and round too when we were finished with the game.

SD Zoo Birds Field Trip

Birds and Eggs with Mother Goose Time

Field Trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

By now, I think you would know that we like our field trips. I feel like its the only way to connect to the theme we are studying. Plus it just makes much more fun. Seeing things in real life is exciting, especially when you're little. So we headed to the safari park and found lots of birds and several fun surprises. The safari park was the best place I could think of to see a variety of birds up close.

The first stop were the flamingos. The boys like them. While watching the flamingos though, we found other fun things...

 ...cranes yelling at each other. They were really loud.

Here's one picture below to play ispy... a mama, a baby that boys agreed was super ugly and a nest of eggs.

 Mr A had the super sharp eyes and spotted the eggs hiding in the plants.

 This egret was hunting lizards. When it sees a target, it will hold its body still while wiggling its long neck gently back and forth. It then moves slightly forward while wiggling its neck and then strikes. It was gross to see the lizard wiggling down the egret's neck as it slid down the long throat.

Nest were everywhere. We did a lot of looking up. I lost count at how many we found, but there were obviously a ton because of the walk-in aviaries and the wild birds that come for the free food.

The Secretary Bird is one of the coolest non-flying birds. It stomps its food to death and can survive poisonous snake bites on its legs because it doesn't have veins in the lower part of its legs (where there are no feathers. We watched it build a nest in the corner of its enclosure. I couldn't get a good picture of the nest since it was hiding behind trees.

Vultures... ugly birds but actually clean despite their appetite.

I don't remember what this little guy was. He was calling to another one with their wings spread out. Not sure what they were talking about, but the birds were loud.

Victoria Crowned Pigeon... one of Mr A's favorite birds. He likes their color and the mohawk of feathers on the top of their heads.
While we were in this aviary, I actually saw two birds fly into each other. I was sad I didn't get it on camera or video. I laughed so hard and was surprised no one else saw it. Two clumsy birds totally crashed. I only I will know that, I guess.

This guy was busy finding stuff in the dirt, maybe bugs?

There are several wild mallard ducks that live at the park. While the boys were playing at one of the playgrounds, they found an egg laying on the other side of the fence. I suspect it is a duck egg since its about the right size. No birds were around though. They were excited to see another real egg on our adventure.

Such a variety of birds in this world. Its neat to see them up close and connect to our Birds and Eggs thematic study. The boys' favorite thing was finding the nests of eggs. What fun.