Apples Apples

Mother Goose Time thinks of everything. Everyday is so fun because there is such a wide variety of activities to correlate with the theme and topic for the day.
While we were still milling about the house, Mr A figured out the life cycle of an apple tree. He put them in order. Then we flipped them over and he had to try to find them in order and lay them where they belonged in the timeline.

We noticed though, that there was such a difference between the sapling/sprout and the tree itself. It seemed like there were years in between the two and there should have been one more card to bridge that gap.

The most fun thing for the day would have to be taste-testing different apples. The boys took turns handling the Apple-Peeler-Corer-Slicer. As they each finished an apple we tested it and placed a small piece with the skin still on onto a plate with a label. We had Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Gala, and Macintosh. Mr A said he loved every one, but Golden Delicious was his favorite because he likes things that are golden.

What different things can you make with apples?
Mr A's relpy Apple pie, applesauce, carved apples and apple robots.

We had to do something with all of the leftover skin strings.
So, they boys ate them too and also matched the skins to the samples on the plate.

They had to shove their face in the bowl too to grab the strings with their teeth.

Each month with Mother Goose Time, a story book is included with the curriculum. This one is called Johnny. Its the story of Johnny Appleseed and how he travels to share his love of apples with others. Mr A wanted me to read the story before we got started on our craft. Randomly while I was reading, Mr A shouts out, All of those trees have 5 apples on them. I was shocked and excited at the same time that he noticed that. I think, he blurted it out almost immediately after I had turned to that page. Number recognition in the middle of a story book... fantastic! I was impressed that he was visually able to discern every tree had 5 apples within such a short amount of time. So cool. Reading to kids really is more than just them listening to words. They are observing, hearing, watching, feeling, questioning... its so awesome.

Because I was impressed with his quick number recognition, we went back to the pages with apple trees and counted them one by one and by fives.

During crafts that correspond with the topic of the day, I love how Mr Z just does it. I mean, he just colors, glues, places stuff around etc. He knows where he wants something and does it. There's no second guessing or messing around. Mr Z just does it.

Mr Z made a crazy looking guy with googley eyes, but he did eventually glue the pot in the other hand, upside-down as if the apples were being dumped out of the pot. He pretended to be dumping apples out and made a klunking noise as he did so.

Mr A is more careful and calculated with his crafts. He likes to follow the instructions, but will tweak things when he feels its necessary. Mr A was also very worried about Mr Z's little guy. He could not continue his project for several minutes because Mr Z's little man bothered him. With some encouragement, he was able to move on and create his own fun little guy too.

Last year, the MGT craft instruction sheets had pictures of samples of the crafts made by kids of different ages. But now, it looks like they are made by adults. I feel like this has discouraged Mr A a little bit lately. He wants to follow the picture perfectly and he sometimes gets upset when his end product doesn't look like the instructions. When this happens, I usually have to talk about creative freedom again... luckily with this Johnny Puppet craft, Mr A did his own thing happily and added his own flare.

Mr A drew blue gloves that are supposedly super strong and thick so that he doesn't get hurt while picking apples from the tree that has big thorns on it. And because apple trees flower, he drew some flowers on the shirt.

I love that no matter what the craft is, the boys have a great imagination to make up their own details and back-stories. I'm sure I did it as a kid too, but it is so fun to observe and listen to what they come up with.
With a world that is so busy all of the time and caught up with being fast-paced and offended by everything or everyone, it is so fantastic to be able to slow down with my kids. Everything is amazing to them and I love immersing myself in what they find important. A kids innocence and ability to overlook so many worldly issues provides a great escape for me.
The boys are learning everyday through play, crafts and lessons.

In the Orchard: Dance N Beats

Dance N Beats

Mother Goose Time has several different programs that you can add to your curriculum. One of them is a dance and fitness program called Dance N Beats.

I have always struggled getting my boys to participate. But, a few nights ago, it was Mr A's idea to do 'the dancing dvd'.

He loves the warm up song for some reason and will do it completely. His favorite parts are popping up from sitting and marching.

The next song we did was Crack This Nut. Mr Z participated too for a little while but, Mr A was very into it.

When he starts to get tired and lose interest, I make it into a competition and tell him that I can do the whole song better than him. It works for a few more dances. But he is particular about the dances he does do... some are too girly for him.

I was surprised and happy that he did participate for so long. Great gross motor skills developing during this program.

Manipulatives

Life has taken over this week.
We've been at doctors and dentist appointments and had several things come up. Lessons and activities were shoved to the side. But, that's okay. Sometimes that happens. The boys were able to find things to do on their own between all the running around.
A few times, I had to pawn the boys off to family and friends so that I could take care of things. The cool thing about that though, was that Mr A wanted to take the MGT pack for the day to do with whoever was watching them. I gathered the daily pack and few extra materials they might need and made copies of the corresponding lesson plans. Mr A was so excited to take MGT to other people's houses. They did one art project for the day about Branches with a friend and collected leaves on a nature walk with Grandma for the day about Leaves. At least they attempted and did something with others... but the directions to the supervising adult was to do whatever they felt comfortable doing.
That's the neat thing about MGT though, you can take it wherever! To a friend's house, leave it for the babysitter, do it at the park, in the waiting room of the doctor office. Anyone can use it at any time. So, needless to say, I didn't get any pictures from this week besides whats below...

One of the Mother Goose Time shape manipulatives provided with the curriculum for this month are see through plastic shapes. Whenever we get shapes, a design mat is also provided as patterns for making various objects out of the plastic shapes.
Mr Z hopped right to it copying the shapes on the design mat on his own. He attempted to make  the bird shape. Then Mr A joined and helped with the tree, but also had to make up his own tree. He said it was a honeycomb for awhile, then added the tree trunk.

Seeds In The Orchard

Another new month means a new unit with Mother Goose Time. Our first day was so fun. Partly because I had things planned out and that makes it so much easier. Partly because we haven't been doing very well with our routine lately. But, mostly because we took it outside! Changing the location of where we do activities and lessons really helped the boys. Fresh air and a beautiful day made learning about seeds much more pleasant. I also brought out my cd player and music cd to listen to the themed songs while we worked.

So far, for this school year, I set up our circle time display on a folding display board. It is easy to move and worked great to bring outside. But, we'll see how long the board actually lasts since Mr Z likes to hide in it.

(Before we had even gotten outside though, I asked Mr A what he knew about seeds because he was looking at the display board. The seeds grow into a plant. It needs water to grow and sun and air to make its own food so it can get bigger.)

Mr A wanted to start with the craft. They are his favorite lately. His detail, creativity and attention span while doing these crafty projects is improving greatly. MGT provided the small paper plates and seeds for the apple. Mr A cut an arch on each side and began painting.

Mr Z just goes to town painting all over his plate after he cut it into two semi-circles. I was impressed that he tried to stay inside the lines of the coloring page for a little while too. (These coloring pages are found on the members resource tab of the MGT website and are an additional printable resource for the curriculum kits.)

Mr Z also had the rubber bunny counters from several units ago and was making them attack his paint.

I love how Mr A attached his apple leaves. He needed them on top to look like a bunny, since they had been playing with the bunny counters all morning.

Mr Z was done with his painting projects and so he worked on finding green things outside with the color brush provided in the Teacher Tool Bag in the curriculum kit.

 Mr A helped find a rectangle really quick, then went back to finish his seed painting.

One of the manipulatives from MGT this unit was a small bag of different seeds. I'm not sure what all of them were, but Mr Z enjoyed putting them on the counting sheet. Mr A just played with some plastic acorns he had found in the fall decorations bin.

Mr Z filled in all of the circles on the Counting Seeds sheet from MGT. We counted each one in the boxes a few times, but then the bunnies had to come play too.

They sorted them by color around the sheet. I asked if the bunny counters were eating the seeds. They laughed and yelled No at me. I continued by asking what seeds we can eat. Mr A answered. Pickle seeds. Banana seeds; they're really tiny. Watermelon seeds.

The Dance N Beats dvd add-on comes with a guide book as well. In it there are the music lyrics, dance move descriptions and additional crafts or activities to go along with each song. Making an Acorn Wand was the extra craft we decided to do, since an acorn is a type of seed.

After I got my acorn wand finished, Mr A flipped it over, bent the pipe cleaners and said it looked like a rooster foot. I have no idea where he came up with that, but it does resemble a rooster foot.

Instead of going to bed, Mr A wanted to do a page in his More Literacy workbook. He drew a fascinating tree with branches, leaves and different kinds of fruit. Then he worked on his name and needed to include his first, middle and last.

From art projects to workbooks, Mr A is learning and getting a better understanding of writing. Sometimes he still gets confused and reads or writes starting on the right side. When I try to correct him, he gets upset for not being correct. But, it'll come. He is getting better and improving. I love watching his excitement we he just knows how to write a letter without me telling him what it looks like. Mr Z too, is getting much better at tracing and trying to stay in the lines of pictures. Art improves these skills... fine motor skills and early writing practice. Its so fun to watch their improvement and excitement about learning.