Different Ways to Travel

This week with Mother Goose Time's theme On the Go, we have been exploring different ways a person can travel. We talked about cars, trucks, walking on foot, bikes and the use of animals to travel. Depending on where you live and what you can afford will dictate what you use to travel from point A to point B.

The board game for the day was called Race Track. We used a die to make our way around the track and collect as many flag cards as we could by passing the finishing line the most. The game pieces included different modes of transportation like a race car, truck, bicycle and horse.

Mr A was getting upset because Mr Z was "cheating" after we had been playing for a few minutes. Mr Z was just following the racetrack as he pleased, not paying attention to when it was his turn or how many spaces there were. He just went and went and went. So, we talked yet again about how he plays differently and if he doesn't want to play properly, just let him do his thing and ignore it. Mr A and I played our own game while Mr Z played his version.

Through MGT games Mr A is learning to adapt to his brother. Since they don't play by the same rules all of the time, Mr A gets frustrated but adjusts eventually. Even though these are just games, I think it translates to other parts of life... learning to adapt is a hard thing. So, practicing now with a game and his brother, is great preparation for when he's older. =)

After, we were done with the first round, Mr A counted everyone's pile of flag cards. He also told me who had the most, the least and the middle amount. I'm still amazed at how quick he is with his numbers. I'm kind of struggling with how to challenge him a little bit more and introduce new concepts. hmmm?

Cars Cars Cars

On the Go Day 6: CARS

Cars help us to get to where we need to go. If we didn't have a car that worked we'd have to walk everywhere. We are grateful for having a car to get us places.  Mr A says he likes to get in the car to drive to mini golf and karate. I explained that many people around the world don't have a vehicle and they have to travel by foot for the whole day sometimes to get to a store. He did not like that idea.

We got through a few activities today with Mother Goose Time since we did them right when we woke up. Mr A wanted to start with the car craft.

Clean Fuel Car was the name of the project. Mr Z wasn't really into it, but he was proud of himself for punching out the car shape and its wheels from the paper. For some reason, I've just always done it for the them. I guess in fear that if the boys tried to punch out the shapes on their own, they'd get ripped. But, they did it. Mr Z did tear one of his wheels and said It ripped, but that's alright. 

While I was helping Mr Z, or mostly watching him as he just did stuff, I talked with Mr A about what he thought clean fuel was. Fuel that's clean ... was his response. So, we talked about how some cars use special gas that doesn't pollute the air. Mr Z colored and glued in the meantime.

Mr Z was finished with his car project and was ready to cut out his cars for another activity. I was surprised that he did such a good job. He was concentrating and saying cut, cut, cut with every snip he made as close to the dotted line as he could. After the last car was cut apart, he finished with excitement, I did it Mom, I cut it.

Meanwhile, Mr A was busy coloring his car and wheels, leaving no blue paper to be seen. He did ask for help with a couple of small sections so I obliged. I also showed him how to angle his marker to make a thicker line when coloring. When he finally figured out how to hold the marker at that certain angle, he was rather happy with himself. Look mom, I'm doing it. I made a bigger line.
Sometimes the crafts just don't seem to work out how the instructions tell us. It came with a straw to attach the wheels to and to make it a little more 3d, I guess. But, Mr A couldn't figure out how to get the wheels to stay in place. Everything was moving all over the straw... so he just glued with tires to the car and called it a day.

I usually have the MGT music cd playing in the background while we are doing crafts or the boys are just having free play. Sometimes I don't even think the boys are paying attention to it because they are chatting or fidgeting around. This afternoon though, while we were driving to taekwondo, Mr A says Do you know what song I'm think of? ... The transportation song. And he starts singing... Be safe, its the only way to go. Be safe, from head to toe. Be safe, its the only way to go. Be safe, from head to toe.
Just by having the music cd playing in the background, he is hearing and remembering its message. (I need to play more music in the car... we spend so much time there and I rarely have any music on... its a missed learning opportunity.)

Traffic & Construction Signs

On the Go Day 2: Traffic Signs

We played this game several times... I printed out sheets of the traffic signs and laminated one. We took turns hiding the signs in the yard then finding them. Mr Z matched the signs and we talked about what each sign meant. Later when we had to do a few errands, Mr A recognized several from this activity and pointed them out during the drive.

The construction zone sign was a hit from MGT. The boys are still playing with it. I think because it's taped to a stick its more appealing.
After the boys tried to do some gross motor activities around the cones in the grass, they were moved to the street... because that's where cones go. Mr A decided he needed to make a road block so that they could do construction. The circle layout did not work out properly so they moved them across the street while making a pattern with the different cones. Mr A planned to wave cars on by with his sign, but none came along.
(The gross motor activity consisted of this construction and a movement cube. Mr A rolled the dice and then we all weaved in and out of the cones doing the movement. We walked backwards, tip-toed, jumped on one foot. I did get a cute video of Mr A jumping on one foot, but the file is too big. I'll have to clip it before I can upload it.) Gross motor is so important for children. They learn body awareness, control and strength. Plus it gets out built up energy! =)

Mr Z got out the sand toys and said he needed to do some construction. They stacked cones and things and got dirt out of the planter. That always counts as some type of construction, I guess.

The boys painted paper plates for a traffic light craft... that we never really finished because the paint had to dry and we went to bed. But, while painting we talked about the colors of the lights and what they meant.

Painting traffic cones was a hit. Mr Z used his as a hat and some kind of gloves. Mr A figured out that it was easier to put the cone on his hand while painting.

I love how Mother Goose Time provides all of these materials for the unit... its fantastic =)

On The Go: A New Unit with MGT

On The Go ... DAY 1: Roads

The Traffic Jam game from Mother Goose Time was a hit. I taped out a road on the coffee table with a start and finish line. We took turns pulling a card and did what it said. A sun meant to drive happily along the road. Sometimes a traffic card was pulled so we had to drive super slow for a few seconds. Other cards had accidents or animal crossings and we had to stop and wait for a certain number of seconds. We counted out loud together then moved on.

This game was actually meant to play on a larger scale, with your own body as the car to encourage gross motor and activity. But, the boys really enjoyed driving cars along the road instead. Sometimes changing an activity helps in the long run and I love how flexible the curriculum is.

Mr Z noticed that are mountains and trees next to the road on the daily topic poster. Mr A said that sometimes you can find birds or bunnies on the road and that they'd be looking for food.
PS... I think I have to put our circle time display back onto a wall. The board gets tossed around, played with and used a hiding spot. Several of our clothespins to hold up posters have busted off. I love the display board since its mobile, but its easier for the boys to play with.

Each month we get a new name tag in the curriculum. Its fun to see from month to month how the writing of each kid changes. Though, sometimes it depends on the mood they're in. Mr A decided to write out his entire name; first, middle and last. Mr Z drew circles. Then when finished with that eh scribbled out most of them.

Sometimes tire marks are left on the road. So, an activity we did was flatten out play-doh and make tire tracks. We used several different kinds of hotwheels or trucks. Mr A even matched the tracks to the tires after i had put several on the same piece of dough. Somehow, the play-doh turned into blankets and the cars were getting buried while dough was getting splattered all over the room. Oh well, they were having a great time and playing well together. Sometimes the happy play time together outweighs the mess.

This was a great craft. It had several components: cutting, planning, gluing, taping, writing. Its fun to see the differences in execution by age.
Mr A cut out his shapes carefully on the lines and it took him quite awhile. Mr Z just cut his whole paper to pieces.

While Mr A was still cutting out his traffic signs, Mr Z had already completed his whole project. Cut his traffic signs and pieces of green paper. Drizzled tons of glue all over his paper. Covered his glue with all of his pieces. Made a few marks with chalk on his paper and the cement. And was done and off playing with something else.

Is that enough glue on your paper Mr Z? ... Um No! he replied.

I was just watching with fascination and a bit of annoyance as Mr Z kept adding more and more glue to his paper. I wanted him to desperately stop using so much glue. But, I had to let myself let him do it. I realized he was watching the thin stream of glue hit the paper and was trying to fill in empty spaces. He was experimenting and using his hand-eye coordination to make the glue where he wanted it. So, having way too much glue on his paper was him learning and in the end it did me no harm.

Finally, Mr A was done cutting out his signs and vehicles so he cut out roads and planned where he wanted to glue them. He made a nice rectangle road and added the chalk lines. He glued down his traffic signs and was ready to play with his road.

What a fun first day of this new unit! This will be a great month.
We also took a field trip to the airport since their daddy had to travel for work. We watched airplanes land and take off for quite some time.