SImple Games with MGT

The manipulatives that Mother Goose Time provides with the curriculum are so versatile. We love that you can do anything with them. One of the fun things that Mother Goose Time does sometimes is create games to go along with the manipulatives.
This one was for the day we learned about Peacocks.
Using the foam pocket cube we took turns rolling pictures of a peacock with different patterns using the links. Then we had to match the pattern on the larger peacock photo.

 Mr Z was busy making necklaces with the links while it wasn't his turn.

 Mr A liked the most intricate pattern the best since it used all of the colors.

From a simple game like this there's more learning going on that you would think. I was surprised that both boys actually tried to follow the exact placement of the links, making them curve when it was shown on the picture in the pocket cube. Sometimes we had a hard time telling the red from orange and blue from purple in the small photo, so you really had to concentrate on the picture to figure it out.

PS, while learning about peacocks with Birds and Eggs thematic study, we found out that a female is called a peahen and the babies are peachicks.

Eggs: a simple Invitation to Create

Eggs with Mother Goose Time
A Simple Invitation to Create

We've been learning about birds this month: In the nest, Bird Part, Exotic Birds and Tree Birds. One of the days was EGGS of course. Since Easter was so close to the day we did Eggs, we had a few egg hunts with plastic eggs. Needless to say, they knew where all the good hiding spots were by the time Easter actually got here. We also talked about other animals that hatch from eggs, bird egg predators, why birds hatch from eggs and all sorts of egg things.

We received an Invitation to Create in the daily bag from our Mother Goose Time curriculum. It was simple. A photo of some eggs, egg shaped paper, an egg carton, pompoms and clothes pins. We clipped the pompoms to the clothes pins to use as the "brush".

Mr Z needed color. Mr A chose brown since he likes to try to make his project look like the photo.

Mr Z had a great time using the pompom clipped on the clothes pin as a stamper. I like his care-free way of approaching craft projects. He just does things whether he has a reason or not. He doesn't take much time to do things.

"I'm painting my pompom with the brush Mom." Mr A

"I need to use a brush to paint mine too." Mr Z. He needed to use a brush after seeing his brother do it.

Even though this was a super simple project and it didn't take much time, they had their own way of doing it. This was pretty straight-forward and didn't take much thought... you just decorate paper shaped like an egg. I guess a lot of people/kids are having a hard time with the Invitations to Create... I've read some crazy things about them in some of the groups I'm in on FB. But, we love them. Sometimes you do need to think outside of the box or I need to step in and give ideas on how to use some of the materials. I have noticed though, that since MGT has started including this method in the curriculum, my boys aren't that excited to keep the projects. Previous years they needed to keep everything and I still have a box with things we made our very first month. Oh well, we have fun doing them and the boys let me put their things in the recycle box earlier than they used too. Is that bad to say? I don't know. We create and recycle more now instead of create and keep.

Well, Happy Creating.

Duckling Chain: an Exp Baby activity

Experience Baby curriculum from Mother Goose Time

Birds & Eggs

So, as a Blog Ambassador for MGT, I received some happy news... that because I have a little one that fits the age range of their new Experience Baby curriculum, we would receive a few boxes to test out. I am so excited for it to be here. I did have some pictures taken of what all comes in the box, and have a separate post planned for that, but I just haven't gotten around to actually doing it, plus the pictures aren't very good. So anyway ...

May was our first month, Birds & Eggs. 

From one of the activity cards that is included, we found one to do with Little Miss called Duckling Chain. I figured it was one that the boys could help participate in. They were pretty excited that Little Miss had her very own Mother Goose Time activities.

On each activity card there are three levels or versions of the activity.. young infant, older infant and young toddler. These are geared for ages 3 months to 18 months.

I found some rubber ducks for her to explore. And also some links to make a chain. Luckily the duck head fit perfectly through the link.

She liked investigating the duck and the links. We eventually did get her to scoot around after the duck while it was hooked around the links. A few times of cat and mouse after them was enough for her. The boys were pulling the duck too quickly and she would get frustrated.

Little Miss did not like the duck being taken away to hide it under the blanket. She was not ready for the hide and seek game... even when she saw one of us put the duck under the blanket.

She also did not so much interference from her brothers. They were trying to helpful and place things in her hand, take it out of her hand, set things in front of her. It was rather stressful. I was going a little crazy too.

We do like the Experience Baby activity cards for the new ways to play with Little Miss. Even when you have older kids, sometimes you just forget how to really interact with an infant.

PS sorry these pictures are terrible. I wasn't having much luck with taking photos and keeping the boys from getting in the way and helping Little Miss.
In other news, Little Miss loves the manipulatives. Especially when they are in bins. Anything in a bin really because dumping them all out is so much fun.

I found a few bears for her to play with since they are the biggest and won't get stuck in her mouth. She loves chomping them and banging them on the floor.

Lots of Nests

Birds and Eggs Thematic Study with Mother Goose Time

(warning: lots of pictures =) )

We had a great talking about (and making) bird nests on our first day of Birds and Eggs from Mother Goose Time.

While Mr A was at school, Mr Z, Little Miss and I went to the park to collect some twigs.

Mr Z decided that the empty snail shells would be the eggs inside the nests that we make.

Our first nest was made of a paper bowl with glued on twigs. Mr Z helped break them apart while I glued. We talked about different sizes of nests that are made by birds... ranging from one inch to 10 feet.

"This is our bird nest masterpiece, with a butterfly friend."

Our next activity was a fun one. Mr Z and I enjoyed playing outside for a bit. A photo of a nest was included in the Daily Bag and we used some numbers on the Foam Pocket Cube. We took turns rolling the cube and adding that number of sticks to the nest.

When we were done playing, we just added the rest of the sticks and decorated the nest. (The snail shells are the eggs.)

Included also was a poster of a nest with "Who is in the nest today?" at the bottom. We decorated some paper eggs and added them to the nest poster.

The Invitation to Create... This we did after Mr A got home from school. I added the tissue boxes to the materials to use. Mother Goose Time provided the photo, brown bags, colored paper, popsicle sticks and confetti paper.

Mr Z cut his box completely open and glued things on the inside. He decided he was making an egg trap instead of a nest... ?

Mr A was just taping a bunch of stuff to his box. He covered the tissue opening so nothing would fall through. I had interrupted him from cutting before because he looked unsafe from the way he angling the scissors. After he explained what he was doing, he says "You know, we can have different ideas about what we are making. Its ok to do different things. I'm not making mine like yours." He was very right. I was trying to get him to cut his box like I did, but that was definitely not his plan.

Then Mr Z taped it back up into a sort-of box shape.

And added some cut up paper to use as treats, or bait, to get the eggs to come better. He put food in his trap. =) So creative.

Here's the inspiration photo of a nest with baby birds and our nests: Mr Z's trap, my nest and Mr A's nest with a lift-open lid.

Mr A also added a perch to his nest "because birds like to sit outside their home."

I was going to save painting our eggs for the nest for the actual Egg day, but the boys convinced me to do right then. So, we painted wooden eggs for our nests too. Mr Z chose gold, which he painted over later to make plain white. Then he covered the whole thing with tape because he had too much paint that wouldn't dry. So the tape covered the white paint so it wouldn't get all over his hands.

That logic!... so funny.

Mr A chose plain white.

My egg and nest.

Well, we had a fun day making different kinds of nests and adding our own flair to them.