Planet Earth and "Teaching" Creative Arts

Blast Off to Space with Mother Goose Time

Planet Earth

The month of March we learned about outerspace with Mother Goose Time. The boy's interest in space varies. Sometimes they are super into the topic, other times I feel like they don't know how to relate to outerspace, so their attention span is almost non-existent. Or maybe it just depends on the day, if "school" is on their priority list. Lately their only priority is Legos.

When the topic of the day was Earth, the boys had a little more interest. 

MGT provided numbered planet cards. You were originally supposed to play a game with them, but I just put them on paper circles and put them in random order. I asked Mr Z to help put them in the order they were supposed to go, but Mr A naturally took over. Mr Z knew they were wrong, but didn't want to actually participate in putting them in the correct order. 

Mr A could tell me the names of the planets by reading the the first few letters. (Which I am inpressed about since we only started reading a few months ago.)

As a blog ambassador we are given topics to think about and reflect on each month in our blogs. Teaching Creative Arts is kind of a funny topic to me. We were asked what comes to mind first when asked about the topic Teaching Creative Arts.
I immediately think... You can't teach creative arts. It comes naturally to children. Adults are the ones that hinder the child with our personal thoughts, prefrences and expectations when it comes to crafts, projects and creativity. Children, no matter their method or developmental level, have some sort of concept of art and how it should be done... for them.
Mr Z is now 5. He has always had the cut, glue and be done in 30 seconds mentality when it comes to the art projects. In this Invitation to Create the kids were given a small paper plate and black, blue and green paper.  The inspiration photo was the planet Earth. Mr Z immediately tossed the plate aside and wanted flat paper. He basically cut the paper in half and then glued it back onto the white paper. He was done.

Little Miss is 19 months now. She tried to squeeze glue onto her paper. I helped a bit and also cut or tore paper for her. She placed a few pieces of paper but then wanted help from her brothers.

 She did like to dab her finger in the glue though.

Little Miss's Earth picture is a collaboration of all of us.

Mr A is usually the last to finish his project. He thinks a bit longer about what he wants the end result to look like. He began cutting white swirls and then carefully cutting the green and blue to glue on his plate.

Mr A's Earth picture turned into a hat with swirl ear covers.

Then he added a bill on the front to make it like a baseball cap. He also added some tape on his swirls so they provided more protection. Mr A keeps coming up with ideas and his projects evolve over a longer period of time.

The difference between the kids in the approach and outcome of the art projects is pretty neat to see. I have both ends of the spectrum... done in 30 seconds to think and create over 30+ minutes.

Over the recent years, I have had to teach myself to keep my hands out of their project and just let them create. I am here to show them how to use materials safely and help if it is asked for.

Positions and Towers

It's a Small World with Mother Goose Time

The world is so fascinating ... from the natural wonders of the world to the man-made wonders. My boys love exploring it in all ways... such as wacking bushes with sticks, climbing as high as they can on whatever they can, wacthing or playing in any type of water. The world is fun.

One of our favorite man-made wonders is the Leaning Tower of Piza. Its an interesting building by itself but its also in Italy which is part of our heritage. Mr A has always wanted to go visit Italy since that is where his Nana and Papa's family are from. So, this was an extra fun day.
We did MGT before bed that day and it worked quite well as a quiet/ settle down activity. One of the math manipulatives that was included in the month's curriculum were these small plastic people. We also received some pocket cube cards with positional words like "in, on top, under, behind." We used a small box and took turns rolling the cube to figure out where to put the little people.

I also found some other small number dice to add another mathematical element for the boys. For my 5 year old, I had him add up the two numbers on the dice and then add that many to the position on the cube.

I also wanted to do this game in real life and actually have the boys be in or on top or behind a large box... but that didn't happen.

The Invitation to Create (craft project) was to create a tower using toothpicks and these little foam pieces. I can never remember what they are exactly. So, the boys got to inventing and experimenting.

Mr Z went for sturdy. While Mr A went for as tall as it go without falling over. His took some balancing tricks.

We sure did love this day

Day and Night

Timberdoodle allowed my kids and I to review another game called Day and Night. We've always loved logic games and this one did not dissapoint.
Day and Night has a small flip book with pictures to use as a guide to build a replica with the wooden shapes on the peg board provided. The pictures are either colored with details for the Day or show just the outline of the blocks for the Night. Mr Z likes to work with the Night side of the pictures for a little more of a challenge.
The Day and Night game is included in the TImberdoodle Preschool Curriculum Kit and is recommended for ages 3+.

Mr Z was more enthusiastic about the game, just not about his brother trying to interfere aka help. This is a great little game to foster independence and to get little ones critically thinking on their own. Mr Z says he likes the Day and Night game because "I can follow the dark picture and do it so good."

My 18 month old likes to explore this game too, though I can never catch a picture of her using it. She practices fine motor skills by placing the blocks on the tall pegs. It is fun to watch her work with the game for such a long time.

Thank you Timberdoodle for such great learning options for little ones.

Mobi Kids ... a number game

I had the chance to review a new game from Timberdoodle called Mobi Kids. We've had it forever and for awhile it was shoved in the back of the shelf because life has been a little crazy. But recently we've been playing it over and over.
What a great little game this is. Mobi Kids is a game of building connecting addition and subtraction math sentences and practicing math facts within 10. I love the little whale pouch that it comes in too. Included are two sets of number tiles and a whole bunch of  =, + and - tiles.

Practing math facts has always been a struggle, but with game, Mr A has gotten faster. He's officially in first grade now, but a bit behind. This is a game that he can play on his own or with another. When I play with him, we race to see who can use all of their number tiles first.
Mr A says that he likes this game because its a "fun way to build math facts."

Also, on the instruction page there is one side with activities and ideas for younger children to use the number tiles. Mr Z is 5 and likes to play on this side.

I guess overall, Mobi Kids is a game that is a keeper in this household. It is a great homeschooling tool for our budding mathematicians.