Dancing in the Desert & with Bees and Butterflies

Dance N Beats

Fitness made fun for kids

We receive the Dance N Beats dvd and guide book with our curriculum from Mother Goose Time. It is a fantastic extra program, if I can get the boys to join me. It provides diversity for your day and gets the energy out of those wiggly little crazies.

So much is included in the guide book to enhance the theme further too.

In the beginning, there is a breakdown page of the different moves that are used throughout the dances.

 Also, is a breakdown to make a whole class out of the Dance N Beats add-on. We just usually turn on the dvd for a few and do whatever dances the boys are interested in at the moment.

My favorite part of the guidebook is the extra activities that are included with each song. There is usually a craft to correspond with the song and free dance ideas to make it come alive.

For the more musically inclined people, the book includes the actual music of each song. They are simple renditions and could easily be played on the piano. If ours was in tune and I had kept up my skills, I could play the songs myself... but I don't. It could be a fun way to put a spin on the music portion of the day.

Fast forward to the Bees and Butterflies theme for the month of April...
Today has been grey, rainy and dull. I've been in a poor unmotivated mood. I had activities from the MGT Teacher Guide, but Mr A kept changing his mind we started something. I had the Dance N Beats guidebook and DVD on the piano and decided we should look through it to find something to do. We found the page with the song Bee Body and a craft to make a bee from various shapes. Mr A started to gather the materials we would need to make a bee. Meanwhile, I turned on the Bees and Butterflies dvd.

We ended up dancing to a few of the bee themed songs. Mr A joined me. Mr Z watched from the couch, although he did do the warm-up song by bouncing and jumping on the couch first. Mr A and I always have a competition to see who can dance the best. I think it was a tie this time.
Bonus, we are so thankful that the choreographer we like is back on DVD leading the dances! (I tried to search for her name, but couldn't find it.) Her moves are fun, repetitive and don't make the boys frustrated from complexity.
Extra bonus, dancing to a few of these songs helped me be in a better mood too. Its amazing what a little bit of movement and music can do for the soul. After about 4 songs, we got back to our Bee Body craft. Mr Z was done watching anyway and kept yelling at me ... No more dancing Mom. No more!

Mr A had the idea of making his bee the same size as him. I don't know where that idea came from but he found the measuring tape and had me measure his body parts. He glued papers together, cut out some shapes and drew a face with hexagon shaped eyes. The wings were supposed to be same size as his arms, the stinger the same as his legs and the head and body are a bit off. But, he did the work himself! Its an interesting looking bee.

I helped Mr Z make his bee. I cut out shapes and he chose the colors and decided where to glue everything. He buzzed it around and flew through the house a few times.

If you just get up and do something, the day can turn out okay. We were all pretty glum, but we turned our frowns upside down and had fun moving, dancing and using imaginations to create a new craft from a picture of inspiration. What fun.

The Queen and Her Babies

Mother Goose Time provides great lesson plans in the Teacher Guide that are simple to follow. I love that I can just follow the guide exactly, or expand on the activities if needed. Many of the lessons are guided by the adult at first, but usually led by child in the end. Its amazing how the activities transform from what is written on paper to what actually occurs.

Anyway, here is what my book usually likes on a daily basis when I prep the night before. Since, I usually do the prep the night before, I don't have all the materials on-hand. So I make notes what I can substitute. I highlight the focus questions and the 'Explain' portions of factual information, it helps me remember. Then, I add activities that I come up with on my own or ideas I've seen on the internet somewhere in the Notes section. Sometimes we get to everything, sometimes we don't. Sometimes, I carry over things we didn't get done from the previous day(s). But, no matter what we do for that day... its always fun.

I don't know what it is about laundry baskets and boxes, but the boys go nuts over them. They play all sorts of things with them. It makes me wonder why they have so many actual toys.

Anyway, today we used laundry baskets and boxes as the cells of the honeycomb. I thought I had enough different sizes that there would be a few that were too small for the boys. Mr Z could fit in them all. I was planning on playing a game of 'Do I Fit?' and see if the boys were too big or small for the different honeycomb cells. They were pretending to be bees and having a great time jumping from cell to cell.

We took a break from the honeycomb cells to make our Bee Headband. Mr A made sure that I was going to be the queen bee since I'm the mom. All of the materials for the headband were included for the boys in the daily packet: chenille stems for the antennae, pompom for the top of the antennae, black paper for the stinger & other designs, and yellow paper strips for the headband.
Mr A worked hard to get his headband just right. He wrapped the pompom in the chenille stem, colored a large stripe on the yellow headband and measured his own head and stapled the ends so his band would fit.

I helped Mr Z glue on his stripes for his bee hat. He likes to tell me where to put the glue and he puts the paper in its place.
They both look pretty cute as little bees. Even our puppy Sabre had a turn with a headband; she did not enjoy it very much.

While making my Queen Bee Headband, we realized that my head was too big for the paper headband. My solution was to just tuck the chenille stems into my hair. It worked for a little while.
I asked Mr A what the queen bee's job was. His reply... to lay the eggs.

The boys buzzed around the house like little bees while flapping their arms and making sounds. Mr A was sure to mention that our whole house was actually a hive, so they'd be safe and could go wherever they needed to. (While crafting we talked about the bee development cycle and even when the babies get wings, they still have to stay close to the hive so they don't get hurt.)
They collected all sorts of yellow and orange things, placed them on the couch and then gathered them up again. The yellow items were pollen. They took the pollen to the honeycomb cells so that it could be made into honey.

While Mr A was hunting for yellow things to use as pollen, he found my cotton headband in my room. He came back excited that he had found a solution to make my antennae work better and not just stick in my hair. What a great problem solver he is.

One of the suggested activities in the teacher guide was to use different sized pompom to sort with tweezers. 15 small pompom were supposed to represent baby bees and when found, place them into the honeycomb cells or egg carton. I did not have pompoms, but I did remember I had these mini erasers: bees, butterflies, dragonflies and ladybugs. They worked just fine.
Mr Z kind of did whatever he wanted and tried to hoard them all in his hands after using the tweezers for 2 minutes. I tried to get him to place them on the number card to count with me, but he wasn't having to do with any of that.

Mr A did a great job of sorting the different insects into the egg carton though.

Mr A took the insect erasers outside. Apparently, the bees and butterflies liked me for a little bit. But then they all flew away to gather for an insect meeting on the ground in the shade. I wasn't allowed to know what the meeting was about.

I'm glad I get to be the Queen Bee to these little baby bees. They drive be batty, but it is so fun to watch them learn, grow and be kids.

Prayer vs Wish

On Sundays I have made a flimsy commitment to try to do our Experience God from Mother Goose Time more efficiently. Hopefully, I'll be able to be better at it... for the kid's sake. They need to know these stories and values and I am terrible at actually talking about these sorts of things. The theme for April's Experience God is God Asks Me to Pray. It features the Easter Story, so on Easter we ran through the poster cards and read the story and a few activities.

This week on Sunday, we talked more about prayer and what it is. We talked about how prayers can be said at any time and in any way. Mr A was a bit interested and surprised that Jesus and Heavenly Father can hear prayers even if you whisper them or say them in your mind/heart.

We played a game of hide-and-seek with letter cards that spelled out 'pray'. There were two sets, so the boys matched the letters as they found them from around the yard.

The guidebook gives the example that prayers are like bubbles. No matter the size of the bubble, it will float in the sky towards the heavens just like how prayers of all sizes reach Jesus and Heavenly Father no matter what. Of course, the bubbles make the boys crazy and they popped them like mad-men.

We talked about how Jesus wants to hear everything that we desire and are thinking. We have to ask him help in order to receive it. By being able to pray whenever, however and anywhere we want to, we are able to communicate with him. We talked about things we could pray for: to help others, to feel safe, to be healed quicker from sickness, to have patience and all sorts of other things.
In our individual packets of materials for Experience God, there were some to make a prayer basket. A plate to decorate how you wish to fold into a basket; we painted them.

After they were dry, later that evening we finished our baskets. Mr A cut out his prayer bees and labels. They read "Pray for Me" and "Pray for Others."

After Mr A's was complete, he needed to say a prayer for his friend who wasn't feeling well. He also prayed for his Daddy who has been working long hours and is very exhausted. Mr A whispered softly and I have no idea what he actually said. When he was finished he was happy that even though he talked softly, Jesus could still hear what he was saying and that I could not.

He let me write the main gist of his prayers on the backside of the bee card. He slipped it inside his prayer basket for the bees to deliver to Jesus (even though He already knows, it is just reassurance.)

Then when we were all done, Mr A kept wanting to say more prayers. He said he was praying that him and Mr Z could run fast like cheetahs. He said a few more silly prayers and we had to talk about the difference of a wish and prayer. That's kind of a hard thing for a little person. A wish and a prayer are so similar, its hard to understand. We'll work on it.

But, with this week's lessons we learned that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father hear your prayers no matter what and that you can pray for yourself or others.

I'm kind of excited that this lesson has sparked more an interest. Mr A has been asking more questions about Jesus and prayers. We will all learn together, since I'm not very good at this stuff either.

Bees Have Homes Too

We jumped back to week one from the Bees and Butterflies unit from Mother Goose Time. It starts with the different homes that bees may live in. This month we are bouncing around the curriculum... and I love that with this program, you can.

I asked Mr A if he thought all of the pictures on the topic poster were actual bee homes or hives. He said no at first. But I explained that they are different types of bees and they live in different houses depending on where they live and what kind of bee they are. He was impressed and said he didn't know there were other types of bees. We compared different bee homes to the different types of homes that humans live in and that helped it connect that not all homes have to look the same. (By the way, Mr A loves checking the wall for the new topic poster to see what the subject of the day will be. If there's not one up, he asks "What are we learning about today Mom?")

We explored the hexagon shape that appears in the beehive. Mr A found the shape all over our circle time materials hanging up on the wall. There were some on the calendar, on the theme poster and on the interactive poem poster.

Mr Z loves these simple rhymes. I always forget how much. He enjoys them even better when I use hand motions or different voices. He smiles the whole time. On this poster, the little bees are velcroed to the poster to take on and off as you read the poem. The boys loved helping put the bees in the right place... I guess they had specific places where they needed to be.

Each month, we receive a new nametag for each kid. Its fun to see how they change, especially with what kind of mood they are in. These nametags are used throughout the month in a few various activities. It also helps them recognize and practice writing.

Mr A wanted to paint his name today. I'm having trouble getting him to practice his last name. Because its new and he's not that good at it, its a struggle to get him to practice. He doesn't like doing things if he thinks he can't do it well enough. This trait makes teaching him a task sometimes. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with it. Oh well. It will come. I haven't been inspired well enough yet for that particular problem.

Mr Z just painted, using his favorite color, red. Then used marker to color it even more. Sometimes Mr Z will let me help him write his name but most of the time, he just scribbles around.

The craft for today was to make a beehive. A small square of bubble wrap was included with the beehive shape to create a new texture using paint. Mr A didn't want to do that. He wanted to draw the hexagon shape on his paper. He tried drawing one on his own and got frustrated that it was exactly how he envisioned.  So, he found a stencil with shapes that I had completely forgotten about. "I have the perfect thing to make the shape with." Mr A traced the hexagons all over his beehive. Good problem solving and finding a way to make his idea work.

 I found this game, Honeybee Tree and we had to have it for this month's theme. The boys love it. Today they found their own ways to play.

I've noticed that this month the boys are particularly interested in learning. I think they really enjoy the Life Sciences and learning about animals. These types of things are the most relate-able to them. One of their favorite shows is Wild Kratts and Mr A is always referring back to something that he learned about an animal from that show.
Good job MGT! This theme is a hit. We love learning about nature.