Postcards from MGT

Ocean Commotion with Mother Goose Time

and learning about mail

This month has been busy with our beach field trips. Getting behind on lessons is easy to do and its also easy to get so busy that you don't see some of your loved ones for weeks at a time.

Luckily Mother Goose Time provides a postcard for each child in the curriculum each month. It's normally in a daily bag towards the end of the month.

One side is blank for the child to draw a picture corresponding with the montly theme. The other side has a place for a note, address and stamp.

Mr A got busy drawing some of favorite sea creatures.

Little Miss got busy covering her postcard with scribbles on the front and back.

Mr Z made all sorts of sea creatures: a dolphin, sea anenome, diamond fish, sea snakes and a crab.

With the help of our awesome neighbor, he has really begun to want to spell and read and write. Mr A is in the phonics stage of his writing. He reads level one books and is working on sight words. Writing is slower and he sounds out the words carefully... sometimes a little too carefully and ends up adding sounds that aren't really there. With the MGT postcard, he was able to come up with a note himself and write it on his own. A simple activity to cultivate independence and ownership of his literacy skills.

After an address and the stamp were put on his card, he ran it straight to the mailbox. He's anxious for the recipient to recieve it.

Jupiter

Gas Planets with Mother Goose Time

Jupiter from Blast Off to Space

Week 3 of Blast Off to Space was all about the gaseous planets in our solar system. The boys found it interesting that the gaseous planets have rings around them; Jupiter is the largest of them all, Saturn can float on water, and Neptune is blue because it absorbs the red light and bounces the blue light back.

I loved watching Little Miss engage with the paint and the sponge during this Invitation to Create. This was a new experience for her. She dove right in and dabbed yellow everywhere. She began mixing colors and scooching closer and closer to the different colors. Before I knew it, Little Miss was covered in paint.

Her curiousity was a joy and I think she loves all things art, mostly because it's an uninterrupted mess making time. Little Miss practices a lot of cause and effect and enjoys seeing the results.

Mr A practices more discipline in his art. He carefully decides how to execute his vision and adds his own creative twist when trying to "copy" the inspiration photo that comes with the curriculum. Mr A takes his time and one of my favorite things that he now does while creating is narrate what he's planning to do. "I left this spot blank for the red dot and then I will fill in around it."

Here are the 3 kids' creations. Mr A on top, 7.5 years. Mr Z in the middle, 5 years. Little Miss on the bottom, 19 months.
I love the difference in all of their work. Mr A used the most texture with dabbing the sponge and swiping it. Mr Z was done in 30 seconds like usual and is fairly minimal. He didn't really want to sit there and do a project anyway. Little Miss had a great time dabbing her sponge all over and placing the red dot stickers everywhere.

The outcomes are beautiful for this project. I'm so glad I learned to keep my opinions out of their creations. This is their work, not mine. Like I said in a previous post, you can't really teach creative arts. You can encourage it.

Exploring Space

Blast Off to Space with Mother Goose Time

The month of March was all about Space with Mother Goose Time. Week 4 incorporated ways to explore and observe space through rocket ships, observatories and what its like to be an astronaut.

One day a week we have been going to a local farm to learn about the elements and farming: fire, earth, water and air. When we were talking about the air, an activity that was done was paper airplanes and their aerodynamics. That fit perfectly with our day about Rocket Ships.

The Make & Play craft was to make a rocket ship kite. The boys weren't really that into it, so I only got this one picture of Mr A coloring his pieces. Mr A did finish his and run it around the yard for a few minutes to make it fly.

Little Miss likes to draw and will color on anything... including my Teacher Guide. Oh well, whatever keeps her out of the boys projects. She does know how to get in their way and make them mad. Life is her canvas and she knows how to make it beautiful. I just let her have a good time.

We always have fun with the manipulatives that are sent in the monthly curriculum. March's Blast Off to Space included these transluscent pattern blocks. Photo cards were included in the Daily Packet of the blocks placed in different rocket ship shapes. We took turns rolling the pocket cube and creating our own rocket ships with the pattern blocks according to the picture that was showing.

Little Miss was really good at destroying our creations, so the game didn't last long. Keeping her occupied or involved without ruining everything is quite a trick. The boys get quite aggitated at her. Lately, doing activities has been a challenge and cut short with the little tornado of destruction.

But, despite all of the messes and flying pattern blocks, Mr A was able to create a fun design with almost all of them. Even though it is nowhere near space related, Mr A likes to come up with patterns and designs using these blocks.

Getting Mother Goose Time accomplished has been tricky with a tolddler. Sometimes it takes less than an hour with so many disruptions for the 19 month old. She may like the Little Goose add-on that can be utlilized if I order that... but she likes to be in the action... and then destroy it. Lol.

Even though this day was rather short for us, the boys did make the connection or already know that rocket ships are used to "explore outer space and visit other places really far away"... and to find out "if there is life somewhere else out there."

Literacy at the Beach with Letter S

Ocean Commotion with Mother Goose Time

Field Trip to the Oceanside Harbor



I have never been good at teaching literacy or reading or language arts in general. We are a family that likes math, science and art much better. 

Since Mother Goose Time's theme this month is all about the ocean, we had to take a few trips to explore it in person since we are so close. It is great being close to so many resources for learning. During the month we have covered topics such as the seascape & the oceanic zones, large and small creatures and ways to protect the ocean and its animals. All of these things were mentioned briefly while we were there playing and observing and to connect our learning with the MGT theme.

I realized while we were at the beach that there are so many things there that start with the letter S. I began to point them out and hint to the S word that I spotted and both boys were quick to answer. I suppose teaching letters and sounds is more fun when we take it into the real world.

Here are the S words that we found. I spelled some words in the sand or we emphasized the letter sound and talked about the definition after a word was mentioned.

Surf: I explained that the surf is the area of water they are playing in or it can be a sport or activity that you do in the waves.

 Search or spy: Little Miss was excellent at searching for tiny things in the wet sand.

 Snack: You always have to stop for a snack after some good hard playing at the beach.

 Seagull: You always have to chase the seagulls when they're after your food or just hanging around close by.

Seagulls in the surf

 Skeleton: Mr A found some skeletons of tiny sea creatures while digging in the sand. A crab leg and shrimp tail.

 Seaweed: So many kinds of seaweed. There was dried seaweed on the sand. A huge stem the Mr A pulled from the surf.

 This was a giant line of seaweed or kelp. There are these type of kelp beds all over our coast.

 The boys dragged it around all over.

 Sand: So much sand! Playing in the wet sand and rolling in the dry sand is always a good time.

Little Miss had a different perspective while spotting a sailboat in the distance.

Mr Z did a great job practicing writing his name in the sand. He does it backwards, but its a good first step to doing it himself. I am proud of him.

The ocean is the ultimate real-life sensosry bin!

Honestly, I hated the thought of the beach for such a long time. I hated everything about the beach and would avoid it all costs... the hauling of all the junk, the sand, the sun, the itchy water, the mess. But, with the thought "Put your feelings aside, the kids have so much fun" in mind, we have had such a great time these few times we've made the trip to the beach. Despite the mess of sand getting absolutely everywhere, the beach is a fantastic place to visit. Field trips are my favorite way to let the kids connect to the theme that we are working on.

I was proud of Mr A because by the end of the days that we spent at the beach finding things that started with the letter S, he was finding them on his own or trying to spell them and even repeating them when we got home while emphasizing the S sound.

Learning doesn't have to be only done in a school or even at home... we love taking learning into the world. I'm glad this Ocean Commotion theme allows us to get into nature and experience it first hand since we live in a place that lets us.