Doors and Windows...

On Monday our Mother Goose topic for the day was doors and windows.  Sounds like a silly topic for the day, but you would be surprised at home much the kids learned!

  We started our morning working on a few pages in our workbooks.

Letter Ff...

 Letter Gg...

 Connect the dot...

 Color the matching picture...

 The kids also worked on their favorite number in their journals.  They circled their favorite number and then wrote the number word.  They drew the same amount of windows and doors on their paper.  Then they completed the following sentence: "There are __ doors and windows."

A lot of the kids chose the same number as their age.

 During circle time we added the letter F to our alphabet house...

 I gave each child four Popsicle sticks and challenged them to make the letter F or the number 4 with their sticks.

 Then we sat in a circle and sang "The Door in the House" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."

"The door in the house goes open and shut, 

open and shut, open and shut.

The door in the house goes open and shut,

when (Name) goes to school."

I invited the child whose name was called to walk around the circle, and then go back to their spot.

Next, we went upstairs to count how many doors and windows I had.  First we estimated, and then we counted.  We were all surprised to learn I had more doors than windows!

 We looked at the locks on different windows and doors.  We discussed how unsafe it is to play with locks!  They should be left alone at all times!

Mother Goose provided us with these supplies to make a 3-dimensional house!  I was a little worried going into this project, because I wondered if everyone would need my help.  The kids surpassed my expectations!  They did a great job!  While doing this project we talked about why roofs are slanted.

 Busy at work...

 Even my soon to be 3rd grader enjoyed this project!

 We put all of our houses together to make a neighborhood! (See the bottom of this post to see how we played with these houses outside!)

Next, Mother Goose Time provided us with these fun doors...

 On the back of each door there was a picture of an animal who we pretended was living inside.

 I set all of the doors on the floor.  I chose a door, but did not tell which one I was thinking of.  I gave one clue at a time about the door I chose.  The kids removed the cards that didn't match the clue.  I gave many clues to narrow down the doors.  The kids turned over the last remaining door to reveal the animal living inside, and then acted like that animal.  This was a fun game that took some guidance, but the kids LOVED it.  My third grader eventually took over and had fun giving clues!

Mother Goose Time provided us with new plastic toy keys!  We compared these keys to real keys.  I explained how a key works exactly, and then we imagined what would happen if we ever lost a key!

 

 A few volunteers worked at creating groups with the keys.

I asked P to create groups of 10...

 Groups of five...

 Groups of two...How many groups total are there?

 Next, I set out the play-doh supplies for the kids to play in with our new plastic keys!

 They instantly made imprints in the play-doh with the keys...

 Then I started to see animal creations using the keys as "feathers" and other details...

 I also heard the kids make homes for their animals, and lock them in or out with their keys!

 B is so fascinated with these play-doh squirters!

I surprised the kids with this new Melissa and Doug dollhouse toy with keys and real working doorbells!!!

The kids had to find the right key for each door by matching up the number on the house to the number on the key.

 I also took out our locking puzzle!  There are lot's of different kinds of locks around us!

 These were our books for the day.  Both were PERFECT!

 This book helped us to look at the different parts of a house!  It also pointed out that one room's floor, can be another room's ceiling!

 I also surprised the kids with this NEW DOLLHOUSE!!!!!  This was pretty exciting!  I have been wanting a dollhouse for the daycare for quite some time.  This Mother Goose theme gave me the perfect reason to buy one!  I really wanted a dollhouse that was made of wood, was gender neutral, and also included multicultural dolls.  This matched my criteria perfectly.  I purchased it from Constructive Playthings.

The kids bedroom...

Master bedroom...

Bathroom...

Living room...

Kitchen...

 I bought four different sets of family: dark skin, light skin, Asian, and Latino.  These are really nice...the clothes do not come off (which is good in my opinion), and their legs are bendable!

The kids loved it and played with a ton during their free-play time!

In the afternoon I wanted the kids to be able to play with their paper bag houses, but it was so beautiful outside and we didn't want to stay inside.  So we took all of block center toys outside and made a city/neighborhood on the patio!  The kids were engaged for nearly an hour!!!

This house craft touched on many learning domains from our Early Childhood Indicators of Progress!  So often Mother Goose will offer a project idea that does this.

1.Social and Emotional Development: Participating in a group, developing awareness and acceptance of each other's feelings and ideas, and using words to resolve conflicts.

2.Approaches to Learning:  approaching task with flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.
3. Creativity and the Arts: using a variety of materials for creative expression, showing others about what they have made, and sharing ideas and thoughts about art and their likes and dislikes in creative expression.

4. Language and Literacy Development: Recognizing and naming letters or words on provided RV road signs.

5. Mathematical and Logical Thinking: Making comparisons in size, and demonstrating an awareness of numbers on houses (addresses).

6. Fine Motor Development: Exploring and experimenting with tools that develop small muscle control such as, scissors, glue, markers, car tracks, etc...

 **FYI - Our potato science experiment project majorly failed.  Our potato started to rot, stink, and make mucus!!!  Ewww!  Unfortunately, we had to throw it away.  I am wondering if any other fellow Mother Goose Time teachers had any luck with this one...