On Tuesday we started a new Mother Goose theme: Nature Detectives! I am so excited about this theme because it forces us to get outdoors more this summer! There is such a rich amount of learning that can take place when you place a child in a learning environment that is surrouded by nature. Unfortunately for us we cannot leave my backyard. That is why it is so important that you get your child out this summer to see and experience all that they can get their hands on! Here are some ideas you can experience with your child...
- Check out the leaves, bark, branches, and seeds of different trees.
- Head to a zoo or farm and check out the different animals.
- Head to a marshy area or pond and check out the geese and ducks.
- Go to a flower or vegetable garden and check out the fruits and vegetables being grown...maybe go strawberry and raspberry picking.
- Go to an orchard and check out the apple trees in the summer time...observe how they are different than the fall time.
- Go to a lake and get out on the water...feel the breeze on your face.
- Walk along a river and explore all that you can find...throw rocks in the water, how big of a splash can you make?
- Go to a grassy meadow and observe the grasshoppers and butterflies.
- Maybe you can even see a mountain or ocean this summer!
- Observe the clouds, the birds, the rustling of the leaves in the wind, etc.
- Most importantly slow down, enjoy the views, and breath in deeply. Your child will only be young once, so try to experience life through the eyes of your child. You will be thankful you did!
This is the weekly breakdown of the theme. Unfortunately, we will not be able to complete days 16-20 because I will be on vacation that week.
Mother Goose provides us with a monthly newsletter in every box of curriculum. I love this because it keeps the parents informed, and it saves me the work of writing one!
The kids started their morning working in their new monthly workbooks. They practiced writing their name and drawing a picture of themselves in their literacy workbook...
They also wrote the numbers 1-20 in their math workbook...
During circle time we discussed what animals we think can climb a tree. I recorded the kids responses...
Mother Goose provided us with this theme poster and magnifying glass for the month of July...
I asked all the kids to look at the poster closely with the magnifying glass. One volunteer looked closely at the trees. We discussed all the different colors and shades of colors found on the trees.
The kids pretended to climb trees as we listened to the song, "Climbing Up a Tree" on our new Mother Goose Nature Detectives CD.
Mother Goose provided us with these new name tags...
I wrote the kids name once, and asked them to write it again. I asked the older kids to try to pay close attention to the size of each letter in their name.
We cannot exactly climb trees, but we can climb steps! I asked the kids to count the letters in their name on their nametag. They climbed the same number of steps. After everyone did this, we could visually see who had the most and least amount of letters in their name!
Mother Goose provided us with these supplies to make a koala puppet! Koalas climb trees!
I loved seeing all the different ideas the kids had to offer to this project. N wanted a tail on the back of his puppet...
Before heading outside the kids helped me make salt/flour play-dough with water...
We brought our play-dough outside and instead of using our traditional play-dough tools, I asked the kids to find items in nature to play in their play-dough with. I encouraged them to make critters that can climb trees.
The kids had so much fun, and they were busy for quite some time...
K made a spider...
After our play-dough activity, we brought out our koala bear puppets. The kids imagined their koala bears were climbing the trees...
We checked back on our masking tape spider web...
...we caught an ANT!
I took out our puppet theater and the kids put on shows with their koala puppets!
During the month of July Mother Goose has provided us with small paper bags with labels that number 1-20. They have asked us to put the same amount of something from our environment in each bag every day. The kids can reach inside the bag, feel the item, and guess what it is.
Today I put in 1 flower...
Mother Goose has also provided us with these letter sticks. I placed them in a green cup. We will pull out two per day and move them to the red cup. When the kids choose a letter they will try to find something in nature that begins with that letter. This will be a fun daily activity to reinforce our letter recognition.
N chose the letter K. Instantly the kids thought of "kite." I told them a kite is not a part of nature, but the wind that carries a kite is!
R chose T for trees!
These were our books for the day...
I surprised the kids with this new tree-house from Lakeshore Learning! Being that we learned about houses last month, I had to buy this tree-house to go along with our new dollhouse. I acted fast when I found out these were being discontinued!
It was a big hit with the kids!
Exciting news! We have one chrysalis in our butterfly tent! Also, the company is sending us more caterpillars because we only had one that lived.
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