The Start of our "Sights and Sounds of Winter" Unit: Drums...

On Wednesday we started a new Mother Goose curriculum theme:  The Sights & Sounds of Winter!
Every month Mother Goose provides teachers with a "Teacher Guide" containing each daily lesson plan, and a "Planning Journal" that contains each week at a glance...

Each month of curriculum is broken down into four smaller units...

The month at a glance from the "Planning Journal."

They also provide a blank copy in case a teacher might want to change things to their timetable or tailor it to their needs...

This is my favorite!  The "Planning Journal" also provides this "Overview of Child Projects" page.  This allows we to decide ahead of time what projects I will want to keep for each child's Memory book.

A week of lessons...

This is one day of lessons...  Mother Goose even writes the questions that I can ask the kids at the beginning of each activity to get them thinking at a higher level.

This is also provided each month.  It is the gathering list.  It tells me what extra materials I will need and possibly have to purchase for each month...

Mother Goose also writes the month parent newsletter for every teacher!  This is priceless!

Every month of curriculum includes a CD that includes all the songs we learn.  The Dance 'n' Beats is an added cost, but is perfect for rainy days or when the kids are feeling restless.  The songs on the Dance 'n' Beats DVD are the same songs from the monthly CD.

Mother Goose provides all of our circle time display items as well (minus our weather and season board, although Mother Goose does provide their own weather component)...

(I have not posted our December sight words yet.)

On Wednesday we started our mew unit with our lesson on drums...

During circle time I gave the kids the white paintbrush from our circle time display and asked them to find something in the room that was white and tap it like a drum.  We also sang our "W-H-I-T-E" song.

We sang...  Then we ...

Mother Goose provided each child with a new name tag to practice writing their name on....

I encouraged my group of kids to write their first and last name and practiced counting the syllables in each by clapping to the beat...

For an added cost, Mother Goose also writes a "More Math" and "More Literacy" workbook for each child.  These have been SO AWESOME to have!  I never have to worry about making copies of additional supplemental work!

On Wednesday the kids started with the first page in their literacy workbook...

The kids also completed these two pages from their math workbook...

Mother Goose provided us with the supplies to make this super fun drum craft...

Leave it to Mother Goose Time to make a craft an educational activity!  They also provided us with these photo cards.  The hand was for "clap," the foot was for "stomp," and the drum was for the child to use their drum craft.  I encouraged the kids to make a pattern with the cards and then perform the pattern. 

This was our book for the day.   I was surprised to learn that about half of the kids did not know what a "band" was.  It was a great learning opportunity!

The kids also worked on a Christmas stocking craft that I supplied...

They cut out their stocking and then practiced sewing it together with yarn...

They drew a picture of something they want to ask Santa for Christmas.  They cut out their picture and glued it to the inside of their stocking...

Then I helped them complete the sentence, "This year I am hoping Santa stuffs my stocking with...."