Safari Vehicle...

On Thursday of last week our Mother Goose lesson was about safari vehicles...

We started out the morning using our new safari animals that Mother Goose provided for us this month.  I asked a few volunteers to choose one yellow animal from the pile, and describe how it would make him/her feel if they saw that animal for real. (Yellow if the color we are learning about this month.)

We sang, "The Wheels on the Jeep" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."

What animal would you want to see if you were on a safari?

Mother Goose provided the kids with new journals for the month of January.  They drew a picture of themselves on the cover and the animal they would most like to see.

They also completed the small maze of  the back to get the wildebeest to watering hole...

I used tape to make a large oval on the floor (oval is the shape we are learning about this month.)  I asked the kids what they should do if there is a large animal standing on the road where they want to go.  I explained that if there is a large animal on the road, we have to sit and wait in our cars.  We placed animals on the oval path and then used toy cars to act this out.  The kids rolled a die.  If they rolled the number 5, they could remove the animal and drive forward until the next animal, and then do it again.

Mother Goose provided us with these paper magnifying glasses to go along with our theme poster for the month...

Each magnifying glass has discussion questions on the back...

The kids are always asked to describe where the object is located before matching it up with the magnifying glass on the poster.  They can use positional words to describe where the picture is (above, under, next to, between, under, etc.)

This was our book for the day...

Our book got the kids rolling with laughter!  It is highly recommended!

For our closing song I played, "Grasslands" on our Mother Goose monthly CD.  The kids danced with dancing scarves without moving their feet.  They pretended they were grass swaying in the breeze!

In the afternoon....

Mother Goose provided us with a new number 9 counting card.  I placed three cups with different amounts of animals in each cup.  The kids were asked to look at the cups and estimate which cup had 9 animals in it.

Then we used the counting card to verify if their estimates were right...

On the back of the counting card, there are a few counting challenges that the kids can do with clothespins.

Lastly, I set out the following supplies and filled a bucket with water.  The kids could play and explore and pretend the animals were playing and drinking in a watering hole!

I love when they wait so patiently with our ooze tubes!  "Patient" is our friendship word we are learning about this month!