On Friday our Mother Goose lessons were all about moving water, and washing with water. Being that I will be on vacation next week, I tried to squeeze two days worth of lessons into one day...
The kids started out the morning working on a measuring activity in their math workbook...
On the backside of their measuring worksheet, they could choose two pieces of nature to trace and then measure and compare.
The kids cut apart bubbly washing sponges. They put them in order from longest to shortest...
In their literacy workbook they traced and wrote the following nature words...
...and matched the uppercase letters on the pot of soapy water to the bubble with the matching lowercase letter...
During circle time the kids searched the theme poster for moving water. They all found the river right away, but B pointed out the clouds. I was seriously impressed! Yes! Clouds are moving water!!!!
The kids acted out the song, "Row Your Boat" from our Nature Detectives CD. They also replaced the word "gently" with other adjectives (quickly, slowly, quietly, and loudly).
Mother Goose provided us with these animal movement cards....
The kids matched our monthly letter sticks up to the letters on our alphabet rug. Then I placed the animal movement cards face down on the floor, and asked one child at a time to choose one. The kids did the movement on the card to a letter I called out.
For example, "Slither like a snake to the letter S."
"Leap like a frog to the letter L."
Next, the kids brainstormed a list of animals that like water, and a list of animals that do not like water. I recorded their responses. Then I left the list out during free-play time with our letter sticks. I encouraged the kids to spell out the animal words using the sticks...
J and P worked together to spell out dolphin!
Next, Mother Goose provided us with a graphing poster and the following "Would you rather....?" cards...
The kids used our monthly foam shapes to mark their answers on the graphing poster. After each question was answered we read the results and identified which response was the most or least popular.
Next, Mother Goose provided the kids with new "I Can Read" books. I LOVED this book! I wish Mother Goose continued to do more with digraphs (sh, ch, th)! This is something we concentrate a lot on when the kids are writing with inventive spelling!
The kids were asked to find and underline all the words that started or ended with -sh.
Then the kids paired up with a partner and did a "Buddy Read!"
Continuing on the washing with water theme, I set out a plate with flour on it. I compared the flour to our germs...the flour and germs stick! The kids pressed their hand in the flour and then touched their hand on black paper. They could visually see how fast germs spread! They also shook hands or gave a high-five to a friend to see how easily germs spread from person to person...
Check out those amazed faces! The kids were astonished by this!
Then I reviewed the hand-washing steps and the kids washed all their germs down the drain!
We are still loving our "Hand Washing Steps" poster Mother Goose provided for us last month!
Next, I took out new germ finger puppets (monsters) and a new book I bought. I read the book and then we used the finger puppets to act out the following rhyme...
Five Little Germs
Five little germs, sitting in a row
The first one said, "On hands, I like to grow."
The second one said, "I like to fly in the air."
The third one said, "I don't care."
The fourth one said, "I travel on a sneeze."
The fifth one said, "Wash your hands? Oh, please!"
Swish goes the water
Bubble goes the soap
And the five little germs
down the drain they float.
(I got this rhyme and idea from Svetlana's blog at Buzz On In!)
I cannot tell you enough how much these kids LOVED these finger puppets!!! They were a huge hit! The book was also great - highly recommended!
In the morning we actually had a bit of rain. The rain in the backyard dried up after lunch, so we went outside for a project just before nap time. I read the following book to the kids. It reviewed the water cycle.
Mother Goose provided us with the following art supplies to make an umbrella craft...
I filled containers with watercolor paints. (I love these no-tip containers from Lakeshore Learning!)
The kids used their eyedroppers to make it look like the paint was raining!
I read the following books to the kids before nap time...
In the afternoon I set up a dish washing station in the backyard with with the sensory table filled with soapy water.
