Canteens
One thing that I completely take for granted is that my kids are not exposed to the same things I was exposed to as a young child. Call us city slickers but some things like Canteens haven't made an appearance in our days at home. So, being that we are talking about deserts and all, one would be up the creek without a paddle if they didn't have a canteen, right?
We set out making our own canteens by first painting paper plates and talking about what canteens are for. I let the boys pick out their paint colors and we went about painting! All of the materials (except paint and staples) to make our canteens were included!
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| Wes really wanted to MIX all of his colors! |
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| Brady wanted to paint a border around his |
After letting our paper plates dry, we assembled our canteens and the boys and I pretended to trek across a dry desert and take a drink!
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| The boys showing off the purdy canteens! |
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| Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! |
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| Ah! Refreshing! |
Desert Journal
Wes loves looking at his journal and talking about the things we've added to it. This week, Brady is joining us for a lot more activities and we started his journal as well.
Wes and I practiced writing "H" & "h". Being only 3, Wes' handwriting is fairly underdeveloped and pretty much chicken scratch. At this point we are doing a lot of hand over hand and giving him verbal cues for the motions. Then I let him practice "on his own". Not wanting to discourage him, we also added salt tracing of uppercase "H". I included a video of how we incorporated salt tracing so you can see how I "sing song" the verbal prompts so they are easy to remember and encouraging to Wes. I used a cheap plastic tray I picked up at Dollar Tree.
We also made 17 bugs in our journals. We practiced using our "pointers" to make 17 blue dots and we went back and added eyes and legs. We made sure to go back occasionally to count the bugs and make sure we added all 17 of them! It was interesting to see how they placed their finger prints. Wes just placed them haphazardly around the page, but my ever so cautious Brady had them go in a line, just like ants!
Sally the Camel
We read a fun little poem about Sally the Camel and talked about how some camels have one hump and some have two. So, naturally, the boys wanted to call ALL camels Sally! We made a Sally the Camel puppet with the included camel cut out. What boys don't like like making puppets??? Brady was very insistent that his camel would not have eyes. So, Brady's camel is in minimalist fashion.
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| Brady and Wes working together |
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| Wes attaching his camel's saddle pad |
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| Sally the camels! |
Say it two ways - ASL Cards
Okay, I know that Nick Jr. may be the one that coined the term Say it Two Ways, but it really got the boys attention when I asked them if they wanted to learn how to talk with their hands. What I really appreciate about Mother Goose Time is that it includes activities that are very enriching for my boys' little growing minds. We used the enclosed ASL card to learn and practice how to say "camel" in American Sign Language. We then attached it to our ASL poster in their learning area.
Photo Labels and Cards
The quality of the included materials is beyond impressive. The photo cards were very vivid, high color pictures of things we have been talking about. Wes was able to identify all of the items and we spent some time talking about them in detail. Wes kept calling the lizard iguana, and to his credit, he was technically right. We expanded on that by talking about how iguanas were a type of lizard. I already know that I've got a "questioner" on my hands! But, that's a good thing!
To make this activity easier on my little one, we looked at the label cards and I had Wes identify what the first letter of the word was. For example, boots started with "b" and then I asked him to match it with the picture of the boots. Then after we did this for all of the photos, we did it in reverse. I laid out the word label cards and then I would hand Wes a photo card. I asked him, "What is this picture? What letter does it start with? Can you find the word card that starts with that letter?"
I think that we will revisit this activity more over the month. It was entertaining for him but I can see the wheels-a-turning in his mind! It would make a great on-the-go activity! Great for putting in a ziploc bagging and tucking it away in my purse!
Leaping Lizards
Having two boys, you find yourself getting tons of gross motor practice! This activity was easy peasy but it burnt a ton of energy! I simply placed washi tape on my carpet and we took turns leaping as high and far as we could. Then we just ran and jumped for the heck of it!
We are planning a trip to the zoo to see more desert animals and visit our very own Sally! One of the best things about starting our experience with Mother Goose Time is that it has really expanded the topics and things we talk about!
If you would like to learn more about Mother Goose Time, please feel free to visit their website at www.mothergoosetime.com.
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