Literacy with Mother Goose Time

This is my 100th post about our Mother Goose Time adventures!

We have loved our Ocean Commotion unit from Mother Goose Time!

Each month we receive 20 discovery bags about our unit, and each bag is filled with items to make art, crafts, games for math, and literary devices and games.

Here are some of our favorite literary tools they send us each month.

BOOKS

We receive 2 books each month.  One is a leveled reader called an "I Can Read" book.  It is filled with sight words that repeat over and over to help your child learn to read.  My girl loves these, and we read it each night as part of our bed time routine.  The other book is an actual paperback book that you read to your child.  This month is was all about ocean animals and learning to trace letters!  I caught my girl reading it by herself several times during quiet time- practicing tracing her letters and reciting facts about the animal on that particular page. 

At the back of the "I Can Read" book, is a spot for the child to draw or to work on a skill.  Can you tell what ocean animal Avaleigh drew below?

SIGHT WORDS, LETTERS, and STORY MAGNETS

To go along with the books, we also receive sight words and little picture cards.  I make these interactive which you can read about here and here.

The little picture cards match our letters of the month, and my girl says the word and the beginning sound and then places the picture on the corresponding letter.

The story board and magnets also come with our curriculum and go along with our book that MGT sends us!  There is so much to do to make our story expand beyond the words on the page. 

BOOK LIST

Each month we get a book list with suggestions to help our home library expand.  I can find a lot of these books at my local library.  Ones that I know my girl will love I'll try to order from Thriftbooks (super cheap) or look and see what Usborne might have.  Having a list to go from helps me spend my time wisely especially at the library with a newborn who can start screaming at any moment.

These are books I added from Thriftbooks based on our suggestion list by MGT.  There are so many great books we have been able to add because of these wonderful lists they send to us monthly.

LETTER COLORING SHEET

These past few months, my girl has steadily grown to love coloring.  She calls it her "homework." I have no idea why she started calling it that. lol!  This month we turned our "O" sheet into an octopus and used watercolors to paint the "W" page.  It was working on these sheets a few months ago when I noticed her coloring beginning to bloom.

MY LITTLE JOURNAL

We love this!  The reason I love it so much is I can document how much she has progressed from month to month just by looking in this book.  It gives tons of suggestions of what to do on each page, but mostly my girl just likes drawing or practicing tracing letters in the book. 

HANDS ON LETTERS

These letters are great.  On our whale day (hence the letter W) we practiced blowing like whales do out of their blow hole.  She had to have her Orca and Blue Whale come join in the action.  There are tons of activities throughout the month that allow us to use these letters, but I wrote about our Literacy Scavenger Hunt using the hands on letters here.

Fostering a love for literacy starts at such a young age.

Making learning fun and joyful will help your child cultivate that love.

I have seen so much growth this past year in her knowing all her letters, their sounds, and a few sight words.  She has started to love writing, coloring, and working with writing instruments. 

I am just so grateful we get to experience this, and I get to watch it happen.

Happy Learning!

Obedience: Jonah and the Whale

Obedience.

It's so hard to obey.

We have to die to our wants and desires and do what God wants us to do.

A heart that desires obedience is what I want for my kids.

What parent doesn't want their child to obey them?

However obedience stems from love, and in order to obey, you must know that the person you are obeying loves you and is looking out for your best interests.

Experience God's study this month is all about OBEDIENCE 

through the story of Jonah and the whale.

Our Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time came with all the supplies to make a boat and Jonah puppet, a whale, an obedience banner and a Jonah and the Whale coloring book.  Not to mention all the teacher supplies, like 4 story cards and a memory verse  (Ephesians 6:1)

Here's what we did:

First I read the story of Jonah and the Whale that is printed on the back of the 4 story cards.

There were parts we acted out, like when Jonah was thrown off the ship and into the sea, we made a throwing motion with our arms.

After reading our story, we took each story card and just focused on that part of Jonah's adventure.  

I placed the story card in front of my girl and let her color the coloring sheet the goes along with it.  While she colored, I asked questions or retold that part of the story.

 

After coloring her sheet, it was time to do the craft that went with that part of the story.

We made the Jonah and the boat puppet, the whale, and the obedience banner.

The craft pack also came with games you can play at home.  My girl is way into playing matching games lately so we played Match Jonah to the Whale at least 3 times.  

We will play more tonight when daddy comes home...I'm sure. :)

I wanted to see how much she actually retained and remembered, so I had her tell me about Jonah and the boat using her puppets.  Here's her take on it (1 minute long):

I love hearing her retell stories.

With her coloring book, we went page by page and I dictated what she said about that part of the story on that particular coloring page.  At times, I asked her questions like, "How do you think Jonah felt in the whale's stomach?" or "How long was Jonah in the body of the whale?"

  But she used some words that she heard when I told her the story, like "expelled" when describing how the whale threw Jonah up.  I was impressed.

We spent about an hour and a half doing all of this this morning.

I usually space out our Experience God stuff throughout the month, but we've been so captivated with all our Ocean Commotion activities, that our Experience God stuff has been put to the side.  

However, yesterday at church, she learned the same Ephesians 6:1 verse and made a flower with petals describing how to obey.

Today was quite the perfect day to do our Jonah study.

And there are still 16 more activities and 3 home games we haven't even touched yet! 

Want to learn more about our Experience God adventures? Click here.

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Preschool Ocean Math Games

It's been an Ocean Commotion in our house this month and we have had a blast!

Avaleigh is obsessed with Octonauts, so all these ocean activities have been right up her ally.

Mother Goose Time has sent us some wonderful math games this month along with real shells to use as manipulatives! Here's how you can recreate some of these games at home.

Fishing for Shells

Build a cave with a large sheet and hide some seashells in your cave.  You will need a die or some type of number cards.  Explain to your little that they are going to be a deep sea diver and fish for the number of shells on the card.  Roll the die, or flip a card and have your little say the number.  Then let your child go fishing for the shells in the cave.  This game reinforces a one-to-one correspondence and number identification.

It's even better when you sing a song while they are diving for shells :) 

"Dive Avaleigh Dive. Dive into the Cave.  Get your shells.  Dive Avaleigh Dive"

Octopus Suckers

Isn't this octopus graphic the cutest?  Mother Goose Time makes some amazing things.

However, you could totally draw your own octopus on a chalkboard or outside.  Get some circle markers to be your suckers.  These could be pennies, stickers, a bingo dot marker, or these great little transparent discs we got from MGT.  Roll a die and place that many suckers on the octopus' arms.  Keep going until the arms are filled or each of the 8 arms has 8 suckers. 

Daddy got in on this game.... obviously. :) 

Rainbow Fish Shark Attack

This was Avaleigh's absolute favorite game!  We have played it over and over again for extended amounts of time.  We talked about rainbow fish swimming in schools to confuse predators like sharks.  We placed all these numbered fish in a school on the floor and grabbed a shark toy.  She had to close her eyes while the shark grabbed one of the fish.  After opening her eyes, she then had to figure out which number the shark took.  Sometimes she could just spout out the answer, baffling me, but most of the time she counted one by one until she figured out which numeral was missing. 

These are just a few of the games we have played.  We get a new math game everyday- 

20 different ones in a thematic unit! But ever since we learned about the Rainbow Fish Shark Attack game, that has been on repeat demand.

Preschoolers.

You know how they like to repeat the things they love.

So fortunate she loves MATH games!

So glad MGT taught us these, and I hope you have fun teaching them to your littles!

Happy Learning!

5 Tips for Raising a Reader

Raising a reader is a daunting task.

As a former language arts teacher, book lover, and Usborne book lady, here are my top tips to
Raising a Reader!

1- Expose your child to lots of books!

Children are inquisitive.  They ask a billion questions a day.  One answer I have always tried to stray from is, "Because I said."  Filling your shelves with fairy tales and classic stories is great, but don't forget about non-fiction books that answer the questions kids are most curious about.
I love the fact that our books from Mother Goose Time could be anything.  This year alone, we have received a folktale book, an ABC book, counting book, a non fiction book about places all over the world, and so many more!

2- Read aloud at least 20 minutes every. single. day.

One of my most favorite parts of the day is curling up on the couch and reading a stack of books with my girl.  Not only is it sweet cuddle time for us, but it's exposing her to a wealth of vocabulary.
Ever since she was able to walk, if you sat on the floor, she was high tailing it to your lap with a book.

3- Engage with the text.

Reading with kids is not supposed to be a race, so don't speed read.  Stop on the pages, look at the pictures, ask your kiddos questions about what they see or notice.
One thing I love about MGT books, is they make them interactive when they can.
By simply adding a tracing element to the letters, this ABC book becomes more than just another ABC book.  It helps expose the reader to how to make letters not to mention it has some great facts about ocean animals!  A non-fiction interactive ABC book!  What's not to love?

4- Read with VOICE.

Make reading fun by changing your inflection and tone.
Differentiate between characters with different pitches.
Changing your voice helps your reader comprehend the story and makes reading such an enjoyable experience.  It doesn't matter if you think you sound silly, your reader will LOVE it!

5- Make books easily accessible. Face them outwards and place them all over the house.

We are visual creatures and drawn toward things by how they look.
Kids can't tell anything about a book by looking at it's spine, so make them face out when you can.
Put stacks in different places- not only on the shelves.  Books by the bed, in little corners of rooms, in baskets all over your home, makes them easy to grab and enjoy anywhere.

My girl loves read along books too! They are her number one thing to do during quiet time
(which is usually my blogging time).

I know I have barely scratched the surface, but these are tips that definitely work for us, and I hope they inspire you as you raise your lifelong reader.

What tips do you have?

Comment below!  I'd love to hear them <3


Happy Reading!

Preschool Ocean Art: Salt Painting

This month we are becoming Deep Sea Divers and exploring the Ocean with our Ocean Commotion Unit from Mother Goose Time.  We live about 4 hours from the coast, and my girl has yet to see the ocean; but that didn't stop us from experiencing.

We first tasted the Ocean.

After drinking regular water, we added a little bit of salt to our cup so we could taste what ocean water is like.  The face my girl made was priceless!  Wish I had my camera then.  

She obviously didn't like it, and when I asked her what it tasted like she said,"Yucky!"  

I told her that the ocean was filled with salt and we were going to make some art using salt today.

We've done salt painting in the past (a year and a half ago) when we first discovered 

Mother Goose Time, and I absolutely LOVE it!

I set up this Invitation to Create.

One thing I try to always do, especially when we paint, is use Artist tape around the edges.  It creates a nice border for her art, keeps the paper in place, and really gives a great finished look to the final piece.  

I asked my girl what 3 colors she wanted to use, and she said red, blue and yellow.

I put about 3-5 drops of our liquid watercolors in each cup and then added water.  MGT sent us a pipette, paper, the image you see on the stand and a little packet of salt.  I knew she would want more salt, so I poured a generous amount of table salt into her bowl while she grabbed a spoon from her play kitchen,  Then she started to paint.

The magic really started to happen when she placed the salt on her paper.  She loved pouring it into piles and it gave her work some beautiful dimension.  It was fascinating watching how the color would spread through the salt.  We did end up propping up her tray so the watercolor would go down the paper instead of pooling in a spot.  She painted her masterpiece for about 30-45 minutes, but it needed to dry overnight.

We looked at it this morning and it was so gorgeous!  The colors were rich and the dimension was so intriguing.  The salt had crystallized and adhered to the paper. However as I went to grab my camera to take a picture, she pressed her finger into the dried mound of salt, cracking, and breaking apart the mound!  My insides screamed "NO" as my head reminded me,

"This is her work.  Let her mess with it."

"I just want to touch it," she replied.  So she did, and while the paper was still taped to the tray, we tapped it upside down over the trash to loosen the salt bits she had scratched away.

Then something magical happened.

As we turned the tray over, we saw the most exquisite colors and craters!  I let her tap on her tray some more over the trash can, and the end result is below. 

It is absolutely gorgeous!

I have about 5 of her abstract paintings that she has created using MGT framed throughout the house.  You better believe this too will be framed!  

I could just stare and look at all these little nooks and crannies of color.

I can't wait to make some more.  Maybe I'll do my own.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook for more adventures and quick ideas to try with your learners!

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Here are links for my go-to items for our art projects:

            

Happy Painting!