Preschool Rhyme Time

Lately my little girl has been into sounding out words by syllables.

"Momma, can you say 'ev-er-ett is scr-eam-ing'?" 

Yes dear, I can.  And I can hear him.  Ugh.

By sounding out words into syllables, she can catch rhyming words 

more often since she can hear the ending sound to the words. 

On our Bridge Day, my girl built bridges between picture cards that rhymed.

This activity could be done with any pictures or objects you have that rhyme.  Just try to only have one match to each rhyme.

Mother Goose Time supplied us with a river picture, popsicle sticks, and 6 picture cards:

boat, coat, truck, duck, star, and car.  

Draw a river on a piece of paper or with chalk outside.

Place one set of card on the left side of the river, then flip over their matches on the right side of the river.  Kids flip over cards trying to find the matching rhymes.  When they find a set, they can use popsicle sticks or whatever item you have for bridge making, to build a bridge between those 2 cards.

Here's a video of me explaining how to rhyme with my girl as we played this game.

By the way, she loved this game!  We have played it several different times throughout the month.

Hope it helps you as you and your kiddos explore rhyming!

Airplane Launcher Craft

We've been studying all things transportation this month in our 

Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum, and today was AIRPLANES!

I have to admit, when I first saw this Airplane Launcher Make and Play craft, I really wanted to skip it.  It just looked like a little more work for me than my preschooler, but we went ahead and dived in and I am SOOOO glad we did! 

Check out our video...

Here's what you need:

 paper, scissors, tape, straw, and stickers (optional)

We made 2 airplanes so double the materials.  I did fold one sheet of paper in half and drew 2 parallel lines for my daughter to cut.  These became the wings for our planes. 

This activity was great for fine motor skills (cutting, peeling and placing stickers) and gross motor skills as she chased her airplane later.  

After making the wings with one sheet of paper, we rolled the second sheet into a tube and taped it down.  Then you fold one end on the tube and tape it down.  Now there is an opening for your straw to go through to help you launch your plane!   But first you have to pretend to make them fly like my girl did below ;) 

Now the super fun!  MGT sent us a numbered runway, but you could put any type of marker placement on the floor- numbered tape, little cards with numbers, or even use a numbers from a deck of cards!  Ask your kiddo to make a prediction about where their plane will land, and then place your straw into the tube.  You now have an airplane launcher ready to be blown!

5...4...3...2...1...launch!

(blow into your straw)

Was your prediction right?  Did it go further or not as far as you thought?  What could you do to make it land on the number you guessed?  Let's do it again!  Let's predict where it'll go this time.

My girl played and played and played some more with this.

She is so excited about it and already mentioned telling Daddy as soon as he gets home.

I'm glad I didn't skip this one.  I hope you don't skip it either!

Alphabet Delivery Truck

November has been a rough month on the homeschool front.

I am the Children's Director for our church and this month has been insanely busy as we have opened our new Children's area after a fire back in August. 

Not to mention the Thanksgiving holidays, my husband's 40th birthday, and planning my son's first birthday for December 1st.  Whew.... crazy....

So when my friend needed a little help with getting things done, I watched her son, but we needed to have some homeschool time too.  We just added him right on it and it was so much fun!

My girl and Joseph first made delivery trucks from our Mother Goose Time Make and Play materials.   I had to start the folding process, but they were able to fold it after I showed them where.  I helped with the tape too, but once their truck was complete, they had a blast making it deliver all sorts of things, including cookies from the play kitchen.

Later after Joseph left (and I finally got Avaleigh out of her pajamas),  we played another delivery game with her toy truck she made from the Make and Play segment.

MGT supplied us with a bunch of picture cards that started with D,U, or J.  

My girl would say the word emphasizing on the beginning sound and place it in her truck.  She would then deliver the picture to the correct letter house and place it in it's pocket.  

My girl loved this game!  She really wanted to play it again after she had finished placing all the cards in their houses, but baby brother entered the scene and knocked down the houses.  

Babies.... ugh.... can't control them nor reason with them. ;) 

Transportation Math Game

This month we have been studying different modes of transportation with our Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum.  Today we had a math game the my girl loved and we played over... and over... and over.  We ended up adjusting the game to make it a little more challenging in the math department.  Here's how the initial game went:

MGT sent us the game board, transportation manipulatives, and the cards to use in our cube.

There are 6 cards: a train, bus, ship, plane, stop sign (skip), and "all" transportation modes.

We rolled the cube and that vehicle got to move one square towards the bridge.

The train won! My girl really wanted to take the winner across the bridge.

"The ship, plane, and bus are all sad, Momma, because they did not make it to the bridge." So we played again and again, but I wanted to make it a little more challenging.

I decided to throw in another die as pictured below. 

Now we would roll to see what vehicle would get to move, but then the foam die would be rolled to tell us the amount of spaces it would move.

This quick addition allowed her to count more instead of just one.  She had to count the die and then count the squares.  We have played with these foam dice so much that she pretty much knows the "look" of each number on the die. 

Finally the ship won!

We actually rolled a 6 here for the ship and that allowed it to reach the bridge on 2 rolls. 

My girl loved this game!  We decided to show Daddy when he comes home and play again together. 

I am always so impressed with the quality of our games from MGT, and so thankful we can play some simple board games together that are perfect for her level and still can be easily adjusted to simplify or challenge if needed.

Happy gaming my friends!