Preschool: Safari Beetles

What is in our own backyard that is similar to what we could find on an African safari?

Well, there's grass.... trees... water.... birds... and even beetles!  

There are over 350,000 different types of beetles!  In our Invitation to Create, we designed our own beetle today to add one more to the mix.  It was so much fun and kept my preschooler engaged for at least 45 minutes!

Can I just say that Mother Goose Time makes it so easy for us to do this!

They sent us everything pictured below except the scissors, glue, and hole punch.  

Those black things, my friends, are black twist ties!  Do they even sell those in packages at Walmart? Because seriously, those twist ties were my girl's fave. 

We first looked at the inspiration photo, and I asked my girl some questions 

that were in my Teacher Guide:

- What colors do you see on the beetles?

(she pointed and said all sorts of colors)

-What shape is a beetle? What shape do you want your beetle to be? 

(Oval! Momma, can you help me make an oval?) 

-How many legs does a beetle have?

(after counting, she said 6 legs and 2 antennae)

-What could you use the twist ties for?

(We can make an antennae!)

-How will you use the hole punch?

(I don't know how to use that. Can you help me?) 

I showed her how to make an oval by folding her paper in half and drawing a semi-oval on it. 

She then cut along the lines.

My hole punch is super old school and pretty hard to squeeze.  She told me where she wanted the holes and placed her paper in the puncher while I held it.  I just did all the hard work squeezing :) 

Her beetle had a billion holes! Not gonna lie... my hand hurt a little.

Then it was time to bedazzle her beetle!  MGT sent us sequins which were perfect for making 

"two red eyes and a red smiley face."

I keep telling my girl,"One dot does a lot!" when referring to the amount of glue, 

but I guess "dot" and "blob" are interchangeable at this age.

I'll get another bottle of glue soon.

Twist tie time!

The twist ties are what totally make this beetle design AHHHH-MAZING!

I don't know where you can get a bunch of black twist ties, but it came in our daily discovery bag from Mother Goose Time which is one reason why I LOOOOVE this curriculum so much!

Who wants to hunt down black twist ties?  Not me.

But it seriously makes this beetle a beetle!

My girl worked on bending them this way and that, creating the legs and antennae for her beetle.

Obviously she didn't really care that beetles have 6 legs- hers has like 23.  

I didn't count... but it's a lot more than 6 :) 

She decided her beetle needed a few more sequins on its back after attaching all the legs.

We worked on the one dot does a lot glue method some more.  She's starting to get it... I think.  

Her completed beetle creation is below.

I love how her beetle stands up off the ground!

"Avaleigh, what do you like about your beetle?"

"I like its red eyes and smiley face, and all its legs."

Me too, my dear, me too.

Need more Safari ideas?  Check out these posts from me and other blogger friends!

What's In the Box? Safari from Mother Goose Time

Preschool: Safari Adventure (set up)

Preschool Culture Study: Jewelry

4 Quick and Easy Safari Crafts for Little Kids

Elephant Digging Tusks and Math

Preschool: Safari Food Fun

This week has been one of those weeks where I am sooooo thankful for homeschooling.

We had a busy beginning to the week, but the last few days- at the end of the week-

 my girl has been battling the flu. Flu B actually.  So please forgive all the pajama pictures.  

She lived in them for the last few days.  *Homeschool blessing*

I am so thankful we have our Mother Goose Time box, can work it in on our own time, and not worry about missing out on a lesson. 

Last week we peeked into how the African Culture dresses looking at the beautiful beadwork they create.  This week we still delved into the African Culture as we looked into their diet.  The teacher guide suggested quite a few activities that had us searching for food, putting it in baskets, and practicing balancing those baskets on our heads.  

We practiced balancing different baskets, then we took turns hiding and searching for play food around the living room.  We easily played this game for 30 minutes or more.  

We also looked at the diet of African animals.

From our play kitchen stash, I grabbed a hamburger patty (meat) and a pear (plant).

I had Avaleigh sort our animal cards provided by MGT between carnivores and herbivores. Although my girl was not very familiar with those terms, she knew enough about the animals to know what they ate.  The only one she struggled with was the vulture.  

I told her a vulture was similar to a buzzard here in Texas.  

MGT supplied us with this cute poster!  You put a picture of an animal (the last is always the lion), and read it as if you were reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? 

The only difference is once you say "I see a LION looking at me," the next sentence is "RUN!"  

She loved switching out all the animal cards and reading the story.

Avaleigh has always loved that book- it was one of the first ones she read to Everett when we brought him home from the NICU, which is pictured below from December 2017.  Heart melt....

On the back of the "What Do You See?" poster, was the Food Web poster pictured below.

The numbers on the web matched the number on the cards, so placing them was pretty easy. 

But when Avaleigh first looked at the picture, she didn't pay attention to the numbers instead... 

She really focused on the diagram.

I asked her to find all the animals that would eat grass and put them at the bottom. 

Then I asked her what animals would eat the grass eating animals?

That's how the lion ended up above the elephant pictured below.

But it led to a great conversation!

"Avaleigh, do you think the lion would eat a hyena?"

"Yes."

"Do you think a lion would eat a cheetah?"

"Yes."

Then she noticed the numbers on the card and on the web and moved her lion card to the top.

We only had 8 cards, but there is space for another.  I am not sure why, but we could totally cut out pictures of other animals and work on this food web again!

And just FYI, I taught food webs and chains extensively in 3rd and 4th grades, and again for a little bit in 6th grade!  My preschooler is already getting engaged in that science concept.  Love it!

She asked to color afterwards, so I pulled out our Letter C coloring sheet from today.

Perfect timing.

This past month I have noticed how much she has been coloring things the way they actually appear instead of just whatever she felt like.

She really made her corn look like corn and her carrot look like a carrot, but her cat was the one I was most impressed with.

She named her cat "Reddy" because "He's red."

Makes sense.

 I love how she colored in a pattern format.  She made the inside of his face orange, along with his spots and the end of his tail.  Yall... she has never really done this.  I am so glad we homeschool so I can catch these details and see how much she's learning and thinking.

After making our C book, we played with our zebra striped letter parts from Zebra day and she practiced making letters.

The very first letter she put together was this Q. 

I know I say it just about every week, but I am so thankful for our little school bus box of MGT materials.  I love that it's fun, and can be worked in whenever we have time, and is something we both look forward to even on days we might not feel well.

I love the smiles, the learning, the growing, and the fun we get to have as a family.

It truly is a blessing.

Preschool Culture Study: Jewelry

Africa is an amazingly beautiful continent.  It is so rich in the beauty of its' people, their culture, and the animals and scenery of the land.

It's not every month that you get to go on Safari, but that is just what my preschooler and I are doing through our preschool curriculum from Mother Goose Time.

Last week I shared how to prepare to go on a safari, and this week we ventured into the African Grasslands to get a closer look at the African Culture.

On this particular day, we looked at how native people dress- specifically focusing on jewelry and the beadwork African tribes make and wear.  It is exquisite and the perfect way to teach patterns.

Being inspired by the beautiful beadwork in our photo, my preschooler decided she would make a bracelet. Using a pipe cleaner and pony beads (both provided by MGT) my daughter practiced her math skills.  She created her own pattern, counted the beads in her pattern, then transformed her line of beads into a bracelet.
(Twist a loop at the end of the pipe cleaner, make your pattern, then put the end of pipe cleaner through the loop and twist to close)

Our jewelry session did not end there.

Next, she made and African necklace during our Make and Play activity.

Using paints, a paper plate cut to become a necklace, and qtips, you too can create your own African inspired jewelry.

How can you incorporate beads into reading?

MGT does not disappoint- make word "bead" bracelets!

We read through our I Can Read book, looking for and underlining "-it" words.  

I showed her the "-it" band and told her it said "it" and we would use it to make words.

I then asked my girl, "Avaleigh, can you spell the word "fit"?"

  It was so cute hearing her make the first letter sounds to decide which bead would be placed on her arm.

  It didn't take her long to spell all the "-it" words provided from the paper bead rings,
so I decided to challenge her.
"Avaleigh, what letter would you need to make the word "mit"?"
" Mmmmmm mit.  Mmmmm.... M!"
"That's great!  What about "kit"?"
"Kkkk like kitten.   K!" (I was so surprised that she didn't pick "c"!)
"Wow! Great job sounding that out.  What do you think you would need for the word "quit"?"
"Qqqqq like queen.  Q!"
Even though she didn't say the "u,"
(and I didn't expect her to- if she did I would have dropped to the floor in shock)
I was so impressed that she recognized the "q" sound!

Who knew you could incorporate so much into a day of making jewelry!
Now onto learning about African homes, food, music and migration!

Happy Learning my friends!


Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest for more great ideas!

Preschool: Safari Adventure

Oh my goodness yall!

This month's Safari Adventure from Mother Goose Time has to be one of my ultimate faves!

We have learned so much in the last 2 weeks, and to give you all the details would mean a forever long post (not that my posts are ever short).  

In this picture heavy post, I will share with you how MGT prepared us to encounter the animals of Africa.  Are you ready to go on a Safari Adventure?  

Well, grab your passport, pack your bag, and let's fly to Africa!

In order to know where Africa is, we started with our Continent Toss Game.  

(MGT supplied us with the map and foam die and inserts.)

Roll a continent, match the color of the continent to the bead in the bowl, and using tweezers, place a bead of that color on the corresponding continent. Get those fine motor skills ready for your safari! 

Keep playing until all the beads are on the map.

Now that you know where to go, grab that passport and fill it out!

  MGT included a stamp of Mother Goose so you can stamp your travels! Avaleigh tossed the foam die with the continent inserts to see which continent needed a stamp in her passport.  

Eventually we traveled to all the places.  Ha! Jetsetters... I wish... really I do.

The African sun is sweltering, so you must pack a hat.  Don't have one? No problem!

Mother Goose had us covered by having us make hats with leopard print tissue paper to assist us in our camouflage attire during our safari. Yall... leopard print tissue paper!

  I am so impressed by MGT's attention to details! 

You have to have a journal to record your Safari Adventure!  

MGT's My Little Journal is perfect to slip into your pack,

 but first draw your favorite animal and write your name incase your journal gets lost. 

With the help of Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals, Avaleigh drew her favorite animal on the cover of her journal, a lion.  We took it step by step, and she did it completely by herself!

Passport....check.  Hat.... check.  Journal.... check.  Safari vehicle... nope.

(reenactment of the story Let's Go for a Drive by Mo Willems that took place in our home)

(me)"Piggy, do you have a safari vehicle?"

(Avaleigh)"No. A pig with a safari vehicle would be silly.  Do you have a safari vehicle?"

(me) "I do not have a safari vehicle.  But I do have a MGT Teacher Guide that shows us how to make one."

(Avaleigh) "Get that guide!"

My girl loooooooves Elephant and Piggy books, and when we didn't have a vehicle, it instantly brought to her mind this story.  We ended up playing "Safari" Gerald and Piggie style for days!

You can listen to the book below, read aloud by 2 children!

According to the Teacher guide,

 whip out one of those Amazon boxes you have stacked to the ceiling in your garage, grab your exacto blade, and go all Edward Scissorhands on that box making it into a jeep ready to hit the African grasslands!  (that might be paraphrased a little bit)

Look out for lions!  They like to tear off your headlights and eat them for lunch!

(Everett really ate her headlight...smh)

My little lion, Everett.

Netflix has a great show for kids called Wildlife Quest.  Take a quick break and encounter real live animals in the safety of your Safari Vehicle.  The Wildebeest is napping on the tile while we keep a close eye on the cheetah in Wildlife Quest.

Yall...there is so much more I want to share!  I haven't even told you about our reading activities or the fun we had with elephants and math, or the watering hole game, 

or the creations we made during our animal study week! 

 There has been so much fun AND learning packed into this Safari Adventure box!  

I don't want to overwhelm you with so much info.  So how about you go enjoy getting your safari started and meet me back here next week as I share more about how Mother Goose incorporated math, reading, and the arts into the safari theme!

Until then....

Stay safe on your safari and like us on Facebook to keep up with the adventure!

New Year, New Classroom Set-up

Happy New Year!

New Year, New Month, and New Preschool Homeschool Room set-up!

Our son turned one at the beginning of December.  Look at that adorableness!  

Don't let him fool you though; he is a destroyer! ;) 

This tornado of a boy has torn apart our preschool classroom, and has staked his claim of what is his, which is EVERYTHING!  And every single thing goes into the mouth.  Every. Single. Thing.

I didn't laminate everything with my girl because she was never into eating paper and tearing things off the wall.  Not so with Everett.  We watched in horror as our adorable pterodactyl tornado of a boy destroyed our classroom for the last 5 months.  Eating much of our Circle Time materials from Mother Goose Time.  The ABC grass was his fave...ugh. 

The MISSION:

Make our homeschool room baby friendly (more toys for him to play with in a controlled area), 

protect our learning materials especially our Circle Time materials, 

put things out of reach for Everett but still easily accessible for Avaleigh.  

Here's what we did.

The above picture is what you see as you enter into the Homeschool room/Playroom.

Everett pretty much dominates this part of the room and Avaleigh has the window side. 

We put the kitchen and all the materials for it in the tower to the left of the kitchen.

Our light box is on top of the silver trunk with all our transparent and colored blocks in the basket to the right.  Everett has a few toys on the carpet as well.  Since our MGT unit this month is Safari, I added his Safari Melissa and Doug puzzle I got him for Christmas into the classroom.

We had to move their artwork display up so we could move everything else up the wall as well.  

My son loves to tear things down.

I reorganized the whiteboard to make the days of the week clouds and calendar easily accessible for Avaleigh.  The theme poster is to the left of our calendar and to the right of the window.   I moved our map so she can see it better as well.  This set-up is working great so far!

We have a new (to us) table! 

A preschool in town was shutting down, and had a big sale!  Since we are homeschoolers, they allowed me to come in early (with the other preschooler owners) and shop before opening everything to the public!  I scored some amazing gifts for Christmas (musical toys and Melissa and Doug chunky puzzles for Everett, and an abacus for Avaleigh), this table (for $20!), and a 7 drawer Sterilite tower (for $5!) that house all our Mother Goose materials!  Such a huge blessing to us!  

Teacher Central.

Our materials are all housed in this corner.  

I usually sit it the little purple chair teaching and guarding this area 

while Everett plays, and Avaleigh learns.  

I reorganized our bookshelf some.  

The bottom shelf still houses games, playdough and puzzles.  

The next shelf houses my old Childcraft Encyclopedias, coloring books, and our Classical Conversations materials, not to mention some safari animals.

The middle shelf holds MGT manipulatives, magnets from our monthly stories, and a supply caddy.  

Second shelf from the top has sensory bin materials in the 6 compartments and manipulatives from previous MGT months.  

The very top shelf holds bins I organized that you can read about here.  

I'll talk about my 7 drawer tower below, but the small tower to the left of it used to lay horizontally and housed our kitchen stuff in my old post.  It now stores more learning games, manipulative, and hides materials in Amazon boxes that I need to go through.

If you read my old post about my classroom set up, you know how much I hated the "ugly yet functional cabinet."  I traded it for this 7 drawer Sterilite tower that has finally allowed me to organize my MGT materials better!

In the past, I just grabbed a bag from the box, but there was so much I was missing when I couldn't see every lesson.  The top 4 drawers in this tower are skinny.  I took each weekly Teacher Guide and the 5 lessons that go with it and placed it into the drawer.  It has made such a difference in the short time that I have used it!  The bottom 3 drawers of the tower are deep and house a bunch of our materials that I don't want Everett into.

Tour is almost over!

It's our book wall, which remains constant in the room.

It houses many of our Usborne books, but also our wonderful stories from MGT.

Everett has his stash of toys including his new (to him) chunky Safari puzzle to go with this month's theme, which I love.

I didn't expect to be doing a classroom redo in the middle of the year, but it was the perfect time, and honestly, I like it even more than I did when we started in August!

Here's to a New Year and new changes that work out!
Be sure to come back for some Safari ideas to share with your learners!