Preschool: Cactus Math and Other Desert Fun

"Momma, we live in the woods."

This has been one of my preschooler's recent observations, and I think it is because she's really understanding different climates as we have been enjoying our Desert Discovery box from Mother Goose Time.  As we studied the Mojave Desert this week, we had some special fun learning about Cacti.  

Cactus Simulation

My girl had never really seen cactus besides the little tiny ones at Lowe's.  I asked her what she thought was inside a cactus... "I don't know."

MGT had a great suggestion about using a sponge and bowl full of water to simulate a cactus holding water.  I found a dry as a bone sponge in my cabinet and put just a little bit of water in a plastic bowl.  I placed the sponge in the bowl and we observed what happened. 

Her eyes lit up!  "It's changing colors!  It's soaking up the water!"

This simple demonstration really hit home for her.  She could understand that a cactus plant soaks water up into its trunk, that it stores it there, and can hold it for a long period of time.

Squeezing the water out of our "cactus"

I really think doing that little experiment set the whole tone to our day.  

This was one of our more special learning days in just the attitude and desire to learn.

Pokey Playdough Cactus Math

She was eager to start playing Pokey Playdough Cactus Math after that demonstration.

Our MGT Teacher Guide stated:

Play Together:

• Make a large playdough cactus. Put number cards 1-10 face down next to the playdough and toothpicks.
• Encourage a child to draw a card and identify the number, then stick that many "spines" in the cactus.
• Repeat
• Challenge:  Invite child to select and add two cards, then put the total number of "spines" in the cactus.

I knew my preschooler had her number recognition down, so I chose to do the Challenge directions, but we haven't done a whole lot of adding.  Therefore I only used number cards 1-5 for her to do her 1 digit plus 1 digit math.  This way she could use her fingers to count.

Check out her work in the video below!

I was so impressed with her adding and she was proud of herself too!

Love those lightbulb moments!

What Am I? Storybook Writing

This week we also used our Sight Words and picture cards to practice writing.  Using a dry erase board, she practiced making her letters.   She dug out a desert animal picture card out of our sandbox (cornmeal and salt because I did not have any sand), and then told me the animal's name.

 I spelled out the animals' names as she wrote the letters.  I was so excited to see her lowercase "e" in the word "snake."  

Puzzles in the Sand

Each month we receive a puzzle from MGT that matches the Storybook they also send.

I hid the puzzle pieces in the sand/dirt box, and gave my girl a paintbrush to help her search for the hidden puzzle pieces.  Using the picture in our storybook as a guide, she placed her puzzle pieces where they belonged.

As our Desert Discovery month comes to a close, here are a few more pics of some rodeo fun my girl had with her daddy as I stayed home with our son and put him to bed (he had croup last week and had to miss the rodeo.) #momlife

Riding horses around the arena

Mutton Bustin'

Too excited to give a decent smile to daddy! Ha!

Check out our other Desert Discovery fun by checking out these posts:

Preschool Rodeo Learning Activities

Desert Night Activities for Preschoolers

Desert Discovery: Pyramids

Be sure to come back next month as we study Bees and Butterflies!

Want to see what is in the box? Check out my friend Stacy's post here!

Make Learning Fun, Yall!

Desert Discovery: Pyramids

If you have missed it, we are on a Desert Discovery this month with our newest unit from Mother Goose Time.  We have had a blast learning about all things that go into the rodeo and what the nights are like in the desert. And you can't discuss the desert and not talk about the 

Great Pyramids in Egypt, which is exactly what we did this week!

Here is what was included in our daily discovery bag (the cubes are the manipulative of the month):

Our days usually start with Circle Time.   I happened to have a bunch of styrofoam cups, so right after breakfast, I asked my 4 year old to use the cups to build a pyramid.  We worked on it together for just the bottom layer, and as soon as she saw where we were headed with it, she did the rest.

With her perfectionist tendencies (which drive me nuts many days), it sometimes is such a struggle to have her start a project without any help or a picture to go by.  Handing her 10 cups and telling her to go and try to build a tower is a recipe for a meltdown.  So many activities we explore together.  Me, not necessarily showing her, but guiding her along her path, and helping her understand that no one is perfect, and perfection is not attainable- trying her best is.

After building pyramids with the cups, we explored building both a square pyramid and a triangular pyramid (depends on the base) with our PicassoTiles.  She could easily see that the square pyramid had 4 sides, while the triangular pyramid had 3 sides.  Seeing the empty space inside led to some great discussion: 

What do you think people put in pyramids? 

I read the book Step Inside Egypt to her after this question arose from our home library along with the book from our It's A Small World Unit last February: Wonder Around the World!

We found that the pyramids were made with many tunnels and housed the bodies of famous Egyptians including their pharaohs. 

After reading that, it was the perfect time to do our Community Challenge: Pyramid Tunnels which is pictured at the beginning of this post.

When the community challenges require more than my one student, I usually have to get a little crafty.  What could I do to make a tunnel for my preschooler?  

 I remembered my son's first birthday gift from us- a tunnel and pyramid shaped ball pit.

Perfect!  Adding a dark sheet on top makes the pyramid darker inside while our Golden Retriever does her best Sphinx pose to guard the pyramid's entrance.

In our reading, we discussed hieroglyphics.  MGT supplied us with some pictures which I taped on the walls inside the pyramid.  As she crawled through the tunnel entrance into the pyramid, she used her flashlight to locate the hieroglyphics and tell me what she thought they represented.

After spending much time playing in our pyramid, we did a little more building using our cube manipulatives and Shape Design Mats.

I love how she came up with a pattern for the large pyramid!  She has been into pattern making a lot lately, which I think is all thanks to MGT since it incorporates patterns so much and so well!

As much as I wanted to do our Pyramid Stamping project, we ran out of time, but I am still hopeful we will get to it sometime this weekend.  That's one of the MANY perks of being a homeschooler.  

Happy Learning friends!

Desert Night Activities for Preschoolers

We have had so much fun with our Mother Goose Time: Desert Discovery theme!

Last week we did activities that were all about the rodeo and this upcoming week we will actually attend a rodeo in our small town so stay tuned.  

Did you know that the desert night is filled with noise?

From coyotes to campfires and caves, we had an absolute blast exploring the desert night in the comfort of our home.  Here are some fun activities we did (all thanks to MGT) that you can try with your littles!

STEAM STATION: Desert Darkness

Using a highchair makes for an AWESOME cave!

Kids can easily crawl through the legs creating a perfect cave entrance.  I taped some of our animal pictures from a bingo game (later in this post) that MGT sent.  Avaleigh used a flashlight to expose the desert animals and tell me what she saw.  She was so excited.

A bright flash from the camera reveals all the little desert creatures in the cave.

MATH: Bingo (matching)

After Avaleigh removed all the desert animal cards from her cave, we used them to play Desert Bingo.  I placed all the cards into a brown bag.  Why?  Because we are leaning all things about the desert NIGHT and we have to incorporate darkness as much as we can... plus it's fun! We used our linking cubes (maipulative of the month that came in our monthly box) as markers for our bingo cards.  After playing a few blackout rounds, we took MGT's advice on their teacher guide and added a CHALLENGE!

When we pulled out the card, we had to give clues as to what was on the card.

Avaleigh pulled a card and said, "It has a hump and can drink a whole bathtub!"

Can you guess?

Avaleigh glancing at her hidden picture just pulled from the brown bag revealing clues about the picture.

A camel!

I loved her clue! (a whole bathtub....ha!)

We had so much fun playing this game, that we saved it for later when Daddy came home and we could all play together.

LITERACY: Letters in the Dark

Back to the cave of darkness.

Place the phonics picture cards in the cave.  Place the letter cards outside the cave.  Allow learners to find the picture, say the word, and place it with the correct letter card outside the cave.

My favorite part?  Hearing her say the words slowly and repeating the beginning sound so as to place it with the correct letter.  Her favorite part? Going into the cave!

STORYTIME:  Way Out in the Desert

When we finished our literacy cave fun, we extended our reading time with our story of the day...

Way Out in the Desert.

You have to read this book to the tune of Over in the Meadow!  It is such a lovely counting story of all the animals that you come across in the desert from the break of day until the wee hours of the night.  We have read it over and over.  It was such a great catalyst to our Invitation to Create which is up next. 

INVITATION to CREATE: Desert Night Painting

Using crayons, star stickers, and watery black paint Avaleigh created her own Desert Night Painting.

It started with us observing our Inspiration photo and discussing what colors we could see, plants and animals that live in the desert, and how she would use the star stickers.

She dew a red prickly cactus, a brown coyote, and an outlined full moon.  She then placed the star stickers all over the place and washed the black watery paint over the picture.
The end result...

The crayon and stickers resist the paint allowing the dark painting to still have color.

I love resist artwork.... it's just the art teacher in me. 

(read to know a little about my past teaching experience)

We had a blast with all our Desert Night Activities.

My husband came home and was impressed with my cave building (thanks MGT!) and then crawled in with the kids while I made dinner. 

My sweet boy loved it too!  Not to mention our golden retriever Bailey.

At one point, my husband, both kids, and the dog were all in this cave! The cave stayed up throughout the whole week since we had even more fun learning about nocturnal animals such as Desert Cottontails, Coyotes, and Rattlesnakes and no desert night would be complete without studying Campfires!

Which activity are you excited to try with your little learners?

 

Preschool Rodeo Learning Activities

Down here in Texas, it is Rodeo season. 

The Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo starts at the end of February and goes through mid March.

We actually have a rodeo in our community coming up the last weekend of March and I cant wait!

In my opinion, the best part of the rodeo is "Mutton Bustin'" where preschoolers and early elementary kids ride on a sheep!  It's pretty amazing.

So why am I telling yall about the rodeo?

Well our new unit of Mother Goose Time, Desert Discovery, started

 and the first week is all about the rodeo!

Cowboy boots, cowboy hats, lassos, horses, and experiencing a rodeo are all our first week's lessons, and it was a ton of fun.

Let me share what our Horse Day looked like and the fun my preschooler and I shared together.

After completing our circle time calendar, I showed my girl the Horse Topic Poster and asked her, "What do you know about horses?"

She actually knows quite a bit (thanks to Spirit on Netflix)

Her response went on and on, "They have 4 legs, a mane, eat hay and grass.  They need water and can jump really high.  You can ride them.  You need a saddle but sometimes you don't."

We then talked about the letter N, its' sound, and built the letter with our loose letter parts.  I then challenged Avaleigh to use her letter N pointer and go around the room finding the letter N. 

She had so much fun finding the Ns around the room. 

When she was done, she colored her Nn Letter Book page.

My girl loves to color, and she especially loves markers. She has been working really hard lately on staying in the lines and even creating patterns in her coloring.  

Avaleigh was really into our N activities and wasn't really wanting to stop, so I took out the 

My Little Journal from day 5 and opened it up to the front to see what MGT planned for the N page.

I have to tell yall, this N page activity is PERFECT to lead into the Counting Horses math activity, which is what we did following the N page.

Instead of small sticks and twigs, we used Wikki Stix.  Love those things! They stick to paper by pressing them down, and you can peel them off and cut them if needed.  They bend easily, and instead of using them to make an arena, Avaleigh used them to build the letter N on her page... after she drew herself of course.

Then came our favorite Horse activity for the day: Counting Horses.

Using our Connecting Cubes (supplied as our monthly manipulative this month) as horses and blocks that have been in my family for 3 generations as fence, we built a corral to hold our horses.  It started with me telling Avaleigh a number (7).  She then counted out that many horses (cubes). let them fall from her hands, and however they laid, we built a block fence around the horses.

Then I told her I was going to hide 14 (our monthly number) horses (yellow blocks) in the living room while she built a large fenced in corral.  Once I returned, she had to go and find all the lost horses and put them in the corral.  She loved searching for the lost horses, and we used our number card for more one-to-one correspondence practice.

We even did the "Challenge" activity of hiding 20 cubes (horses) to find and count.  

We did this activity at least for 30 minutes, and probably could have gone longer, but I knew my son's nap was almost over.  Baby's Naptime = Preschooler's Learning Time. 

20 horses have been found and are safe in their fence.

We ended our horse day playing Horseshoe Toss.

This game not only worked on coordination but also identifying Uppercase and Lowercase N. 

MGT sent us the star punchouts and the horseshoes too!  So much fun!

Yall, she was really good at horseshoes!

I am so grateful MGT thinks of so many details to make learning fun!

School time is something we both love to do together and I know a huge part of that is because of the work and effort MGT does in creating these activities and games.

I hope you have fun learning with your littles! 

And if you can, get to a rodeo!