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!

Leaf Man: a FREE Nature Craft for Kids

Have you read books by Lois Ehlert?

He uses natural objects to make beautiful illustrations.
And anytime I can incorporate reading or books into our learning, the better!

Leaf Man is one of our favorite books of his.

The leaves of our oaks and crepe myrtles are changing here in Texas, and as the nuts fall from the trees, it is the perfect time to go on a nature walk and collect items.

That's just what we did this morning.

After we collected the nature items my girl found interesting, we sorted them into our Dollar Tree chip tray that is perfect for housing all our nature treasures.

Then we sat at our table and read Leaf Man.  My preschooler pointed to objects and told me what animals and items she saw in the illustrations.  It really is lovely seeing how Lois Ehlert used his creativity to make such vivid illustrations using natural items.

After we read the book, we played with our nature items and created different creatures like:

A brontosaurus
(she's dinosaur obsessed yall... you can read about her Rainbow Dinosaur 4th birthday here)

Then she wanted to make a robber! I have no clue why.  We haven't read any books about stealing, but this is what she wanted to create. I was really impressed with how she made her robber man.

See his little money bag?  It's the black walnut, lol!

She then created a fish with leaves for fins and a cracked black walnut that I ran over with my car for eyes.  Those nuts are tough, I tell ya!

Why not a tree?

Lastly, we transformed the tree into a butterfly.  Can you see its' oak leaf antenna, black walnut eyes and leaves for wings?

When we finished playing with our items, we placed them back into our Dollar Tree tray ready for play and observation another day.  Now to just keep my golden retriever from eating our sticks, cause she has... and she will.


I hope you feel inspired to get outside and play today!
God gives us such great beauty to partake in everyday- it's just taking the time to see it.
Be sure to check out all the awesome Fall activities to do with your kiddos at the
Mommy and Me INC Fall Blog Party!

If you want more great ideas, please follow us on Facebook and Pinterest.


Some of our favorite Lois Elhert books:

                   

Homeschool Preschool: Constructing Homes

Learning all about homes is the theme for this month's Mother Goose Time, and although we are late starting our study this month, we have already had a blast constructing different homes.

On our first day, we received these home templates. as we studied Houses.

  Using stickers, markers, and shape stamps (provided in last years's boxes of MGT), 

we made houses while reviewing letters, their sounds, and the shapes on our shape stamps.

This is our first time for me to create the same thing alongside my girl.  I don't want her to copy me; I want her to make her own art.  However, while she observes me manipulating the different mediums she learns different techniques to try.  While I was working, she asked if she could work on my piece, and of course I let her.  She's been improving in actually drawing lines and not scribbling.

After designing our homes on the paper cut outs, we constructed a home for her toy lizard using our light box and building blocks.  We discussed where to place windows and a door so her lizard could get out.  He also needed food, hence the toy raspberries and blackberries in the home.

On our apartment day, we built tall towers.  MGT suggested calling out a number and building a tower that many blocks high.  The pic below shows a tower my girl built after I told her to use 10 blocks.  She was pretty proud of herself as was I.

On the day that we discussed RV's and Hotels, we reviewed our shapes as we constructed an RV puzzle provided by MGT.  The only one she missed was the octagon (which we haven't really discussed) as she called it a hexagon.  Still close. :) 

We then worked on tracing different shapes from blocks.  She would do really well tracing one side, but then would move the piece she was tracing.  I also noticed that she switched hands to draw!  She's normally right handed but switched to her left to make tracing the object easier, which I captured in the second pic below!  We had a lot of fun and I love seeing her create.  

We will be practicing tracing more things in the future.

Meanwhile, my 6th month old son and our pup Bailey enjoy some tummy time in front of the mirror.  Bailey loves to keep close to Everett while I am working with my girl in the same room.

It's pretty adorable.

   

Happy learning!

It's Slime Time: Galaxy Slime

Making Slime can be intimidating.

Do I really want this stuff in my house? What if it gets on the furniture or the carpet?

Ugh.... is it worth it?

YES!

We've been studying SPACE this month with Mother Goose Time and have had a "blast!" 

Our STEAM station on Galaxy day had us creating Galaxy Slime using liquid starch.

I did not have any liquid starch, so I found a recipe from here using saline solution.  This link also has a ton of different slime recipes we will be trying out in the future.

Here's what you need:

The number one ingredient is GLITTER! But this is the best kind of glitter because it stays IN the slime and not all. over. everything.

SUPPLIES

glitter (any kind), food coloring, clear glue, water, baking soda (not pictured), saline solution, bowls, and some kind of stirring utensil (I used Popsicle sticks I could throw away)

You can follow the directions here but I will give you a quick recap anyway...

My little helper and I each did a color of slime. 

DIRECTIONS

Into each bowl:

Mix 1/4 cup of clear glue and 1/4 water.  Stir together.

Add a few drops of food coloring.  Stir together.

Add 1/4 tsp of baking soda into each bowl. Break down clumps and stir together.

(I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Baking soda? What does that do?  Read about it here)

Add insane amounts of glitter!

 We added pink, green, and silver to our red slime, and black, blue, and purple to our blue slime.

Make sure you have added the glitter BEFORE the saline solution!

Final ingredient: 1/2 Tbsp of saline solution.  Stir together. 

It will start to pull away from the bowl, keep stirring, and then knead with your hands.  

If it's still a little too sticky add just a few DROPS of saline solution. 

We played with our slime as individual colors before starting to mix them together.

 

So much fun!

Her animals joined the SLIME TIME.  She kept saying that the giraffe needed "bandaids" and that is what the slime became. I love her little imagination.

As I watched her play, I realized what a great fine motor activity playing with slime is.

The pinching, stretching, pulling and manipulating of this stuff makes her have to do things with her fingers she normally might not do.

Not only did she help make the slime, but it kept her entertained for an hour while I dealt with baby brother.  And guess what?  It didn't get all over everything.  She was good about keeping it on her table and using her plastic toys to add to the slime time.  She loved this stuff. 

  As soon as daddy walked through the door, she jumped off the bed, ran yelling,

 "Daddy, we made something! We can play together!"

We stored our Galaxy Slime in a plastic Ziploc container.

I'm sure we will be playing with it some more today... and tomorrow... and the next day.

Join us on FACEBOOK for more adventures, books, and great activities to do with your littles.

Happy Slime-ing!

S is for Serpent

We've been battling sickness around here...

stuffy noses, hacking coughs, and constant snuggle time make for long days.

However even during the struggle of these days, it is so nice to break open a Mother Goose Time bag and explore the new items that make learning so much fun.

Snake day was just what both my girl and this momma needed, and it was perfect to tie in a lesson from our Experience God pack (Eve tempted by the serpent).

We started our day with a table top activity to build a snake. 

The pieces resembled dominoes, except they had stripes or dots. Sweet Pea and I took turns build our snake.  I love how this activity allows the snake to look different each time you build it.  We must've rebuilt this snake at least 10 different times throughout the day.  It was also the first thing she showed Daddy when he came home.  Here's a quick video of us building it together...

After building the snakes, I pulled out our Experience God pack. Before we did anything, I read the story from Sweet Pea's Bible. Of all the Bibles I have seen for little kids, this one is my absolute favorite!  The pictures are perfect, and the truths are spot on.  Daddy reads it each night and this is our 3rd time to go through it. 

After reading about the story in the Bible, I then used our Experience God pictures to retell the story and asked Sweet Pea to point and tell me about what she saw in the pictures.  

MGT does a superb job in their graphics.  I just love all these pictures.

Afterwards, she worked on her cutting skills by crafting a serpent from the materials in our Experience God pack.

Later that afternoon after the glue had dried, Sweet Pea told me different ways Adam and Eve sinned (didn't obey God; did not listen; hid...),

 and we wrote them on some of the orange squares she placed on her snake. 

Then, it was glorious nap time.

While she napped, I prepped our next snake activity:

an uppercase and lowercase matching activity using snakes and trees.

    

When she woke up she was ready to play.  It's amazing how a little rest rejuvenates the body.

We discussed how many snakes live in trees especially in the rainforest.  She slithered her snakes along the pink lines in our carpet and matched the uppercase snake pictures to the lowercase trees.

I thought I would stump her with "d" and "b," but matching those two did not phase her one bit!

So today is Thanksgiving, and I couldn't be more thankful to be able to spend time having fun with my girl even on sick days.