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!