Friends & Feelings - Surprised

Last Friday, we talked about when we’re surprised.

 

Our first activity for the day was making a clown surprise shaker. We were provided with some dry beans, festooning (for the hair), some paper plates, a little red ball for the nose, and some eyes. I helped Miss M put the shaker together and she helped decorate it.

This was our finish product :). I had to end up drawing on the eyes because Miss M kept taking the googly eyes off to play with them.

Our next activity was playing with some dramatic dice. One of the die had animals on them and the other had expressions.

I taped a circle path on the floor with some painter’s tape and I tried to encourage Miss M to walk on the circle and check it out. We took turns rolling the animal cube. We’d name it and try to do a movement like that animal. Then we’d try being a happy animal and then a sad animal.

This was her happy animal (she’s kinda smiling here).

This was her being a sad animal.

Our last activity for the day was called Pop on P. I wrote the letter P on some ping pong balls. Then I got out our Letter P flag and our hands-on letter p cards. I had her take them and look at them and trace the letter P with her finger.

I put the ping pong balls around the room and had Miss M go find one and bring it over to our letter P flag. She would drop it on the flag and watch the ball pop back up. She found all the balls and played with this for days! Lol. She had so much fun with this activity.

Our story for today was Frog and Friends: Outdoor Surprises.

Friends & Feelings - Happy

Last Monday, we talked about how we look when we’re happy!

Our first activity for the day was writing in our My Feelings Book. I gave Miss M the book and we turned to the page labeled “happy”.

 

I got out a mirror and we practiced making happy faces. Miss M thought this was lots of fun.

Next, I helped Miss M draw a happy face and we thought of something that makes her happy and wrote it in our book.

Our next activity was called Petanque. I made a tapeline on the floor. I encouraged Miss M to stand behind it with me (didn't work so well for the most part). Then I put a blanket on the floor and got out some little puff balls and we tossed them towards the blanket. We’d clap each time Miss M would toss the ball. Then we’d gather up all the balls and repeat. She had a blast with this one. I could hardly get any good pictures because she was moving around so much.

Next, we read the story about The Woodcutter’s Woes. I read the story out loud and when the different emotions were named in the story, we tried to make those facial expressions. She loved the little sausages that went along with the story.

Our book for today was Baby Happy, Baby Sad.

Miss M really liked this one.

Friends & Feelings - Places Friends Meet

On the third, we learned about different places that friends can meet.

We started off our day by attempting to play the Name Dance. I helped Miss M write her name of our little nametag and then we got out a stuffed animal (her stuffed pig) and we were going to try to practice saying “Hello” and “How are you?” As you can see…she wanted nothing to do with this activity.

Next, we worked on our little friendship journal. We wrote Miss M’s name on the cover and drew a little picture of her too.

After coloring on our journal, we got to make a super cool clubhouse! We used some blankets and pillows for our clubhouse. She helped put the big blanket over the top. Miss M decided to take one of her coloring books in there and colored for a bit.

Our last activity for the day was the Meeting Game. We talked about some of the different places we can go play with our friends. Then I got out our little bus manipulatives we received this month and Miss M just lit up. She absolutely loves these. I got out some blocks and she helped line them up to make a path for her buses. She played with these for a long time and was having a blast with them.

Our book for today was Hello, Lulu.  

What's In The Box - Friends and Feelings

Our Mother Goose Time curriculum for September is called “Friends and Feelings”. It’s also the start of a new school year!! Yay! We will be learning very important lessons all about friendship, taking turns, understanding differences, and saying sorry.

This is what the box looks like when you first get it.

It’s packed full of awesomeness!!

The first bag you’ll see is the Getting Started pack.

Inside are all sorts of great things, one of which is the Getting Started guide. It talks all about what’s inside the box, how to set up Circle Time and the displays, routines, and so much more.

You’ll also receive classroom display materials such as the investigation station signs, alphabet strip, cloud labels, weather set, Mother Goose and nest, Calendar month labels, circle time CD, and lots more.

The next bag that was in the box was an Open House kit. This is super neat! I’m not sure what we’re going to do with this quite yet but I really love this.

The next bag was the Circle Time bag.

These tools are really great too. Inside this bag we received items like the Friendly bee hive and pieces for it to start out with, the September monthly calendar and day pieces, Global friends pictures to go along with our world map, letter flags, How Do You Feel poster, and lots more.

I LOVE that they thought of putting the lyrics for the Circle Time songs on little cards for us to punch out and put on a little ring (which was also included) so we take them anywhere.

Our next bag was the Teacher Tool bag. Inside this bag is the theme web poster, teacher guides, gathering list, and skills overview chart.

Here is a picture of the theme web for this month. It shows the different subjects that will be covered each week/day and how they relate to the main theme.

Each month in your teacher’s tool bag you’ll receive a Teacher Guide and a Planning Journal.

I’ve also added the Little Goose teacher guide supplement to our curriculum that we receive each month. It’s a great teacher guide that helps me adjust the activities for my 2 year old and make it easier for her to participate.

 

Also included is a Skills Overview chart and Gathering List. The chart shows all the different skills that the children will be performing with all the different activities. The gathering list is great too. It shows all the supplies that will be needed for the month.

This month I also chose to add the Experience God and Dance ‘n Beats add-ons to our curriculum as well.

Each month, Mother Goose Time will also provide a packet with manipulatives for the month. These are the items included in this month’s packet. I have a feeling Miss M is going to just love the little busses! They’re so cute. This month Mother Goose Time has decided to include the monthly CD in with this pack as well. Each month you’ll receive a new CD with songs that go along with the month’s theme.

 

You’ll also be provided with a monthly family newsletter that you can give to parents of your kiddos. It shows some of the things that the kids will be learning as well as suggestions of books to read and family activities.

There are also 20 premade packets stuffed with pretty much everything you’ll need.

You’ll receive a new story time book each month. This month our book is “A Big Problem”.

You’ll get a new My Little Journal each month too. This month kids will be talking about some of their favorite things as well as learning about the color blue, circle shape, numbers one and two, and letters F, P, and K.

You’ll also get a new I Can Read book. In it, they’ll practice the month’s sight words and they’re displayed on the back of the book as well.

 

Games!! Little ones get to play lots of different and fun games to help with their learning as well. Here are some of the games that we will be playing this month.

Here’s an example of one day’s supplies and activities. This is Day 6. There are so much more great things included with this month’s curriculum! In addition to all these, children will:

·         Experience over 125 activities

·         Sing and move to 30 songs

·         Create 20 of their own projects in Art, Math, and Literacy

·         Build 33 skills over 7 domains

·         Learn 20 different topics related to Fables and Folktales

·         Build relationships with each other and the environment and investigate their curiosities

Come join us in all the fun! Next month’s theme will be In The Orchard.