Body Language

I was so excited for today's lesson including American Sign Language from our Mother Goose Time curriculum today! I have taught the kids sign language since they were infants. It is an amazing tool for communication. Each week at story time at our local library the kids learn a new sign that goes with the theme for the week. I am interested in learning more myself, and it reminded me of a quote that a dear friend shared this week.

There are many reasons why communicating without words is an important thing to learn. Not everyone can speak or hear spoken words. This was a great thing to discuss with all of our kids, and talk about how important communication is to all relationships.

We received this great poster showing the American Sign Language alphabet and numbers. We hung it above our alphabet poster. Since we have limited space in this house we use the inside of our pantry door for some of these tools. Just close the door and they are out of the way. Works great!

Since we are on the topic of sign language, I will take a quick minute to share an awesome ministry that a friend of mine is involved with called Deaf Missions. Deaf Missions exists for one purpose: To effectively communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with deaf people. 

Please visit their Facebook page  or website to learn more!

God Cares About My Feelings

One of the great add-ons we got with our Mother Goose Time Curriclum is the Experience God set. It correlates with the rest of the week's lessons, and the kids love the craft projects.

We focused on being "safe in God's arms" this week as we talked about the story of David and Goliath. As we talked about how brave David was, the kids colored their pictures. On the back of each week's summary sheet is a coloring page for the kids.

We made paper heart pockets laced together with yarn that held our little people safe. Lacing is always a great activity for their coordination. 

Lu loves designing her little paper dolls clothes, and it is fun to see Cal learning to draw faces. His favorite part is the glue stick.

This is a fun way to tie in our Friends and Feelings theme and talk about how God cares about our feelings too.

You can check out the many fun add-ons to your curriculum at www.mothergoosetime.com

Family Feelings and Friendship Bracelets

Today's curriculum from Mother Goose Time taught us the importance of including everyone. A lesson that we continue to push in our house, with 5 kids it seems someone is often feeling left out.

We made our friendship bracelets with the included pipe cleaners and beads. Even my 3 year old found this a simple task, and it is great for improving fine motor skills.  

The highlight for the kids today was the game. We were able to work on different skills for each child in the same game. Cal is learning to count the spots not the dice and move his piece the correct number of spaces, while big sister is working on her sight words and sounding letters out on each space. 

We were also able to incorporate the feelings we have been discussing this month as we landed on the different moods. The kids would make a face expressing that feeling as they landed on the space.

 The theme of the game is that dad still loves us, no matter how we are feeling. So we collected hearts as we made our way around the board visiting all the emotions that fill our days. 

I love that so much thought is put into each tool given to us for the day. This simple game can be used many ways, and is sure to be a keeper in our game drawer! 

www.mothergoosetime.com

Saying Hello

We say hello to the first day of preschool with Mother Goose Time!
First we made puppet friends so they could say hello to each other.

 The puppet sticks were already punched out and the kids got their supplies ready.

 It is so nice to have everything included in the kit. I just needed to supply scissors, glue and crayons. The kids really enjoyed personalizing their puppet friends.

 I had to help my 3 year old with some cutting, but he is learning. My daughter loves arts and crafts and is always happy to help.

 It was so cute to watch the conversations start with a simple hello!

 And then it was time to play our matching game. This introduced us to different ways to say "hello" in languages all over the world. They love matching games anyway, and it was great to have them repeat the greeting as they flipped each card. When daddy got home from work they couldn't wait to say "hello" a few different ways as he came in the door.

 We found a book at the library that fit with this lesson perfectly! Hello World! Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe by Manya Stojic. The illustrations are bright and the greetings are also spelled phonetically, so mom can sound like she knows what she is doing.

 It was fun to find the friends from our matching game cards and match them with their page in the book.

Getting Ready For Mother Goose Time

We are so excited to start our Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum this year! The kids were so happy when the "bus" arrived at our door. 

We opened our box to find our welcome kit and our supplies for a month of learning. 

I appreciate how organized the curriculum arrives, already sorted out by each day. There is a new theme each month, and everything from the music to crafts goes along with that theme. There are many resources for the teacher to keep things organized and plan for the month. I also appreciate the extra member resources that they offer, like a list of books we can check out from the library that will go along with our theme each week. 

Our theme for the month is Friends and Feelings. 

Each day we have a bag with a craft and activities for the day. 

Lu received two books to use as enrichment with her Kindergarten learning this year, More Literacy and More Math. 

Both kids were excited about the 

Dance N Beats DVD and are ready to move!

They immediately wanted to open the manipulative sets and started sorting the buses by color. 

We are sure to have fun with these all month long!

I am honored to be a Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador this year and join a great group of educators! It's going to be a fun-filled year.