Polar Bear Fun

We had fun learning about polar bears today. Did you know their fur is actually clear, not white? Neither did I. Mother Goose Time told us this and that the clear fur traps heat by absorbing the sun. There was even a science experiment to show how this works. Fill two clear containers with hot water and record the temp. Cover one jar with clear plastic wrap like Saran Wrap, and the other jar with a white cloth and place them both in the sun. Wait a little while and check the temp. of both jars again. That makes perfect sense. It's cloudy here most of December so we haven't tried this yet but plan to as soon as we see the sun! Great, hands on activity to help her remember this fun fact.

Our skies remained grey all day long but that didn't stop us from playing through the rest of today's lesson. Jumping Icebergs was a big hit. As suggested, we laid out a few towels and pretended they were icebergs. We stood on our own towels and when I called out, "Jump!" we jumped to a new iceberg and then pretended to scoop fish out of the ocean and gobbled them down. It got pretty silly after a few jumps. 

Next we got out the bear counting manipulatives from Day 6 and some white washcloths. I told little miss Minnie Mouse to put them on the icebergs however she wanted to. 

 She chose to group them by size or as she said, "the cute little baby bears, big kids, mommies and daddies". Then she had the parent bears jump from iceberg to iceberg to get to their correct color baby. As you can see the big kids spent the whole time swimming in the ocean. 

To finish the morning we got out the supplies to make a polar bear mask. MGT gave us a mask cutout, a souffle cup, a black pompom, yarn, and those great double sided adhesive dots. I showed my granddaughter the polar bear picture and the instruction examples they provided and we talked about how she wanted her mask to look. It was a quick and fun project. 

In the middle of the project she decided the adhesive circles would be a perfect addition to her contact paper tree.  

She's pretty pleased with herself.

Penguins!!!!

I really like penguins. I like they way they walk and slide all over the place. I like that they are kind of weird, birds who don't fly but swim. I don't like how smelly their habitat usually is at the zoo but thats not their fault. I love March of the Penguins and Happy Feet. I always enjoyed them but when I found out they mate for life and the males carry their egg around until they hatch my fondness for them grew. 

We started our morning watching the beginning of Happy Feet. I wanted 5 to see how the males carry the eggs so it would make sense to her when we tried doing the same thing later on. While we watched I was able to tell her how the mommys worked hard to take care of their families which is something she can relate to. We saw the penguins swim and slide on the ice which was all going to tie in with today's lesson. 

I turned the movie off and gave her the white pom provided by Mother Goose Time and she tried to walk with it on her feet. 

 Unfortunately, tragedy struck when the egg rolled off her and she stepped on it! We took turns waddling with the egg and agreed we were glad we didn't have to take care of human babies like penguins do. 

Next we made a daddy penguin. This was a fun and cute idea from MGT. I offered 5 the option of using the black construction paper that was provided or a black marker. Silly me. Of course she wanted the black marker. She can be a serious colorer. 

This month Mother Goose Time has given us adhesive dots to use in our crafts. I had never used them before but have become such a big fan I bought a some to keep here. They were so helpful with this project. 5 used them to attach the googly eyes and beak. 

Her daddy penguin gave Baby Bear a boost to look at the awesome penguin picture.

She liked this project so much she decided it needed a snack so of course we chose Goldfish crackers. I can't promise that she doesn't think these new friends will eat the cracker she is offering. 

And it does look like the yellow duck is watching the blue one eat...

This was a fun project that allowed me to teach my granddaughter more about penguins. When her dad picked her up later in the day she was excited to show this to him and tell him all the things she learned. Nice job MGT.

When we finished this project we used the story sequencing cards to make up our own story about penguin food. Our penguins were named Timmy and Joe. They were playing outside one day and wanted a snack but didn't want to go home. Timmy saw a fish in the water and decided to slide down and catch it which he did. The final card was blank so I asked 5 what happened next. She said Timmy smashed the fish and ate it. I asked her about Joe. She said, "Oh, he went home and had lunch." I'm sure he did. We told the story a few more times but never with the same ending. Then we turned the movie back on for a couple of songs. 

It's called Happy Feet for a reason. 

Always Green

Arrrgh! I just completed this entire post, thought I clicked publish, closed the page, and nothing is there! I have no idea what I did wrong(see my very first blog ever) but here I go again. That actually is the perfect way to finish out this hectic, crazy week we've had. We were only able to play and learn with our materials on Monday and Friday and even that time was limited.  

We started out Monday stacking the cube manipulatives from Day 4 to build something tall. Like all kids 5 loves building towers and knocking them down. We did this over and over until she got tired of picking up after the knock down. She tried to get me to pick them all up and bring them to her but when I told her she had to help clean up if she was going to knock them down she decided she was done with that game. Next we worked together to build a tower that was as tall as she is. I may have already said that she was a preemie and is still working on catching up on size so we didn't use as many blocks as you might expect for a child her age. 

On Day 7 of our Mother Goose Time curriculum we learned that a 4 year old spruce tree can already be 12 feet tall. MGT suggested we tape 12 pieces of paper together to see what that looked like and then have your child lay down on the paper to compare heights. We did that but she couldn't tell how much the paper towered over her so we laid her height blocks next to the paper and the difference was pretty impressive!

On Friday we were able to get back to Mother Goose Time fun. I got out the paint supplies and she put on her paint shirt. When I gave her the tree cutout that was provided she asked me for the tree picture so she could see what to do. And as much as I tried to tell her otherwise, she refused to call them spruce trees. They are Christmas trees. She's not wrong.

I'm just glad she didn't look at me with an "I told you" face when I gave her the sequins MGT provided for decorating it. She added glitter glue and was pleased with the results.

 I read the participation story, "Forever Green" using the color bird for this month. This story helped teach her that spruce trees always stay green. While the paint and glue dried we measured the pinecone and compared it to objects around the house. It is smaller than the tree picture from our Day 8 materials, the footstool she likes to climb in, her baby sister, Pete the Cat, and Santa. But it is bigger than the tea cup, caboose, grapes, petite carrots she was eating for a snack, and the counting bear manipulatives from Day 6. I think I have used these manipulatives in every elementary and special education setting I've worked in the past 17 years. They are wonderful for teaching color or size sorting, counting, big, bigger, biggest, and are often a source of creative pretend play, so I was very happy to find them in this months box. 

 

 

5 sorted them into color groups as soon as she saw them. Then she made them all family members. I know they will be a favorite. 

Winter Wonderland.

This first week of our new curriculum from Mother Goose Time has been all about snow and ice. We started out by tearing up a roll of toilet paper to make our own snow storm. This activity reminded both of us of the fun we had in October with the leaves from MGT. She tossed it over and over, not only the first day but every day since. I covered this month's theme poster with "snow" and then asked her to find different objects.

And of course, she hid under a pile of snow. I couldn't find her anywhere.

 

It was time to make snowflake stamps but I couldn't find the white paint I recently bought. I decided against using yellow, (yikes!) blue, red, or green and then remembered my friend telling me to mix glue and shaving cream for a puffy paint substitute. It was perfect. We tried to make a stamper by wrapping the circle cutouts with the yarn Mother Goose Time provided but it was too tough for her to hold and control so I took three pipe cleaners, folded them in half and twisted them together for about 1/3 of the length to form a handle and then spread out the loose ends. Did that make any sense? We did the same thing to paint fireworks on our Family Vacation 2014 shirts. 

The next day we built snowmen with paper and glue, 

with craft foam and water,

and with snowman game cards.

Adding magnets made this a perfect game for our oil pan wall.  

All this talk of snow made 5 think of the movie, Frozen so we had some "Let It Go" breaks.

And yes, she wore the same pajamas two days in a row. They are her favorites and her baby sister has a matching pair. It's been a wear your pajamas all day kind of week around here. 

Today we built igloos. I set out the cubes and cards from MGT before the girls arrived and as soon as 5 walked into the room she began to build things and match the cubes to the shapes on the cards. We talked about igloos and looked at the picture from our Day 4 packet. I think my granddaughter doubts I'm telling her the truth about igloos being homes made of snow. But she played along anyway. 

She decided that if igloos were made of snow ours needed a blizzard. 

We ended the morning with the igloo puzzle. She is a tiny 2 1/2 year old so scissors are really tough for her to handle but she has a strong "I can do it!" streak so we encourage her to try. 

You never know when you're going to need magnifying glasses. 

Perfect.

Seeds

A couple of weeks ago Mother Goose Time sent me an Experience a Day box. This was an unexpected (I've GOT to start checking my email), fun surprise. And then last week we chose a strange day to play with what was inside. But then again, maybe it was a perfect way to keep hope alive. In warmer seasons our back yard is completely surrounded by flower and vegetables gardens and 5 loves playing there. She also has a garden at her house. 

Mother Goose Time provided this game called Growing Garden which was a lot of fun. 5 loves vegetables and is very familiar with all of the ones pictured in the game. But she didn't know they begin as tiny seeds. I love it when fun includes learning!

After the game we decorated the container from MGT. As always, with googly eyes and with the fun feathers from our kit. 

This activity really helped reinforce the idea that plants come from seeds rather than from tiny plants we bought at Wal-Mart. She's always had pretty good fine motor skills so she enjoyed pinching and sprinkling these tiny grass seeds.  

Afterwards we watered the seeds the fun way. I have an indoor herb garden so this fits right in. 

And now a week later it is growing nicely and she is having fun squirting it.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Yesterday we used the Bonus Day provided by Mother Goose Time. It was all about Thanksgiving. I wrote numbers 1 - 10 on the feathers they provided and dropped them randomly on the floor before the girls arrived. 5 was very interested in what they were doing on the floor and immediately sat down (after she greeted Bird of course) to put them in order. She's a good counter and recognizes numbers up to 30 so this was an easy exercise for her. What she isn't familiar with is counting backwards. So, once the feathers were in the correct order I pointed to the ten and counted down. Then I couched down, counted backwards again and after I got to one I shouted, "Blast off" and stood up raising my hands in the air. Well, this was met with surprise, giggles, and,"Do it again!" So I did. Then she joined me and we did it over and over again. 

Here she is in her countdown position. Funny child. 

Next we got some of the food out of the play kitchen and talked about our favorites. We talked about how thankful we are that God allows us to eat good food and how it makes us healthy and strong. She was able to sort them by color and name them all. You would never know by her size but 5 is a BIG eater and she loves fruit and vegetables. She also loves candy, chips, and donuts. 

After that 5 made her turkey hat. MGT gave us sticker eyes for this project but we have bags of googly eyes and they are always the favorite choice. I expect this hat to make an appearance at Thanksgiving Dinner 2014 tomorrow. 

But first, Papa tried it on.

We ended our Mother Goose Time day by making our Thankful page. I have kept a bag of random magazine pictures in our kid supplies since my children were young. Give that bag to a child along with a piece of paper and a glue stick and watch the creativity flow. I always find it interesting to see what catches their attention on any given day. 5 wasn't feelin flowers, mittens, or stranger babies. Yesterday was all about food, insects, and rain. We are thankful  for it all.