Have you ever heard of Mother Goose Time? I stumbled across MGT when I was searching for an all inclusive preschool curriculum for Bentley. With Kingston progressing from preschool - 1st grade within a year and a half span, it seemed like all of my focus was being given to him and that Benny wasn't being challenged enough. I was desperate for something that was full of amazing learning activities, but didn't require me to have to plan an entire second curriculum out. Who knew that the PERFECT curriculum was out there. Mother Goose Time has it all! Every single thing is planned out for you and arrives in prepackaged bags for each day. Every month you receive a new book, cd, manipulatives, puzzle, and more! It's like a curriculum and a subscription box in one. I fell in love the moment I looked on the website. Everything is so detailed - from the Circle Time materials to the Teachers Guide and everything in between! We decided to put most of Kingston's core curriculum to the side for summer and focus on getting Bentley excited about his new preschool curriculum. K will be joining along with us as a fun and educational summer camp.
June's theme is Alphabet Island! To check out exactly what was included in our June box, you can head over to the detailed What's Inside section of the Mother Goose Time website. The amount of stuff included is mind blowing, and they even include an extra Celebration kit each month to celebrate holidays and events that are happening. (This month's kit contained all kinds of awesome Father's Day items!) For our first week, we are focusing on Setting Sail.
Each day is broken up into a Circle Time section, 4 different activities, and a Closing Time. There is also a suggested book which we have loved. On Day 2, we learned about boats. The kids favorite activity from today was the science activity: Boat Design.
I swear Mother Goose Time literally thinks of everything. Included for this activity was one of their Science Cards. We had friends over who were joining us for this activity today, and we had plans to utilize our water table for this activity. Instead of having to drag my Teacher's Guide outside with me and risk it getting ruined, I just grabbed the brightly colored, durable science card and some tinfoil and headed outside.
I filled up the water table and handed each child a piece of tinfoil. We discussed which shapes we should make our boats, and if we would need more than one piece of foil. The kids experimented with making different shapes. The 4 year olds took the time to put effort into making sides to their boats and making them look like boats while the 2 year olds both practiced the art of crumpling to form theirs.
Once they had formed some sort of boat using the tinfoil, the kids gathered nature items from around the yard. Sticks, leaves, acorns, and rocks of different sizes were all brought over to the water table. One by one the kids put each of their items into their boats to test if it would hold them.
We asked the kids several questions:
How many items can you fit in each boat? Do you think you could fit another one?
Why do you think that big rock made the boat sink?
How could you change your boat to accommodate the larger rock?
The kids used trial and error to answer the questions and to see how much their boats could handle. The boys were especially fascinated with how the boats sank, and we observed how the boats immediately sank once they started to take on water.
This activity really seemed to engage the kids, and we ended up trying several variations on our original designs. We added extra pieces of tinfoil, and even tried out a heart shape! Mother Goose Time gives great tips on assessing your child's engagement during each activity inside the Teacher's Guide. I was thrilled that the children were indeed making predictions and redesigning their boats to accommodate heavier items as they played.
We can't wait to try out more activities from Mother Goose Time, and to share our journey with you.
I receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for my honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.
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