The Family Tree - A Day with Mother Goose Time

I can hardly believe we have spent an entire year playing and learning with Mother Goose Time’s preschool curriculum! We’ve had a blast 🙂

We are starting a brand new year with recently turned four year old Ladybug and 2.5 year old Owl. This year we also have 9 month old Guppy along for the ride.

The theme that kicks off the start to the new year is “Me and My Family.”

Day 1 is focused on the “Family Tree.” Some new manipulatives, family stamps, were introduced and we had our first experience using Mother Goose Time’s new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) stations. We also tried out the new “Invitation to Create,” a more process art driven activity, as opposed to the more product driven craft sheets from last year.

All of these new elements were received well by the kids and I loved them! Preschool is worthless without the kids buy in and enjoyment. Mother Goose Time has recently raised the bar, made some fantastic, positive changes for the year, and my family is already reaping the benefits.

Here’s a quick glimpse of our family enjoying Day 1: Family Tree!

Circle Time

We use a morning basket approach at breakfast to get all the kids on the same page for the day. It involves a quick prayer, some SQUILT (super, quiet, uninterrupted, listening time) to classical music, and then we begin with updating our Mother Goose Time calendar and weather.

Then we talk about the topic poster of the day and have fun with the daily finger play, song, or rhyme. The family tree topic poster gave us a chance to talk about grandparents and siblings 🙂 They are always fascinated to hear about how Grandma is my Momma and how Uncle Mathew is my little brother!

Today’s finger play lent itself well to using the included apple graphics for counting down from 5. The felt board and some quick application of Velcro dots made the simple game even more entertaining!

Who Shook the Tree?

Way up high in the apple tree

(Reach up with both arms.)

5 red apples smiled at me

(Wiggle same amount of fingers.)

Ladybug and Owl shook that tree as hard as they could

(Shake arms.)

Down came the apples

(Bend down and wiggle fingers to the ground.)

Mmmm…..they were good

(Pretend to eat the apples).

Family Stamps

The kids were thrilled with these family themed stamps and stamp pad.

We discussed all the people who live in our home. We practiced making stamps and then drew a picture of our home and placed the stamps representing our family members in the different places in the house. Then, we wrote a story about where all the family members were and what they were doing in the home.

This was Owl’s first time with stamps. He turned himself blue and used both sides of the stamps. By the end of the exploratory period, he had it all figured out and was making stamps like a pro with only one minor mishap.

The image below is Owl’s final drawing. I drew the square and then he added the triangle for the roof. He colored the house and added the doorknob. I added some green grass at his request. He placed all the family members in the house, except for Daddy who had to go to work; apparently upside down. LOL Grandma was also outside the house (he applied this stamp backwards) because she had to drive to Ohio.

Ladybug loved practicing with the stamps and happily drew and colored a house for practice. She decided that she liked the yellow door so much that she would color her entire home yellow for the “real,” not practice version. LOL

Here is Ladybug’s initial final drawing. I love her tree. Daddy, Ladybug, and Owl are all up on the roof getting some important work done. Grandma is inside with Momma and the baby.

She later decided that we needed to add her animals to the house. She wanted to include the dog, cat, and birds that are very much a part of our family. Since there weren’t any pet stamps included in this kit, she elected to cut out this image of multiple pets from one of my veterinary medicine magazines and glue it to the page.

As always we spent tons of time playing outside and feeling the blessings of hot, summer TN weather.

Family Tree – Invitation to Create

Mother Goose Time has adjusted their crafting activities to be process oriented. The results have been lots of fun for my preschoolers. For this “invitation to create,” the kids were given a beautiful picture of an apple tree for inspiration and then supplied with red and green (I gave them blue and yellow to make green) paint, blue paper, a brown paper strip, glue, markers, scissors, and souffle cups.

My daughter decided that her hands made the best leaves and she set about creating “hand leaves” and dots for apples.

I had given the kids blue and yellow to make green in one cup and red in another cup. Ladybug loves purple, so she mixed the blue and red instead to create her favorite color. The final result and the least important part of the process is shown below – she calls it “purple leaves in a storm.” LOL

Owl spent most of his time working with his scissors and making lines for the tree trunk with his paint.

Once he realized that Ladybug was using her hands, he was all about panting his hands as well.

His creation is shown below.

Since there is no pressure to have a final product, I often join in the fun with them. They LOVE when Mom sits down and creates with them! Here is my submission from invitation to create. Their comments were as follows.

“Mom, that’s so silly, your tree is blue.” It’s true my balance of blue and yellow paint was a bit off. LOL

I love that we are all having fun and enjoying art time.

We then spent sometime playing in our pretend kitchen while dinner was prepared.

We also read “The Family Book,” by Todd Parr.

A is for Apple

A simple masking tape letter A on the floor provided great fun. The kids traced the letter with their feet, with an actual apple, and with cars. Of course cars. I am destined to learn a TON about cars, courtesy of my sweet Owl.

Closing Time

Closing Reflection

What did you do today that you want to tell your family?

“Let’s tell Dad we need to get a fish.” – Ladybug

“I want to work hard with Daddy when he gets home.” – Owl (they’ve been working together on making some sensory tables for the upcoming “school year”)

Celebrate

We played our the track entitled “You Gotta Love” from our “Me and My Family” CD and jumped in the air every time we heard the word “Family.” We have an old infant mattress on the floor in our family room that serves as an indoor trampoline for when the kids are having trouble sitting still or need to get out some energy on a super hot, stormy, or cold day.