We only focused on preschool for a few days this week, since the family headed to the beach for some much needed fun in the sun!  We headed to Myrtle Beach by way of Charleston, SC for the Edel Gathering.  In short, Charleston was hot, but amazing for the kids and we will definitely plan a return trip in the future, but during the fall next time!  The beach was as always fantastic and welcoming.  My husband and I were engaged there and married on the sand just a few feet from the hotel where we stayed.  Over the next week or so, I ‘ll be going through pictures and will be able to share some of the highlights from that trip including our most excellent and fashionable hat choices!  

Prior to leaving we got in some fun learning about air with Mother Goose Time.   This curriculum continues to delight my little learners.  They are especially pleased to be spending so much time engaged in active play outside!  It’s so fun to combine free play and learning activities in our own backyard 🙂    

Day 8- Breathing in the Air

Using balloons attached to a hanger we evaluated the weight of air.  Starting with equal amounts of air in each balloon, we slowly let the air our of the purple balloon and watched the hanger shift, so that the pink balloon with more air was lower than the purple balloon.  Our resident toddler was more than happy to squish the balloon to let out more air.  

 

Because Ladybug was curious (so, awesome that she asks these questions already), we filled one balloon with air and one with water, so she could tell which was heavier.  She pretended to be the hanger, lifting the lighter one higher and lowering the heavier balloon.  She let air escape to see if that would change the weights.  This of course  created too little of a difference for her to feel and if anything made the already lighter balloon lighter, but I’m thrilled that she’s being encouraged to experiment and try things that rouse her curiosity.  

We also played air detectives and used our five senses to describe the air.  We are huge fans of using sign language and I really feel that the sign for wind, helps children not only understand the concept of wind, but also helps them characterize how wind feels as they generate it with their own hand and arm movements.  Below, Ladybug is signing wind with her “Can you feel it?” Mother Goose Time sensory card.  

 

We have lots of flowering plants in our backyard right now and so, Ladybug went on a hunt to find the ones that made the air smell the best 🙂  Thanks to her grandmother, my budding botanist is a flower connoisseur.  I think she knows the names of more flowers in the neighborhood than I do.    

We also focused on determining which parts of our body were responsible for pulling in fresh air.  We laid down with some of our favorite stuffed animals on our chest and breathed in and out making the stuffed animals rise and fall with our breath.  Both kids loved this activity and it served as a fabulous relaxation time before nap/quiet time.  I absolutely love little Owl’s face as he breathes out his deep breath.  So precious 🙂   

Day 9 – Colors in the Air

One of the kids favorite activities this week was the “wash away rainbow.”  We created rainbows with sidewalk chalk and blended the colors together using water.  We repeated this activity several times using spritz bottles, water soaked paint brushes, our hands, and Ladybug’s favorite – the hose.  

 

Ladybug does very well identifying what colors need to be included in the rainbow and in what order thanks to a couple of our favorite songs including “Do you Know the Colors of the Rainbow?” from Signing Time (FYI:  this song switches the order of blue and purple, so we sing it differently than presented here) and “Rainbow Stretch” from “Petite Feet:  Ballet Adventures with Liz.”  Do you have a favorite song for learning the colors of the rainbow?  

 

Owl is still learning his colors, although, he also enjoys singing along with the above songs.  To help him participate in this activity, we let Ladybug drawn the rainbow and then had him match the different colors of chalk to the correct part of the rainbow.  He was more than happy to help wash away the rainbow and play in the blended and saturated colors with his hands.  

 

Mother Goose Time also provides some printables available for members to use online.  These include coloring sheets and games.  This segment contained a color by number activity.  This was their first time doing a color by number and I was pleasantly surprised with how well they did.  Ladybug is on a colored pencil kick, so the shapes aren’t filled in completely, but with the exception of one “oops” she correctly match the correct color to the correct number.

Little Owl did a great job of recognizing all the colors and most of the numbers.  The “4” was in type so looked different to him.  He had a fabulous time coloring and getting to “work” at the table with his big sister.  

Ladybug is working on using pencils and drawing both straight and curved lines.  This printable rainbow coloring page was a perfect chance for her to practice getting the colors of the rainbow in order and tracing curved lines between the lines of the page.  She also drew her own circular rainbow below the printed rainbow.  

Day 10 – Listening to the Air

Birds are some of our favorite animals.  These kids are in the hands of two crazy avian lovers, one of whom made an entire career out of treating and caring for our feathered companions.  Needless to say they love birds and bird watching.  Getting to hear bird calls on the computer was a real treat.  My biggest mistake?  Forgetting to warm them that the barn owl sounds like a lady screaming at the top of her lungs.  Whoops!  I highly recommend starting with the Great Horned or Barred Owl!!!  

We also used a fan to create a miniature wind lab and placed different items, including the feathers from our kit in front of the fan generated wind.  She loved varying the speeds of the fan to see how much wind it to took to actually set the objects in motion.  

 

The balloons left over from our “weight of air” experiments were by far the favorites for use with the wind lab.  

Our final activity before we headed out the door on vacation was to draw our favorite nature sound.  Not surprisingly, Ladybug drew waves on the beach.  This little girl loves, loves, loves the ocean 🙂  The twist was that in her drawing, the ocean and waves were orange and enclosed in a square, dark blue sky!  I wonder if she’s starting to be curious about the horizon?!?  I love this gal’s imagination!      

 

As always my favorite part of Mother Goose Time is getting to spend quality time learning and playing with my little preschooler.  The early years go so quickly, I want to enjoy every moment.  When asked what she’ll miss while on vacation, Ladybug said, “playing in her big backyard, her animals, and doing Mother Goose.”    

This upcoming week, we will be tackling learning more about water.  Somehow, I just know that this topic is going to be a favorite for my little H2O lovers!  I’m excited to having some cool down fun in this crazy July heat! 

Do you have toddlers/preschoolers?  What are you up to this week?  I’d love to share and connect with other toddler and preschool Moms!