Sailboat – A Day with Mother Goose Time

This month we are learning about boats, floats, and bubbles with Mother Goose Time. One of our favorite days so far has been learning about sailboats. The following is our experience with Mother Goose Time within the suggested framework/outline of their curriculum. We started with a fun discussion over the topic poster at breakfast.

Discuss

What makes a sailboat move?

Ladybug took one look at the topic poster with a picture of the sailboat and knew it was the wind. She noticed how similar the sails look to a kite. I have to admit I’ve never noticed that before, but she’s right. 

Owl volunteered that people make them go. I thought this was a solid contribution for a two year old.

Concept: Colors

Name a favorite color by pointing to a color on your clothing. 

Use the following rhyme, changing the name and color as appropriate.

“Joey has a red shirt, red shirt, red shirt. Joey is a red sailor. ”

This particular activity didn’t go quite as planned, since Owl didn’t have on a blue shirt and blue is his favorite color, so he didn’t want to play 🙁 He wanted to be a blue sailor. So….we changed his shirt. Remind me again that I LOVE the toddler years 😉 

Opening Song:  

“Do We Have the Wind to Sail?” (to the tune of “The Muffin Man”)

Do we have the wind to sail,

Wind to sail, wind to sail? (wave arms in the air)

Do we have the wind to sail, 

Let’s blow it out right now! (blow)

It always amazes me how much the kids love something as simple as singing new words to a familiar tune, but the opening songs and rhymes are almost always a hit with both of them. “Again, again,” is a frequent request. 

Nature Boats

Discuss

How do boats move in the water?

Ladybug said “gravity.” We had just covered that rivers run because of gravity. I said that it was correct that boats often move with the movement of the water and that wind can move both boats and water. We talked a little bit about currents.

Owl said, “I can move boats in water. I do it in the bathtub.” 🙂 

Explore

We took a walk and gathered items from nature that might make a good boat. Our collection included twigs, branches, and some flowers that Ladybug thought might work as a bug boat since they float.

Play

We set out a tub filled with water and tried out our selected nature items to see if they would float. We tried blowing on the twigs and flowers to try to make them move like a “boat” without touching them. I suggested moving the water and watching what happened to their “boats.” We then talked about waves and currents. 

Soup Bowl Sailboat

Discuss

What does a sailboat sound like when it moves?

Ladybug said that it wouldn’t make any sound at all. So, I took a sheet and we took it outside and listened as it blew in the wind. Thank you God for that beautiful breeze. She was able to appreciate the flapping sound. She also had fun trying to fly the sheet like a kite 🙂 

Explore

Then we used some blocks and tanagrams to make boat shapes.

Create

Using a soup bowl and lid, straw, and paper sailboat parts provided by Mother Goose Time we assembled a boat. We floated it for a bit in a water bowl, but they had more fun with them in the bath. The straws were supposed to be sails, but they preferred to use the straws to blow air through to make the soup bowls (boats) move through the water. They were also pretty big fans of blowing air through the straws to make bubbles  in the water. 

Boat Race

Discuss

Which boats go the fastest?

Owl said, “mine.” Ladybug said the ones with the biggest sails. This was a little trickier for me to explain at their level, so I just went with some boats have sails, some have paddles, and some have engines. 

Explore

We took turns tossing the die and then jumping that number of times. 

Play

Ladybug and Owl each chose a boat to race. They rolled the die. The die is foam and supposed to be rolled in the water, but since we were on the living room floor our water was pretend. After counting out the corresponding number of spaces, the  kids moved their boats forward. The kids created a story about a horrible storm that had kept them out too long and they were hungry. They could only eat if they made it to shore – the end of the game. This may have been a sign that it was time for me to make lunch 😉 

Sailboat Snack

Discuss

What food is good to eat on a sailboat?

Owl – “All of it.”

Ladybug – “Hahahahaha!” 

These two crack me up.

What would be difficult to eat on a sailboat?

Ladybug – “Stuff that the fish and sharks might want to eat if they jumped in the boat.”

Owl – “Hahahahaha!”

I decided to go ahead and feed them.  Hahahahaha! 

Explore

The kids cut hard boiled eggs in half.

Play

Using pretzels and cheese, the kids added “sails” to the top of the boat (hard boiled egg).  The pretzels broke when we tried to push them into the eggs, so we used toothpicks instead. The pretzels were curved, not straight and we tried to push them into the white of the egg instead of the yolk, so there you have it 😉 We’re all learning here…..lol

We chatted about the protein, calcium, and vitamins in the cheese and eggs and how they are good for our bodies. Ladybug correctly identified the pretzels as grains – thanks Food and Fitness unit 🙂 We also discussed how moderation of certain foods with less nutritional value like pretzels was important. 

Closing Reflection

How do you feel when you are on a boat?

Ladybug and Owl both volunteered, “hot.” This might be because our most recent boat excursion was in Charleston, South Carolina in the middle of the summer. We all just about melted 🙂  I love how Mother Goose Time prompts us to remember and review our life experiences in conjunction with their curriculum and activities. 

Celebrate

We played “Catch a Fish” on our CD. We caught and threw bean bags into a bucket as though we were catching fish like in the song. At the end of the song the kids threw all the bean bags/fish back into the ocean. This catch and release program aided significantly with Mom’s clean up plan, since the ocean also happened to be the storage container 🙂 

What are you learning about in your home school today?

 

 

 

 

As a blog ambassador for Mother Goose Time, I am happy to share preschool curriculum ideas, activities, and crafts with my readers.  Mother Goose Time provides our family the opportunity to use their curriculum free of charge in exchange for honest and authentic stories based on our personal experience.