We love what all Mother Goose Time has had to offer us so far during our Ocean Commotion theme. This week we area talking about Large Sea Creatures. We hung a few large sea creatures from the ceiling to make it look like they were swimming around the ocean. The children loved it so we left it up for all month. I love to turn the room into the theme that we are learning about. I feel that it makes it easier for the children to focus and put themselves in the theme. It also makes for great conversations materials with the children.
They broke up the week into sub topics. We learned about Dolphins, Octopuses, Whales, Sharks, and Sea Turtles. My children all love to talk about all of these sea creatures. We happened to have stuffies of all of these sea creatures so it was great for each child to hold and see and talk about each sea creature.
Dolphins: We did a jumping dolphin art. It was easier for my older children to do this. They were able to draw their own dolphin. My younger ones just choose to color on the sky many different colors. Then, we talked about something that they knew about dolphins. Then, I read the children books about dolphins and we watched a video about Winter the dolphin. The children liked how friendly the dolphins are. The children loved the Ocean Animals A to Z book. We talked about all the animals. At the end, I asked them what was their favorite animal and why.
Octopuses: We explored with a variety of suckers to pretend that we were feeling the octopus. The older children played a counting sucker game. The younger ones didn't understand it but they loved moving the counting pieces. For art only one child did the octopus windsock. She cut up the lines with ease. She added the suckers sticker. She thought that they looked like little donuts. She made a pattern on each tentacles using two stickers. Two high two low was her pattern that she used to do the suckers. After, she finished her art she pretended she was the octopus that was moving over the ocean floor. She then used it to pretend she was the wise octopus in the Rainbow Fish Book.
Whales: The children love painting their whales. They all agreed that they should use blue paint to paint their whales and then add the eyes after the paint dries so they stay white. The straws were hard for the children to put into their whale. I helped them put the straw and tissue paper on their whale. We also played whale bubbles. We used the pompoms to make bubbles on a sheet of paper and called it whale bubbles.
Sharks: We played a math game with shark teeth. Even my two year old was doing a great job at counting and spinning the spinner. We added more shells for my older ones so that they could count higher and add more teeth. My younger ones really liked spinning the spinner. They also made a school of fish art photo. My older ones tried to draw exactly what was on the inspiration photo and exactly how it looked. They really liked the colored pieces that represented the school of fish and the many colors of different fish.
Sea turtles: The children didn't want to draw shapes on their turtle paper for the shell shapes. They wanted to use colors to color their turtle shells. So they did that instead. We tried to do the turtle art activity but my children were not understanding it. So instead we used open-ended art to create their own turtles as they wishes using a variety of materials that was provided.
I love how using mother goose time opens up new experiences and ideas for the children. I receive MGT boxes free in exchange for me blogging about what and how we use the materials and how we feel about them. My only complaint is that I don't use the coloring sheets. However, I use them to show them what can start with that letter as an inspiration and then have the children draw their own.
www.mothergoosetime.com
They broke up the week into sub topics. We learned about Dolphins, Octopuses, Whales, Sharks, and Sea Turtles. My children all love to talk about all of these sea creatures. We happened to have stuffies of all of these sea creatures so it was great for each child to hold and see and talk about each sea creature.
Dolphins: We did a jumping dolphin art. It was easier for my older children to do this. They were able to draw their own dolphin. My younger ones just choose to color on the sky many different colors. Then, we talked about something that they knew about dolphins. Then, I read the children books about dolphins and we watched a video about Winter the dolphin. The children liked how friendly the dolphins are. The children loved the Ocean Animals A to Z book. We talked about all the animals. At the end, I asked them what was their favorite animal and why.
Octopuses: We explored with a variety of suckers to pretend that we were feeling the octopus. The older children played a counting sucker game. The younger ones didn't understand it but they loved moving the counting pieces. For art only one child did the octopus windsock. She cut up the lines with ease. She added the suckers sticker. She thought that they looked like little donuts. She made a pattern on each tentacles using two stickers. Two high two low was her pattern that she used to do the suckers. After, she finished her art she pretended she was the octopus that was moving over the ocean floor. She then used it to pretend she was the wise octopus in the Rainbow Fish Book.
Whales: The children love painting their whales. They all agreed that they should use blue paint to paint their whales and then add the eyes after the paint dries so they stay white. The straws were hard for the children to put into their whale. I helped them put the straw and tissue paper on their whale. We also played whale bubbles. We used the pompoms to make bubbles on a sheet of paper and called it whale bubbles.
Sharks: We played a math game with shark teeth. Even my two year old was doing a great job at counting and spinning the spinner. We added more shells for my older ones so that they could count higher and add more teeth. My younger ones really liked spinning the spinner. They also made a school of fish art photo. My older ones tried to draw exactly what was on the inspiration photo and exactly how it looked. They really liked the colored pieces that represented the school of fish and the many colors of different fish.
Sea turtles: The children didn't want to draw shapes on their turtle paper for the shell shapes. They wanted to use colors to color their turtle shells. So they did that instead. We tried to do the turtle art activity but my children were not understanding it. So instead we used open-ended art to create their own turtles as they wishes using a variety of materials that was provided.
I love how using mother goose time opens up new experiences and ideas for the children. I receive MGT boxes free in exchange for me blogging about what and how we use the materials and how we feel about them. My only complaint is that I don't use the coloring sheets. However, I use them to show them what can start with that letter as an inspiration and then have the children draw their own.
www.mothergoosetime.com