A Very Cold Week of Preschool

Its been a very cold week here in Washington as well as in our home classroom, we are finishing up week 2 of Mother Goose Times  Winter in the Woods and I would have to say that this so far has been one of our favorite months. We are having so much fun learning about all things winter and everyday there is a new theme packed with exciting activities. This week was all about the forest and how it changes in the winter. We learned about pine trees, pine cones, snowflakes, icicles, and snowmen. The cold weather is making us want to stay snuggled up in our beds, but once we are up and my kids hear about what fun things are planned for the day with Mother Goose Time they are ready to go. Even though my daughter is in second grade I still include her in some of the activities. We usually start the day by doing the calendar and weather together. Then I introduce the daily topic poster and have a brief discussion about it using the discussion ideas that are provided on the daily topic poster as well as in the teacher guide. This helps me see what they already know about the subject and gives them the opportunity to ask questions about what they would like to know. After the discussion I let them color the days corresponding coloring sheet that I printed from the members section of the Mother Goose Time website while I read the suggested story from the teacher guide. I find that this is such a great and easy way to start the day. I am also lucky that I have a great library system that has most the books I need easily accessible. Sometimes I need to have them sent from other libraries but Mother Goose Time usually posts the book list on their Facebook page ahead of time and I have plenty of time to find them. If you haven't utilized your library for this I highly recommend that you do it. The suggested stories are a fun addition to our morning routine.

Each day has a suggested story that goes with the theme

What I liked about this week was that there was a lot of hands on math and science activities. Our favorite day was Pinecone day (day 8). We started off by doing calendar and predicting what the days picture and color will be by looking at the pattern. Then we read the suggested story and colored.

After our morning routine we decided to play the pinecone math game. I had my daughter work on her math sheet while My son helped me set up the game and we reviewed the numbers 1-4 that were on the spinner. We also talked about the subtraction sign. It helped that all the adding spinner spaces were orange and the subtracting ones were yellow. I was able to tell him that if it landed on a yellow he could pretend to be a bird taking that many pinecones off the tree and if it landed on an orange then he could put that many pinecones back on the tree. This game was great for working on number concepts which is skill number 22 on the Mother Goose Time Developmental Continuum. Preston needs some work with number recognition, he can count fairly well to 10 and then gets a little mixed up, but if you show him a number and ask what it is he guesses. By the end of this game though he was able to tell me what number he was landing on with no help. It helps that this game was so adorable and that he recognized the illustrations from the months included storybook Timber. He was excited to play the game and eager to be able to fill the tree up with the pinecones. We played 3 times before moving on to the next activity. He was also introduced to adding and subtracting with this game and he seemed to catch on pretty quickly and was recognizing the subtraction sign on the spinner.

After the game we explored real pinecones. I also brought out the pine tree lifecycle project that we did earlier in the week to use as a reference. I set the pinecones out and let them play with them, I asked them to describe how they felt, what they looked like, and how they smelled. I told them both that we were going to do a pinecone experiment and see what happens when the pinecone is submerged in water. I had them draw pictures of what the pinecone looked like and then they wrote a prediction of what they thought would happen. I helped Preston by writing down what he said, but my daughter wrote her prediction herself. A lot of times the science activities lead into a more in depth conversation and google searches with my daughter especially if it is something that interests her. Since she is still young herself I can easily find books and information to expand on some of the Mother Goose Time topics and make it more age appropriate for her.

After submerging the pinecone we did the pretty pinecone activity so that our pinecone experiment would have time to do its thing and we would have something to do while waiting. This was an invitation to create project but I made it a little more structured and told them that we were going to make feeders for the winter birds. I put out everything that they would need and then let them go about it however they wanted. This was great for Preston's fine motor skills. He had a little trouble handling the knife and getting the Sunbutter on the pinecone and he ended up using his fingers. When we were finished we hung them outside, but after 2 days no birds have come so we decided that we are going to hang them in a nearby tree. Hopefully being closer to the birds home will entice them more then coming all he way up to our balcony.

After we finished the pinecone feeders we noticed that our experiment pinecone in the water had changed. We took a closer look at what was going on with it and then talked about if our predictions were right or not. We also talked about why the pinecone might close up when cold and wet and we learned that when it is warm and dry the pinecone opens to release its seeds. We then decided to leave the pinecone out of the water to see what happens once it dries again. Spoiler alert... It opened back up!

We spent the rest of the week learning about icicles and snowmen. We did a frozen patterns activity where Preston worked on patterns and sorting which is skills 18 and 24 on the Developmental Continuum. He sorted snowflake and icicle cards and then completed the included pattern card.

We also painted with ice pant that we placed out on our balcony overnight to freeze. I used a mixture of water based acrylic paint in pretty winter colors and then added enough water to make it a watery consistency. I then placed it in our fun silicone ice cube molds and set them outside. It was fun to harness the power of nature to freeze our paints instead of using the freezer. The kids both loved this activity. They let the paint melt onto the paper and the more it melted the more the colors showed. They also warmed the color cubes in their hands and let it drip onto the paper. The end result was some very  pretty winter water color pictures.

Of course we had to end the activity with an ice tasting!

We finished the week with the snowman day. We worked a little more on number concepts by doing our number four journal activity. They did a beautiful snowstorm painting and then helped me make a delicious snowman snack for lunch. I didn't have all the ingredients that were on the  recipe card so we used what we had. I also gave them a little bowl with some cranberries and a few chocolate chips so they could create the face and decorate it the way they wanted.

After lunch I used the Science card from day 7 to make snow. Preston loved this, I gave him a couple polar bears and a rock to put in the tray and he played for a very long time. I will make this again for him to play with, it was very easy and he stayed engaged for a long time. I could add marbles or trees or even cars to drive through the snow next time. This was the perfect way to wrap up our week.

*Mother Goose Time has generously provided me with our curriculum in exchange for my shared experiences and honest opinions*