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Hands On Learning

This month has been all about Bugs and Crawly Things with our awesome Mother Goose Time curriculum. Every month we receive a box with everything we need to have a themed month of learning, and when I say everything I mean everything. It is as simple as open a daily bag and start teaching. There is little to no prep most days and everything fits together beautifully.

For Bugs and Crawly things this month I am in love with the manipulatives that they sent. The kids have been using them for not only fun additions to the learning in the kit, but also for creative play. I love when we get things that stimulate the imagination. This month we received some bugs, some insect builder shapes, and an amazing book.


The magnifying glass was from the March box about ponds. See I am serious about the good manipulatives! So far we have used the little bugs as counters and game pieces in our educational activities, but we have also taken them out for use with play dough, and we have built bug houses out of blocks for them as well. The kids had so much fun making little houses to hide the little bugs in. The magnifying glass has been used to get a closer look at the bug counters and was used to go on a bug hunt both in and outside of the house.  

We have also loved the Insect Builders, the first time they were used this month we were given some pictures of the pieces to put in the reusable pocket cube that came in our welcome box at the beginning of the year. We played a game called Inventing Insects that was found in the monthly Teacher Guide. We each took turns rolling the cube and picking pieces until no more pieces were left. Once we had our pile of pieces we took some time to construct our insect and think about what we would call it, where it would live and what it would eat. I loved watching them create their bugs and seeing the look of concentration on their faces. They both wanted to make good bugs. Once we were satisfied with what we came up with we shared our creations. I loved that this could also work as an assessment tool for me as well. By listening to their stories about the bugs they created I could tell what they had learned about bugs so far.



We also received the shape design mat for the builders a few days after the bug inventing activity and I really liked that the inventing activity came before the mat because I felt like it gave them a chance to create without having those bugs in their mind.

I love that Mother Goose Time really puts a lot of thought into the manipulatives that they send and how they are used. Everything is used multiple times and in different ways throughout the month and they can be used in all kinds of creative ways outside of the curriculum as well. Here is a sneak peek at Junes Alphabet Island manipulatives that I just received.


I am so excited for this one but I seem to say that every month...


*Mother Goose Time has generously provided this curriculum to us in exchange for our stories and honest opinions*







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