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Measuring Up Super Breath

This has been a very unproductive week. I think I am stuck in this weird middle ground. I know that summer is almost over and I am trying to cling to it, yet I am ready to get into planning mode and start the school year as well. The weather is starting to get a little cooler and some of the leaves are even changing colors already. I know we have about a month left before fall is officially here, but I feel like summer is slowly starting to make its exit. We don't really ever stop learning here but the schedule has been a lot more relaxed and in just a few short weeks we will officially be going back to our version of school. So this week I have been cleaning everything and going through every shelf of books, curriculum, and school supplies. I like to get a fresh start before we go back. I have also been doing some long range planning for the year and setting up my new Mother Goose Time supplies. I received the September school bus box a few days ago and I am really excited to see all the new themes and activities for the coming year. I have all the supplemental books on hold at the library, and I am just excited to get going, and sad too because this means another year has gone by and it is really flying!

Even though I was preoccupied with planning, and going through all my new Mother Goose Time stuff I still managed to fit in a few fun activities from our Superheroes box. One of the days that the kids really loved this week was the Super Breath day. We had so much fun learning about this super power! Neither of the kids thought it would be a good idea to actually have this particular power though, they figured that if you blew pollution out of the city then it would just go to a different city. Or if you blew out a fire there was the chance you would blow the flames right onto your neighbors house. One solution was to be able to suck up the pollution, but it was quikly decided that it would be very unhealthy to do that even for a superhero. I just love the conversations we have while doing our Mother Goose Time activities. We also played the Would You Rather game on this day. I know I have talked about this activity before, but I really do love this one. I like to see what they pick and hear their reasons for it. Just being able to see their thought process and hear why they would pick one thing over another really gives me such insight into their thoughts and ideas. It is also great for their reasoning skills, and gives them self confidence because there is no wrong answer. I did it a different way this time though and it really added an element of fun. We used the straws and cotton balls from a different activity and I had them blow the cotton balls to the answer card they wanted to select. This was great for their large motor skills and breath control. Not to mention it was hilarious to watch.



After this we used some feathers and a measuring tape to do the blow distance activity found in the teachers guide book. We stretched the measuring tape out across the floor and then placed the feather at the beginning and used the straw to blow the feather as far as we cold. We tried with light blows, and really hard blows, we even counted how many blows it took to take the feather all the way to the other side of the measuring tape. We then compared all the measurements and talked about the results. Did the feather go farther with a light or heavy blow? How many times did you have to blow it to get it across to the end? Was it easier with or without the straw? 





We've also been using our super breath to blow all the dandelions we come across on our walks. They each want to show me their super breath. Another thing my son has been enjoying is the I can Read book. We used it ealier in the week, but he has taken it out to read it several times this week. The nice ting about these little readers is that they are very simple and have great pictures. I just need to read it once to him and then he can go back and retell the story while pretending to read it to me. I now he is interested in starting to read so these signs of reading readiness are great. He knows which way to hold the book, turn the pages, and he also knows that the words tell the story. Its just a matter of learning the alphabet and the sounds now.


It is so cute to listen to him read though. I think this weekend we are going to take our family picnic celebration day out to the park and have a little summer picnic before the summer is gone. Next week is a week I'm excited for because we get to learn how to be a superhero to our world. We are going to learn to reduce, reuse and recycle, as well as learn how to protect plants and animals.


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





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