Thursday, May 28, 2015

Growing Gardens with Mother Goose Time

Here it is, the end of May, and I have yet to show you any of the wonderful Growing Gardens theme we have learned about this month.  Instead I have been posting about how to organized our amazing and now complete, collection of phonic cards, hands-on letters and word puzzles.  Not to mention our new way of organizing the daily topic posters.  But enough about that.  Let's see what we have learned about gardens.
First we were inspired to check out our community garden and see if we could help.  We were able to plant a flower bed.
It was hard work.  But somebody had to do it. 
We were out in the backyard when this giant earthworm started crawling by the deck.  We decided to set up our worm world/worm farm and keep him for a while. 




We watched our giant earthworm dig his tunnels. 

All of that was just preparation for the month!  Now it was time to start the Mother Goose Time fun!



I have used Mother Goose Time for a couple of years now and for some reason it has never dawned on me how amazing this theme web is.  It really allows us to dive into the details.  The first week we learned all about Planting the Garden and all the things you need to make plants grow.

On day 3 we learned about Sun and Water.   We learned that plants need water to grow and we also learned that preschool age children need six 8 oz. cups of water a day. 

I set up this tray with two cups, a pitcher of ice water and a sheet of paper with the boys' names and six boxes to check off.  We tried our hardest to drink all the water we needed and checked them off as we went.  We didn't quite make it.  Drinking 6 big cups of water a day is hard!

In the second week the topic was Watching the Garden Grow.  We learned all about the different parts of a plant.

On day 7 we learned about Leaves and made a diagram of a plant labeling all of the plant parts.  It was supposed to be made flat on the page but Lachlan opted for making it 3D. 
I know this is supposed to be "art" but seriously, can you really find a better way to learn the parts of a plant?  For Lachlan to have to think through the construction of this plant he had to have all sorts of knowledge tucked away.  He had to know that roots sprout from seeds, that the stem comes from the roots and that leaves, bean pods and flowers grow out from the stem.  Such an amazing example of how much learning can happen through art.

Day 8 we learned about flowers and made ourselves a flower costume.  Peter posed nicely for a picture.  I think he is trying to smile. :/

We played this awesome game where they moved "pollen" from the flower to the Fs.  Even Adam joined in on the fun.




Adam climbed up on the chair and somehow collected pom poms that matched his pajamas.  His hair must be similar to the hair on a bees legs.  

Day 10 we learned about Weeds and we were inspired to head down to the community garden to see if we could help pull some weeds.  We took Mother Goose Time along with us and learned in the garden.

Week 3 brought us to the topic of Visitors in the Garden some welcome but most of them not. 

We learned about Moles, Crows and Rabbits which aren't helpful to the garden.  One of the manipulatives we got this month are these little rabbits for sorting and counting.  I set Adam up at the table with us and had him put the rabbits in the "rabbit hole" a.k.a the wipes container.
But on day 14 we learned all about Bees. 


Here, Peter encourages a honey bee as he pollinates the flowers.

We also painted beautiful Poppy paintings and "pollinated" them by using cotton balls to pick up cornmeal and sprinkle it over the poppies.  Another great example of learning through art. 
You can see the paintings of poppies Mother Goose Time provided for us to look at and get inspired.
Again, I found a way to get Adam involved.  This was his first painting!  And it was immediately followed by a bath.
Pattern blocks were the second manipulative provided with the curriculum this month.  Of course we had to build a honeycomb out of the hexagon pieces.
In week 4 we learned about Vegetables in the Garden.

Day 16 the focus was on carrots and we sewed together some carrot lacing cards.
I tied one end to the carrot and put a piece of tape on the other end so that they yarn would not fray as they worked.

As you can see, we covered a lot of ground this month.  Ground, get it?  I crack myself up.  :)  But seriously, we learned so much and it was broken up into easy to swallow pieces.  Pieces that allowed us to really dive deep into the details with out feeling too overwhelmed.

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