Preschool

Honestly, what’s not to love! I love it all as my readers already know. Mother Goose Time is like a partner in my business. I’m so much more organized and professional using Mother Goose Time curriculum. To begin with, all the lessons are professionally planned, organized into daily bags and sent to my house. In this post, I want to share 25 Things I Love About Mother Goose Time. You can also see What’s In the Box for Desert Discovery.

1. Amazing lesson plan books!

The first thing of 25 Things I Love About Mother Goose Time Preschool Curriculum is the lesson plan books. They are beautiful, comprehensive and just so nice to use. Each theme has four lesson plan books – one for each week of the theme. The lesson plan books are divided into themes so for Desert Discovery, there’s Lesson 1-5 in the first book.

Each year my group learns through play with exciting themes that all the kids enjoy. My kids are never bored because they are learning the basics along with themes like this one, Desert Discovery. They get to pretend, move and play every day. I love that we are covering broader topics than just holidays and seasons. I believe children are so capable so let’s learn!

Besides organized, attractive and easy to follow, the lesson plan books are full of helpful resources.

Inside the lesson plan books:

• Weekly Theme Web
• Full color pages and photos: Photos can be shown to the children or you might consider taking them out of the book for display. They are that nice!
• Learning Objectives and Overview
• Weekly Planning Calendar Pages
• STEAM Station Ideas
• Daily Lesson Plans – 5 in each book.
• Suggested Stories each week
• Lessons incorporate natural items like sticks, rocks, shells
• Suggested Adaptations for the various ways children learn
• Developmental Benchmarks chart for reference
• Blank page for notes

Week Desert Discovery Week 2, Lessons 6-10: Wonder About Sahara Desert

Desert Discovery Week 3, Lessons 11-15: Wonder About Mojave Desert

Desert Discovery Week 4, Lessons 16-20: Wonder About Desert Night

2. Everything you need!

All the teacher materials, craft supplies, toys, books, music and assessment materials you need are included. There are some craft supplies that you need to provide like scissors, glue and paint, which you are likely to already have on hand, but anything specific to a creative activity is provided.

Monthly calendar – We do circle time here, and we love the patterns on each calendar.

Family Newsletter – The newsletter is attractive and helpful to parents. I like that it introduces our theme and is a nice addition to parent information I provide.

My Creative Mind Daily Notes – These notes are helpful in communicating with parents about our creative work because sometimes it’s not always clear to parents what the purpose or concept was so these notes explain that. The notes can be glued to the back of the project, sent home individually or posted as images online. Another tool for communicating with and involving parents.

3. Complete, well rounded lessons!

Theme Web – shows us at a glance what this month’s theme is all about. We full cover topics that I’m sure I wouldn’t attempt without Mother Goose Time. I’ve said it many times and I’ll say again, I am a better teacher with Mother Goose Time because I naturally lean to art, dramatic play and literacy – not so much the science and math or cutlure themes. I believe chidlren need and deserve more than seasonal topics and holiday crafts.

Teacher Tools include the Supplied Materials list, Summary of Skill Assessment, Daily Activities calendar, and Skills Chart – great references for throughout the month.

4. Many Letters of the Month activities!

Letter Parts, Letter Cards, Phonics Cards – three new letters are included each month. We do not learn the letters in order, but they are grouped together. You can see the similarity between the letters N, W & Z.

The letter activities incorporate the popular loose parts concept that makes learning hands on and engaging. See also #23 Loose parts and natural play ideas.

5. Fun Kids Music!

All of the children’s music from Mother Goose Time is awesome. We get a new CD each month. The music this month is country and western-inspired so it fits the theme perfectly. Very cute and catchy songs you find yourself singing long after the kids have gone home!

6. Beautiful, quality photos!

Daily Lessons – Everyday we have a new Daily Topic poster. It’s the page with the image of the cowboy boots and the title. I love the real pictures on the Daily Topic posters and the Inspiration Photos for the Invitation to Create projects. The quality of the photos is amazing and they are attractive and exciting to add to our room. Real photos rather than just drawings are educational for the kids and help make our lessons come to life.

7. Awesome Invitations to Create!

The Invitation to Create activities, like Boot Designs show below, are always amazing too, definitely one thing I love about Mother Goose Time. They are process art focused and encourage the creative process of planning and creating work.

8. Cool educational toys!

Let’s not forget about the manipulatives! What are manipulatives? They are toys that facilitate learning. See also 12. Magnetic storytelling set sand 15. Original puzzles

Along with the manipulatives are often mats that focus on counting, patterns and shapes. They are great for centers.

The manipualtives vary each month but for Desert Discovery we have Connecting Cubes. There are also art tools included with some lessons. For Cowboy Boots, pokey balls are used to paint textured designs on the cowboy boot shape.

Lesson 1: Cowboy Boots

Lesson 2: Cowboy Hat – The Silly Shape songs are a hit too. I laminate these posters and we use them throughout the month to work on shape identification. Make & Plays are so fun! They are more of a craft type project, which often is created with a process art technique, like painting with string, as this one shows. Then the creation becomes a prop to play with liek the cowboy hat headband.

Lesson 2: Cowboy Hat

Lesson 3: Lasso The Pocket Cube Cards mean a fun game or activity. In this lesson, the shape cards are put into the pocket cube (included in the welcome kit with first order). We roll the cube and then use the string to make the shape.

9. Attractive engaging quality posters!

The posters are colorful, cute and printed on quality poster type paper. The Theme Poster is included every month. There’s also a rhyme poster in Lesson 7 that I always look forward to hanging up.

We put the theme poster on our circle time board under the calendar and reference it daily. It adds context to our theme and topic related discussions at circle time.

Lesson 3: Lasso

As you can see it comes with I Spy Glasses, or little paper magnifying glasses to look for items on the poster.

Lesson 4: Horse Everyone likes coloring in their Little Letter Books each month. They help reinforce the beginning sounds of the letters of the month and help us learn to identify and write the letters. Two Counting Cards and numbers are included each month. The numbers are durable cardboard type paper that hold up to handling and tracing.

Lesson 4: Horse

10. Games for everyone!

Lesson 5: At the Rodeo – each month several games are included. On this day we will be playing the Rodeo Memory Game and everyone gets their own to take home. In Lesson 6 below, you can see another game that we will play as a group.

Lesson 5: At the Rodeo

11. Quality, engaging storybooks!

The books we get each month are not your regular storybooks. They are interactive and engage my little readers. The drawings or photos are always awesome. Love the Experience Early Learning books!

Who Am I?
Who Am I? is a fun and interactive book that holds the attention of 2-6 year olds by making actions a part of the reading experience. Learn about amazing desert animals like the coyote, thorny dragon, or the adorable desert fox. Point to their unique body parts and then crawl like a desert tortoise with a heavy shell, or roll into a ball for protection from enemies like an armadillo lizard. Read again and again to learn the clues and answer the repeating refrain of “Who Am I?”. Use sharp eyes on the desert scenery page to find the 12 hiding animals. Add new describing words and science terms, like prickly or predator, to a child’s vocabulary. Oh yes, and have a lot of fun while you do it!

https://secure.mothergoosetime.com/product/who-am-i/

Lesson 6: Sahara Desert

Lesson 7: Camel

12. Magnetic storytelling sets!

The magnetic storytelling sets coordinate with the storybook of the month, extending literacy skills. This one has a real scene of a desert and real desert animals. Sometimes they are drawings from the books. The magnet pieces can be used for identifying the animals, who lives where, who eats what, or retelling the story from the book.

In this case the book was more about identifying different animals that live in the desert so they are very open ended and can be mixed with all the previous month’s magnets for creative play.

My kids enjoy tracing them on paper and drawing and coloring the animal shapes.

13. Opportunities to draw and write!

Each month there’s postcards, Make & Plays and Forest Friends stories lessons that give children the opportunity to draw and write. These activities are challenging for most of us, but introducing these ideas when children are young are great confidence builders!

I recognize the value in these activities even if drawings don’t “look like much”. Modeling writing and drawing for children is so important so I try to show them they are capable by making effort myself and showing them how it’s not always easy to draw but it’s fun! I can teach them to try and some ideas I have even though my skills are basic.

Lesson 8: Small Desert Animals

14. Intriguing cultural and historical lessons!

I like how the materials we receive include lessons like these of real places and historical information. Learning about hieroglyphics in early childhood? Of course! I love it, it offers children real ways to learn creatively and with real depth since the information we use is based on reality.

Lesson 9: The Great Pyramid

Learning about people and places, whether far or near, helps us understand our own environments, value differences, causes us to make comparisons and realize the greatness of our world.

15. Diversity infused materials!

Throughout the lesson plans, books, poster, games and printed materials we see people of all different nationalities and abilities. It’s important that I have these types of resources in my classroom for children to see and relate to.

I appreciate that that Mother Goose Time’s materials represent all people and abilities. The materials I use every day promote inclusion and valuing each child.

16. Real puzzles!

Each month a puzzle is included in the kit. Paper puzzles can be a fun activity, but real puzzles are quality materials that children want to use and therefore develop real skills using. Each puzzle coordinates with the storybook of the month and reinforces literacy skills and well as math concepts.

Lesson 11: Mojave Desert

17. Educational facts!

As a preschool teacher I learn right along with my kids! I love the educational facts my preschoolers are exposed to through the Mother Goose Time lessons. It helps children begin to think critically about topics like the difference between tortoises and turtles.

Lesson 12: Desert Tortoise

Sometimes we think ideas or facts are “too big” to teach young children, but I’ve found that simply isn’t true. They love to learn things like this and they are capable. The Tortoise or Turtle comparison card is one I will laminate and put on the wall or in the library so they can look at it often.

18. Character development lessons with Forest Friends!

This month we are learning about being honest. We have a Forest Friends book featuring an owl this month called “Honest Owl”. The children will make a simple owl puppet for retelling the story and have the opportunity to write a story of their take on being honest.

Dictating these stories are a process that I must guide them through but so valuable. Even if I give them an idea to get started, they love to see their words written down and the lesson on honesty that we cover will be memorable.

Lesson 13: Burro

19. Three Dimensional art every month!

We do lots of art every week at my center. I believe if you are creative, you can do anything and children are creative! They love to use art materials to make two-dimensional art, getting messy with paint and glue.

Lesson 14: Cactus

Making 3D art is important too. Three-dimensional art activities include things such as sculpture and play dough or clay. Three-dimensional or 3D artwork is art that can be looked at from many different sides or angles.

But why is 3D art important for young children? I can never find a specific reason for this, but just like two-dimensional art, allows children to work on their fine motor skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills but in a different context. After all, our world isn’t flat!

Experimenting with materials and creating develops self-confidence and just looking at materials and children need to use all diffrent kinds of materials to create.

20. Earth-conscious materials!

The wood utensils included as a painting tool are compostable. I like that Mother Goose Time incorporates smart choices like these when possible. The wood utensils are a newer addition to the kits and I like them.

Lesson 15: Plants of the Mojave

I recycle any paper materials I can or save them to be resused. Also, consider putting scraps in an art center to be reused creatively by children during free time. Reuse plastic bags for storing materials, wrapping diapers or as stuffing in paper crafts like last month’s Heart Model.

21. Room to grow!

Are some of your children ready for sight words? Counting above 10? Mother Goose Time has those lessons which makes it flexible for mixed age groups and developmental skill levels.

Lesson 16: Desert Cottontail

Lesson 17: Desert Night

22. Easy reader books for everyone!

We love the I Can Read books and there’s one for everyone. It reinforces the idea that everyone can read. Everyone can gets to look at their book, and then take it home to look at again and again, share with family or have read to them.

Lesson 18: Coyote

Lesson 19: Rattlesnake

23. Reuseable zip top bags!

Mother Goose Time started including more and more of these resealable zip top bags and I think it’s great. It was a user suggestion they incorporated into their kits which shows their concern for the environment as well as the user’s experience.

Not all of the bags have been replaced with zip top bags but each month I see more and more of them and it’s a good idea. I try to reuse the daily bags too, for wrapping diapers and that type of thing.

24. Loose parts and natural play ideas!

The cards shown below show ideas for using rocks and sticks to create designs. I love using natural and loose parts in my center and I think it’s important to offer open ended materials for creative play and learning. Mother Goose Time supports that effort and makes it easy for me with cool ideas like these.

Examples of more loose parts and natural play ideas:

• Loose Parts Nature Designs
• Rock Letters

Lesson 20: Campfire

25. Easy to use assessment materials!

An assessment system is incorporated right into the curriculum so it’s authentic. Even if you’ve never assessed a child, it walks you right through it so you can do it.

Every day there’s one lesson you can assess. The teacher guide walks you through it with questions and things you should observe. Use the materials provided on Mother Goose Time’s website to document skills and create a portfolio.

If you’d like an electronic method to record assessments, check out Childfolio.

Anything you would add? What’s your favorite part of Mother Goose Time?