Disclosure: St. Mary Preschool receives curriculum from Experience Early Learning each month in exchange for blogging about our honest and unique experiences using these materials. One of my favorite "tools" or components of the Mother Goose Time curriculum is the Teacher Guide. Early in my career, I spent hours writing lesson plans and preparing activities for the next week. I pulled ideas from this place and that and then carefully wrote the skills and goals for each activity. Despite my best efforts, I did not have a scope and sequence to the skills being taught, it was merely based on isolated goals. I did not know about "scaffolding" with children back then and even though I know the children learned things in my care, my lesson plans lacked a cohesive flow. Now, I have my evenings and weekends back and even more importantly, I can feel confident that the children will learn appropriate skills in the correct order. In one glance, I can see the day's activities across two pages. Beginning with an opening Circle Time and Community Challenge, leading to a Make and Play or Creative art experience, then on to two table top activities, a STEAM station, an activity related to one of the suggested books and finally, a closing Circle Time. Because Mother Goose Time believes that learning is a process of inquiry and investigation, you will find that the activities have 3 main components: Discuss, Explore and Play. Below you will see how these prompts led our students on to an exciting path of learning. The Learning Process: Transferring Water Transferring Water was one of the Investigation Station activities featured in the teacher guide. Discuss: What do you think might happen when I add the drops of food coloring to the water? Should I add more? How do you think we can get the water from this cup to the empty one next to it? Explore: Have you ever used a dropper before? Let's practice squeezing the top of the dropper, then letting go. Play: Let's squeeze the top of the dropper then place it in the water. What is happening to the water when you stop pinching the top? I wonder if you can squirt the water from the dropper to the empty cup? The Learning Process: Shadows One of our past Make and Play activities were shadow puppets. Children made a simple bear puppet that they played with for most of the morning. Discuss: Have you ever seen a shadow before? (This led to a very lively discussion of shadows in their room at night and things that scare them, so the actual playing with shadows was therapeutic for some). Explore: I will shine this flashlight on the wall and place my hand in front of the light. What do you see? Do you want to try? What else could you place in front of the light? Play: Let's place our stick puppets in front of the light? Now what do you see? Could you tell a story with your bears? Allow children to observe this process of others. This is a form of learning for many children. However, sometimes it can get a bit crowded. If we have too many children at the table that want to observe, we will make a list of interested children so they can see when it will be their turn. Once a child receives their turn, they are allowed enough time to really explore and play with the materials. If we run out of time available for all children who have expressed an interest to have a turn, then we will offer the activity again later the same day. These are just two of many activities that have engaged the mind, body and heart of our little people. I hope you feel empowered to create an equally inviting learning environment. Best, Sheila
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AuthorSheila Anderson has over 25 years experience in the Early Childhood Field and still loves going to "school" everyday. Archives
January 2022
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