Revisiting Rivers

3 years ago my family received our first box of Mother Goose Time curriculum.  It was May's box and the theme was Bubbles, Boats & Floats.  Mother Goose Time's themes are on a 3 year rotation, so here we are, in May, three years later and we get another box of Bubble, Boats & Floats.  Although the themes are the same and the days are laid out the same, Mother Goose Time is always improving upon itself, so there are bound to be some similarities and some things different. 

We are just getting started on this theme because we had to finish our Bees & Butterflies theme.  But here we are, Day 1, revisiting Rivers!  To see our River day 3 years ago, click here.

First we had a big discussion about the difference between a river and a lake.  The boys were really not sure of the answer.  I explained that a river has two sides and the water moves, the water flows through the river.  In a lake the water collects in a typically round shape and sits in the lake with out flowing.  Then we talked about how beaver can turn a creek (small flowing river) into a pond or lake by stopping the flow. 

We live just blocks away from the Willamette river in Oregon.  I told them that if we had a magic school bus and could hop inside a drop of water the river would take us all the way up to where Grandpa's boat is.  Grandpa's boat is on the Multnomah channel which is up in the water ways near where the Columbia spills into the ocean.  Honestly, I hope I am right, I need to look this all up on a map.  But I explained that eventually we would end up in the ocean. 

I am sure this is a lot more in depth then we got 3 years ago when they were only 2 and 4, but now that they are 2, 5 and 7 this makes an awesome, in depth, PreK and 1st grade science discussion!

3 years ago for the river craft they first soaked their tissue paper in blue food coloring, I think it was actually paper towel that we dyed blue. 

This year Mother Goose Time provided us with blue tissue paper, brown sand, and a cream colored paper.  

This is how Adam, my 2 year old, used the materials.   First he started gluing the paper down..  Then I showed him how he could tear the paper. 

 He tore some paper and got some stuck to his glue stick.

 Lots of great fine motor building here.

 Then I let him pour the sand.

 Here is his finished product.  Does it look like a river, no, but it was a lot of fun to make!

Now here is Peter, 5, using the same materials.

 He really piled the glue up on his paper then added lots of sand. 

He gathered a few rocks from the backyard for the finishing touch.  His river looks like it ends in a lake.  He finished it off by writing his own name. 

Here is Lachlan, now 7, making his river.  He never likes to use too much glue. 

 I had to encourage him to use a glue stick to make a wider shore on his river. 

He poured the sand over the glue, then we stood the paper up to knock off the extra and all the blue tissue paper fell off too.  Oops, he forgot to glue it down!

 Here is Lachlan's finished product, done all by himself. 

Here is his river from 3 years ago.

The biggest difference between the two, Mommy didn't help at all this year.  I have a feeling I "helped" a lot 3 years ago.  I was more focused on the product of art and not the process.  I have learned so much from using Mother Goose Time for 3 years.  I feel like Mother Goose Time trained me to be the educator I am today.  It's so much more than a preschool curriculum.