Tadpoles At the Pond

It was tadpole day with Mother Goose Time and we asked a lot of questions.  I paid extra attention to the answers I was given as we worked through all the discussion questions.

We started with "How is a tadpole like a frog?  How is it different from a frog?"  I had already handed out the craft for the day, so it took me a while to get an answer on this one.  But finally I was told that tadpoles don't have legs and frogs do but that tadpoles have tails and frogs don't.

 Peter made a rainbow tadpole but was a bit sad that he somehow left out yellow.

I cut apart the pattern set and thought I would try it with Adam this month.  Instead of having him continue the pattern, I had him match the pattern.

 So he matched the bottom picture to the top picture on the pattern strip.

 From there I had him continue the pattern.  I put the frog eggs down after the frog and asked him what came next while pointing to the first picture of frog eggs in the pattern.  He was able to figure it out and he grabbed the tadpole picture and put it in place.  So we continued and finished another full set of the pattern.

 At this point Peter had his Tadpole Dancer done and then I asked the discussion question.  "How can you move your hand through the air?"

Then Mother Goose Time had us ask, "What do you think happens if you wave your hands back and forth quickly in the water?"  I added "Is it harder or easier?"  This is where Lachlan gave me an awesome answer, "It's harder because the water pushes against you."  Then I explained that it's called resistance.  And now we have covered physics.

Lachlan decided he would make a Tadpole Dancer after all and tested it out making shapes in the air.

Next we got out our My Little Journals and I decorated our covers.  First I showed them how to color their finger tip with a marker, then press it to the paper to make a finger print dot, then add a tail to make it look like a tadpole. Here is Lachlan's which has three tadpoles swimming towards the surface towards their Mom.

Peter did the back of the journal first, which had a little maze.

 Then he got to work on his journal cover.

 He had to tell me all about his picture, sadly I was multitasking and didn't really listen to all the details.  Come on Tracy!!

I believe, he drew the full life cycle of a frog.  Oh and something about tadpoles jumping, which is what the arrow is for.

Now everyone was getting anxious to get outside and ride bikes.  The sun was out and I thought it was a good idea.  So I completed the Closing Time section on the go.  I talked with Peter about what he thought might be fun and might be scary about being a tadpole.  He didn't seem to be able to think of what would be fun, so I answered.  Living in the water would be fun!  He said the scary part would be "all the predators."

 I played the "I'm Sorry" song on my phone.

Then I asked what he thought a tadpole might say to another tadpole if they bumped into each other.  We talked about how we should say I am sorry if we accidentally hurt someone.  Then I asked what he should say if some one says I am sorry.  His response "it's okay."  That is the typical response of course but I coached him by saying you can also say "I forgive you."  We talked about how it feels good to be forgiven when we make mistakes.

Lachlan was already out the door riding bikes, but Peter and I had this chat as we were getting ready to head out.  I punched out three of the "Forgiving Feathers" and handed one to Peter.  Then off we went outside. The Tadpole Dancer came out with us and made for a perfect kitty toy.

I have said it a thousand times, but I love the discussion questions and all the conversations they start.  If I could give a parent of a toddler or preschooler any advice, it would be this, ask more questions and wait and really listen to their answers.  You will not regret it!  Getting a glimpse inside their mind is priceless!  They are capable of so much more than we realize.

Muscle Mover Cards by Fundanoodle

We got an opportunity to try out a few products from Fundanoodle.  I had never heard of this company before, but along with the learning tools, Heidi sent me a small catalog with more about the company.

"Fundanoodle is an education readiness program designed by pediatric occupational therapists and elementary school teachers to develop and improve the motor skills needed for success in and out of the classroom."

This company is a direct sales company that has "Education Ambassadors" who host parties and share these products with others.  From what I can tell though, the Education Ambassadors, are not about making money but more about sharing their passion.  They have a love for teaching and love to share tools that really make an impact.

Another section of the catalog explains that their products are designed to combat the negative impact of touchscreen technology.

When I read that part of their goal, their products made a lot of sense.  It's too easy to put your child in front of a tablet for entertainment, but it's not as easy to grab something else for them to do, that's where these products come into play.  The first learning tool we tried was the Muscle Mover Cards.

What's included.  

This is how the set arrives.

 Open it up to see the beautiful cards.  They have great graphics, which I love.

 Lift out the cards and you see the ring and dry erase pen in the bottom.

On the lid of the box there are "how to play" and "how to win" instructions.

Then they list the benefits of this type of play, which is great.  It's always nice to know all that can be learned from play.

 This set of cards are all capital letters and are recommended for the younger age group 4 to 5.  The lower case letters are meant for kids age 5 to 6.  There is a debate among educators about whether a child should learn lower case or upper case letters first.  If you believe lower case first is best, you could of course purchase the other set.  I am going to be trying these out on my 3 year old.

Each card has a great animal graphic and a statement of a movement to make and on the backside they have the letter to trace.  I did a little digging into their methods of teaching writing and this helped me understand the green and red lines.  Green for go, which also means it's the typical place where the formation of most letters start.  Red means stop, which is the typical place where letters end.  I personally think this concept is brilliant and so simple.

 The cards are nice and thick, very durable.

 Muscle Mover Cards in Action

I did not read the instructions on how to play the game that was on the box, I was just too excited to give them to Adam to see what he would do with them.  Adam is 3 and this is how we explored the cards.  I first flipped to letter A, the writing side and laid it on the table while it was still attached to the ring.  It did not lay flat so I quickly took it off the ring and laid it right on the table.  I told Adam to start at the green line and follow the grey line all the way down to the red.  He really wanted to follow the green line first and then the grey.  All writing practice is good, so I wasn't bothered.

He did a great job the very first time.  Better than he had followed a line on previous paper and pencil writing opportunities.  I showed him the other, super exciting part, of his special new pen - the eraser.  He got right to work wiping it clean so he could do it again.

After he got some pen on the table I decided to put the letter card on a tray.  It would easily wipe off the table, but I thought this might contain his exuberant writing.

 Here he is at his second attempt.  The first time he tried to follow the line his mark was a bit squiggly.  This one was perfectly straight.

 He also admired his work.

 I coached him to do the other big line and then the little one in the middle.

Now you may think that I chose A because it was the first letter in the alphabet, but it was actually because his name starts with A.  I think it's best for little ones to learn "their" letter first.  But since he mastered that pretty quickly we moved onto B, because it has curvy lines.  Look at him go!

 Next I pulled out C but first I sang "A,B long pause".  He finished the song for me.

 He sat there, writing and erasing for 15 minutes.

 Even with distractions like big brothers and friends in the background.  Adam is only 3 but he has a great pencil grasp.  If you have a younger one that doesn't quite have this skill down, Heidi, the Fundanoodle Education Ambassador recommended forming the letters with play-doh or wiki sticks.  Both are great options.  But they could also simply trace with the tip of their finger.

 I think Adam would say, he enjoyed it.

We haven't even used the movement recommendation on the front of these cards and we already had a tons of fun.

How to use this tool.

Every home with young children needs flashcards of some sort, with all the letters of the alphabet.  Yes you can pick up a set at Dollar Tree.  But the durability of these Muscle Mover Cards, the writing opportunity and the movement recommendations make these cards have a lot more versatility.  These cards would quickly give you ideas on how to spend quality time with your children while they also build fine and gross motor skills.  And I know I said it once before, the graphics are very cute.

As most of you know, we LOVE our Mother Goose Time curriculum, which is an all inclusive ,preschool and beyond, themed curriculum.  Each month with Mother Goose Time we focus on three letters.  We learn their sounds and have the opportunity to practice writing those letters in the My Little Journal.  This set, would go along very nicely with MGT.  Since you get only three alphabet cards each month, collecting all letters by the end of the year, this would be a great way to have the complete alphabet in cards as a part of you classroom all year long.  But it could also coordinate well with the MGT lessons because you could pull out the three letters you are focusing on each month and have a writing station.  You could use those three actions during all your transition times, etc.

As part of your classroom these Muscle Mover Cards would offer another way of learning handwriting.  Every child learns differently, and if the green means go and red means stop concept clicks with your child there are other products from this company with more writing opportunities.

Pros and Cons

I love the green means go, red means stop way of teaching.  My older boys have really struggled remembering to start letters at the top when writing.  Introducing this early would have been very helpful, but I was still learning as an educator.  Now that I know this is a hard habit to break, I find it all the more valuable to start off right.  Not only that, but from what I have seen of the other writing tools, for older children, they have them practice writing the letters within a square, which was something I loved about Handwriting Without Tears.  

This card set, is not a complete writing curriculum.  It's not going to step by step walk you through how to teach handwriting.  But it's a great tool to have and something else to put in front of your children beside a screen.  

I am a little bummed that when the ring is put through the cards, it will no longer fit inside it's box.  

The flip side of that is that it won't be tucked away and forgotten about.  It could be hung on a hook and visible for your children to grab when they are ready for fun. 

I am also a bit disappointed that you can't leave the cards on the ring when writing.  It didn't take long to get the cards on and off the ring, but it's just another step, when we are often running short on time.  I really can't imagine a better way of storing them though.  If they were in a box they could easily be dumped out and all mixed up.  On the ring, they can easily be grabbed and taken on the go.  You could also easily have your child finger trace or form the letters with wiki sticks while the cards were still on the ring.   

All in all the Muscle Mover Cards are a great little product with lots of versatility that is Adam approved.  To top it all off, they are only $17.99.  So find an Education Ambassador today at Fundanoodle and get your home or your school a set.  

Rhyme Time - 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe

This month with Mother Goose Time, the theme is Nursery Rhymes.  Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled.  Nursery Rhymes are kind of freaky.  You bake birds in a pie, humpty dumpty breaks into pieces, people live in shoes, etc.  Of course, Mother Goose Time does a fabulous job of highlighting the fun and silly, not the freaky.

So far, I have been so happy with this theme.  Knowing these nursery rhymes is kind of a right of passage for children.  It's not something I want to neglect my children.  It's also been excellent for their understanding of rhymes.  Especially this day when we learned 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe.

You can really hear the rhyming words in this one.  I read it one time through and then the second time I would read all but the second rhyming word in each line and they would finish it.

Since we say "3, 4, shut the door" in this rhyme our invitation to create was door themed.  I showed Lachlan and Peter the rectangular plates and the inspiration photo of colorful doors and they were hooked.  I offered to get them paint, but they couldn't wait that long, they jumped right in with markers.  They each picked a door in the inspiration photo they were basing their designs off of.

This is the inspiration photo that I stuck to my window.  I used this sticky strip made my post-it.  You can stick and re-stick items to it and when it loses it's sticky, you just wash it.  It's super sticky again when it dries.  I find when I hang it up here everyone can see it at the same time.  You can see Adam checking it out in the picture below.

It took me a while to catch up with the boys and actually read what was in the Teacher Guide for this activity.  I love the discussion questions and prompts they give us.  It gives another level to the activity we are working on and really adds to their vocabulary and their ability to share their thoughts.  The prompt in this activity asked "What do you think is behind the doors in the photo? What would you like to draw behind your door?"

This just flipped a switch in their minds and got them thinking up the details of what would be behind their door.

Lachlan and Peter were having a blast with the doors but Adam really likes to do serious "school".  He wanted his journal.  I was kind of teaching on the fly here, so I handed it to him and then quickly grabbed the Teacher's Guide to see what he is supposed to be doing on the cover.

 He was supposed to trace his shoe, but I was too slow.  He was already tracing his hand.

 His other favorite thing to do with our Mother Goose Time curriculum is to review the Circle Time display.  I updated the calendar and said the pattern from the beginning.  I asked him what today was going to be and he didn't want to answer me, he wanted to do his colors.  He is a determined and opinionated child.  I did push him a bit to try the pattern.  I really love how we are back to a pretty easy pattern.  At the beginning of the year we start with something like this, an AB pattern.  Then it gets more complicated.  So the last few months I haven't tried really hard to introduce it to Adam.  But here we are back at an AB pattern and it couldn't be more perfect timing for us.

I drape the color ribbons over the top of the Circle Time board and I lift one up at a time and ask him the color.  If he can't quite recall it on his own I make sound it out slowly.  Often when he hears the first sound of the color he can get the rest.

Next we count the fish and go over all the shapes that are on the clouds.

He studied the back for a while, where MGT has a fun matching activity. They could match the rhyming words and then follow the funny line between the two.

When he was done with the cover he turned to one of the inside pages.  There are directions on how to use each page in this journal in the Teacher's Guide.  But since Adam is only 2 almost 3, I let him use it a bit more freely.  Now these pages look like a bunch of scribbles.  But if you look closer, the page on the left where he was supposed to draw the capital I, he drew a bunch of lines up and down.  Then if you look on the page on the right, he tried really hard to follow the tracing lines.  I am so proud of him!

The older boys were just finishing up their doors at this point.  Lachlan made a blue and red door and was just getting started on the backside.

 I guess the blue and red door was bathroom door.  Uh, oh.  The door is open and the poor guy was exposed.

 Peter made a yellow double door, like a kitchen door in a restaurant.  But I guess I didn't get any photos of the front.

 On the inside he drew the chef in his kitchen.

He showed the backside of his door on the top, then the chef standing between his two counters with bowls of different colors.

We continue to recite this rhyme and it's been days since we did these activities.  The boys think it's fun and it's really tuned their ear to listening for rhyming words.  I read another children's book to them that has this same rhythm and rhyming and I would stop before finishing the line and they had a lot of fun figuring out what word would finish the sentence.

We continue to learn and be challenged by Mother Goose Time, even though my oldest is in 2nd grade and my middle son is in Kindergarten.  It really can be adapted to fit many levels of learning.