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Bees, Art, and Mother Goose Time

Last April we did an entire unit on Bees & Butterflies, so Little Guy has had a fondness for bees since then.  He was quite happy about Bee Day being included in Bugs & Crawly Things.  

We started with There Are Bugs, which is our storybook this month.  Each month we get a new book to add to our collection.  It is great because they are unique books, most of the time created specifically for Mother Goose Time, plus they offer a lot of variety.  Some months we get fiction books, others the book is non-fiction or a concept book (like the alphabet, counting, or mixing colors).  I always leave the Mother Goose Time books out for Little Guy to look at when we are done.  *I have also recently found that the binding is ideal for reading aloud to groups of children.  They are sturdy enough to stand up without much support, but light enough to hold comfortably in your hand.*

There Are Bugs is a fun book that mixes the Mother Goose Time illustration style with photographs of bugs.   The combination of friendly cartoons and yucky bugs makes the bugs a little easier to take.  After we read the book, we also answered the comprehension questions that were listed in the Teacher Guide.  I think that reading/listening/picture comprehension is such a great skill to teach at a young age so I really appreciate that these types of questions are included.



I kind of copied Leslie from Jack of All Trades when we did Bug Bingo.  First Little Guy and I played it a few times by ourselves, then I had my husband come play a round with us as a family activity.  I never really thought of including my husband in Mother Goose Time, but it was a great idea!  I am not sure how stoked he was to play Bug Bingo, but he was a good sport.  In the picture one of the bingo cards is upside down, because I was playing across from Little Guy. 


Next was our art project.  At the beginning of the school year, I was SO resistant to the change from product based art to process based art.  I thought it was ridiculous, and really didn't like the idea at all.  Fast forward to the end of the school year, and I find myself skipping over way more of the Make and Play art projects than the Invitations to Create.  Little Guy has gotten so much more creative since we started the new art style, although he still LOVES to make headbands!  I think the combination of process (Invitation to Create) and product (Make and Play) based art projects is a perfect balance!  I can't imagine how much preschool teachers must love the Invitation to Create, because getting a small dozen children to follow the directions to make a project must be exhausting!


The above is an example of an Invitation to Create.  I set up the stuff, then he uses it to do what he wants.  Some people are probably less directed about these process based art projects, but I tend to tell him that the goal is to make it look like whatever we are learning about.  He tells me which colors we will need in whatever medium we are using.  Sometimes he asks me what to do with certain items, but I usually just tell him "Whatever you want."  


He told me what he was making with the egg carton, but this was a couple of weeks ago, and I have since forgotten.  But its all about the process anyways, right?  ;)



He is so much better at cutting now.  In his kindergarten workbooks he always had cutting and pasting activities every day.  He really enjoyed them, and I think I need to find a cutting and pasting workbook so he can keep practicing even though he is done with his kindergarten curriculum.


Even if the focus is the process, there is still a final product.  This is a bee.  If I remember correctly the pipe cleaners are the bee's legs (I might have "helped" him remember that insects have six legs, and I also operated he stapler for him.  As you can see, I did refrain from telling him that the bee is going to be very unbalanced with all its legs on one side), the horizontal lines are the bees stripes, the vertical lines are antennae and a proboscis, the circles are eyes, and the yellow paper and paint are flowers or pollen or something.

We receive Mother Goose Time free of charge in exchange for sharing our opinions, experiences and pictures.  All opinions are my own.


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