Mother Goose Time Welcome Kit

So we received our first start of the school year Mother Goose Time curriculum. Which means we received a brand new Welcome Kit. As a "retired" first grade teacher one of my favorite parts of teaching was setting up my classroom. So getting all the goodies out of my yellow school bus box was so much fun!! It was also extremely helpful that Mother Goose Time included a Quick Start Guide and Welcome Kit flyer.

 The Quick Start Guide includes information about how to set up your environment, plan your lessons, and match your lesson plans with discovery bags. Part of the information included under setting up your environment gave you helpful information about what you could include in each of the investigation stations.This is something I have yet to use so I will definitely use this information for my stations. (See later post when they are set up.)

I am very excited about My Scrapbook included in the Welcome Kit. My Scrapbook is used to keep track of learning concepts all year. Since we started at the beginning of the summer we did not get to do a My Scrapbook before. I think this will be a fun thing to keep and look through later. 

The Circle Time CD is such a fun addition to Mother Goose Time curriculum. We listen to the CD all the way through just about every day. It is probably a good thing we have a back up CD. 

Like I was saying my favorite part is setting up my learning area. So once I went through everything in my Welcome Kit I got to plan out my Circle Time area. And this is what I came up with...

I absolutely love the Circle Time Display. Within the circle time display there is the Clothesline that will be used as we collect shapes throughout each unit. There is the Weather Basket which houses the weather pieces that will be used during circle time. The Birdhouse will help the kids learn about colors and friendly behaviors. Each month we will collect a Color Bird to reinforce colors. We will also collect feathers each month to learn about friendly behaviors. At the base of the circle time display is the Number Line. We will learn about numbers and explore at least two numbers each month. Lastly, the circle time display includes the Flower Pot where the kids will learn letters and words throughout the year.

Above the birdhouse I put up the monthly calendar. I tried to put it in a central place because we spend a lot of time each day talking about the days of the week, months of the year, counting the days, etc. The fun thing about Mother Goose Time is they send a new themed calendar each month. So you will see since September's theme is "My Amazing Body" the calendar coordinates nicely with the theme. Mother Goose Time also includes colorful monthly signs.

Possibly my favorite part of calendar time is when we get to talk about the weather. (I might just be saying that because it has been nice weather lately. Check back with me in January.) I included pieces from last year's Welcome Kit in the weather area. I really like for the kids to be able to set the weather and see that there is a possibility that there can be more than one weather option for a day (partly cloudy, rain and clouds, etc.). I also like the weather pockets we made for each day from last year's Welcome Kit. I think they are a good way to look back at our week. 

  The World Map and American Sign Language Sign are both posters we are familiar with from last year's Welcome Kit. I look forward to using the sign language sign more often.

 I think the Letters and Words Flowerpot is such a cute addition to the circle time area. I think this will be a great challenge for both kids. Mason is working on sounding out words and Hailey is still learning letters. This will be a great tool to help each of them. I put it nice and low for them to be able to use it often. Hopefully I do not regret this decision.

Lastly, possibly my favorite part of the new welcome kit is the alphabet. With our old alphabet I wanted it to be low enough for the kids to see and point at. The only problem with this is Hailey would pull the letters down all the time. This year Mother Goose Time included a flap to the letters. When you lift up the flap you see a pictures of something that starts with each letter. This is a fun interactive way for Hailey to still touch them and hopefully not pull them down. So far so good. : )

Overall, the Welcome Kit makes me very excited to officially start this preschool curriculum with the kids next week. I love how everything is so durable and colorful. I also love how we get to add to it each month. To get your own Welcome Kit or learn more about Mother Goose Time please visit their website.