Pack a Picnic Basket

It's Picnic Time!

Time to celebrate the end of summer and Back-To-School with a family picnic. 

The Mother Goose Time Preschool Curriculum (MGT) celebration kit made this special day simple, easy, and fun!

 This month's Family Picnic celebration kit included invitation postcards, Pack a Picnic Basket song and game pieces, Apple Sandwich Snack directions, Marching Ants game, What is Missing? game, and two picnic-themed exploration stations.

This family picnic celebration kit is included in the August "Superheroes" themed Mother Goose Time curriculum box.  (Mother Goose Time includes a different themed celebration pack within each month's curriculum box.)

Here's a look at a few of the pages from the Family Picnic celebration guide.

 
Picnic Theme Books

Picnic themed books we read:

We're Going On a Picnic! by Pat Hutchins

Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson

A Picnic by Rozanne Lanczak Williams

Music and Movement

 We sang the song "Ants at the Picnic" using the lyrics provided in our Mother Goose Family Picnic guide.  This song was fun to sing!  The circle time CD is included in the Mother Goose Time Welcome Kit.  I received this circle time CD when I placed my first monthly curriculum order.

Ants at the Picnic Art Experience

We sponge painted red squares onto the white paper to make a picnic blanket.

After the paint dried, we used the round, black stickers to make ant bodies.  I helped my 2 year old decorate his ants.  (MGT supplied the paper, sponge, and black stickers.  All I had to do was supply the paint.) 

Apple Sandwich

The celebration guide even included a simple apple sandwich snack idea.

To make this snack, spread peanut butter (or your choice of spread) on one of the apple slices, count out 1-10 raisins and add them to the slice.  Cover with another apple slice and enjoy! 

Marching Ants Game

   

The Marching Ants game allowed us to work on basic number concepts.

(I simply love, love, love the fact that Mother Goose Time Supplies all of these materials in my monthly curriculum box.) 

My little guy loved the Marching Ants spinner.

He made sure the spinner landed on exactly the number he needed.

 

It's so much fun to count ants! 

(The pictured ant manipulatives are from a different math activity set.) 

What is Missing? Game

 

We used the picnic themed food cards included in the celebration kit to play this game.  We worked on expressive language skills and we reviewed each food item.  These cards were brightly colored and they sparked a lot of conversation and sorting.  I laminated these cardstock cards for extra durability. 

 After conversation and free play, I placed three food cards on the table.  We named each item.  I asked my little guy to close his eyes and I removed one card.  My little guy had to guess which food card was missing.  We played this game several times!

Picnic Collage

 The picnic collage station was a quiet activity to compliment our indoor, rainy day picnic.  My little guy looked at food pictures in recycled magazines.  He pointed to and named the foods he wanted to eat.  I cut out the photos of the foods he chose.  He glued the photos to the paper plate to make a collage.

 

My little guy could be heard saying, "Mmm, I love cherries.",  "Delicious!", and "Yummy in my tummy!".  He was so excited to share his picnic plate!

Ant Hunt Sensory Bin

 We mixed plastic ants with dry pasta noodles in a bin.  My little guy used tweezers to pull the ants out.  We counted the ants and played again!  This activity lasted all week.  I did not take a picture of our bin!  The pictured bin is a photo taken from the Mother Goose Family Picnic guide.

Bonus Activity 

  

A little bonus activity we had this week was this 100 Ant Picnic Math Activity Set.  My two year old enjoyed placing the ants on the blank side of the board.  He also enjoyed picking up the randomly placed ants and he would repeat the name of the hidden number. 

Relax and enjoy these final days of August with your little learners by hosting a Back-to-School or End of Summer picnic.

Be sure to check out the Mother Goose Time Preschool Curriculum.

We will be sharing our adventures with the September 2017 Mother Goose Time Preschool Theme "My Amazing Body" soon!  

A Book About Me

 

All of us have some type of student created booklet for the first week of school.  This type of simple activity is great to have on hand!  My old copy was in need of new clip art and a simpler font.  (This little project took a LOT longer to complete than I thought it would!)  If you are looking for a new "Book About Me" or just want to add this PDF to your collection, feel free to download it HERE.  I've include directions on the last page for teacher use.  Please remember to remove the "Directions To The Teacher" page before copying the booklet for classroom use.

Hope you are enjoying the summer!

Find A Friend

Students circulate through the classroom and meet new friends!

Here's a great team building activity I like to have on hand for the first week of school!  Use "Find a Friend" for a quick structure to allow for student interaction, to model classroom expectations for movement in the room, and to review and practice classroom manners.  

With the recording sheet in hand, students circulate through the room to pair up with a new friend.  Students greet each other and take turns to ask a question related to the grid.  For example, student A will say say to student B, "Do you like to read?"  Student B will reply, "Yes, I do like to read."  Student B will then sign his name in the corresponding box on Student A's paper.  (If the student replies with a "no", I encourage my first graders to try again and to ask about something else on the paper.  After all, we have different likes and dislikes.)  Before rotating, students thank each other.  Students mix and pair again with a new partner to complete the grid as time allows.  I do remind the children that they may only sign someone's paper one time.

These activities promote positive interaction, movement, and community.  It also allows for me to model (...again) how to stand up and carry the paper/pencil, how to find a partner quietly (by making eye contact), how to say "please" and "thank you", and how to speak using an inside voice.  

Click here to download this "Find a Friend" activity.

link

  

Here's One for Color Words.

 Click on the image below to download this "Find a Friend" activity.

(Some children may need to have support with recognizing and reading the words.)

Like Those?  Here's one for number words, too!

Click on the image below to download this "Find a Friend" activity.

Happy Holiday Weekend!