Continent Dolls

                         Michelle and Ken have been inspired by these beautiful magnetic dress-up dolls.

They are Sugar & Spice Fashion Girls: Around the World  made by innovative kids.

They are really cool and comes with over 100 outfit combinations. The board book that is included shows the dolls from different countries and how to speak the greeting words from that countries language. Also it touches on something that is specifically from that country. 

Here is a picture of the back of the book . It has a picture of 10 different girls, a listing of how to say hello, goodbye, and my name is in the language from that country. The pronounciation key is under each word.

Now they have been very interested in creating their very own doll from one of their favorite continent.

Ken has chosen North America, she loves Hawaii. Michelle has chosen Asia.

Here are some materials that they will be using.

Here is Michelle practicing her sewing skills.

They have been working on their dolls for hours trying to get them just right. They have been measuring their material , creating patterns. This has been very fun to sit back and watch their creative minds at work. Oh yeah they have even been researching more about their continent to get the dresses to be unique to the continent. 

                                                                   
                                                                       

The Bottle

                                              Having multiages in the classroom is one of the best components of the montessori method. Being able to work with children in this way I have been able to witness the beautiful qualities that bring the method right out of the book into real life. The other day the children were coming outside from the hot weather and begin to get water from our water source.  I have stryrofoam cups to serve for this purpose. It works well for the quick drink without having to clean dishes again. So I placed "Happy" in the highchair to give her a drink from her bottle. I turned around to hear what the thump sound was and it was this.      
      

                                                        
                                               Happy tossed her bottle to the floor. She then using her hand gestured me for the cup I was holding. I decided to give Happy a cup with a small amount of water in it.

Look! Happy even gave me the cup back when she was finished.

The enviroment allowed Happy to say in her best ability that she wanted to do what she saw her older peers doing, drinking from a cup . This is another step for Happy toward being a independent individual. Now its' time to see who is the real owner of this bottle. (lol)

                                                                        

Animals of Seven Continents

 We have a new geography work on the shelf, Animals of  Seven Continents. The children sort 35 picture cards using the continent labels or the continent puzzle pieces.

                                                           Here are the continent labels

The animal cards have a built in control of error. A picture of the continent is on the animal card in the corner.

                                                                       
                                    This is DJ working with the Animals of Seven Continent work.

They really like this work a lot. I have replicards of the cards so they can make booklets. I can't wait until we have a world felt map. I can already see how that would enhance our geography studies. Now I am in search of finding animal figurines for the younger children to match to the pictures. Everyone here still loves matching work of all sorts.

                                                                     

Toddler Tuesday

                The toddlers come in the door saying " I want to work"! Here is a glimpse into the work of  the toddler crew.

                                                                Practical Life

Wet pouring. Making bubbles using a grater. Hanging socks using clothes pins.

  Sensorial

   

Exploring handbells. Stacking cups. Working with green knobless cylinders. Working with knobbed cylinder block.

Math

Number rods.

Geography

Land, Water, Air transportation sort.

Language

Circle metal inset.

They really do their job well!! To see other montessori toddler activities pop over to One Hook Wonder.

Montessori Monday

                                          Another good montessori week.  Take a look.

Practical Life

Using broom with dust pan. Transferring sticks using practice chopsticks. Table setting.

Language

Matching object to picture.

Culture/Geography

Learning about zebras and their stripe patterns. Pin punching countries in Africa.

Graphing  Africa landscapes. Sponge squeezing landforms.

Sensorial

Coloring mixing. Working with color box #3.

Mathematics

Working with Roman Numerals (thousands).

  
                                               A lot of good work, and a whole lot of fun. To see what other children are doing using the montessori method pop over to One Hook Wonder.

The Conjunction Game

              I really wish that learning the parts of speech could have been this much fun when I was in school.
 The brilliance of Dr. Montessori is breath of fresh air for those who are fortunate enough to be exposed to her educational method. Once again some things become natural as you become a better reader. Knowing the words "and", and "or" are easy to read. Knowing how these words operate in the whole scheme of things can be a bit complicated. The kids here have found the importance of "and", "or" through the "The Conjunction Game"  
         
                                           The Conjunction Game

First, you can place the vases around the room, with different colored flowers in each vase.

Invite the child to read the labels, then retrieve the flowers and place them with the labels in a vertical column.

Remove the flowers from the vases and tie them  together with a ribbon. Ask the child to descibe what you just did. ("You tied the flowers together.") Explain that there is a word that ties words together-and-or.

               Place "and" labels between the other labels and ask the child to read: " The yellow flowers and the pink flowers and the white flowers.

                                                                   

 

Lots of fun, loaded with different ways to reinforce conjunctions. By the way this child is nine years old, he is growing  taller everyday!! The presentation was a success. Carmicheal learned that and, or words are conjunctions.  Carmicheal said " Oh, I just thought they were sight words or something".  Hmmm....

                                                                    

                                                                 
                                                           

Sort And Snap Color Match

 Sort and Snap color match is made by Melissa & Doug. It develops important skills, including, color recognition, visual  perception, memory skills, hand/eye coordination, fine motor devlopment, and creative expressions.

This activity comes with wooden play board, 64 Snap caps and 10 reversible picture cards.

When this activity was placed on the shelf you would of thought I placed a bowl of candy on the shelf.

This work has been completed by all ages two and up. It is always in use, nevers stays on the shelf until the end of our work period. I decided to add this work to our language area.

                                                    

There are so many extensions that can be done with this. While Kay was working with this she would say "match it".  I love when a work gets plenty of use.

                                                                            

I Love Math

 During DJs' work period all he wanted to do was build with sensorial materials, and math materials. It was very exciting thing for me to observe. DJ has always loved letters. Anything that involves letters he is game to do. He started reading at a very early age. This was not a forced thing to do but something that he had a strong interest in, many times DJ sat right beside me when I was giving his older sisters reading lessons. Now he is making a effort to work with math works.
                    
                                              He started his work period with the knobless cylinders.

Building numbers with the golden beads.

Building and adding numbers with the stamp game.

DJ ended his work period with the binomial cube.

While we were eating lunch DJ told me he loved math work. I am the happiest mom today!!