Meet Jonathan

Last week was definetly a child led work week. I was busy decluttering while the children were busy carrying on with their normal routine. They definetly are very close to normalization.To be honest with you all I believe I have been stopping the normalization process in many ways, more on that in another post that I would title " Trial and Error". 

Jonathan has been with us for about a month now, he loves watching the others doing work. I know when I call another child for a lesson Jonathan will ask if he can watch if he isn't working with the sensorial materials, or practical life works.

                                                Red Knobless Cylinders

                                       Scissor and glue work.

                 Brown Stairs ( copy work that he saw another child doing).

                           Sorting Geometric Solids by what slides and what rolls.

 Jonathan starts his day with the brightest of smiles, and will turn really grumpy if you say it is time to stop working. His parents said that Jonathan woke up on Saturday and got himself ready to come to school. He was sadly disappointed to find out that Saturday wasn't a school day for him.  He declared "Well then I need some paper and pencil so I can do my homework:) Gotta love him!! I am reallly,really cherishing the moments when Jonathan and I work together! This kid is a blast!!                                        

Junk!!

It all started with just moving a few things, now I am officially Spring Cleaning!! It actually feels great to finally declutter my home I have lived in for seven years now. Today is day 6 of decluttering. Tomorrow the painting will happen, and Saturday I will have professional carpet cleaners coming, I am really excited about this!! I really didn't think I was going to take a blog break, but I didn't realize I had so much junk! Speaking of we hope to have a garage sale on Sunday. My kids are already sorting out some items that they will donate to our Goodwill and things that they will sell. Which is leading to some wonderful discussions about economics and depreciation. Also I may be moving my preschooler/schoolage classroom to the second floor. I am really loving our space now that I have been dejunking. I will be back next week with some wonderful photos of the children working and some works in progress in relocating our new school space.

Butterfly, Butterfly Fly, Fly Away ( A Counting Poem)

Our caterpillars are now beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies two survivived the process of metamorphosis and are fluttering around in their house, and our classroom. I found a great counting poem on Spell Outloud she made a printable for free download from the Barney song Butterfly, Butterfly Fly, Fly Away. The children love this poem and the tune is so fantastic that they all quickly memorized it. The counting is awesome and they are noticing that they are taking away butterflies:) Also if anyone has any doubts that the Montessori Method does not allow pretend play, I think this poem with the poetry basket will change a few opinons. Of course you must take into consideration that the children have been actually observing the butterflies and learning a lot about these beautiful insects along the way.

                                          Our Poetry Basket
 
                             I use an easel to display the poem.

   A close up of the objects; A door, tree ,googly eyes and five butterflies.

Andrew working with our poetry work. He is reciting this poem by memory. The numbers he is able to recoginze that are on the printable and offers as a cue for him when he gets excited and forgets what number he is on.

Andrews' favorite part of the poem is singing Butterfly, Butterfly Fly, Fly away. Here he is acting this part out.

                               Putting away the last butterfly.

 The children have been enjoying holding the butterflies......

           And watching them flutter around the classroom.

                                                                     

The Pond

This month one of our units is about the pond. I am using the Mother Goose Time to supplement our learning experiences.  I love how they have made this theme a fun time for all ages.

         I put together this sensory bin for the toddlers.

 A popular work on the shelves this week is this freebie from Montessori Print Shop. The child cuts the strip that I have attached by a staple and then matches up the frog by the pictures and glues them in place.

   A take home book for the children to read and color. It tells about what things we can find at the pond.

This is the last page in the book where the child can draw what they can find at the pond. This book came with the kit from Mother Goose Time.

                                                        Our monthly spanish cards.

 We have enjoyed this counting book a lot. It really keeps the kids attention and it has them counting!! A very popular book this week among the kids. Again this book came with our kit.

If you are looking for more inspiration involving a pond theme I strongly urge you to pop over to Homeschool Creations Jolanthe just created another awesome preschool pack with the pond theme, and it is FREE!!                                                              

Montessori Monday

We still have been very busy workers around here!  I love how it is becoming less of me and more of them during our work period. They love offering to give each other lessons, so cool !!

                                    Pouring water to a line.

                                 Independently reading with BOB books.

                   Folding blanket without any help after nap.

 Working with Pink Tower and Brown Stairs. On Fridays we join the toddlers for Show n' Tell and then the preschoolers work in the Toddler Room for about a hour. This picture to me speaks a thousand words. I did not actually see what was actually happening until after I looked at the picture. I especially like how without being planned or asked each toddler is paired with a prescholer and then there is a toddler who is paying close attention to the sensorial work.

            Matching objects by beginning sounds.

                                                                  Tracing circles.

                        Matching opposites.

                         Addition with the bead material.

Number Rods with Sandpaper Numbers. This is why I love taking pictures. I can see we need more lessons on handwashing. LOL. What is going on :) I swear I only wanted to take a picture of the Number Rod work!!

     
A proud moment for Andrew he completed the Binomial Cube for the first time in the box.

              Happy matching shapes with our Melissa and Doug puzzle clock.

                         A fun time on a rainy day playing Connect Four.

                       Matching leaves from the Botany Cabinet to the control chart.

                          Collaging a turtle shell.

To see other children learning inspired by the Montessori Method please visit One Hook Wonder for Montessori Monday.                                                                                                                              

Seven Times Around The Sun

 DJ turned Seven years old this May. He is such a peaceful, playful child. I adore him so much!! We had a small celebration here at home. I have been wanting to share these pictures for awhile but due to photos not being able to be downloaded I wasn't able to until now.

Also DJ participated in his first school play. He was Issac Newton, the play was about the solar system.

                             His turn on the mic to read aloud his part :)

                                                             The finale!!!

                                                                     
                                             

                                                                             
 

I Lost A Bet!!

I don't advocate teaching kids to gamble! This was something that I promised the children that I would do if I failed to remember to do our brushing teeth routine along with them. They won! Although I strive to set a good example everyday it is also a plus when I do set a good example intentionally. One of the things we have not been doing on a reguarly basis is brushing our teeth before nap time. So the kids asked me why I didn't brush my teeth before nap time. I said I would and they said what if you forget. Well they noticed I never take any pictures of myself as well. So I said if I forget I will take a picture. Friday I had somewhere to be which was right at the childrens' nap time. Yes, they won because I was trying to hurry up so I could be on time. Bad example so they won. As one student of my mine reminded me you must take time to brush your teeth Ms. T. So I share with you a recent photo of me.

This photo was also taking by one of the children. They took a couple of different photos, they said they like this one the best.                                                                        

Practical Life: Using Tape

 This is a great activity to build strong finger muscles,and concentration. It is simply colored tape,and paper that has lines that are bold for the child to place on top to form a picture. The kids had fun with this and later when given an opportunity created some wonderful pictures of their own works. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of those.


Using scissors Mumble cut the pieces of tape to the sizes of the lines on the picture. Other children who did this work use the rip the tape method to get their tape off the roll.

          The completed work with the lines tape to cover the bold lines.

Another child joined Mumble with this work and I asked them if I could take these pictures while they were coloring. They wanted me to know that they weren't finished yet.
              

On another note I misplaced my USB cord to my camera. As soon as I get another cord I will be back to blogging more reguarly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Fun Learning

Usually by this time of year I have a few children that I notice becoming burnt out by the daily routine. Typically it is always my five year olds. By this time we have spent enough time inside to really go crazy due to the weather, and the kids become less interested in learning any new concepts. They really want to run free outside and this is understandable. So I mixed it up a little for Mumble who is certainly showing all the signs that he wished school was over. I browsed through my materials that I haven't introduced him to, and  I was happy to find the Parts of the Car work  from Montessori for Everyone.

                                     The control chart.

                               Nomenclature cards.

Mumble was pleased with this work and forgot about the fact that he was reading, matching, and doing a little science all at the same time. Mumble loves cars!!

 After working with the cards Mumble was ready to get busy and he asked me if I had anything else new to show him. I gave Mumble a car magazine to read through. Boy was he happy !! When he was done looking through the magazine He showed me his favorite picture of a car in the magazine. I told Mumble that he could cut it out and take the picture home.

                                                                                                                                            

Montessori Monday

Last  week was a wonderful week with the kiddos. We got a few surprises last week that kept the kids asking lots of questions. Our work time is just awesome they love to work!! On the downside our nymphs died on us, luckily we get to try it again. Here is a photo glimpse of some of the works the kids enjoyed.

   Writing on a chalkboard using a paintbrush and water.

  
                                                        Sound Cylinders.

                                                  Knobless Cylinders.

Cutting carrots to size them up. This work can be found on the website http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

                                       Bead Stair work with printable.

 
                                                   Push pin work.

Last week we received our caterpillars and silkworms to learn about changes. The children were super excited to have more live creatures around.

                   Working on the lifecycle of Praying Mantises.
                                                      

             Observing Crickets while reading about insects.

 One more thing a certain somebody talked me into bringing this home while we were at the pet store buying dog food.
                                                  
                                                  A  Red Eared Slider Turtle.
                       

                                                                                        
 They have been so thrilled to watch him eat goldish.

Please, please, pretty please wish us luck on this , I really want to keep him alive!!

To  see what other children have been learning inspired by the montessori method please visit One Hook Wonder for Montessori Monday.