PInwheels

Yesterday I gave a group of children a lesson in pinwheel making, it was truly a exciting time for them as they were very focused and loved the outcome. During the process I was able to learn more about the children. They are really visual and tactile learners. For most of them it was the first time making a pinwheel. Frustration was shown at times and I am learning to be able to leave the child alone to work it out. I am so glad I did yesterday during a couple of moans, they were happy to say "I did it, I did it all by myself!"

                                                        Folding.

     Preparing to push the pin to complete the pinwheel.

  All done! The picture of the steps of the pinwheel was used by all. They really appreciated the step by step picture directions.

                   Lil's proud moment of accomplishment.

                     Of course we had to outside and test them out.

                                                                      

Montessori On A Budget Post #2

Hobby Lobby had another pleased customer two weeks ago. I managed to find a few works each tray only cost me two dollars.

                                                   Making Pinwheels

 Love this work it offers practice in folding, and hand eye coordination. Two dollars at Hobby Lobby for a package of eight.

                                                      Tracing Stars

 I purchased the pen from Target  for a dollar the star cutters came from Hobby Lobby for a dollar.

                                                   Making Patterns

 The star sticks came from Hobby Lobby for 20 cents a piece.                                                  

The White Belt

My kids had their first Taekwondo class this week. They are really loving it and looking forward to going three times a week. The first class was not brand new to me. When I first started doing daycare in my home nine years ago my preschoolers, schoolagers and I participated in Taekwondo long enough to earn our yellow belts. Transportation was an issue so we had to stop. My children were excited to wear their new uniforms, and wear their white belts. The White belt is given to students who are not knowledgeable of Taekwondo, so the color white symbolizes innocence. They loved learning to count to four in korean, how to enter the room, and learning some new moves. Here are some pictures.

                                                        Warming up
.

                      Learning new moves.

 They are now wanting to know more about the the Korean culture. I have a request to make Korean counting cards. They want to be able to count in Korean so they can still practice correctly at home. Does anyone know if the counting cards are already avaliable on the internet? The help will be greatly appreciated!!                                                        

Where Are All The Rainforest?

DJ picked up two new books to read to jump start his summer reading at the bookstore. They are from the Magic Treehouse series , Afternoon on the Amazon and the companion research guide Rainforest. I was very pleased with his choice because I also love learning about the Rainforest. It is just so much you can learn about these special places. Here are the pictures of the books.

 
DJ got really interested in locating Rainforest all over the world after reading chapter 1 in the Rainforest research guide. He worked really hard on learning new vocabulary words: equator,the Tropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of Capricorn. He wasn't really surprised to know that there aren't any rainforests in Antartica. I found this worksheet for him to color in using a key to identify where rainforest are and to reinforce understanding of his new vocabulary words.

DJ loves to make his own maps! Below are pictures of DJ using the Continent World Puzzle Map to recreate a map that shows where rainforest are found in the world.

Again DJ applied his understanding of his new vocabulary all self motivated!!                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                               
                                                                       
                                                                         

                                                                   
                                                                 
                                                                    

When Practical Life and Math Meet

I first saw this work on My Montessori Journey. The children use a decorative puncher and glue the  punches to the number of squares avaliable. This helps with one to one correspondence as well as counting. The children have learned how to use the puncher as well as gluing. They love any work that involves glue, so I knew this work would be a favorite.

               This is how I set up the tray.

                  Lil loved doing this work!

 Lil completed the numbers 1-5 without a problem . Lil counted the same way she has worked with the number rods.

                
     
    Now Lil is working on the page with numbers 6-10.

This is how the work looks on the shelves. The printables come from Confessions Of A Homeschooler.

                                                                    
                                                                 

Montessori Monday

We are back in our summer school routine. I am really loving the rhythm that we have here. A few days last week I got a few moans from the kids when it was time to put their work away:) We have been having fantastic weather and we have been enjoying outdoor time, finally we get to know that summer is here, well in Michigan Spring missed us. I will like to apologize in advance if I am unable to leave a comment on your blog that you linked to Nicoles' Montessori Monday linky. It has been a hit or miss when leaving comments lately I sure will be a happy blogger as soon as Blogger solves this problem. So many good giveaways going on right now, For example Montessori Print Shop has a a few giveaways right now, I guess I will have to take advantage of all their new freebies they are offering.When I do blog hops I feel that I must leave a comment on everyones' blog that participated. We all love comments right?  Well last week was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Here are some photos of the kids in action.

                                        Planting Sunflower seeds.

           Learning to write the number three with the Sandpaper numbers.

      Labeling parts of speech with the grammar symbols.

     Matching lowercase letters to uppercase letters with the Sandpaper letters.

   Comparing Knobless Cylinders while building towers.

                  Buiding a house together.

                   Labeling North America continent map.

                       Counting money,

                  Multiplication Bead Board.

                                                     Number rods.

                                Continent Map work.

                                               Binomial Cube.

                                                       Research work.

                         Grammar Farm work labeling nouns.

                                                                 Division.

                    United States puzzle map with control chart.

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

Stringing Beads ( An Oldie But A Goodie)

The children took to this activity very quickly. It is a simple activity to put together. They also made patterns with the beads and counted them while doing the work. When they were finished they even counted the beads again to compare who had more beads on their necklace, all the extensions were prompted by them while they were having conversations about this work.

The tray. I did knot the ends of the string to prevent the beads from falling off for those who are still learning to make a knot.

                                    Admiring her work.

                                                                         

Lets Make A Pond

I got this idea from our supplemental curriculum Mother Goose Time. The activities are geared more toward the five and under crowd but I still had a few schoolagers who enjoyed this activity too. We were able to discuss what is a pond, what animals live in the pond, and man made vs natural. All you need is some water, dirt, rocks, plastic container and a pond animal figurine to give this activity a try.

               
They decided that they wanted to place their ponds outside to see what will happen.
                                                               

 
They made plenty trips to check on the ponds, the biggest discovery that they found was how many mosquitos was attracted to the ponds, this made our investigation stop a little earlier. We all have our share of mosquito bites already:(

          Here is a close up of one the ponds.