If You Give A Montessori Child .......

Bouncy Balls They will want to transfer them, and then if you you let them transfer them .... They will want to count them, and then if you let them count them.....

They will want to sort them, and then if you let them sort them....

They will want to put them all back, and if you let them put them all back....

Then they are going to want to do it again!! This post was inspired by reading a post over at Confessions Of A Montessori Mom Blog. It was titled You Know You Have A Montessori Child When... Heres' the link if you want to go have a good laugh http://montessoriconfessions.blogspot.com/2012/01/you-know-you-have-montessori-child-when.html. It was a fun read to me. In the end I got to thinking about some characteristics that Montessori children may have and then today during the work period I observed it. Wonderful moments!!

Easy Peasy Valentines' Work: Montessori Monday

I am expecting two new three year old students this week! A lot of my children are ready for new lessons with the traditional Montessori materials. So my plan was simple add some valentine related work, and activities that my oldest children may be able to show the new students how to do. Roll-Count-Color this work is from http://meandmarielearning.com. The dice is in the cup with the markers. I haven't had an activity using dice in a long time. The children are going to love this.

Sorting hearts by color.

Using the pincer grasp to place the balls in the heart. I thought this was a good one to entice the newbies to want to join in the work period.

Dry pouring using a meauring spoon. This will be a new work for all. I particularly had Lil in mind who has been working with the Fraction Skittles. They'll all love seeing the sand take form of a heart.

Valentines' Card Making Tray. The point of interest is using the tape dispenser. They will use their name cards to aid in writing their friends' names.

The front and back of the cards.

The stickers they may use to decorate the cards with.

Stringing beads to make a bracelet.

Play doh. The point of interest is using a fondant roller with a handle.

To see other children inspired by the Montessori Method please visit http://www.livingmontessorinow.com for Montessori Monday.

Making Old Work New

Some works are just favorites among the children no matter the mastery level that they have accomplished while working with the material. To maintain the same focused attention that they first met with the work I just simply change the vessels, and voila it is brand new work again. They all enjoy being able to paint freely. I enjoy changing the type of paint brush they use. They learn new vocabulary and a new skill. The creative outlet is taking to another level, and their art work becomes a beautiful piece of work as well. Eventually we will get to adding two different mediums at a time, maybe more, I bet this will be impressive to them and me as well.

The sponge squeezing work is permanent on my shelves. It has become a wonderful outlet for children to return to just when they think they have been challenged enough in other areas of the classroom during the day. It brings them great satisfaction that this is something that they are skilled to do, and gives them inspiration to give another work a try that has offered more challenge that they may not be ready for at that time.

I found the bowls and the sponge at Target for $3.00 and the assortment of 5 brushes were $1.99 at Micheals.

Montessori Monday

We had a shorter week, but still it was a busy one! Everyone was in peaceful spirits as we did plenty of activities celebrating Dr. Kings' life. Wet pouring using two cups.

Collaging Kids Around The World.

Independently painting.

Sequencing the sizes of the Pink Tower, and matching them to the picture.

Working with the Buckle Dressing Frame.

Sorting pictures that begin with sounds m,l,k.

Begining sewing.

Making pattern with symbols associated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To see other children doing activities inspired by the Montessori Method please visit http://www.livingmontessorinow.com/ for Montessori Monday.

Good Choices: Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day 4

Welcome! Thank you for joining us as we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today I want to share with you some work that was avaliable to the children on the shelf for independent work. I am so thankful to Donna the author of http://www.peacelovelearning.blogspot.com/ for putting together this great resource pack that the children have learned so much from. Good Choices Sort. The children sort the pictures of examples of what would make Martin happy or sad. The illustrations on Martins' faces helped the children to be successful at this work. Also a recording sheet was avaliable which involved cutting and gluing. Sorting M,L,K, Sounds. This work was the most favorite among the children. They learned about the initials in their own names. So many learning possibilities with this work! Another recording sheet for the kids who love to cut and glue. Counting Friends. Matching the number to the friends on the card. They especially like using the number stamps to complete the recording sheet.

Ordering Sentences. They would glue the sentence in order, glue it on to a sheet of construction paper, and finish the sentence by drawing or writing, a real big hit.

Not all children did the recording sheets, but all of them did put their best foot forward with trying all of the activities. A wonderful theme this was for us. The children learned so much about Dr. King while having so much fun. The best thing about our celebration is that the children learned that they are peacemakers too!! Thank you for joining in our celebrations. Don't forget to come back Monday to see what else the children have been busy doing all week. Linking this post to the Preschool Corner hosted by http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/.

We Have Dreams!! Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 3

Today we worked on making a class book about our dreams!! This will be the cover of our book. The children wanted to illustrate their work, which I kinda figured they would:) So I set up the collage tray of children around around the world, they really enjoyed doing this! Below is an example of one of the pictures. "I have a dream that my sister and me will always be bestfriends." The class book isn't complete because I will like to type out the sentences and then paste it to their work.

Here is the collage tray, using the brush to glue was also a point of interest of the collage tray.

I look forward to making more class books with the children. They were happy to be authoring a book! This exercise allowed them to understand that they are peacemakers like Dr.King and can have big words, and dreams as well. This idea was inspired by Donna the wonderful person who put together the cover of the book, she writes at http://www.peacelovelearning.blogspot.com. Don't forget to come back tomorrow as I share with you a round up of activities that were on the shelf as we celebrated this great man of peace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martins' Dreams And Patterns: Celebrating Dr. King Day 2

We read about Martins' Dream. The kids were happy to color the book that I printed so that they could take it home. Below are examples of pictures in both of the books.

These picture cards were used for retelling the story and one child even sequenced the cards according to the book.

Our pattern cards were picked for work a lot as well. They enjoyed the objects and they associated them with Dr. King:)

Also a recording sheet was avaliable for anyone who was interested in using glue and scissors:)

Simple activities that helped to answer the question What was Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs' dream? A huge Thank You to Donna the author of http://www.peacelovelearning.blogspot.com/ for putting this work together. Please join us back tomorrow for day three of celebrating the life of Dr. King.

Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Day1

Welcome! We are celebrating the life of a wonderful peacemaker who helped change history Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!! Dr. King used non-violence to stop violence, and to help stop segregation mostly in the South. He practiced this non-violent method after studying Ghandi. This practice helped change America into a more postive peaceful place for all of us! I found a wonderful packet of activities involving math and literacy. I wanted to do all the activities that we could, therefore we have MLK week. I found this packet that is availiable on teachers pay teachers website at the blog http://peacelovelearning.blogspot.com/ Today the children learned about who this great person was, and what did he look like. We found these answers during our read aloud time. We read the book Martin's Big Words. The pictures are beautifull illustrated. It is a great picture book, we had a lovely time doing a picture walk through the book. It seemed like a long story at first, but when its' a good book it has the ability to keep the preschoolers. attention until the end.

On the shelf today I had precut templates for the children to create a picture of Dr. King by following the pictures on the "How To Make Martin" sheet.

They really did enjoy this activity and it wasn't long before lunch time, that our community was feeling and sounding like examples of peace. Everyone used great examples of words of peace just like Dr.King. No coaching, the book was enough to start our day off on the right foot.

Now the children know what this wonderful peacemaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr looked like.

Thank you for stopping by and seeing how we are keeping Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs' Dream alive. Don't forget to come back tomorrow for some more fun learning about the man behind the dream.

Another Great Week: Montessori Monday

Right now we are doing a lot more independent work which is requiring me to give more lessons!  I still have children who love to touch the camera and take some photos for me, if  they are not too busy themselves. Here are some great shots of them working:)

              Sorting "a' family words.

          Making patterns and labeling them.

                          Knobbed cylinder block.

             Matching the bead stairs to the number.

 Working with Pink Tower and Brown Stairs making with designs.

                          Color box #1

                            Color box #2

                               Fraction Skittles

                  Sorting Living and Non Living photos

 I had two really great lesson responses that I was able to capture on camera! Maddux asked for a lesson on Living and Non living so we worked together and sorted the objects. When we were done he got out the farm, and showed me the animals were eating the trees and said their living:)

 My other favorite response, Mr. E didn't give up, he was trying so hard to slip the loop in the hole and then...

 He did it!! What a beautiful smile. Mr. E went on to work with the Button dressing frame.

        Making a snowflake color wheel.

The children will not be in attendance this Monday, but please come and join us as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs' Dream. I will be sharing the activity we do everyday starting Tuesday, during our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

   To see others inspired by the Montessori Method please visit Living Montessori Now.