Following Lil: Who Painted Circles?

A couple of weeks ago Lil was looking through an Art book with my daughter Ken. Today she said she was painting circles like a picture in the book. Huh? Time for some long awaited Art Appreciation lessons.

Following Maddux: A Very Independent Worker

Maddux is three and a half years old. I have been working with Maddux since July of 2010. Maddux is developing interest in all areas of subjects. Maddux enjoys to work alone, and he tends not to work in areas where there is high traffic, but as soon as everyone else has left the area is when he will choose a work from that area. Another thing I observed about Maddux is that he starts his day with the last work he worked with the previous day.

Working with Sandpaper Numbers while playing the game "knock,knock".

Learning to order the Number Rods.

One of his favorite activities is to use prepositional phrases while working with the Grammar Farm. In the above photo he is putting the horse in the fence.

Sorting magnetic and non-magnetic objects.

Polishing the geometric soilids that I used from our Mystery Bag that was being untouched by all the children.

Madduxs' new favorite activity is working with the World Map puzzle. In the photo he is using the control chart to match the shapes of the continents, and then he completes the puzzle.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss Week On A Budget:Montessori Monday

I am so excited about celebrating Read Across America with the kids this week. I especially became giddy when I saw these Dr. Seuss activities on clearance at Micheals Art and Crafts store.

Color your own puzzles $2.00

Lacing Cards $1.76

Seuss Magnetic Words $2.00

I also got lucky when I was at Barnes & Noble and found this puzzle for a whopping $5.00

Here is one of our bookshelves filled with Dr. Seuss books. Along with some printables and hands on activities I think we are ready to go. To see others inspired by the Montessori Method please visit Living Montessori Now for Montessori Monday.

Following Mr. E: Every Letter Makes A Sound......

Mr. E is three and a half years old. I have been working with Mr. E since August of 2011. Mr. E stays busy! Mr. E's main goal in working with any activity is to find out how it works. Mr. E always ask me to show him new lessons. Mr. E never wants to stop working, he has even asked if he can spend the night:) Mr. E enjoys learning his letter sounds. Mr. E's favorite way to practice letter sounds is playing Knock- Knock with the Sandpaper letters.

In the picture above Mr. E proceeds to match the uppercase letters to the lowercase letters.

Another language work that he is currently enjoying is matching things that go together. You can find this work for FREE at Montessori For Everyone.

He also works with practical life activities, using a funnel and a ladle to transfer sand.

Mr E. very recently has fallen in love with the Binomial Cube.

Following Eli: All Things Practical Life

Happy Birthday Eli!! Today Eli turned three years old. Eli and I have worked with each other on and off since he was an infant. Eli loves to clean, and will offer assistance to anyone who needs help with sweeping. Eli loves the polishing shoes work and does this activity over and over. You can always find Eli in the Practical Life area.

He truly has a love/hate relationship with the Pink Tower. One week this is his favorite work, the next work he will stay away from it and will tell you " No, not the Pink Tower today" when he walks into the classroom.

Coloring and working with play doh are among his top choices right now.

Following Lil: The Bird Lover

Lil is four and half years old. Lil and I have been working with each other since March 2010. Lils' sister is Jessica. Lil loves birds and her favorite animal is a duck. Ask her the names of different types of birds and in a matter of 30 seconds she has probably told you about forty. Lil has gone through the normalization process and I have so much fun with this girl:) Since the parakeet has been in her sight this is where you will find Lil.

When I added new works to the shelves that were bird related, Lil was in Bird Heaven. Lil was so excited to find out that the pattern block template was a picture of a Penguin.

Lil enjoys using the scissors and glue. This Bird Matching activity is a FREEBIE from Montessori Print Shop, this is a work that she has repeated over and over.

Lils' most favorite activity is pin punching. I got a lot of hugs from Lil when she saw this work:) Lil is my go to person to give a lesson to someone in pin punching, she is the best!!

Lil is also interested in learning to read, right now she just wants to teach herself though.It works for us because we understand that we are learning from each other.

Lil coloring a bird. Coloring and painting is a must activity for her to do everday.

Following Jessica

Welcome to the first post in our new series! Every weekday I will document a child that I am following. The post will include their interest and highlight the materials they have worked with. Unfortunately I may not be able to document a child as long as I would like to, because life happens. On the bright side I can share with you how each child is so different. How not all the activities I share are worked with by all the children. Most importantly how I may not be experienced in using the Montessori Method but how I try my best to stay true to following the child. Jessica is three and a half years old. I have been working with Jessica since March of 2010. Yesterday Jessica found the new writing tool I placed on the writing shelf. Jessica was delighted to work with the Plume pen. Jessica quickly went to work using a pre-writing tracing paper.

This is her finished work.

When Jessica was finished with the tracing paper she went to work with the Metal Insets. Yesterday marked Jessicas' first lesson on the Metal Insets. Jessica did this activity for the rest of the work period:)

It's Montessori Monday!!

Thank You!! to all those who came by and left comments and suggestions in regards to what you like and would like to see here. I am happy to be linking this post to Montessori Monday hosted by http://www.livingmontessorinow.com/. I added a bit of work to our shelves, non-holiday related. I love the holidays but it is time to focus on our traditional works. I did find a lot of Presidents' Day fun but it was too late and I had already ran out of ink for what was already planned. I do have some fun reads for the children though. Rhyming words. The children have had a lot of fun matching rhyming objects this is what I have next for those who love rhyming and are working on this skill. Next I will be adding the Rhyming Chain work. This work is avaliable at Montessori Print Shop, there are plenty more sets that came with this .

Art Classified Cards, a classic FREEBIE from Motessori For Everyone.

Go Together Cards, another FREEBIE from Montessori For Everyone.

The Zoology area has become a lot busier with our visiting pet parakeet. Ken has been doing lots of fun things with Sunny. The children have become very interested in Sunny and asks Ken lots of questions about her. So she started out with showing a few children how to feed her. They are happy to be able to learn more and be in Sunnys' prescence.

I set up this work area for them to be able to make a parts of the bird booklet. Ken has big plans to extend their lessons about birds. I can't wait to watch them fly with this!!

Polishing wood. Using the Geometric Solids I hope will increase their interest in this sensorial work.

Polishing shoes.

Braiding

Scooping bird seeds.

Tonging feathers.

Using a ladle and a funnel to transfer sand.

Pouring water beads.

Plant nomenclature cards to go along with our new plant. The cards are from Montessori Print Shop.

Pattern blocks. The templates are from Prekinders.

We finally have the Geometric Cabinet!! Thanks to Nicole from One Hook Wonder who had a real good deal on this:) We appreciated this so much!! Can't wait to see what the kiddos think about this work.

Edited to add link to the Preschool Corner hosted by Homeschool Creations.