Following The Child With The Right Materials(Jessica):Montessori Monday

It is no secret that quality Montessori Materials are EXPENSIVE. It is a difficult task to make a purchase and know your choosing the right materials for the childs' development, or interest. The first thing I take into consideration is what is the childs' interest. Sometimes I like to follow the scope and sequence, but we all know children can mix that up a bit:) If you want to find Jessica in the classroom, you can find her in the language area. Jessicas' initial interest was with the Sandpaper Letters. She was able to learn a few sounds, but once she learned to recognize the letters of her name she moved away from these lessons.

Jessica interest right now are with works that she can use her hands to focus on. In the picture above it is cutting on the lines.

In the picture above she starts out with coloring the picture and then precedes to form letters:)

Tracing the lines on this paper has allowed her to gain more control of the pen.

Pin punching has been an outlet for this interest as well..

There is no doubt in my mind that the Metal Insets is her favorite choice of work. Jessica has been working with the Metal Insets non stop! She prefers the Triangle Inset, and she is very comfortable working on the first presentation only. I have presented the second presentation, but she always goes back to this. I find this exciting! I am thrilled that I have purchased the Metal Insets, I can't wait to watch Jessica language works explode, because I know its' coming, and I am prepared. There are other things that I could offer Jessica like the Constructive Triangles, and The Blue Constructive Triangles to accent her interest, but for now I will follow her and when shes' ready, I am sure she will let me know:) To see other children inspired by the Montessori Method please visit Living Montessori Now for Montessori Monday.

Learning The Basics With Dr.Seuss

All the children kept busy with the works inspired by the wonderful Dr.Seuss. We weren't able to do the famous oobleck experiment. Fortunately this activity works well with a intro to physical science so we will do it next week:) Trust me the children want more Dr.Seuss.

Scissor practice. The printable is from Joyfully Weary.

Blending sounds this work came from the Dr.Seuss packet#1 at Living Life Intentionally

Lacing Cards

Tracing, this is also in the Dr.Seuss packet.

Coloring

Putting a puzzle together

Tons of reading!!

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 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.