This Is Your Work

Today we read together one of my favorite books to read around this time of year Pilgrims of Plymouth by Susan E.Goodman.                         

It is a good read for preschoolers, how the author tells the history and life of Pilgrims keeps my group of children very interested and asking thought provoking questions. This year I had some mask that I purchased for the children to color however they wished.

             Here is a picture of the mask.

                                                                                     
The children color here everyday, I love watching their skills developing everytime they pick up a crayon or marker and do their thing.  When I passed out the mask they were excited to get busy, when I added " This is Your work", their voices slowly became silent and their concentration became amazing.
      

                                                                            
 When they finished they all were saying  "Look at me", "Look at what I did". These kiddos definetly took ownership of their work.               

                                                                               

Somethings are better to be left alone. I could of colored one of the mask and displayed it. Then the children would have colored it in the traditional manner that we perceive the image to be, you know the one with the black hat and the gold buckle. That would of left some children feeling a bit like a failure not being able to live up to the "expectation" that I set before them. I am so glad I didn't ! They took their work home feeling accomplished, and ready to come back to school tomorrow to work some more.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Landforms

The Landforms are popular work with the children. The children learn the names of the six landforms that I have avaliable over a period of time. Most have acquired the names through sensorial experiences, or carrying out their practical life skills. Jamesha uses the landforms everyday in order to satisfy her pratical life skills. Jamesha loves all practical life activities, and will carry out these activities all day everyday whenever she can.

Jamesha loves pouring so this work is right up her alley.

 She is very careful about any water getting on the land. Before I introduced the name of the landforms, I used the model for sponge squeezing work months ago.

    Getting more water to continue to fill other landforms.

                                      Emptying the landforms

                                  Rinsing the landforms

                                     Drying the landforms

        Returning the work to the shelf, ready for someone else to use.

 No one else was able to work with the landforms today, because Jamesha completed this same activity over and over at least seven times that I counted today. As soon as she returned it to the shelf, she took it off the shelf making sure to complete the work cycle everytime. Jamesha did this work with the same focus and     concentration she had the first time she started working with work.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Today's Works Caught On Camera

              Sandpaper Numbers with Sand Tray

                 Matching Fabric Box#1

Making patterns with cards, then recording the work on paper.

                                  Color box #2

  Sorting pictures of Geometric Solids

 
                     Matching sight words
                 

    Land, Air, Water (Lil is four giving a lesson to Mia age three)

                             The Pink Tower

                Knobless Cylinders with extension

                                                                                                       
 Half of the crew was missing in action today, so I doubt that I would have these many pictures to share everyday. Who knows? It was a very productive day in the neighborhood. Linking this post to Show and Tell hosted by ABC and 123 Learning.                                                    
                         

Montessori Monday: Another Eventful Week

 Yeah ! They are loving everything that I am planning for them, and I am enjoying all of the fuits of labor being used. I can't tell you how many times I had that "perfect" lesson turned down by these people. Observation, observation, observation!!  I have children who have mastered sounds as outlined in the Montessori fashion. Hold on, if you are thinking about giving up on this way of learning to read. It is not the method it may not be the childs' moment just yet. I know it was had for me to restrain myself  to go back to the way I taught reading before learning abut the Montessori Method. I do add a few activities that I may use for certain children who want to learn to read and love paper, they are mainly cut and paste and coloring activities. They are retaining every bit of information. Numbers are being recognized and counting is being heard on a daily basis. All of the children know where to locate and name the continents. They are loving the pumpkin work, I need to add some flavor to the zoology area. Just a heads up I will be documenting a bit about either a childs' work, a new work , or a group activity we did everyday. The long post are working on me and I love to blog when it is short and sweet. Here are some photos of the kiddos getting their work on!!

              All four Knobbed Cylinder blocks
                                                                    

        Matching leaves to pictures using Botany Cabinet

          Color box#3 being returned the correct way!!

                          Collaging leaves to create a fall tree

                                               Sorting beads

                                                 Spooning cranberries

                                                 Whisking bubbles

                                                    Punching leaves

                                                   Color box #2

                                                  Stringing straw beads

 Looking forward to learning some more from my hardworking friends this week. To see other children doing activities inspired by the Montessori Method please visit One Hook Wonder and Living Montessori Now for Montessori Monday.                                                                        

Some Seasonal Language Works

                                               
I came across some new to me blogs that had some cool language activities check it out!

This work allows the children to practice reading with the cvc pattern. I found this on the blog Kindergaten Hoppenings. Along with this activity she has plenty more freebies inspired with the fall theme. While I was visiting I fell in love with her blog.

I purchased the T is from Turkey activity pack that was put together by the author of the blog Kindergarten Crayons. The purchase can be made at the site teachers pay teachers.

                                                   Matching sight/puzzle words

                                            Matching word to picture

 
Also in the download are recording sheets that the child can use a pencil or how I will set this up will be with letter stamps. I have not made avaliable the recording sheets to any of the children yet. Below is an example of a recording sheet that would go along with the work pictured above.

Keeping with the Montessori philosophy of "Following the child" I made this work avaliable to them on the shelf because I have children who are at this level in their learning.  I mention this because I have put together a lot of work in the past that I saw on another blog, and did not get the same positive result. Not because the work wasn't terrific but because the child(ren) weren't interested or ready for that type of activity. After carefully looking at how to put this work together to meet the needs of the children here I am satisfied with this purchase, and the children are enjoying and learning with these new language activities.