Fish or Number ?

                            Kay has been showing strong interest in Math. Although she likes the numbers and matching activities, when I ask her what it is she is holding in her hand she dosn't know its' a number. Karen Tyler who has a wonderful  worldwide online training course at A Montessori Marketplace has this activity in her Math album.
                                                         Fish or Number

The child is to sort the fish from the number . The aim is for the child to be able know what a number is. In the container there are different numbers and the same kind of fish all alike.

Kay is doing matching number work.

         Here she is after her presentation on the work

 Now she is proudly admiring her work.

  

After Kay completed this activity a couple times, she now says "number" , "fish" while she is sorting. Kay is enjoying this activity and is very good at it.

                                        

Van Gogh

                I have been informally introducing Art to the children. I have shown them the simple things like gluing, collaging, painting ,using oil pastels, etc. This week we have been learning about Van Gogh . The painting Sunflowers, has been really good for discussion and lessons about him. On the shelf I have a Van Gogh matching art set, a book about him and lots of different art tools to do copywork of his art. Here is one activity that I am not sure if we were staying on subject.

Here we are discussing if we should arrange the flowers like Van Gogh "Sunflowers" painting.

Now two children will like to smell the flowers.

At least by the end of the presentation the children could tell you that a man named Van painted sunflowers. Its' a start right?  We didn't color, we didn't paint . We did smell sunflowers, manage to do a little flower arranging and had a great dialogue about sunflowers.

                                                                              

Smelling Bottles

                        Michelle said " I would like to help you create some montessori  works". I handed her some herbs and the smelling bottles. I explained how the children match scents with them and showed her the example I had on the bottle for control of error. Michelle created this work with no other instructions, and was free to use any materials she needed.

Michelle is using herbs from around the world to create her smelling bottles work

Smelling Bottles complete with herbs.

Making matching continent smell cards for the bottles.

Control of error.

Presenting work to small group.

 The results of this work are children are learning the names of the continents, using the world map puzle, and associating scent to continent.  I couldn't ask for anything more. Thank You Michelle!!

The Grammar Farm (Toddler Tuesday)

             The toddlers have been really holding their own here. They are following wonderful examples set by their older peers. The Grammar Farm is a new addition to the language area. The toddlers only like to say"no" they never want to hear anyone tell  them "no". So I set up a activity where they could still use the Grammar Farm for language purposes. Using the classified cards "Farm Animals", the toddlers have been matching pictures to objects and learning the names of farm animals

Here is a photo of some of the objects we use with the Grammar Farm.

This is how I showed the pictures of the farm animals to the toddlers.

                                                              Here they are in action.

                           The Grammar Farm has truly added  a new element to all language lessons. To see what other toddlers have been doing using the montessori method pop over to  One Hook Wonder.

Montessori Monday

       Montessori work was in full swing last week. It was a work of first for many. Last week we experienced our first three hour work period. New presentations were given, as well as review presentations. Blessings were upon us all week.

                                                         
                                                          Practical Life

Making bubbles, using a grater and a bar of soap. Tweezing beads

Mathematics

Additon Strip Board. The Spindle Box. Multiplication Board.

Language

Highway letters,working on letter formations. Finding letters in her name, gluing.

Culture/Sciences

World Map Flag work. Sorting simple machines card work. Parts of the Car work. Notice Mumble in the background in the last picture, this is the last half an hour of our first three hour work period. Mumble has just got himself a snack, and is really about to go to sleep. He got his own blanket out. Thats'serious!

Sensorial

Brown Stairs

O.K this post could really get longer but I am going to stop here.  Thanks for stopping by!  Now, pop over to One Hook Wonder to see more children doing montessori activities.

                                        
                                                                   

Sweet Scents (Science Sunday)

  Ken is becoming a budding botanist. Her focus most days is what can she grow. Ken interest started with this.

Taking care of flowers and arranging them.

Now anythime she sees a seed she wants to grow it. When I saw this experiment in a box I knew it was  going to be put to good use.

Sprout Your Own

Sweet Scents

First you prepare your peat.

Prepare your planters.

Plant your seeds.

Then find a sunny window.

The plants week one.

The plants week two.

The seeds in the yellow planter is Lemon balm. The red planter is Cinnamon Basil. The green planter is Spearmint.  The book with the kit gives a great explanation of each herb, and how each herb will grow. Ken has been tending to her new plants everyday. At times she has had to go back and read the book to find out answers to her questions. For example; Spearmint takes longer to germinate. "Mama what does germinate mean?"   Science is a wonderful academic that has a beautiful way of bringing all subject areas together. To  discover more science projects completed  by kids visit Adventures In Mommydom.

                      
                                                                    

Weaving

                       My daughter Ken is really getting into weaving. Her interest in weaving was sparked by a work I placed on the practical life shelf. Weaving isn't easy at all for her right now, but she is sticking to it.

                                                         
         I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help her become more skillful. I happened to be one of the most uncraftiest people alive. I going to change this around for Ken stay tuned.