From Lemons To Lemonade

My kids are still questioning me about Where Do Things Come From? So I pulled out a lemon out of the refrigerator and asked them " What do you think you can make with this"? They smiled and laughed and replied "Lemonade". So this is what started out our weekend that led to lots of fun.

Here they are slicing the lemons and juicing them.

Their adding sugar to the pitcher, water, and making ice cubes with the lemonade"

Now conversation has built up to "ooh we should have a lemonade stand ", " decorate it with flowers", and  "sell lemonade"

Here are some pictures of their flowers set up to change colors. They always remind me that this shows how roots do their job. They try to do this whenever their are fresh flowers around.

 Now its time to set up the lemonade stand. First we started at home, no visits. Then my husband said "why don't you  go to the park".  So we packed up all of our supplies and headed for the park. They were smiling again. This is the first park and it didn't have much action going on . So we decided to go to another park.

 Slam dunk!! My children were able to have a very productive lemonade stand. Here they are showing other children how to make" Fresh Squeezed Lemonade".

  Here are some pictures of our proud participants in action.

  The weather was just perfect today, it was hot so we were able to rescue a lot of thirsty kids today. I mean who can resist FREE Fresh Squeezed Lemonade?

 After leaving the park my kids had to feed the geese as well. Thanks for stopping by now head over to Adventures In Mommydom to see what other children are doing for science sunday.
 

Insects

  The zoology area is the busiest area right now. We have been exploring the wonderful world of insects. We just received our live caterpillars this past Saturday. When the children saw the caterpillars they were excited!!

 They have been reading and working with all the materials that have been on the shelf. The butterfly puzzle has been mastered by many.

 Here is Andrew working with the lifecycyle of the ladybug model. He put them in the correct order all by himself.

  I love how intensed the children were trying to get the insect rubbings to their liking. They would do it over and over until it was to their satisfaction.

 They enjoyed the story of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

Sequencing the life cycle of the butterfly. A puzzle of the life cycle of the butterly game turned out to be a great matching work.

 This is a picture of the caterpillars right now. The children have been very careful with the caterpillars. They have been observing their movement very often. They also have been talking to them. They love animals so this insect unit is right up their alley

Zodiworks, Works For Me!!

 First of all let me start by saying this is not a review. I just want to share this exciting new reading program that a couple of my children have been using and have made giant leaps in reading overnight. Zodiworks is written by Montessori Mama and Robin Jettinghoff. The books are great !! The program comes with  six books that increase in difficulty. Each hardcovered book has its own set of phonic objects that go along with the story that can be kept in its' own handmade bag. The program comes with activity cards, as well as word cards . The word cards can help the child label the phonic objects and make sentences. Also the stories integrate sight words, that have helped the children that have been using this to feel confident about reading. Also let me mention each story has finger puppets that go along with it. They are having lots of fun reading. In  fact all I have heard from the two children is "Mrs.T this is really nice work, can I take this home".  After a few days of observing the children I called back and spoke with Robin about purchasing their wordless readers. They haven't been completed yet. A bummer for my toddlers, but nevertheless they have enjoyed the olders reading the stories and acting them out with them. There is so much that this program has to offer. By the way Ian was very attentive to my many phone calls, and questions that I had. I have for many years worked with Hooked On Phonics, and Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, these programs did work for the goal to be able to read. Zodiworks adds excitement and fosters the love of reading . Here are a few pics of the children working with "Sam" book #1

The Preposition Game

 This language activity just became one of the most used language works around here lately. It helps children to learn words that describe the relationship between objects. The labeled picture cards show the location of the ball to the basket. The cards can be made into three part cards if you like. I purchased this Seven Preposition Activity  from Montessori Services.  It also comes with replicards to make a book, and word cards to use to make sentences. The children have just been enjoying matching the ball and basket to the picture cards.

 This is " Kay" having fun matching the cards and working with the ball and basket. This material first sat on the shelves untouched for a long period. I was cleaning the shelves and placed it in a different location and put it in a basket that was just the right size to fit everything in. They noticed it the very next day like it was brand new. So now I am looking around to find better places and containers for other untouched materials.

The Plan Is Working

The toddlers have been keeping very focused on their missions. Because of the school setup which is in my basement the toddlers share the same space as the preschoolers. The space my not be ideal, but its working out for them. They watch, listen, and learn from their older peers. They are amazing to watch and see what happens when the information clicks. Heres a glimpse.

Here is "Kay" working with the squeezing the bottle activity exercising the whole hand, cleaning up a small spill someone else left with no prompting, and sensorially working with the number rods.

Meet "Amber" she is "Kay"'s twin sister. Cleaning is her thing. It is her favorite work, she shares this work a lot with "N". Stringing work she likes as well.

"Jamesha"  has shared interests in many different works she likes sweeping, getting her hands dirty in the sensory bin, working with color tablets, and the list could go on and on. Whenever I present any work to another child she wants to sit and watch.

"Dre" wants to do work that he sees the olders doing. Here he is working with color box #2 . He knows the matches to some, he does this work everyday I say this may be his favorite. The preschoolers love the company of the toddlers who have learned to carry on their own business without disturbing them. This is "Lil"  doing her work showing "Dre" how to count to ten as she is building a number line caterpillar. "Dre" is paying very close attention to every word she says.

When we started montessori here I was thinking how to set up the enviroment so that I could kinda gate off a area where the toddlers could just stay in that area. I tried and this happened they broke the gate down.I knew I had to develop a new plan. From this point on they have shared our space and I am loving it! Thanks for stopping by. Now go to One Hook Wonder and see other toddlers that are breaking down gates (lol), I mean learning the montessori way.

Montessori Monday

The children did a wonderful job last week by staying on task and keeping our enviroment peaceful. We are still on a two hour work cycle. We had a few  interruptions that kinda prevented the work cycle to last longer. Here are some activities that the children work with last week.

Color Mixing. I have to contribute the success of this work to My Montessori Journey I have set this up before and it was too messy. The way she showed how she had the work avaliable worked out just fine here.

 This child is working with the sandpaper letters. The sand being blue brought back interest to the group to work with the numbers and tracing. Thanks One Hook Wonder.

 Our garden sensory bin went over well with all the students, This child  really worked with this work a lot. Check out how she is using the magnifying glass.

Sorting phonics objects by letter sounds.

 Working with the garlic presser with sponges.

  Working with mastery with Nonliving/Living work.
 
The children are gaining more and more self confidence. They are also loving to new learn things, they are leaving the practical life area more often now and exploring new works in other areas.  To see what others are doing with their children using the montessori method pop over to One Hook Wonder.

The Sun

   My son DJ loves cars. So when he received this car he was very excited, opening it up asking do we have batteries. I told him this remote control car dosen't need batteries.

He didn't understand it at first at all. I told him it "Runs on the Sun".  Then just as I hoped he would he asked "How does it do that"?  So we begin our discovery with these parts of the sun cards.We discussed the parts of the sun and what each part job did. He got it he said " the sun gives us heat." He was really into it now. So we put the solar powered remote control outside to soak up some heat. While waiting for the car to get powered up he made the parts of the sun book.

                Also while waiting we decided to read the manual to the car. The solar powered ecomobile needs no batteries ever. We learned that the approximate run time is when the ecomobile is exposed to the sun is 1 hour equals 5 minutes of play, so for every hour that it is in the sun you can add 5 more minutes of play time.  It was time to go try this solar powered vehicle out. 

It worked but the play time didn't last long. He was disappointed and was trying to come up with ways to get the car running again. He said " I know we can put it under the light, the sun  gives us light". So we went inside and put the car under the light.

He was staring at the car like it was going to beep or something when it was going to be ready again. So I said all this talk about light has me thinking about color box #3 why don't you go work with that and use the sun on the mat as your guide and he did this.

 Now  it was time to go back outside and see if it would work after being placed under the light. It worked!!. I love the  unexpected lessons that can come from following the child. This was so much fun. I am linking this to Science Sunday hosted by Adventures In Mommydom.