Afterschooling: Weekly Wrap Up #3

This week the kids started at the new school. Boy were they excited, unfortunately Monday was a snow day all schools were closed. Yes for Michigan it was our first snowfall and it came down. They have come home from school really excited about the things that they have learned. DJ is placed in an all boys classroom. I pray for his teacher everyday, must be a man of great patience.  Ken was excited to read in front of her class using a microphone. DJ loved that they played math games, and Michelle is loving gym class. So far so good making this quick transition. One thing that Ken expressed to me was her desire to learn division with three digit numbers. In school they were working on this concept, this was the first time she has beeen introduced to this math skill. Friday is their last day of school before winter break, they will return in January.  Here are some activities that they managed to do while they were sharing tales about their school day.

                                     Mathematics, Geometry and Sensorial
 
                               Working with the Multiplication Bead Board.
                                                                

                                    Learning the Parts of the square.

                                                                Binomial Cube.

                                                                       
                                                                       Language

                                     Grammar Farm work. Nouns, verbs, articles.

                                                                         
  Dictionary work. Finding the meaning to vocabulary words in the book Rags and Riches.

                                       Parts of speech work.

                                      
                  Small moveable alphabet. Spelling dinosaurs' names.

                                                                          
                                                              Cultural Studies

           Michelle has been spending most of her free time working in this book.

                                           A page from the book.

                                                                           
                                        Omnivore, Herbivore, Carnivore sort work.

Sorting dinosaurs by continent.

                                                                               
   The favorite past time for this week has been initiated by DJ constantly asking his sisters to play this Knight game that comes with the Knights and Castles work found at The Montessori Goldmine Shop.

                                                                       

                                                                                
 We are having lots of fun preparing for Christmas. Please come back and visit next week to read the Christmas edition.        
                                         
                                             Thank you for Reading!!

The Night Before Christmas (StArt)

This week our art project was inspired by the classic story The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Douglas Gorsline. The pictures are really captivating and the children really loved this story.


                                            The Night Before Christmas

                                                               Our Project

                                Using a rectangle sponge to resemble bricks with red paint.

                                                       Coloring stocking shapes.

Wrapping tissue paper around a log to add the look of fire to their work.

 "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would there".
                                     

To see more art projects created by kids that were inspired by stories pop over to A Mommy Adventures.                                                                         

A Happy Camper

   Keeping the faith in the method that we use to educate our children can sometimes be testy. I admit there are times when I visit other blogs and see what some children have accomplished I have doubted the capabilities of myself as a guide. I have seen Metal Insets used to produce some beautiful art work on various blogs. I shamefully will admit that I said 'Why can't I get a child to do something like that, "Why don't they want to use them?"      
                                  Lately Metal Insets have been used a lot. We all know that the more you do something the better you get at it. Well Mumble gave me a Christmas present today. Mumble made this just for me!!         

                                                           A Christmas Tree.

"And so we discover that education is not something which the teacher does, but it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being".- Maria Montessori

Toddler Tuesday

Last week it was a " Monkey see, Monkey do '" week for the toddlers. Having the advantage of working alongside children older then them is paying off big time for them. They try new works and really are impressive  with their capabilities.

                                             Favorite books of the week

                                                                             
                                                    Parts of the horse puzzle.

                                            Parts of the frog puzzle.
                                    

                                                                            

Working with the sand tray sensorially. This work kept him occupied for more than twenty minutes.

                                                   Pouring bells.

                                                        Hammering with nails.

                                     Folowings directions: Go in and out of the bears' den.

                                                                       Hammering.

                                                                   Quietly reading.

                                                                               
                                                           New on the Shelf

                                                     Matching objects to pictures in a book.
  

                                                                   
                                                                   Count and Sort.

                                                                               
To see other toddlers enjoying montessori inspired activities pop over to One Hook Wonder.

Montessori Monday

 Wow!  Last week was different in a good way. The children have been becoming more independent during their work period. They are repeating works! Now their concentration is growing. They are finding great satisfaction in their work.  I always like giving out new lessons, but I know it is important for them to gain mastery in a skill before going on. I give out a lot of extensions on the same skill for the most part it begins to click for the child after a few. Now I am giving out extension activities because they are getting pure joy out of the work.

                                                           Practical Life

                                                          Learning to walk Max.

                                                             
                                               Lacing mittens.
     

                                                                             
                                                        New on the Shelf
Matryoshka dolls. I think this is going to be an exciting work for the children. Perfect open and close activity.

                                               
                                                               Language

                    Sorting opposites. Hot or Cold clothing.

                                         
                                      New on the shelf

This an activity that the child works on positional words. I printed this from the lovely blog 1+1+1=1.

                                                  
                                          Sensorial
                                                                    
                                    Tracing a square.

                                                                      

                                                        Mathematics

Counting the buttons on the snowman and placing the hat with the matching number on the snowman. This work came from the resourceful blog Forskoleburken.
                                                                              

                                                                                
                                                                         Zoology

                                  Matching dinosaur skeletons to the matching dinosaur.

                                                             
                                                                   Botany

                                    Sequencing the Life Cycle of a Pine tree.

                                                                         

                                     Making a Christmas tree.
                         

                                                                     

                                                                     
                                                Popular books on the shelf
                        

                                        
To see more montessori lessons that other children have been doing please visit One Hook Wonder.         

The Story of Snow (Science Sunday)

 This week during our small group lesson we learned the Story of Snow. 

                                                 
We talked about the water cycle and how the rain comes down from the clouds and is then collected in our lakes, rivers, ponds, etc, and then goes back up to the clouds. The children understood this concept very well and then they changed the rain to snow.

            
After we learned the Story of Snow, we made some Insta Snow . A perfect sensory bin for our topic. We did not get any snow here last week.

                                                                       
                       Later on we also did this Participation Story.

This story tells how Baby bear loved Spring and watched the strawberry flowers promise him berries. Baby bear loved summer because he would roll down the grassy hill and slide into the river and catch some yummy fish. Baby bear loved Fall because he would run through the woods and chase spiders hiding in the moss. Baby bear couldn't remember Winter. The children learned that Baby bear couldn't remember Winter because bears hibernate in the Winter. We discussed what hibernation means. They participating in this story by everytime they heard me read the word bear they had to take a step closer to the bears' den.
                          
                      Pretending to be a bear coming out of its' den in Spring.

                                                                    
          They also enjoyed making their own dens with Big bear and Baby bear.    

                                                                                       
To see other children doing science related activities  pop over to Science Sunday hosted by Adventures In Mommydom.