Great Lessons

A Week in Reveiw

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Well I have taken a ton of pictures this week and we have gotten alot done with 5 days of school! So I have decided that I will post them in one good LONG post! 🙂 So kick back and have a cup of coffee (tea, water,soda…whatever)! Here is what we have been up to discovering this week!

Pup is working SUPER hard with her letters. She has mastered two new ones this week and I even started stringing some of the letters together and sounding them out. She is loving it! Plus we have been playing lots of work games too! She calls it her “Spy” game! 🙂

 

 

 
She has also been working really hard to master those numbers! It seems like we have been trying to remember 6,7,8,9 forever! But she is still loving working together with them, so we will just keep tracing them! She also pulled out the spindle boxes and did the 0-4 perfectly on her own. She tried the 5-9, but she needed some help which she asked for.
 
 
 

 
Pup also pulled the globe off the shelf and did some geography work on her own! She set up the globe and a battery powered candle to be the sun! She then got the continent puzzle and I helped her with the names.
 

Pup also did a bunch of playdough work and practical life trays.
 

 

 
Now, Bunny has been doing great work too! She has been doing lots of geometry and work with angles and you have all seen. We also have have been getting into more of the operations work! We sat down the other day and pulled out the golden beads. I needed to find out where she was at, what she remembered and what she had mastered. I was really surprised by what she knew! She did a multiplication problem with three exchanged and no problems! So I pulled out a divison card for her to do. She needed a little refresher on it, but she loved it and after one problem, we switched over to the stamp game. She did great and loved thinking about dividing things up between different people at at party! 🙂 She also worked with the division board and we played addition board bingo!
 

 

 
 
 
Bunny has also been doing her own research. She has decided that she wanted to know about penguins. She I have been reading what she wants to know and she is writing about what she is hearing. She has also expressed an issue with her inability to spell properly. So I am looking into getting All About Spelling. Anyone have thoughts about that? Right now I am correcting her spelling after she writes it out. Then she writes out the proper spelling on her finished picture. It actually is increasing her confidence knowing that I will give her the right spelling. We also got to do the verb presentation. I didnt get to any of this in the primary work, so we are more or less getting to an introduction of the grammar symbol, we will go much deeper next year! She has also been reading more! Hooray! She read Dr. Suess’s Foot Book several times!
 

 

 
Another thing that we were able to do this week was to talk about the tilt of the earth a little bit more. We discussed how the tilt creates the solstices and longer days or shorter days! Plus about how the sun’s heat isnt hitting the earth in a straight line. I didnt get any pictures of our one presentation because I was too busy talking and moving the globe around the “sun”! 🙂
 

 
Ok…so that I think is a majority of what we have done this week! I have been pleasantly with all the work they have done and to be honest, there have been alot of moments where I have been sitting and just…well sitting! They seem to have needed to get back to work and once I get them down there, they are super happy. They have been pretty tired in the afternoons, but I think that all that work is wearing them out!  I really hope this week will be just as good! Happy Schooling Everyone!
 


Montessori Monday~ Working Along!

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Today I have to say was another day that I really didnt want to do any school work! In fact I was wondering if we would not do any formal school work and just do christmasy things! However, as the girls played, they eventually ended up starting to work on their own! Bunny started exploring with magnets and Pup was drawing a tide pool! So off we went to do some more work downstairs! While they worked, I prepped for our redo of the first great lesson! We told the story again, and as before, it was really fun for the girls! Bunny loved it and was very interesting to see how she was interested in the particles. She redid the settling of the elements a couple of more times! She was really interested in them and in the volcano. I am hoping that redoing the Great Lesson with help jump us into some of the awesome follow up work that can follow this story! We are going to keep with this lesson for the next month or so depending on how the holiday goes!

 
While Bunny and I were having our lesson, Pup was tracing the horse puzzle control chart that she was working with this morning! She loves to label these puzzles after I read her the label! Today we changed it up by letting Bunny read the labels for her! I am hoping that this will allow her to practice her reading and help Pup play too! 🙂
 

 
Another fun thing that we did today was try our subtraction problems without any materials. Bunny did her finished her subtraction finger game board and was feeling pretty confident. So I showed her how to use the golden bead problem cards to do bigger numbers using the fact she knew. I was only showing her the static version, but she grabbed one that needed some regrouping! Opps! So I showed her how to cross out a number and move the ten over without the beads. She really had a hard time understanding, so I pulled out the golden beads. Once she got it we did a bunch of problems! She told me that it was cool that sometime math could be fun! 😉
 

 
So I guess we will keep going with school even though I am ready to be all Christmasy! ;P I think that we will do school in the morning and Christmas crafts in the afternoon! Are you wanting more Montessori fun? Stop by Montessori Monday! I am linking up there! Happy Schooling!
 
 


Montessori Monday~ Great Lesson 5~ Story of Numbers

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Today we did our last of the Great Lessons! I was already for the this one, I had the timeline, I made the charts, and everything was set! What I didn’t prepare for was the math that the kids were going to want to do with all the old numerals! 🙂 I was kept on my toes writing problems out for them to write in roman numerals, Babylonian symbols, and Chinese numbers! They loved it! It was alot of fun! And to think I thought that this would be one of the more boring lessons! 😉 Here is some picture from out work!

Here is Bunny’s Babylonian numbers

And this is the copy of the Roman Numerals Chart she made!

C Work with the Babylonian numbers too and she also did a bunch of addition with Roman Numerals! She thought it was awesome that her numbers were bigger then the example I had on the chart! 🙂

J. wrote out a whole list of numbers in Chinese and then translated it back into Arabic numbers on the other side of the paper!

 
The day of course ended with a little bit of show! The girls wanted to show off what they learned! This really is a great story and really the timeline is not super necessary right away! The charts are really what draws the children! I made them, so here they are for you to print off yourself! They are NOT in order of presentation during the story so be sure that you keep that in mind! If there is a mistake, let me know! I think I got it right, but you never know! I am linking up to Montessori Monday so stop by there for more Montessori Fun! Happy Schooling!


The Story of Writing and Communication~ Montessori Monday

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Today we got back into some of our great lessons! I presented the fifth great lesson about communication and writing! Our friends came over and it was a great time as usual! The kids liked the story and they were really interested at looking at all of the different ways that letters have evolved over time! We talked about how different people found different ways to record the information Some made dyes and paper, some carved it into stone, and some pressed it into clay! This of course led them to think about how they could make some ink of their own. I stopped them since we didnt have the time to boil things down into ink, but I suggested that they could use clay to write the way other people did! They loved the idea and we studied some samples before we got to work! They did a great job working on trying to duplicate the marks! It led us to think about how hard it was for them to write things down and we talked about how they must have had to write very carefully and neatly!

 

Here is Bunny’s work!

 
While the girls were writing, J.was looking at the timeline! He was measuring out the scale on the timeline to figure out how much time was going past. He worked it out in year and this math got him thinking about how long time has been going and on and on! He was amazed at everything that humans learned in such a short amount of time and was amazed to think of what we could still learn! He told me that he was studying history and it really interested him to see how short that time really was in comparison to the age of the earth! Those timelines that are meant to give an impression of time and how things have progressed really spoke to him today and it wasnt long after we talked about the timelines before he ran to find his mom to share his thoughts! That’s what its all about right?
 

 
So there you have it! That was our day! If you want to see a bunch of amazing Montessori work, then be sure to stop by and visit the Montessori Monday Linky Party! There is always some great ideas there! happy Schooling!


Montessori Monday~ Timelines and Trays

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Today we did the First Timeline of Humans. I was really excited about this since it is something that Bunny has been thinking about. Now, unlike the timeline of life, I didnt make this one despite my best intention. I really just ran out of time and energy to get it done in time. So I bought one from Alison’s Montessori. This one is a very nice timeline, but I think that I like the other one from Montessori Services, but the price difference it what changed my mind. However, the one I bought is really great. It is made from a recycled plastic paper that is waterproof, washable, fade proof, crease proof, and well everything proof! The colors are really great too. Plus I like that there is research info right one the timeline! The only thing that I like on the other one better is the fact that there are not very many pictures of the early humans. I think that this is a good thing especially as Bunny get older since she can use her imagination more, but right now, she really likes to see things! So I am thinking that I will need to get some of the research cards next order! 🙂 But today I presented it, and the kids really liked it. I suggested they draw some picture or think about what they think a early human would have done. They did a little bit, but I think that I really need to have some research card to help them think about what information to find. Does anyone have any good ones? (I am out of money for right now)! Here is some pictures of their work!

 
I also did some fraction presentations and the girls also did some geography as well! I think it is  fun to see what they choose to work with!
 

 
Now with all of this cosmic work going on, you maybe wondering what the younger kiddos are doing during this time. Well, I will tell you. My playroom is turned into casa while there are a bunch of little ones! Instead of toys I have Pink Tower, puzzles, cylinder blocks, pencils and paper, shape sorters, brown stair, metal insets,and a bunch of trays on the shelves. I moved my white table and chairs up there, and I added some rugs! They really seem to enjoy it and I think its fun make up work for them too! I have been trying to make sure I have some fall themed work for them. I have made quite a few trays and I thought I would share them all with you! So here are some of the themed work I have put out in the past couple of weeks:
 

 

 
I forgot to get pictures of the tweezing corn cob kennels ( the kids used the tweezers to pick the kennels off the cob). I also dont have a picture of the apple tree matching game I have out. I got it from Apple n’ Amos. It is really cute and super fun to play!
 
So there you have it! We have been having alot of fun and my goal is to do alot more with the kids this week. I think that Pup is ready to get into some Physical Science (using Karen Tyler’s Albums) and Bunny is begging for “new” work! So stop back soon! If you want more Montessori fun right now, be sure to visit Deb for the Montessori Monday Link Up! Happy Schooling!
 
 
 


Montessori Monday~ The Hand Chart

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Today we did a follow up to the third great lesson, the hand chart. This is a long piece of black material (about 10 ft) that has a strip of red materials at the end and the picture of a hand in the middle. The point of the material and the discussion is to give the child the impression of how long humans were living, learning, working, and changing, before they even began to write things down! This led to some discussion about the tools and things that the early humans created and learned about. There were some pictures drawn and some reading done! After a little bit, Bunny had the idea of going outside and doing things a prehistoric man may have done. All the kids thought that was a fun idea. I offered to find something for them to try building a shelter with branches (I needed to trim the Butterfly bush anyway)! They thought about how to build a fire out of stick, but I drew the line at that! So off they went to build a shelter and make a camp! They had a hard time putting something together and it was interested way for them to understand just how hard it was for the early humans to live with whatever they could find!

Here is Bunny’s Picture of a prehistoric family and wooly mammoth.

 
Their early humans camp didnt work out like they wanted! So later on in the afternoon, Bunny and I went out and built another one with the sticks! It worked out with some clever arranging and with the old railroad spike as a tool. When it was done, Bunny said that the wind still came though and it was cold. I asked her what she thought the early humans would have done. She said they would have covered it will furs. Since I dont have furs laying around the house, we settled for some old sheets! It worked out. It helped block the wind and, as Bunny mentioned, it would help keep the rain out too! I also offered her some brown towels to use as furs to dress it! It was pretty cool! She had a lot of fun with it, and was so excited to show it to dad!
 

Using her tool to help make the shelter!

She is so excited that it worked!

Here are out added “furs”.

She even had a spot for her tools. That way they were easy to reach and they didnt hurt anyone.

My little cave girl!

Pup of course wanted to play too!
 
It was alot of fun exploring the way early humans may have lived! I planning on asking Bunny if she would like to make a story about them this week too! Next Monday I am planning on presenting the First Timeline (as long as the timeline I ordered comes in)! I am linking up over at Living Montessori Now, so be sure to stop over there for more Montessori fun! Happy Schooling!


Cosmic Botany Baby!

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Today was really a great school day! It was great in the fact that it didnt  happen at home! It didnt happen or even start in the school room! It was all inspired by Bunny’s looking through the fossil book! She found a picture of an Amber fossil and wanted to know what it was. We read all we could about it in the book,  but she still wanted to know more. Like Where is amber found, and what kind of trees made it? We found out that conifer trees were the trees that secreted the resin that formed amber. I also found out that sap and resin are not the same thing! All of this reading led us to start studying conifer trees! Using the plant kingdom work from Montessori for Everyone, we talked about where conifer trees were in the classification chart and then I pulled out the free plant book they offer and we read the first few pages that talked about vascular and non-vascular plants and flowering and non flowering plants. She thought it was cool and we started to put all of the information on paper.

 


 As she narrated her report to me, we thought of some more questions and I thought that this was the perfect time for a going out/ nature walk! So we packed up and headed out to investigate conifer trees and absorb the fall weather! Our first stop was a beautiful board walk that has some other nature trials off of it. Unfortunately, the trails were closed due to bow hunting season, so we headed out to another park!

 


 We got to wander around the forest for a while and found some very pretty things for our nature tray! We didnt however find any real pine trees until the end of our walk. When we did, we explored the sap that was dripping on them (read we were covered in it) and we really looked at the bark and needles. Bunny was excited that she can now identify a conifer by the bark. She learned so much by touching and looking the tree! One of the questions she had when we were researching, was how did the seeds come out of a pine cone. So we sat there and pulled on apart! We found, what she thought was how it happened. There is a small thin piece that layers on the top side of each ridge of the pine cone (there maybe more technical terms for this, I guess we need parts of a pine cone cards). This thin layer is what holds the seed. When the ridges open, the thin layer with the seed falls out! With all of this work that Bunny is doing, I didnt forget about Pup! I talked with her a bit about the parts of a plant! Tomorrow I plan on using our botany puzzles to help her learn them!

 

 
All of this work led us back home! Bunny headed back downstairs to finish her report! On her way down stairs she was looking at our timeline of life and she found the beginning of conifer trees! She was really interested to see the they were in existence before the dinosaurs! After all this reflection and learning, we finished her report! Here is what she came up with and I was really proud of her!
 

 

 So there you have it! Work is happening here in a rather organic child led way right now and I love it! The only thing is that I worry since we didnt do math or anything else that we are going to fall behind. I know that this is what Montessori is all about, a child getting so involved in research that they touch on a bunch of other things through it. It is working, but its hard to trust! However, I love that it can happen and that I have the chance to give these days to my girls to learn! Happy Schooling!

Montessori Monday~ Third Great Lesson~ The Coming of Humans

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Today we had the third great lesson, the coming of humans! This third lesson is a more of a story/ discussion about the creation of man. This went SUPER well. Everyone was talking and contributing ideas to the idea the humans were created different then the animals. We talked about how God created Humans with the ability to think about things, to love everyone, and to have hands to make things. It was very interesting to see how interested they were in talking about the things that this included. They seemed to really connect with the idea of man’s special gifts! There was also alot of discussion about some books and shows the kids had seen about how apes turned into men. We talked about how in their early days, humans may have been covered in hair like an ape, but they always were humans. God had created them differently and even though they may have looked different, they were always special! This work, while it spurred alot of good discussion, they really didnt have alot of research work. They did have fun together though! Next week I will show them the first timeline and I sure that is going to spark some more good talk and thinking!

K. made a prehistoric person! 

 
There was a show for the kids to show what they discovered and thought of! Today we had a T-Rex drawing by B. We also got to see a puppet show written and preformed by C.

 
C. Puppet show was about two people who discovered something and decided to call it a bush. They then discovered that it was a lucky shamrock! The lucky shamrock was a good thing because it showed them that something was going to happen. There was a volcano nearby that went BOOM! The people were ok! The End!

 

 
It was a good day and I love that the kids are thinking and really absorbing so much from these lessons! I asked today what they had been thinking about and some of them are working on volcano work, there is panda work, and of course there is Dinosaur work too! It is so much fun to see everyone working hard! If  you want to see more work, be sure to stop by Montessori Monday! I am linking up there!

 
 

Montessori Monday~ The Black Strip!

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Well today we did the follow ups from Great Lesson Two, the black strip! I had planned to do the third great lesson, but then I knew that doing the black strip with the kids was just too good to pass up! They LOVED it! I told the story and unrolled it in the classroom, then we took it outside! I think that they were really impressed with how long it really is and how very little time that humans have been here! They were SO excited to stretch it all out down the sidewalk and I know that it left an impression! The older girls even decided that they wanted to measure how many of their feet long it was ( 109 in you were wondering). I also did a quick presentation on the Clock of Eras. This wasnt so exciting, but after our presentation, they all did get to work! However, what they did was mostly other Montessori work! 🙂 I did quite a few presentations on some of the other works in the classroom and it was fun!

Bunny and her friend made their own Clock of Eras using the circle inset as a start.

There were a few of the younger kids loved this lesson too! In fact, B (age 4) worked with the clock work and drew this picture of a little drop of jelly in the ocean, a volcano, and a stegosaurus! I guess he was impressed with the story too!

Working together!

Look at that concentration! I loved the E. worked really hard and even corrected the blocks she missed!

Look at her! So happy and confident! She knew she could do it!

 
So there we have it! It was busy, productive, and lots of fun! Next Monday we are going to be talking about the Coming of Humans! I just know that this lessons will be a lot of fun for them! They are already talking about how the first humans looked and lived! So I think we are going to have a great lesson! Happy Schooling Everyone!

Montessori Monday~ Great Lesson 2~ The Coming of Life

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Today we had our second Great Lesson and it was really great! This lesson uses the Time Line of Life to help show the kids how much life has changed since it started as a small drop of jelly. The Time Line serves as a point of research as they start to have questions that they want know about. It is a very large and it was fun to see them so impressed with all the animals and plants that were on the timeline. I made ours and it was a TON of work. I really do think that I may buys the set next year if I have money. But in the mean time this one worked well! I also wanted to find a way to send it home with the kids that joined us so that they can keep researching. So…with a couple of nights of hand drawing, I was able to make a small printable version of the tradition Time Line of Life! I am of course going to share this with you today! You can download it HERE!   We had the same group as last week and I was super impressed with all the great work that they did together! I love that they are able to work together to find out new information! Here are the pictures of all the work that they did today!

Here are a couple of Drawing of Fossils. C. was interested in them, so we found a book about how they form to read a bit of.

C. also drew a picture of how she thought a snake started with legs and slowly lost them. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but she thought it all through!

J. had a question about what time period a crab started in. I, of course had NO idea! So we were off to the computer for an answer! After that he was off researching things about all sorts of animals, eagles, arctic wolves, lions, etc. (In case you were wondering about the crab, the first ones were found in the Jurassic Period).

Bunny got really interested in his work and they started working together! Since the other girls were working on a show, Bunny and J. decided to do a little presentation on Pteranodons. The both wrote the information and Bunny drew a picture!

Here are the facts that they found:
They have hallow bones (to fly better)
Their wing span was 6 meters, or 20 feet.
They eat fish
They were found in the United States and they were out of Europe!
 
Great facts huh? In fact they all found some things out and then had a show for the moms! I love that they have a little show together! Bunny’s friend C. loves to preform and this is something that she encouraged everyone to do! In fact she really organized it well and made sure that everyone was welcomed and that each presenter had a chance to speak! They all did a great job, and since public speaking is really not something Bunny will do without a nudge and this is good for her too!
 
Bunny’s friend C. introduced everyone and welcomed them to the Dinosaurs show!

C. told about her fossil pictures and what she learned.

Bunny and J. shared their work about the Pteranodons
(They had H. draw them a picture of a Ptranodon)

C. Shared her work too. She drew a variety of animals that she saw on the timeline.

They all took a bow in the end! 🙂
 
There was alot of other work done today and I love that everyone was busy and happily working! It is so cool to see it all happen together! 
 

 
It was a successful lesson. The time line worked out well, and I was able to send a small on for the kids to print off to use at home! Bunny really loved the dinosaurs, and she also said she wanted to know more about mammals, baby mammals to be specific! So I will be digging into some zoology albums for some ideas to help her find material for research! If you have a good idea, please share it! I love to have ideas!
 
Again, if you want to download my Time Line of Life, you can find it Here. It is a really large file and google is telling me that it cant do a preview or scan it for viruses due to the size. Ugh. So I will try and fix that, but I promise it is safe! 🙂 Since you cant see it as a preview, here is what the pages look like!

So there you have it! I hope you enjoy the Time Line. I really wanted it to make something that you can use in your great lessons in case you dont have the time to make one, or the money to buy it!
It has been a great kick off to the week and I am making sure I link up with Montessori Monday! So be sure that you stop over there! I hope you kicked off your week well too! Happy Schooling!
 

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