Montessori Essentials

Montessori Inspired Garden Ideas

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Happy Official First Day of Spring! I am so excited that the spring is here…at least that is what the calender is saying! The weather is telling me something different, but there is always hope! And hope is what we did here today!We started the seeds for our garden in the house today and the girls are all excited to watch them grow! Bunny already has a good idea of how it all happens, but Pup and I have been learning about living things and she is really excited to see it! This has had me thinking alot about how to make gardening fun with kids. There have been alot of years when I pick out everything and do most of the work expecting the kids to somehow just absorb it. But it doesnt work that way. They need to get in the dirt, feel the seeds, watch them grow, dig them back up, and taste the food they grew right outside in the yard! In fact I think that Bunny learned more last year about seeds while she planted helicopter seeds in the garden, then she did any other way! So that leads me to a few tips on making gardening a learning experience in a Montessori way.

1) Start with the Basics: Before you get out in the dirt, it is important to talk about living things! Show then the difference between living and non living. Talk about the things that all living things need (food, air, water, and reproduce). And even talk about the needs and parts of plants. This will allow the work in the garden to make an impression and to allow them to draw the knowledge out of the experience. There are alot of simple books you can find about these things, and you can also use cards from Montessori Print Shop to help show present these ideas! These are simple, and easy presentations that take only a few minutes, but really give the child the vocabulary and information to learn more!

2) Get Messy: Gardening involves dirt and it will be messy~ Let it! Let them really dig in the dirt and use the opportunity to talk about the dirt that the plants need to live and grow in. Let it be a sensory experience. You will allow them to form a sensory impression that will stick with them forever! Plus you will go down in history as the coolest mom ever! 😉

3) Give up Control: This is probably the most important tip~ let go! Give them seeds, give them soil to work with (weather in a pot or in a part of the garden), and them go. Let them plan it, water it, grow it, pull it up and look at it, whatever they want. This is where the learning it and it will happen. Dont plan on getting a bunch of great veggies or flowers from this area, but plan on your kids understanding more about plants then you can ever teach!

4) Have two gardens: You hear me, two gardens! One for the kids to experiment and play in, and one to really grow things. That means when your kiddo wants to see the roots of the plant he planted and he pulls it up, it doesnt ruin your tomato crop for the year! Lets face it, if you are going to put work, time, and money into the garden, you want to have a product! So make sure that they have their plants and you have yours. This will also allow the children to see the plants grow and produce, even if they forget about (or inadvertently kill) the plant they planted. Plus the children will see you model how to work in the garden and your plants can also provide control of error for your child’s plants as well!

5) Grow Creative: Try to get new veggies and new plants that you dont usually get along with your regulars! This year we found multi colored carrots and pepper that the girls were really excited to grow, even though they dont like either veggie normally! If you have limited space or are growing in containers, look for dwarf plants to grow. There are little carrots, peas, and berries for growing small, so look around and grab something new and different! It may just widen your eating!

6) Make the Space Usable: Have small gardening tool, small gloves, small pots, small watering cans…small everything! Make sure that it is all available all the time for the kids, so that when they have a chance or the desire to get out and work in the garden, they can! Gardening is only really fun when you can get out there and do it! Its not a chore, its an adventure!

7) Control Charts for Everyone: Another idea is to make control charts of what the plants look like as they grow, what weeds look like that should be pulled, and even a step by step on how to water the plants are things that should be printed and laminated and available in the garden area! Your goal is to make sure that the child have everything that they need to garden successfully! When there is many things growing, having reminders of what is growing, what it looks like, and how to care for it makes it easier!

8) Start them Sooner: Another fun thing that we did this year was to start our seeds early inside! I love that we are getting to jump into this learning and really have time to watch it closely and study before we are in the warm outside where the kids tend to get distracted! 🙂 We will watch it all happen and then we get to watch it outside too! This works really well for us who live in an area where that last frost seems to be really late in the year! Kids tend to get impatient, so waiting to eat those tomatoes until the end of summer may cause them to loose interest!



 I am sure that there are a million more tips for gardening and I would love to hear what you do! I for one love to just keep it simply a chance for the kids to really dig, plant and learn! Any veggies we get are really a great bonus! I hope that this helps you get outside (when it warms up) and have fun in the dirt! I for one and planning on having a great time gardening in a laid back way with the girls this year! I hope you do too! If you want even more ideas, be sure to pop over to Pintrest and check out my Nature and Outside Ideas Board. Happy Gardening!

Work and Research!

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Well if this wasnt a Montessori blog, this title would really sound like a boring, dry post! 🙂 However, it is anything but! Both the girls have been doing alot of work and I am really excited about the research that Bunny has been getting into too! She has really asked to learn about mammals. So she has been picking out an animal that interest her and finding out about it with our Animal book. However, that excitement is tempered by my inability to find a way for us to research methodically. I really do question how to make this work since she cant read very well, so it turns out that I am doing alot of reading to her when she finds something that grabs her interest. I have tried to streamline things a bit by using the Research Outlines from Montessori Print shop! They are free and offers some ideas of information to find. I really liked them and so did she. I also bought the Plant and Animal Research Guild from Montessori for Everyone. These are nice because they ask specific questions that she needs to answer. Right now they require her to write out too much information, but I really think that they will really be awesome as she grows in her writing ability. She still gets frustrated writing out whole sentences, but we are getting there. If anyone has ideas, I would love to hear them! Here are the things she has been hard at work on.

 

Here was some of her research on rocks. Bunny found out where the rock was from, and she found out what it was called. I let her keep the rocks she found out the info.
 

Panda Research page
 

Zebra Research Page.

We learned about the ruler and how to measure to the nearest inch. She thought it was pretty cool and she did a great job at it too!

 
Bunny was finding out what fractions made a whole. She recorded her work and did a great job with it. I love that she can explore this so sensorially.

 
While Bunny was working away, so was Pup! She has been “discovering things” and loving “doing her math” with  me! 🙂 She has been really busy and I think that she is learning alot! Here is what she has been up to!

“Doing her Math Problems”!

We have been doing some work with the Geometric Solids!

She said that the cone was like a party hat! 🙂 How cute is that?

She did all the pieces, even the tiny one! Hooray!

She had the idea to make a tube and was proud when it worked out!
 
So there you have it! Lots of work is happening here and everyone seems rather happy about it! I am trying something new and kinda experimental here too. I noticed that the girls have not been playing with very many toys lately. So I took alot of the toys and put them away. I replaced them with some out “Montessori” toys and puzzles. I also left some of the kitchen toys, doll stuff, blocks and things like that! I will see how this goes. I did this on Monday when we had out Great Lesson for the little kids and it worked really well! Pup loved the idea, so I think that this may work! We’ll see! I hope your work week is going well and there is lots of learning at you house too! Happy Schooling!


Montessori Elementary Albums Reveiw

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Summer is in full swing and as I plan for the next school year, I realized that many of you are probably doing the same! This year, in addition to the primary work I have planned for Pup, I am trying my best to get myself educated about the Elementary program for Bunny! To this end I purchased some albums from Elizabeth Papandrea. She is an AMI certified Montessori elementary teacher who is sharing her albums for $80. It is an amazing deal! These albums come with Math, Language, Geography, Geometry, Biology, History, Music, and Theory! It is everything that I wanted it to have and the great lessons are super good! One thing that I do love about the great lessons is that they are Christian based, however, she has an amazingly good description of how to change the story to fit your own religious preference! Perfect for everyone. The experiments that go with the stories are well laid out and simple to understand. She has alot of great hand drawn illustrations. Her other albums are also easy to understand. My favorite album so far is the Theory album. This album is so GREAT! She lays everything out for you from age 0-18. She then goes deeper into the mindset of an elementary child. This was so super helpful to see and understand what is different from the primary class and what is going on in their little minds! This really made it so much easier for me to get a handle on what I needed to focus on this year. It showed me the importance of the great lessons and how that was the basis of the whole elementary class. I also love that everything seemed simpler after I read the album! That I think is an marker of an awesome album set. My feelings of being out of my element and overwhelmed were calmed down and made easier after I read all about Montessori Elementary theory! I also love that she has been willing to answer my questions!
If you are interested in looking at her albums, send her an email and she will send you a sample of some of her Great Lesson experiment pages! They are really great! Here is Elizabeth’s email elizabethpapandrea@yahoo.com. Let her know I sent you! I hope this helps you with your school planning! If you are looking for a bit more help, Jessica at Keys of the Universe, offers an online Montessori Elementary class! Tomorrow I am having a garage sale, so things may be quite here. However, I will be working on my school plan and I will be sharing it with you all soon! I cant wait to get few new materials for the classroom! 😉 Happy Schooling and planning!

Montessori Monday~ Organization!

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Well summer is the time for getting things ready for the next year and no matter what else I wanted to do, I must get my stuff in order! 🙂 So the last two days I have been digging deep into the bottom most corners of my home and clearing things out, throwing things out, and getting things in piles for the garage sale! Whew! I am going to show you pictures of the scariest part of my house that I dont show to…well…anyone! 🙂 It was really bad. I happen to toss things out on the desk that I have in the back and it tend to pile up fast! I do alot of projects and alot of my trays that I cleared out after we stopped schooling were just laying out. My basement has two sides. One is finished and this is the one you all know as my school room. Its pretty and blue and so organized. The other side is my laundry room, holiday storage, baby storage, craft room, Montessori storage, and our practical life are! Pretty much everything! I am hoping that my organization is going to make this year better. I got a lot of containers to sort my things into subjects. So all of my extra math materials are in a box, my sensorial work is in a box, etc. I also made sure that I got rid of some of the things that I was hanging onto without a reason! I think I will just show you! 🙂

BEFORE:
Here is my desk/ work station. I told you that it was looking bad!

To the left of the desk is this shelf. In the green boxes are my random nomenclature cards, object box figures, math work, and stuff like that. It is just bobbing about in there. Yikes!

These shelves hold more craft supplies and all of my extra Montessori materials. You can see the grammar farm there and some sandpaper letters. This shelf is full!
As you can see there is a ton of stuff everywhere!
AFTER:


Here is the desk! WOW right? I got a hardware box to put all of my objects into for object boxes. This will eliminate alot of little things that get tossed on the desk when I change them out quickly! I also keep my paper cutter here for when I need to make some nomenclature work quickly (as you know, I tend to make cards as I need them and mot before!). I also have my paintbrushes in a jar and some pens and stuff out there! 

Object Box Storage

In one of the big drawers on the desk, I have all of my practical life stuff in there. Jars, tongs, bowls, etc. You know all that stuff talking about.

In the middle drawer I have the other practical life things that I need to replace more often. Soap,
q-tips, push pins, sponges, etc.

Another drawer holds my extra office supplies that we may need. Tape is a big one that we run out of alot! Glue sticks too! This is where the girls can find them if they need to!

This large shelf holds a ton of stuff! The first shelf has all of my craft supplies and small things for trays, pom poms, pipe cleaners, rhinestones, ribbon, etc. The next shelf is where I put my containers with extra materials all sorted out by subject. I sorted out all of my nomenclature cards too. I dont keep my cards out all of the time although I think I may keep more out this year. Since I make small folders for each set of cards, I found that I can store them in small crates that hold CDs! Perfect! You can see one of the crates in the box on the end on the right. The bottom shelf has natural materials, trays, baskets, and card stock.

These shelves are across from the desk.The one on the far right holds my canning stuff and extra cooking pans. The middle shelf holds my albums (these are the Karen Tyler Albums that I printed last year!). It also has all of my extra materials that were too big for the boxes.

This shelf hold more crafts stuff, art kits, paint, and the boxes that hold the work the girls complete!

On the left of the three shelves, I have a small area for our practical life stuff. This the next to the door that leads to the school room so its easy to get to!
So there you have it! You have now seen the deep dark scary part of my house! I hope that somehow this is helpful to you as you get ready for the school year! I will be back soon with a review of my Elementary Albums! They are great! Happy Schooling!


Montessori Monday~ A Montessori Bedroom for Pup!

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Well as promised, here are the pictures of Pup’s bedroom! I have been working really hard on both girls rooms. We got them organized, cleaned, and redecorated a bit! The one thing that I did was to rearrange the furniture and the room to be more open to other activities.For the most part we have no toys in bedrooms. Except for a doll or two and some stuffed animals, they aren’t allowed to have toys in their rooms (of course they may bring toys up to the their room to play, but they need to be put away by bedtime!). One reason is that they need sleep since they dont nap, but also it helps to cut down on the places that need to be picked up! The girls are fine with it since they have lots of books that they look through and they are usually ready to sleep anyway! 🙂 For Pup’s room, I didnt need to spend much money, it was a matter of spray paint, free printables found on Pintrest, and some sewing! So lets head off on our tour!

Here is the view from her door. As you can see the walls look a little tall since there is a lack of much up high. This is because she is short and as Maria Montessori pointed out, a child’s space should be sized to them, not us! I think that it needs a better picture, so I will try to replace it tomorrow!

Here is her shelf and table at the end of her bed.

The “Bubble” lamp was a request of Pup’s! The small basket holds her hair brush and other little things like that. The big one is for all the books she keeps in her room. And I also placed all her pretty things here too! The art prints are free printables from Children Inspired Designs. I used Peacock and Zinnia. I also used the peacock on some printable fabric to make the pillow on her bed!

Here is her child sized table and stool. I hung her mirror here too. My hope was that she would use it to do her hair and get ready in the morning! So far she loves it! I think it will be something she will use more and more!

Next to her bed is a small sitting area. I hung a metal mobile above it for some color and interest. It has small colored bows on it. She is too young for a mobile obviously, but it adds a nice decorative element. I hung some number art on the wall since she loves numbers so much right now! This was something that I made on my scrapbooking program. The numbers were colored to match the colors in the Children Inspired Design printables.

Her bed is a bunk board with a mattress on a regular twin bed frame. This gives it a real bed look with the low level that she still needs. I have a fabric head board that I made at the head of the bed. You cant see it very well in the picture since we are still trying to figure out the best way to attach it to the frame! It was one of the little things I didnt quite get done before I took pictures! 🙂 The pillows were made using printable fabric with the same printables in her frames. I added a bit of coordinating fabric around the edges. They turned out really cute and added a good bit of color to her bed!

I thought that I would show you her closet as well! This is where all of her clothes are. I have a basket for her pants, shirts, underwear, socks, diapers, and pjs! I also have a nice low bar for her dresses. She loves that she can reach it all and she even loves to help put her clothes away when I bring up the laundry!

So there you have it! Pup’s Montessori Bedroom. She has been really excited about her new room and loves it all! Let me know what you think! I think that like any good design, I will add and take away as I find things! I love that all the elements are really really easy to change as she finds her new interests. The printables are easily changed, the pillows can be changed easily too and that would be really give the room a whole new look when she is ready for something new! I hope that you find some inspiration! Happy Montessori Living!
Oh and I am of course linking up to Montessori Monday!

Observation

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If you have been reading along here for the past few weeks, you know that we are currently on a school break, but that we are still learning plenty! In the past week, my girls have done math, reading, biology, geography, writing, and a few other things as well. The best part of it all is that my girls have no idea that they are “doing school”! I love that! As you can see from the pictures above, Bunny did some follow up map work from the book study she was doing the other day!  I love that watching what they are interested in and what draws their attention is giving me a chance to provide learning opportunities that are perfect and effortless! Bunny told my friend the other day that we arent doing school, and I said that we were still learning. Bunny said that she like to learn, but only when it is fun like it has been! 🙂 What I simply love is the ability to sit back and see what Maria Montessori saw, learning is seamless and deep if the child is allowed to work! Oh sure there is way more to this, but observation is a key! Without it, we can only give work that we think they need and this isnt always right. This is what I think happened to us at the end of the year. In Montessori, there is a plan, but following the child is the most important. To do this we need to watch and listen, to see what is capturing their passions and interest, and then present ideas accordingly. In hind sight, I realize that there were certain presentations that I should have done a LONG time ago, but I wasnt watching closely enough. I thought I needed to follow the proper path set out in the albums. But sometimes this is not what the child is trying to learn! One example of this would be the math facts with Bunny. She was so excited to learn them back in the winter. I should have pulled out the addition strip board then and there, but I waited until we had gotten though what I thought I needed to present to her. What happened? She lost interest and was board with the work when I showed it to her. If I had showed it to her back in the winter, would she have worked with it joyfully like a game instead of grumbling over it? Maybe. Maybe not. So once again, I find myself trying to get back to the basics of what Maria Montessori discovered about teaching children. Observation is important and should be done daily. Sitting and watching is good, but sometimes there isnt time for that. Sometimes it is taking note of something that your child shows you, and idea that they share, a picture that they drew for you, or a book they are carrying around! What makes observing easier is that kids usually want to share something that they think is really cool or that they are proud of! Are they pointing to letters and making sounds like they are reading, it maybe time for sandpaper letters. Can they count to 100 by 10s? Then they are ready for bead chains. It may not always be that easy, but alot of times it can be! That being said, I have been thinking that maybe it would be fun to have a book discussion here on the blog! I am hoping that some of you would be interested in joining me reading The Montessori Method or the Secret of Childhood together! Once a week, I will post my thoughts and you can share yours! We can all get back to basics together! If you are interested, please leave a comment and let me know! Happy Schooling!
Oh and if you get a moment, stop by Circle of Moms and vote for your favorite blog! I am there along with a bunch of other amazing blogs!

Its Primarily Elementary!

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Today I was sitting out in the sunshine with me little ones reading my Montessori albums. As I read, I watched the kids play, and I got to see first hand the difference between a primary child and an elementary child! The part of the Montessori theory I was reading was all about the imagination. A Primary child is so excited about learning all about his world. He is excited about all the bits and pieces of his world. Its all new and exciting! But when the child grows up, they start to change how they think. They are very familiar with their world and now they want to know all about the universe! They want to see thing that cant be seen by them. They can use their experience and their imagination to visualize what different places, even imaginary ones, are really like. So we can start to use stories to excited their interests and curiosity. They can start to see things and how they are all related! It is an exciting time for both of them, but in different ways. I think that as I move into the new year, this will really be a challenge for me. To see the needs of each girl in a different way! I need to think about how to make sure they each have space to have their needs met! Here is a perfect example of this difference!

Pup wanted to do her numbers. She really wanted to trace them and say them. She really was interested in learning the stuff about her world!

Bunny spent her time on another part of the driveway making a fairy world! It was a place she made on her own and she told me that there was soil, air, sun energy, and places to live and things to do! She made it all up on her own! She used her experience to apply it to a new world of her imagining!

I love how they can work in the same area and yet be on totally in different planes of development! It gives me hope that we can all work together in the same school room successfully! There are so many exciting things happening, and I really hope I know how to work it all out for the benefit of my family. Happy Schooling!


My Lower Elementary Observation!

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Well today I spent my morning observing at our local Montessori school. For those who dont know, most Montessori schools will allow you to sit in their classrooms during work time and observe the children at work. I have done this once before and its super helpful! It is one thing to read all about the Montessori method and how it is supposed to look; its a completely different thing to see it all working in action! It is really tremendously invaluable to being able to do it at home! I love being able to sit at watch it all happening and today was no disappointment! The teachers in the classroom I was in were super helpful and more then happy to answer my questions. I cant tell you how wonderfully supportive the school was of my reason for observing! 🙂
When I arrived, the children were just starting their work time. This was one of the differences between the -9 room and the 3-6 room. There was no beginning circle time or anything like that. The kids just came in and began work. Each child had a work plan. This was another thing that I was really interested in knowing more about. The level one kids (first grade) had their work written out for them each day. The level two and three kids have their work written out for the whole week. They can choose when they want to do this work so long as its all done at the end of the week. This is helps to teach them time management and organization. I really liked this and we will be doing something like this with Bunny very soon! The older kids here are required to do a certain amount of work whether they want to or not. This was really good for me to see. I have been telling Bunny that she must do certain work and usually she has a choice of how to do it. I really wasn’t sure how Montessori that was, but it is how they do it at this older level! As the kids worked I noticed that they needed very little directing. I did ask one of the teachers what they do if they have a needy child. Bunny is rather needy and I think that part of that is because it is just us and she doesn’t have that social factor, but I want her to work on being more independent. The teacher told me that they will adjust how they interact with each child. Sometime they will give more one on one, but they gradually help them move toward that independence. We will be doing that too! 🙂 Another thing that I was able to observe was some grammar presentations! I must that I LOVE MONTESSORI GRAMMAR! It is simple and effective and totally easy to work with! I really just cant wait to start that! It was great to see kids at all different reading levels working on the grammar. They all got it and really were able to build sentences with ease. I will be honest, if you had asked me what a prepositional phrase did I would not have been able to tell you, but after a 7 minute presentation they knew (and so did I)! I really think that this is the best way to teach grammar. At this school, they do have weekly spelling tests. I think that this is interesting and it made me think a bit about how we are going to tackle that. I think that they have spelling that is based in their word study. This is something to think about a bit more as I plan for our beginning elementary!
There was a TON of math working going on as well today and it was awesome to see it all in action!There were alot of level two kids working on multiplication fact with the colored beads, and everyone was working on money. It was very cool to see how they address money since it something that isnt always in the albums. There were a ton of great works one making change and making a certain domination of money several different ways. I loved what I saw and I know that I will be making some of these soon! As a conclusion to this study, the teacher was telling the kids that later this week they will be making part of the classroom into a restaurant! Some of the kids will be waiters and some will be ordering. The waiter will be taking the orders, add the prices, and presenting the check. The kids who ordered will not have the right amount of change, so the waiters will have to make the correct change. The kids can then switch places! How fun is that? I may totally do something like that after we study money! 🙂
The work period went from 8:30 to 11:30. It was interesting to hear the room get a bit louder about halfway though and the kids got a little restless. The teacher would then ring a wind chime and ask that everyone keep their voices to a “one inch level” (just loud enough so that someone sitting next to you can hear) since the noise was making hard for some kids to work. The kids would then quite down and get to work again. The kids moved around alot. There was one kids that needed to pace as he thought, another kid did better alone in a corner, some kids needed to work together to get things done! There was so many different way of learning and they all worked! It is such a great reminder that learning is unique and looks different to each person! I need to remember that with my own kids!
The work period ended with the morning meeting that is led by the kids!There was a child in charge who called the meeting to order. They started with the Pledge of Allegiance and then they had the mathematician talk about how many days they had been in school. They then discussed the factors that number. The child in charge of the calender talked about the day was, what tomorrow is and what yesterday was. She then asked what the date would be in 5 days. They also did a joke of the day! I liked how it wasn’t just a statement of facts. It was something that everyone was involved in and thought about. Next they discussed announcments and acknowledgements about the class. It was a great, very child led meeting! They were all so mature and I love how they were all involved!
That ended my day and I am so thankful that I was able to have this experience! I think that the thing that stuck out most to me was that the work time felt alot like what we do at home! Sure there are a few things that need improving, but I think we are in a good place to start into our next level!!!!!

Montessori Monday~ What is a Biome?

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Well today we kicked off our new theme and, as promised, I am here to share it with you! We are starting the Waseca Biome Study ( If you click on the Beginning Biomes tab, the down load is in the 3-6 toward the middle!). This is a program that was created by a Montessori teacher as a way to bring kids to a deep understanding of nature and geography! I love that it is all laid out and thought through thoroughly. Plus it is free!!!! So we started the week off with the first lesson, What is a Biome? We talked about what a biome is and what the elements that make up a biome are (energy, air, water, soil, plants, and animals). Bunny and Pup both worked with the three part cards I made for this using the masters that are a part of the curriculum. Here are are the trays that we have out this week! Some of them are part of our biome study and some of them are just fun for Easter (since that is right around the corner)!

Sprinkling rain water
( The girls shake the water into the pitcher, then they unscrew the lid of the salt shaker and pour the water back in with the pitcher.)

Transferring plants with clothes pin.
Matching birds to outlines
(Pup is really into matching things right now! She loved this work!)

Biome Three Part cards

Polishing the cross

Spooning Eggs

Tonging Eggs
We also had a really good work period today and it really seemed like it was flowing smoothly! Bunny and Pup both worked our new trays, and then I had Bunny pick some math work. She had asked me a few days ago what 6 taken 6 times would be. I told her that she could figure it out with her colored beads. She never did it. So I asked her if she had ever figured it out. She said no, so I told her that if she wanted she could do it and that there was a surprise in the work if she did it. That seemed to give her a little motivation to try and figure it out. So when I told her to choose some math work, she wanted to try this! She really got to work and it didn’t take her too long to figure out that the “surprise” was that the 6 square was the same as 6 taken six times! Then she pulled out all the squares in the box and built them in a tower. Then she made the regular bead stair. She thought it was fun and I was happy she was exploring happily! I suggested that if she wanted she could figure out the square of each one. She wanted to, so I helped her lay things out as she went. She did really well (got a little done after 8, but we finished it together). As we figured it out, I laid the pieces we did down in a row. I pointed out that it looked like a tower! She looked it and connected it to the pink tower! She matched up the squares to the cubes! Awww….I was so proud of her! It was hard work, but it was good work!

Pup really enjoyed the rain work!

She also did a great job putting her trays away!

Here is Bunny figuring out that the triangle inset is the same size as the side of the tower!

Here are her square numbers!

So we are off to a fun start!!!! I hope we have some more fun tomorrow! If you love seeing lots of other Montessori work, stop by Montessori Monday! I have link up there! Happy Schooling!

Snowflakes and Cold Places!

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Well today we didn’t get too much done, but we did dig into our theme! The morning started off with some snow flurries, so we went out to look at snowflakes. This led us to have a whole review on how snowflakes are formed and about their six sides! Bunny remembered everything, but Bug wasn’t there for that lesson and she really thought it was awesome! We caught a few snowflakes and look closely at them. Bunny thought it was cool, Pup didn’t sit still long enough to see, and Bug was AMAZED!!!!! She had no idea that they looked like that for real. In her words “LOOK! They are just like the Christmas ones! They look just like Christmas!” Discovery is amazing!

Pup loves to think she can see better this way! 😉

Bunny was trying to catch the snowflakes on the paper before they hit the ground! It was really hard, but great eye hand coordination!

See our snowflakes? Snowflakes are really amazing!
The ones the other day were better looking, but these were still awesome!

This snowflake adventure led us back downstairs to make more snowflakes with the coffee filters. Bunny showed Bug how to make them and they both made some really great ones! Bug was so excited with hers and she was so proud to hang it up on the bulletin board!!!! (Oh we are all out of coffee filters by the way! Anyone want a snowflake? 🙂

She was so excited to open the snowflake up and see what she made!
(I thought I had more pictures, but Tadpole was sticking an open marker into the top of a open glue stick. I didn’t have enough hands to clean him up and take pictures! See life happens here to!)
We also did some other trays while we were down there and then we read a book all about Antarctica! This something that led to alot of really great interest, so I brought the snow playdough back out! After asking the girls to show me Antarctica on our globe, I got the continent box out and we browsed through the pictures  and talked about them. Then I let them get to work making different Antarctica landscapes! They really loved it. Here are some of the things that they came up with!
Tracing Cookies Cutters

Bunny tried reading a for a bit. She is really doing pretty well.

Bug did more water transfer. She has done this work many times.
 Defiantly am going to keep it around for a while!

Bunny traced the cookie cutters. She put the penguin at the bottom (in the south) and the polar bear trying to catch a seal at the top (in the north). She then copied the compass I drew for her last week! I think she got the difference between the Arctic and  Antarctica!

Here is Bunny’s land.

Here is another one Bunny made. She wanted me to get a picture of the “foot” print!

Bunny and Bug decided to work together to make a scene. I was proud that they wanted to work together!

Here is what they made together!
So that was what we did today! We got some really great work done despite the fact that everyone was feeling a little grumpy! 🙂 Oh well, we all have off days! I hope you are all having a great school week! Happy Schooling!

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