Well today I started Bunny on her double letter sound presentations. We picked out three to start with and we did a three period lesson. We got through period one, but I think we will need to do it again tomorrow. She couldn’t remember all three of them. Right now I am going to aim for a few sounds a week. We’ll see how it goes! At least its a start! Once she get these sounds, I think everything else will fall into place better. I’ll keep you posted!
We also, finally, figured out the subtraction snake game. Yes I know, its not that hard, but it took me two different Montessori Albums and the better part of a half hour to figure it out alone! lol But I finally got it! I was all excited to show Bunny a new game to play and she was ready to learn. However, when I showed her how the snake got smaller, she was so unhappy! She didn’t want to loose some of the pretty golden beads! 🙂 So now I’m not sure if she will play it for that reason! I’m not sure what to do about that, but at least she got it. We did two snakes and she seemed to get the idea!
Setting up the snake
Counting it out.
See…she is really unhappy about loosing the golden beads! 🙂
But we did it!!!!
So that is what we have been working on today! In addition to this we also have been reading some books about our body systems.Bunny is absorbing so much of that just be reading! I hope you all had a wonderful school week! Stop back soon. I have an AMAZING giveaway coming up!!!!
Well Bunny’s family birthday party was on Saturday (you can see all the pictures here). So Sunday I was able to put together the new trays for our new theme we are starting this week! We are heading into a study of the Human Body and the girls have really gotten into it so far! What inspired so much passion right away? Well, we watched the Magic School Bus Human Body Movie. There is a TON of really great information and it is so much fun! I love it when there are great movies that help the learning become effortless! 🙂 Anyway, we are going to jump right into this full force! I was able to make a few trays for the theme. Most of them are heart related, and that really fits well with Valentines day coming up and with the body theme! Two birds with one stone! 😉 So here is what we have on the shelves so far:
We have a make your own Body System’s Booklet.
Here are the example pages that I made. The systems that I put here are:
~Respiratory
~ Circulatory
~ Muscular
~ Nervous
~ Digestive
~ Skeletal
Here it is on the tray ready for work!
Spooning Blood Cells
(OK….pompoms! Tadpole is really into scooping, so I am hoping that this will be fun for him! I wanted to give him something like beans, but he is still eating things randomly!)
Tracing and observing your hand
( I know that everyone will like the tracing, but I hope that adding the details of their hands will give them a new point of interest.)
Trace and Observe the Foot
Punching hearts
( I found this lovely little heart shaped hole punch at Walmart for a $1! It is perfect for little hands because you push down on the top to punch it! I think that if they punch enough we may have a project to do!)
Sorting Blood Cells
(I used red Pony Beads with the holes in them so that they look like red blood cells, and I use clear white beads that are round for the white blood cells)
Today the girls jumped right into work. Bug and Tadpole were sick today, so it was just us! They worked really hard today. Bunny made the Body booklet and spent a very long time trying to get it just right, and Pup tried everything! 😉 Here are a few pictures that I was able to get.
Tracing the Body!
Bunny has also been having a wonderful time learning to sew on the sewing machine that she got for her birthday. 🙂 She really wanted to learn how to sew, but my grandma’s machine that I use has a leg petal that would be too tricky for her to use. So on Black Friday, my sister waited at walmart to get one that was on sale for $50! She loves it and Its great that I can put it at a level she can reach! So in addition to learning how to sew in a straight line, she is also learning to iron! This was today’s task and she really did a great job! She told me that she felt like she was taller and she felt like she felt all grown up! 🙂 It was so sweet! I loved that her gift made her really feel like she could do anything!!!!
Isnt she so cute and all grown up!
That was what we have been up to today! I really have had some fun today and I think that they did too! If you want to see more wonderful Montessori work, pop on by to Living Montessori Now for the Montessori Monday Link up! Oh, and if you have any other ideas for some great Human Body trays, let me know! I would love some ideas! Happy Schooling!
PS: I have been so busy that I havent had time to respond to all of your wonderful comments and messages! 🙁 I am SO sorry! If you sent a meaage, please send it again if I forgot reply to you! Again I am so very sorry! I will do better next time!
Well today was a day of work time! I really wanted the girls to get in one more good work time this week! So we headed downstairs. All in all it was a really good day, but there were some moments where I may or may not have screamed like a crazy woman (hey Bug and Pup left the bathroom door open again and Tadpole stuffed my hand towel in the toilet which, of course, hadn’t been flushed)! I am very happy though that the girls got some good work done today! In fact Bug really got into a great place of concentration for a bit. Tadpole also had some more moments of work. He is getting older and its interesting to watch him change into a big boy! He will be two soon and I can see the change from little baby to older toddler! Bunny worked on some new letter sounds, and Pup tried some sound cylinders today that she hasn’t tried in a while. We also did a water color project today that I saw on Amongst Lovely Things. The kids loved it and even Tadpole did one! Here are some pictures I was able to get!
Bunny got an early Birthday gift yesterday evening of a Lego set and she had to build it this morning! She did almost all of it on her own (there was a point where she needed to move a piece over, and I helped her with that and with sticking the decals on)! I was amazed at her focus and concentration. She did a great job! I see more Lego’s in our future!
All Built!
Today Bug discovered the glue stick! She wanted to just smear it on. Then I told her that it was for sticking things down and I gave her some paper to make things to stick in the glue! Well she went to work sticking piece after piece down on the same paper! She was so happy with it! I think it was defiantly a learning moment and it was all about the process, not the product!
Pup keeps trying this work, but it is really hard for her. I keep thinking I should take it away since most of the water ends up on the table and the tray, but she works so hard.
Tadpole again tried a few trays. He really feels big when he is working! 🙂
He put it away too when I asked him to!
He also wanted to do the pouring work. The pitcher was way too big. So I gave him a tiny pitcher and a tiny cup only half full of water to try! And try he did! I have to just let him go, but he gets water all over! However he did stick with it! When he ran out of water, he tried to go upstairs to get himself more. I love that he wanted to be independent, but him alone in the bathroom never ends well (read above incident)! So I got it for him! 😉
He is thinking so hard!
Victory Dance! 🙂
Her shook some sound cylinder too! Right now he just thinks its great that they make noise. He isn’t at a point where matching them is something he can do.
Bunny showed Pup how to do the Binomial Cube. She didn’t try it again, but Pup keeps trying to do it.
When Pup abandoned the cube, Bug took over! She is really been trying this alot! Bunny obviously is doing the trinomial cube! She built it outside the box today!
This is Pup’s “math”. She loves to try it. Again, she just isn’t there yet, but I sat with her and asked her to get the “next biggest one” and she was able to do it.
Then she very carefully put them all away!
She also did the sound cylinders
Pup worked on matching her colors.
Here is the letter we worked on!
We wrote words with each sound.
And now for the project! It was really simple. All we needed to was use some painters tape to make a tree shape, and then use water color all around it! Easy Peasy!
After they dried we just peeled the tape off to reveal the tree! I talked about cool colors and how they make us feel cold. I showed them the warm and cool colors. Since we were making winter trees I encouraged the kids to use the cool colors! They used some of those and some of the other colors as well! Here is what their masterpieces turned out like!
Here is Bunny’s
Here is Pup’s
This one is Bug’s
And this one is Tadpoles!
So it was a good day and I am hoping that tomorrow is a good one too! I will probably not be posting for the next couple days as the Birthday fun will be kicking into high gear! Dont worry, there will be plenty of pictures! I hope you have a great end of the week!
This week we are pretty much just working on what we have going on in our classroom right now. I couldn’t think of any other trays to make! 🙂 So we are using what we have out and working hard! I forgot to write out Bunny’s Plan, but it looks very much the same as last week. I think we will be looking into the unicorn whale this week a bit since we are on a unicorn kick! 🙂 We also have some math work to do, I need to research a figure out the subtraction snake game, and I really want to work on some letter sounds. I really hope to get in a few good days of work in! Today was a good start. It wasn’t out longest work time, but it was a good one! Bunny did some multiplication today and read a book, Bug focused really well and chose her own work, Pup buttoned a coat all on her own, and Tadpole actually put his work away! It was a pretty good day!
Tadpole picked this work out right away.
AND he finished it!!! It is so rare that he finishes.
I hope that is the beginning of some more work time for him!
Pup did this work really well! I love that she stuck with it!
Here the girls were looking for sparkly rocks that look like gem stones!
Tadpole worked with this a bit today!
Here is one of Bug’s picks! This was really tricky for her, but she did it and she used the tweezers to put all the puffs back too!
Bunny did this work and was really upset that she didn’t get them all right! I think that she was surprised at how hard it really was!
Pup did a great job with the cylinders!
Pup is doing her math. She really doesn’t get it yet, but she really tries!
She is so proud when they are all lined up!
Bunny pulled out the thermic tablets! She really likes these, but I think we both sort of forgot them. Its always fun to find a work that we forgot about!
Here is Bug with another work that she picked !
Tadpole also did this work really well! He feels like one of the big kids when he sits at the table and works!
And he is one of the biggest moment of the day….HE WALKED HIS TRAY BACK ON HIS OWN!!!!!!
I know that its a simple thing, but its huge for him! 🙂
Then…it got better! He spilled and PICKED IT UP!!!!!
I am so excited! He is growing up and I love it! Plus his sister helped him out which was so sweet of her!
Bug did the binomial cube. She somehow managed to build it in the container, close it all perfectly, but still had some cubes out of place. Hmmmm….I will have to look into it. She was really proud!
Bunny and I worked with the Golden Bead to do some multiplication work. We have only done static, but this problem offered us a chance to practice some exchange work in this problem! 🙂 oops! I guess I didn’t figure it all right! Oh well, she got it, so I guess she’s ready!
Next I pulled out the dressing basket and the kids thought that was a great idea!
Pup really did a great job buttoning the jacket all on her own!
I was proud that she figured out those buttons!
What a cutie! 😉
We also baked some cookies together! M&M cookies to be exact! Bug and Bunny LOVES to cook!
So that is what we did today! As you can see from the pictures, we were busy! The girls were in princess mode today too (in case you were wondering about the dresses everyone was wearing), and they really played a TON together today too! I love to see how they creatively work together to create a world of their own! If you want to see more Montessori work though, you can visit Deb at Living Montessori Now for her Montessori Monday link up!
Well, we are in our 3rd week of winter/ snow/ arctic/ Antarctica theme! So far its been so much fun for everyone and I hope this week is the same! I did make a couple of new trays and I also have the plan all written up for Bunny this week. So far writing up the plan has helped us keep on track and know what the plan is. It is still flexible depending on her interests or on what we end up doing that week. For example, last week we were supposed to learn some double phonograms, but she was really into reading her readers instead, so we went with it! So here is a look at what is new on our shelves this week!
Putting snow onto the tree with tweezers
(Its hard to see, but the girls will us the tweezers to stick a snowball
Here is work list this week!
We also had a really great work day today! Bunny did some good work, Pup tried a few new things, and Bug worked on her letters! (Tadpole however, flooded the bathroom, mixed the dog food and water together, and undecorated my house! It was a rough day for him!). So here are the picture of our school day!
Here is Bunny first thing this morning after breakfast. She found my old bible from when I was little and she said it is very special to her. Before bed last night she wanted me to read her a passage that she picked out (randomly) and then she told me that she loved God more then anything, more then the whole world, and more then everything in the universe! Awwww….I am a happy Mommy!
Pup wanted the new work first!
And she was so proud when she did it!
Caught red handed! 😉 He knocks it down and runs!
Bug worked really hard on this work today!
She was really proud of her work too!
Bug did this work again and really did a great job!
She even went upstairs to get her own water.
Pup tried this and really did a good job, even with the ice!
The girls worked together to build some puzzles!
Ok….picture is upside down, but here is Bunny’s beginning time work. She and I talked about hours, minutes, and seconds. We also worked on telling time by hour. She wort of got it. We’ll keep trying!
These girls thought they could really read.
So I showed Bug how to put the sounds we have worked on together to make words! She was AMAZED and very interested in how that worked! I hope that I have reignited her interest in some letters! She really loved this work and I think she will ask to do it again!
I also introduced her to a few new sounds!
Bunny dug into the Antarctica Box and then she worked with our nature tray for a bit.
Bug did the red rods and she did pretty well! The hardest thing for her to do is line up the ends.
I’m not sure why. She’ll get it!
Bunny also worked with the pouring ice water. She really worked hard to pour the water right to the top of each cup. It was great self control!
Addition snake game!
Bunny thought she would work with the moveable alphabet, and had a small accident!
Oops! It was a great lesson in sorting!
We also put up the calender for the new year (Yes I forgot about it) and Bunny and I were talking about it!
So that is what we were up to today!!!! I love seeing Montessori work, so if you want to see some more, be sure to visit Living Montessori Now for the Montessori Monday link up! Happy Schooling everyone!
Today all the kids were here today and we had some great work time! All of the kids tried some new things and they had some fun too! There wasn’t too much that was out of the ordinary, so I will just show you the pictures that I took! 🙂
Bug got right to work with the water transfer and she worked really hard filling each cup to the top. Then she figured out all on her own that she needed to take the water out of the cups and put it back in the blue bowl! She was so very proud of herself! I love it when they master something that requires them to concentrate!
Pup stuck packing peanuts together.
Bunny worked with a bunch of the seasonal trays today. They are super easy for her, but it really helps her get ready for harder work!
Tadpole was everywhere today! He tried a bunch of things!
Bunny read another whole reader today! I am so proud of her! She also realized that she can read some of the Dr. Seuss books too! I am SO happy!
Matching snowflakes
(Bug yelled “I found the match!” each time she got it right!)
There was a lot of drawing that happened today too!
Pup built the Pink Tower stair today too! She did it twice!
I tried ti encourage her to try the red rods and she did! Bug had to help her out and they did a great job!
Tadpole tried a cylinder block today, and for the first time ever he put them all back in the right way, and he was SO proud of himself!!!!! He knew he did it!
This is his victory dance! 🙂
Bunny did her three math problem today, two dynamic subtraction, and one static multiplication!
That about wraps up what we did today! It was a simple day and we got some good work done! I hope you all got some good school work done too! Happy schooling!
Its Monday again and that means its time for my Montessori Monday post! I have a few new trays that the girls are really excited about and they are of course Christmas themed! I love being able to help bring the Christmas joy into our school routine! So here are the new trays for the week:
(This idea is from Montessori Moments. I didn’t put it on a tray since they can take it to the table where the pencils and paper are all ready to go!)
Christmas Ornament Tray
(This idea is one I found on Pintrest here. I modified it a bit so the girls could do it all on their own!)
Materials:
5×5″ pieces of paper
pipe cleaners (cut in half)
beads
star stickers
(I found some self adhesive wooden stars at Hobby Lobby)
Circle inset
Scissors
Directions:
Have the child trace and cut 2 or three circles
Then the child makes small cuts around the edges to add dimension
Next cut a slit to the middle of the circle
Fold the edges around to make a cone.
Staple it together
Do this for all the circles then cut a small hole in the top of the cone
Take the pipe cleaner and fold a knot in the end
Push it put the under first cone
Add a bead, then the next cone. (another bead and cone if you have 3)
The fold the rest of the pipe cleaner into a loop and add the sticker star!
Super easy and fun!
The girls were so excited to try out the new works and they also had fun working all the older works too! (I did shut them in the school room with me so that they could work better, Pup and Bug keep running around the house). I love watching them work and learn! Here are some of the works I was able to catch!
Pup wanted this work right away!
Bunny wanted to trace the cookie cutters. She worked on this for a long time and loved it!
Bug joined her and did one of each, and was she proud of her work! She is still working on holding a pencil and writing, so this was right up her alley! She loved it!
Bunny cut all of hers out!
After they finished the tracing they all wanted to know how to make the tree. So I gave the presentation and they got to work right away!
They all loved their trees and I think that we have a new tray that will be alot! I loved that Bunny was able to do all of it alone, and Bug just needed help with the stapler!
Tadpole was really working hard on this for a while.
While I helped Pup, Bunny was helping Bug with her letter sounds! 🙂
She did a great job with sounds. I gave her the sound “o” today. We’ll see if she remembers it later! 🙂
While I was working with the other kids, Pup did all of this on her own! 🙂
Here is Bunny working on the reading work I made the other day! I added some new sentences for her to try! It was really hard for her and I wasn’t able to give her a ton of help since Tadpole needed me too. She was able to read one whole one alone, but she really was frustrated and upset that I couldn’t help her. I hope that doesn’t make her hate the work.
The chalk board with water was a HUGE hit again!!!! They all loved it! Pup and Bug both practiced shapes and a few letters! It is such great writing practice!
Bug and Pup wrapped gifts and they did an amazing job!
I was amazed at how well they did! All I did was rip the tape off for them! Christmas here they come!
Bunny built the trinomial cube outside the box today! She was so proud when she finished!
Pup was proud of her gift wrapping too!
After a while Bunny did more trees! We have a plan for all these ornaments that we have made. We will have a new ornament tray tomorrow!
And Tadpole really made a leap in development! He knocked down the pink tower, and then…..he built what he knocked down back up!!!!!! Yeah!!!!! I am so happy that he is getting it!
So that was our day today! Join me tomorrow for another ornament craft and some taking time fun! If you want to see more Montessori work, please be sure to visit Deb at Living Montessori Now and Nicole at One Hook Wonder for their Montessori Monday Link up! I liked up there! Happy Schooling everyone!
Well I knew it would happen soon, but Bunny is starting to read! I am so proud of her! I have Ms. Rhonda’s Readers that are all phonetic. They were written by a Montessori teacher and I liked that they are a bit more advanced then Bob books, but not so hard as a typical early reader! You can see them here. Bunny has read three in the past two days! I have been waiting and waiting for her to start getting the idea of sounding words out! I really hope that this is the real beginning! I think that it may be since she has been writing alot lately (the other day when she finished eating dinner she said “Mommy I am D-U-N”). Her reading of course pretty slow, but she is getting the words right! Yeah!!!!!! Here are some pictures of my very proud girl!
We also have been working on quite a bit of math today! I have been waiting for Bunny to get a pretty good idea of borrowing with subtraction and I think that she has a pretty good idea of it. She still need practice since I have to say “what do we need to do?” and they she will say exchange. So I think she has a good idea of it.Today I presented her with static multiplication. She loved it! She always wants to know new things and loves new presentations! I could give her something new everyday, but I try and pace us! 😉 She did a great job though an we did three problems. She still doesn’t want to do the work alone and I have just let that be as it is. She can do it, but I think it is more fun with someone else! In a Montessori classroom there are more then one doing the presentation, so I let myself be the other child. It makes it better and more fun! 😉 After we did this I pulled out the addition snake game. I have never played it or seen it played, so I pulled out a couple of different Montessori Albums and tried to figure it out. I will admit, it took me quite a while to figure it out properly! It just wasn’t making sense. While I worked on it Bunny was very interested in how it was played. So, once I finally figured it out, we played it a bunch of times! I think that it will be something we play quite a bit! Now I need to figure out the subtraction version! 😉
So that is what Bunny was up to today! We also made some really sweet snowflake ornaments, but that is another post! 🙂 Stop on back tomorrow! Happy Schooling everyone!
Well today I stayed home this morning with the girls and got them into a really steady work period! It started off with Bunny wanting to write in cursive! Yikes! I was not prepared for that! So I quickly printed off a chart showing cursive letters and I showed her how to write her name in cursive! This led to me showing Bunny how to write on the lines with that think lined manuscript paper that the use in schools. It took a little bit, but she enjoyed trying to make the letters look like the sample page I wrote out! I was happy that she took an interest in this since her handwriting is something that we needed to work on! I guess keeping my mouth closed can lead to her taking an interest in exactly what she needs to learned! Montessori is awesome! 🙂
After she wrote a few words on her own she moved on to a new work that I made for her {does anyone else make materials while their kids are working hard at something else?}. This new math idea came from a blog Kingdom of the Pink Princess and I just had to try it! I wrote some simple addition problems on Popsicle sticks that didnt add up to more then 9. I then pulled out the spindle boxes, minus the spindles! The work for Bunny was to add them up and put the sticks in the slot that had the right sum on it. For example if the stick had 3+4, then Bunny would put the stick in the 7 spot. It is am amazing way to reuse the spindle box! Bunny loved it! She has been really excited about being able to add and subtract with her fingers and this let her practice that! As I watched her work, I realized that with all the adding on her fingers, she has memorized quite a few problems! She just knew so many more then I realized! Yeah for her!
While Bunny was working, Pup was hard at work too! Pup worked on the ring stacker and it was great to watch her self correct when she put them in the wrong order! After that she moved on to doing our napkin ring work from our thanksgiving trays. She really enjoyed this! After she got them all in the rings, she took them out and folded them all back up! Another work I was able to get her interested in was the red rods! I asked her to get the longest rod and lay it on the floor in another part of the room and we did this till the rods were built. Then she took them all back and put them in the proper order! I was shocked that she was able to do it well! She hasnt been able to do it before and I have been waiting for her just “get it”! She hasnt been able to line them up at an end though, but she did try! Maybe in the spring she’ll be ready for some sandpaper numbers! But sandpaper letters is what we moved on to after that! She loved tracing the sounds and then trying make them in the sand. She memory of the sounds isnt quite there, but I think it will happen as we go! 🙂 I have tried to play sound games with her, but she just doesnt have any interest in it. But I will keep trying!
When Pup was working, Bunny had really had taken off in math and wanted to learn more. So I pulled out some work that I thought Bunny would like, the squaring beads! I used the presentation that was in the Karen Tyler albums and she loved it! First we explored the beads by laying them all out in line with the squares at the end. Then i had her pick one of them and we saw how it folded up to become the same as the square. The we counted the beads one by one. Each time we got to the end of a bead bar, we put an arrow there with the number there! At the end I would say “9 is the square of 3” and we would do another one. We worked until we got too hungry and went to eat lunch!
It was a really great work and I really motivated me to try harder to get more time in. They do so well when I make time to work with them! So I hope that you all have had a great week so far! We went together to see the Christmas Lights at our zoo tonight and the girls had an amazing time! Will be post pictures on that tomorrow!
Today was rather fragmented, but it was good. We were able to do alot of work, just not normal work! Bunny did a few golden bead problems, but only after I promised to let her work on some math problems using her cash register (calculator)! I must have the only girl that will do math with the promise of more math! Then, she was done! So I got creative and played some math games with her. I have never talked to her about greater or less then, so I introduced her to the alligator that eats large numbers. She was able to do it perfectly with no problem! She really had no problem! So we moved on to language! I pulled out the old stand by Boggle game. I found the words in the block and Bunny read them and wrote them down. Not quite the regular rules, but it worked! 🙂 Then later that afternoon, I showed her some new Knobless Cylinder extensions! I have been trying to get her into working with some more with sensorial things. She just never picks that stuff, so I wanted to help her! She had alot of fun, and Bug even jumped in! It was great! Here are a few of the pictures of our work today.
Tadpole is really trying to work with trays! I am so happy that he is trying work with trays! Now if only I could figure out how to get him to not mix, dump, and eat the work! 😉
I presented Bug with the Binomial Cube!
She really like it and even got it put into the box properly after a couple of tries!
Pup worked with the puzzle map
(Bug helped her put it away!)
She also wanted to look through her global kids book! 🙂
Adding on the cash register!
Here we are playing Boggle.
Here she is doing greater then or less then.
We also played this GREAT matching game that we won from Apple N Amos. They have AMAZING stuff. You really should check out their shop! Its a children’s Christmas dream!
Here is Bunny trying working on the Knobless Cylinder extensions that I learned about from Colleen at Sunrise Learning Lab.
Here Bunny made a wall!
Here is the rainbow
Here is Bunny making sure that all the blue cylinders are there. She didn’t think that we had all of them so she helped Bug make sure! I love it when they work together!
So this was our day! Like I said it was fragmented, but good! I loved that thinking outside the box allowed us to keep learning even when no one felt much like it! Hooray for homeschooling! Let me know what you think of or work day ! I love hearing from you all! Happy Schooling!
