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!