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!
Thanks Mieke! Bunny did seem to get the idea of squaring pretty quickly! I hope she will be interesed enough to revisit it soon! It is a great work and I bought it instread of the long chains since that was really not in the budget! We have made do with these for skip couting too!
I fixed it so that the link is at the top! Last night it just wasnt working right! It is all free and there is even some non fiction readers for when you get into the continent part of the study! It take some time to print everything, but is so worth it!
March 27, 2012 @ 5:42 pm
Wow! Lot’s of great work! I don’t have the bead squaring materials yet — maybe next year! It looks like Bunny got the idea of squaring really quickly!
March 27, 2012 @ 6:05 pm
Thanks Mieke! Bunny did seem to get the idea of squaring pretty quickly! I hope she will be interesed enough to revisit it soon! It is a great work and I bought it instread of the long chains since that was really not in the budget! We have made do with these for skip couting too!
March 27, 2012 @ 5:43 pm
Oh, I forgot to say — I’d love to know about that biome site once you are able to get the link 🙂
March 27, 2012 @ 6:07 pm
I fixed it so that the link is at the top! Last night it just wasnt working right! It is all free and there is even some non fiction readers for when you get into the continent part of the study! It take some time to print everything, but is so worth it!