Montessori Monday~ The Hand Chart

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!