School Days
Today we took some time to do some work today just the three of us! It went really well for most of it! Bunny was given her first presentation in static division and she LOVED it! She told me it was her favorite! We did a problem together and then she did two on her own! I should have done it a while ago I guess! 🙂 Pup really was at loose ends for a bit. Then I pulled out the Continent puzzle and globe! She loves pulling out the pieces and matching them to the globe. So we said the continent names as she did it. She was really enjoying it. After that, I put the puzzle back by the continent boxes and I sort of directed her attention to the pictures on the boxes! She saw they were the same as the puzzle! 🙂 So she started exploring the North America box. Inside she found a dolphin and wanted to know about it. So we talked about how it swims in the warm ocean, it eats fish, and it lives in North America. She retained quite a bit of the information! I was really surprised and I think that we will be doing more of this soon! While we were doing that, Bunny was actually upstairs overcoming her frustration over some words. She wanted to read a book after her math. I suggested that we work on a few words before she read the book. I made words that had the sounds we have been working on. Some were short, some longer, but all of them contained sounds she knew or was working on this week. For some reason she had a meltdown about the first word and it took a long time to get her to relax. After she finally did, we managed to read all of the words! This reading is something we have done at other times in the past week and it has worked well. So I guess that she was just having a hard day!
After that we ate some lunch and headed out to the park for a walk! It was a really wonderful day! The sun was out and the temperatures were warmer, and everything screamed “get outside”! So off we went! We walked (and ran) some trails, and climbed over a break wall to get down to the beach! It was really awesome! No one is down at this part of the beach much, so there was a lot to see and it had a much more natural look. Here are a few pictures that I took there!
I have also been searching though ideas for the next month of work. I think that the girls are just about done with the Body unit and I need a plan for a new theme. However, with all the other issues that we have going on, I think that we may need to change things up. So I was thinking a bout studying Biomes. This isn’t something we have done before and I think that the girls would like it. So I did a web search and came across this program written by a Montessori teacher. It look amazing and its free! I have to read a bit more, but I think that this is something that I want to do, either this summer or even next fall. If you want to check it out, here is a link to the website! So that is what we did today! I hope you all had a wonderful day! Happy Schooling!
February 18, 2012 @ 3:27 am
Fun stuff! The Waseca cards come up a lot on the various Yahoo groups. I always wondered where people bought them, but apparently not enough to Google it. Thanks for the link! We have a neat place in our area where they have created all of the different biomes and you can walk through them. Maybe there is something like that out your way.
February 18, 2012 @ 3:39 am
It is really cool! I think that it may be just right for spring and summer work. I know that if i start it now, we can talk about the polar regions if we get some snow! 🙂 Our zoo has some of the biomes that would work, but nothing like you are describing! That sounds so cool! What I think would be fun would be to do it with a group becuase there are exiriments and skits that would be better in a group.
The program has all the cards with it that yo need (which is cool) and there are a bunch of other things you can buy. I was facinated by the readers they have to go with each biome. They are written for early readers to learn independently! They were a little pricey, but it my be worth it! I dont know what my plan is yet, but it sounds like fun!
February 18, 2012 @ 8:54 pm
Just one thing about the division. Bunny has set out her answer the wrong way round – thouasnads are on the right going to units on the left. The numbers that she has match the quantities, so it is extra confusing but it is important to make sure that when she divides the thousands first that they go on the left. One easy way to do that is to make a mat. I find A3 paper (that is double normal sized) is a good size and write th, h, t, u at the top and draw lines down between each hierarchy. http://theworkplan.blogspot.com/2011/02/montessori-monday_28.html There is a good picture of a child using one here. This is a made felt version but you can see the gist. Scroll down until you get to it, it is a fiar way down.
February 21, 2012 @ 2:58 am
Thanks Anna! I totally didnt see that! I think that we are going to make a mat or maybe I’ll just point it out and see if it helps! 😉 Thanks for catching that though!
February 20, 2012 @ 8:05 pm
I didn’t realize how close you all are to the water! What beautiful pictures you took on your walk. I especially like the one of the branch with the round hole through it!
February 21, 2012 @ 3:00 am
Hi Mieke. We do only live about 15 min from the lake! We love going over there so much! 🙂 There are so many great treasures to be found!