Cheerful Festivity

Now that the children are comfortable making independent choices, we are working throughout the work cycles to remember to "leave the work beautiful for the next person."  Using this terminology has been effective in helping to remind the children not only about classroom expectations, but also in building and maintaining a culture of care and respect toward each other.
Looking at the tables during our Montessori work times, one can't help but smile at the cheerful festivity that ensues!

Feeling various objects in the bag, and naming each one before removing it from the bag - using the stereognostic sense with the Mystery Bag.

Transferring with a spoon.

Transferring with small tongs.

'Gingerbread' play dough.

Decimal system work with the 45 Layout.

Making 'trees' with Nuts and Bolts.

Writing practice with our 'Writing Windows.'

Measuring a length of yarn and stringing bead for making necklaces.

Transferring water beads.

Using a whisk for bubble making.

Pink Tower and Brown Stair exploration.

Matching shapes (erasers) to their outlines.

Color and cut activity.

Walking the maze without touching the the sides.

Making a paper poinsettia.

Sorting buttons by color.

Lacing with gold cord.

Adding 'just enough' water using a dropper.

Reading labels and sorting pom poms by size.

Quantity and number symbol practice with the Short Bead Hanger.

Learning the names of the continent with the Puzzle Map of the World.

Preparation of the hand for writing - tracing shapes and naming them with the Geometric Presentation Tray.

Enjoying the poetry basket for our 'Christmas Wreaths' poem.

It must be December!

The shelves are looking so festive and fun, and the children have been enjoying the December shelves.  Our assistant, who is currently completing her Montessori training and internship, was instrumental in creating the lessons currently on the shelves.  It is always so refreshing to have new ideas and variations of lessons available to the children.

Wet transfer fine motor activities for the Practical Life shelves.

Dry transfer fine motor lessons.

Threading and bead work - making necklaces and bracelets.

This art activity invites the children to make paper poinsettias.  They always turn out so beautifully, we usually have this activity out each year.  THIS post goes into more detail about how the children complete the lesson.  

We have also begun learning our 'Christmas Wreaths' poem, which is always a pleasure as the children begin to memorize and recite poetry.  It has been quite a cheerful room with all of these activities, and the children have been both intrigued and delighted with these festive additions.  We are certainly looking forward to watching their continued growth and enthusiasm as we approach the end of the calendar year and greet a new one!

In St. Petersburg

We have made it to our destination and are having a grand time settling in.  Our first night in the city was Orthodox Christmas Eve, so we took the opportunity to visit Kazan Cathedral.

Christmas Eve at Kazan Cathedral.

Nevsky Prospect and the entire city is illuminated with exquisite holiday lights for Christmas and New Year's.  What a special time of year to arrive in this city!

My boys in front of Dom Knigi, 'House of Books', glittering with lights.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, Spas na Krovi, just across the way.

We are enjoying exploring our new surroundings and look forward to more excursions.  More photos to come!

A New Favorite Pastime

A couple of months ago I discovered loom knitting.  My son received a loom as a gift on Christmas and I took it upon myself to figure out how it worked so that I could show him…   It turns out I am quite addicted to this new pastime.  I find it the most relaxing activity and I so enjoy working with my hands to create "something out of nothing."  And can you even imagine the gift-giving possibilities?!  Here are a few pictures of what I've been working on:

This is the loom (and the very first scarf I ever made!).

I am so enamored with this new hobby that I created a Pinterest board for new ideas as well as a board of all my projects.   If interested, you can see the rest of my projects HERE.

Happy Knitting! :-)

A Little Christmas Gift

Each year, the children make a small gift to take home at the holidays.  In in keeping with recent years of tradition and making tree ornaments, this year's class completed a variation on the same theme:

We rolled Christmas-themed scrapbook paper with pencils and placed them in clear ornaments (which is a fantastic fine-motor exercise, by the way!)...

…and added a little bow.  Very simple, yet festive - best of all, the children took such pride in making them and are looking forward to sharing them with their families!

The Sounds and Sights of December in the Classroom

It's been a busy couple of weeks and the classroom has been filled with the sights and sounds of the season.  Here is a collection of photos from the last two weeks of school:

Using a scoop to transfer jingle bells.

Practicing putting on gloves.

Teen numbers with the Teen Bead Hanger and number labels.

Working sensorially with the Binomial Cube.

Pairing Sound Cylinders -  refining auditory discrimination.

Tracing and naming shapes from the Geometric Demonstration Tray.

Practicing making tally marks.  

Reading sentence practice.

Matching bells by pitch.

This poinsettia paper craft is always popular with the children! :-)

I added a basket of letter stamps to the play dough.  Several of the children have enjoyed building words in the play dough or giving each gingerbread man a letter.

Visual discrimination of size using all four of the Solid Cylinders.

Patterns with shapes and colors using the pattern board.

Opening/Closing practice with different shaped boxes - each box has a little bell inside.

Brown Stair exploration with the red Knobless Cylinders.

Here is something I haven't seen in my classroom until now -  The Pink Tower with Knobless Cylinders.

This is what happened after bit more exploration.

Ending sounds of words using the Language Step Board.

Animal puzzles:  Parts of the Bird

Working with the Puzzle Map of Africa and learning the names of countries.

Sequencing days of the week and numbers with the December calendar.

Number 1-20 writing practice.

Static Addition with golden beads.

Reading practice: blending sounds with the Vowel Tree.

Decimal system cards and golden beads.

Exploring dimension of size with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair.

Making words with 'ar' using the Small Moveable Alphabet.

Three-Part Reading Cards

Tracing leaf shapes from the Botany Cabinet.

Writing words with the Moveable Alphabet.

Setting out the Decimal System Cards (while wearing the word 'the' on a lanyard) :-).

A verb lesson with grammar symbols.

Phonemic awareness:  blending sounds in words.  (Please visit Trillium Montessori's Teacher Pay Teacher's site for this lesson and other wonderful materials!)

Building the Pink Tower.

Using the smallest Red Rod to measure the others.

A seasonal number sequencing work.

Land, Air, Water:  picture sorting.