Please Visit My New School!

My school has moved to a new location, and with that I decided it was time to update the website.  My blog is now part of my school's new site, and I invite you to visit me there:

https://www.dirigomontessori.com/2017/08/new-school-new-site-blog/

All archives from here have been transferred there.  Come take a look!  Thank you, and I look forward to staying in touch!

Shamrocks, Rainbows, and Lucky Pennies

Can you tell it's nearly St. Patrick's Day?  The children have enjoyed exploring some festive lessons during the past couple of weeks.  It is always remarkable to observe their growing proficiency as they navigate new lessons and practice skills.  It has been especially gratifying having long, uninterrupted periods of work time in the mornings.  The children have been able to achieve new levels of concentration while achieving mastery in lessons, enabling the presentation of many new lessons.

Using tongs to transfer decorative green stones.

Pouring into four cups.

Sliding the coins into the 'pot of gold' for strengthening visual accuracy and  left to right movement.  

St. Patrick's Day patterning fun.

Colors of the rainbow with color matching.

Using chopsticks to sort and transfer.

Three Cylinder Blocks for an extra challenge.

Using a garlic press to squeeze water from sponges.

Shamrocks and lucky pennies!

Extension work with the Teen Beads.

Using a Practical Life lesson to write words with the Moveable Alphabet.

Recording words in cursive and print.

Counting the Decimal System with golden beads.

Making a booklet of leaf shapes using the Botany Cabinet.

Static Addition with golden beads.

Rainbow Do-A-Dots.

Making an Irish flag with collage materials.

Color Tablet Box 2 extension work.

Learning about odd and even numbers with the Cards and Counters.

Using the Red Rods for refining visual discrimination of length.

Abstract art with yellow and blue.

Pin pushing collage with positive and negative space.

Counting by tens with the Tens Boards and Beads.

Static Addition with the Stamp Game.

Linear counting and pattern recognition with the Hundred Board.

Matching circles to their filled in counterparts.

Practice opening and closing zip loc bags - This lesson stemmed from several friends need help with this at lunch time!

Completing a Rainbow Shamrock with glue.

Teen Numbers writing practice.

Careful cross stitching!

Writing words with picture prompts.

Laying out the Large Number Cards after lots of work with the Golden Beads.

Color matching and fine motor practice with clips.

Retrieving quantities.  

Writing practice with Sandpaper Numbers.

Rainbow Shamrocks

The children enjoy seasonal art activities, and one way we incorporate new skills is to introduce them through these types of lessons.  For this activity, the children were shown a new gluing technique using a small brush to seal layers of tissue paper squares.  As with all lessons, the materials are set up keeping in mind the directionality of moving from left to right.  

Here the materials are set up on the art shelf.  Moving from left to right, the child gathers the tissue paper squares , glue tray, and white paper with a shamrock shape.

Everything is brought to a workspace, where the child completes the process of sealing the tissue paper squares using the glue and brush. 

Once dried, the paper can be cut into the shamrock.  

The children have been interested in completing the lesson because the gluing technique has provided a new point of interest.  Up until this point, they have worked with glue sticks and glue bottles, so using the brush and adding second layer of glue on top has been most intriguing.  Of course, the clean up process is part of the lesson, and the children have been taking great care to leave the materials clean and beautiful for the next person to use. 

Hearts, P.J.'s, and Lots of Snow

February has been a busy month, complete with several snow days and weather delays.  The children have been understanding, and quite adaptable with each day's weather-related changes.  In addition to these slight disruptions in routines, we have also been anticipating Valentine's Day, along with the 100th Day of School which was commemorated with a pajama day.  Needless to say, it is been quite an "exciting" couple of weeks as we have watched the 100th day be rescheduled several times due to snow days, while looking forward to the fun of Valentines Day.  We have focused very much on the ideas of love, kindness, and understanding, especially at this time of year.  I share with you some photos of our (abbreviated) mornings together:

Extension work with Second Color Tablet Box, a wonderful variation designed by our Assistant Teacher.

Sensorially exploring the shapes from the Geometric Demonstration Tray.

Paring colors with the Second Color Tablet Box.

Practicing threading a needle, a preliminary lesson to the rest of the lessons in the sewing sequence.

Enhancing visual discrimination skills - matching objects to their filled-in outlines.

Examining cards from the Continent Folders while building vocabulary and  language skills.

Number writing practice on the squared chalkboard.

Subtraction facts with the Math Drawers.

Beginning sound work with the Moveable Alphabet.

Valentine play dough (chocolate scented!).

Filling vessels to the line with colored rice.

Opening and Closing practice with heart-shaped boxed.  Each one contains a heart for added interest.

Seasonal math extension.

Letter identification and matching.

Building writing skills by tracing leaf shapes while learning the names of each one.

Pre-writing Rock Painting activity (never gets old!).

Another lesson made by our Assistant - Fine motor practice with beads and posts.

Careful exploration with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair.

Valentine lacing practice.

The Sand Tray is a perfect place to practice writing numbers!

100th Day Do-A-Dot activity.

Sorting coins.

Answering the question, "What does 100 look like?" with pieces of sea glass and a 100 Board chart.

Precisely placing the Pink Tower Cubes to line up two edges.

Caring for classroom plants.