What Have We Been Up To?

 Wow!  We had a fantastic week.  Each day, I observe such growth in the children's development.  The activities of this past week brought to light the tremendous leaps we have made as a class as well as individual progress.  I was amazed:

Easter-themed math work (see this post).



Chalk pastels - this child first used the art medium to color an egg shape, then cut it out and pasted it onto the paper.  So festive!



Making beaded bracelets - perfect for developing the hand/finger muscles for writing.

 


Discovering the intricacies of a lobster claw using our beautiful, newly-acquired from the AMS conference, magnifying glass. 



Drawing Pink Tower/Brown Stair extensions which turned out like...



...this! 



 

Learning about combinations of numbers to ten with the Addition Snake Game.



First Control of the Addition Snake Game. (Read here to learn more about this material.)



                              

                                          Polishing the lens of the above mentioned magnifying glass. 

 

Setting up the materials necessary for Washing the Easel.



Making designs and patterns with the Peg Board.



Tonging (craft) eggs into egg platter.  A simple, seasonal practical life exercise which enhances concentration, coordination, independence, and order (CCIO).



Polishing hand-painted wooden eggs.  The children are showing much attention to detail and are handling the eggs with such care!



Practicing linear and skip counting with the Thousand Chain. 



Spooning egg-shaped pom-poms into festive platter. 




The Thousand Chain completed!  Notice the blue and red labels - the children who completed this lesson counted each bead from one to 1000 by one's and 10's, and 100's.  Here, one student is holding up the Thousand Cube to show how much they counted.  This was a huge event in the classroom and took two morning sessions to complete!



Playing our Math Game.



Shape creation and design with the Geo Board.



Cards and Counters:  This lesson not only solidifies concepts of counting and cardinality, but it also demonstrates the idea of odd and even numbers.



Introduction to the Decimal System.




Reading three-letter phonetic words and matching them to pictures. 



Parts of a Tree Puzzle - This child wanted to have the globe next to her work "because trees are on the earth!"




Numbers 11-19 with the Colored Beads.



Multiplication with Golden Beads.



A music lesson with the Melody Harp.  The children have learned a song called "Pussy Willow" to go along with the use of this instrument.



And speaking of pussy willows....  We were sure to take time and observe them in nature on our way to the playground.  Before we continued on our walk, we all sang the "Pussy Willow" song.



Also this week:



...we said good-bye to the last of the snow



...and ice (on Monday).

And we greeted...



The first flowers on our playground (on Friday)!

It was an inspirational week, indeed!