Saturday, March 30, 2013

Short Week

It seemed to be such short week - I had to leave the classroom unexpectedly on Monday morning (oldest son fell at the bus stop and hit his head pretty hard... he is OK, though!) and Friday the children did not have school due to the Professional Development Day.  Needless to say, it seemed like a very short week.  Here are some pictures to share:

Word-writing practice.

Sandpaper Letters - phonograms.

Metal Insets:  Two shapes, two colors.

Shades of Yellow collage.

Land/Air/Water sorting cards.

Addition Strip Board - memorization of math facts.

A variation of the Cards and Counters math activity.

Math:  Spindle Boxes

Reading:  Origami Object Box

An exercise with the Addition Strip Board - finding different combinations of a number.

Coloring a flag of India.

Painting at the easel.

Decimal System Cards and Beads.

Watercolor Eggs.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Watercolor Eggs

Recently, I set up a new painting activity on the Art shelves which uses egg-shaped doilies - a fun dollar store find.  This is the first time watercolors have been available to the students this school year, so the children have been eager to complete this colorful lesson:

Tray with watercolors, brush, pencil (for name writing), sponge (for wiping the board when finished), jar (for water), egg-shaped doilies.

In the process...

Some colorful eggs for our hallway!


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Origami Object Box

My son has really been into origami lately - his collections of folded treasures have found themselves in every nook of the house!  It's no wonder they were the inspiration of the latest Language activity for my classroom.  How fitting for our ongoing Asian studies - the Origami Object Box!

My son's origami animals with labels for the children to read/write.
I placed the labels and animals in a clear, acrylic box next to an book about origami and near a bamboo plant.
Read more about the function of the Language Object Boxes HERE.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

A Different Kind of Week

All is well - we simply had to adjust to having a snow day, followed by having a two-hour delay, followed by me having to leave early the next day to pick up my oldest son early from his school...  Amongst these slight disruptions, however, we maintained our activities and enjoyed our time together - especially playing in the freshly fallen snow!  Some photos from this week:

Two friends working on Metal Insets together. :-)

Reading practice with the Phonetic Object Box.

Mixing colors.

Shades of Yellow

Counting the Decimal System - Golden Beads.

Addition Snake Game practice.

Math work with the Cards and Counters.

Pink Tower/Brown Stair

Writing preparation:  Touch Boards.

Reading and acting out the 'Springtime' poetry.

"Look!  If I turn the cubes like this, I can make triangles!"

Math facts with the Addition Strip Board.

Matching colors with the Second Color Tablet Box.

Linear and skip counting with the Hundred Chain.

Grace and Courtesy:  Practicing greetings with a handshake.

Number writing practice:  Sandpaper Numbers.

Building concentration and coordination with the Metal Polishing activity.

Reading Phonetic Word Cards.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Class Book

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you our class book the children recently authored and illustrated.  In appreciation of Montessori Week (February 25th-March 1st), we read one of our favorite books, Our Peaceful Classroom by Aline D.Wolf:


Each time we read this story, the children are always intrigued by the illustrations - beautiful depictions of Montessori classrooms completed by children.  I thought Montessori Week might be the ideal time for my students to make their own class book.  They used this occasion to reflect on their own Montessori School, the aspects they particularly enjoy, and other ideas they wished to share.  What resulted was our own, insightful class book:

Our Montessori School
What a perfect cover - the group art project from International Peace Day.
Here are just a few samples of the children's work from their class book showing appreciation in honor of Montessori Week:





Other pages in the book are just as insightful...  The children are so proud of their work - I have a feeling this class book will be a treasure for years to come!


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Such a Sight!

I am so excited for my students - they are learning so much.  One morning, I looked around our classroom and every single mat was in use, leaving just barely enough space for children to walk between (great motor practice by the way...).  The Continent Boxes were being explored, new variations of the Pink Tower and Brown Stair were being discovered, the Cards and Counters - mastered, sentences with the Moveable Alphabet, the discovery of learning to read...!  And, perhaps most significantly, children looking after one another, helping each other, and playing joyfully.  It was a great week:

Transferring with chopsticks.

Feeling varying temperatures with the Thermic Tablets.

Sticker Art!

Visual discrimination of length with Red Rods.

Exploring the contents of the Continent Box for Asia.

Number Rods and Cards - quantity and symbol.

Writing practice with the Marker Paper.

A drawing and writing page about Asia (inspired by THIS post).  I drew a picture of Mt. Everest, Mt. Fuji,  an elephant, and a bamboo plant.  The child draws the pictures and writes the words.  I placed the 'oo' Sandpaper Letter Phonogram at the table to highlight the 'oo' sound/symbol in 'bamboo.'

Writing phrases with the Moveable Alphabet - 'snow is falling.'

Walking the maze with the Red Rods.

Pink Tower/Brown Stair fun!

Reading practice with the three letter phonetic reading cards.

Writing practice in the Sand Tray.

Table top Number Rods and Cards.

Refinement of the olfactory sense - Smelling Bottles.

Math cards corresponding to the Short Bead Stair : numbers 1-10, beads, number word, and number symbol.

A friendly table for two: Solid Cylinders.

Exploring the Sensorial materials.

Addition with the Number Rods.