Flags of North America

Finally!  The Flags of the World have begun making their appearance in the classroom!  I have been wanting to incorporate this material for years - the children have been learning about North America and I thought they would appreciate learning about the flags of different countries.  I have only introduced the series of flags (which came with the set I purchased) for North America  and plan to introduce others at a later time.

Flags of North America

My students have been so intrigued by the flags and have enjoyed an accompanying coloring activity available on the art shelves.

Coloring the United States and Canadian flags:  I have purposefully written the corresponding flag's country on a label for each jar -  The children are able to read the printed version on the paper and the written (cursive ) version on the jar.      A component of the lesson is to match the printed word to the written word to be sure the correct jar is in place and used.

I look forward to adding more flags and rotating the coloring activity.  We also plan to save some of these flags to make booklets of the Flags of the World.

November Already!

Wow, I can hardly believe November is upon us.  The classroom continues humming along with many activities and lessons and the children are used to the rhythm of our daily happenings.  Each day, they look forward to working with familiar lessons and eagerly anticipate the presentation of new materials.  Here is a glimpse from this week:

Drawing and writing practice with the Marker Paper.

Coloring and naming the continents.

Language stamps - letter symbol/sound and writing practice.

"Look, it's South America!" Painting with water on rocks.

More Teen Bead practice for numbers 11-19.

Drawing faces on our pumpkin - lots of fun and promotes writing skills as well! :)

Practicing Walking on the Line - great for gross motor control.

Carefully putting away the spindles from the Spindle Box lesson.

Mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.

Dynamic Addition practice.

Three-part cards for the Continents.

Counting practice and one to one correspondence with the Number Rods.

Binomial Cube

Stamp Game:  Static Addition

Visual discrimination of size:  Brown Stair

 Pink Tower

Bow tying practice with the Bow Tying Frame.

More practice with the Number Rods. 

Cards and Counters

Teen Bead Hanger - practice with numbers 11-19.

Three-part Cards - Continents

Language Learning Stamps and Letter Writing

I've had a set of language learning stamps for some time and wanted to introduce them in a meaningful activity for my students.  I am also finding that the children in my class enjoy opportunities to practice linking their knowledge of beginning letter sounds to their symbols.  They have really been working on this, along with using the Sandpaper Letters, and I thought it might be interesting and fun to put together the following language lesson.  The response from my students has been tremendously positive!

On the tray:  ink pad, jar with pencil and highlighter, three stamps with items beginning with  the sound 'a.'  I've placed  the written word on labels so the children may choose to write the words on their papers...  The paper holder to the left holds...

...small papers divided into four sections.  I've written 'a' in the first section with a yellow highlighter...

...so that the children may trace it with the orange highlighter after making their stamps.    Some children may wish to write the word (with the pencil) under their stamp pictures as well.

Just for Fun

I've tried to keep Halloween very low key in the classroom.  Other than enjoying a German song about a Jack-o-Lantern during circle time, and an occasional finger poem about the Five Little Pumpkins, we have kept it a low-profile event.  During these last days days of October however, I thought the children might like the following activity - just for fun...

Drawing faces on a pumpkin!  All that is needed is a dry erase marker for drawing and a cloth for wiping the pumpkin clean when finished.

 You can imagine the delight of my students who are eagerly drawing Jack-o-Lantern faces!  Here are a couple of examples:

Continent Stamps

Several years ago I purchased a set of Montessori continent stamps and have not had the chance to use it in the classroom...until now!

The students in my class have been enjoying learning about North America and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use the continent stamps.  I've set the materials out on the art shelf for the students to stamp, color, and paste onto orange paper.  We will save at least one of these papers to collect with others (of different continents) and each child will eventually have their own booklet of continents.

Small white papers for stamping, larger orange papers for mounting, a small tray with ink pad, stamp, and jar for glue, and pencils (an orange one for coloring and regular one for writing).

Here, the child has brought the materials to a workspace, used the stamp, and is coloring in the continent with the orange pencil.

The kids will have one for each continent for their booklets.

Coming Together

Things are definitely coming together in the classroom.  It brings me much joy to see the growth and progress being made each day.  It amazes me that such leaps in development can be identified in the smallest of details.  If one is continuously and closely observing, these details can be seen everywhere in our classroom - and I am so fortunate to be able to share my days with these children and watch them unfold before my very eyes! :)  Here are some pictures from the week:

Number writing practice on the chalkboard.

Exploring the Brown Stair.  

Learning about varying shades of color with the Third Color Tablet Box.

Matching primary and secondary colors with the Second Box of Color Tablets.

Animals of the World

Developing the hand for writing - Touch Boards.

Practical Life - Tonging.  I recently placed these eye-catching acorns in the bowl - the children have enjoyed this small change.

Understanding size and dimension while working with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair.

Working with the Grammar Symbols and Farm for an 'Adjective' lesson.

Tonging and sorting dark/light beads.

Spooning - this little spoon is a major point of interest! :)

Pin pushing the shape of North America.

Working with the Parts of a Flower puzzle.

Introducing to the Golden Beads - counting ten hundreds in one thousand.

Polishing glass

Writing practice with the Sandpaper Letters.

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

Birthday greetings for family members.

Playing the Memory Game of Numbers with items from around the classroom.

Working with the Knobless Cylinders.

Reading color names and matching objects.

Teen Beads

Drawing and writing practice with the Marker Paper.

Buckle Frame practice.

Number writing with the Sandpaper Numbers.

Metal Inset work - one shape, two positions, and two colors.

Our class enjoyed an autumn nature walk on Friday morning.  Here, the children are counting and sorting the treasures we found during the nature walk.

One of our shelves has a decorative table runner from India on the top.  One child was taking a closer look and exclaimed, "Hey look!  It's [cursive] 'i'!" and proceeded to trace it.  This made my day, my week, my year... perhaps my teaching career....! :)