My Montessori Journey

It's beginning to look a lot like..............

............Christmas at my house.  Our family tradition is to put up all our Christmas decorations on the day after Thanksgiving.  This is a greatly anticipated event, let me tell you.  My 7yo has been talking about it ALL week.  In fact, the night before he said he was going to get up really early.  I told him the earliest Mommy would be ready to start was 8:30.  My husband (who *bless his heart* gets up early almost every day with my oldest son) told me he was up before 6:00 a.m.  Luckily, my 3yo and I slept in until almost 7:45.  (We started on the tree and decorating at 8:10 a.m. and I wasn't finished until close to 2:00 p.m.)   Anyway........I thought you might enjoy seeing a little of the holiday decor in my home.  And if that's not your cup of tea, please feel free to skip reading this and go find something more interesting to read.  No offense taken, I promise!!  :0)

 

As you can tell (no doubt) we use an artificial tree.  This tree has a wonderful history in our family as my husband and I bought it about 15 years ago as newlyweds.  It is something of what we call a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" here in the US.  To explain this, please see the following definition which I copied from Wikipedia. 

 "The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree is used in the United States and Canada to describe any sad-looking, malformed little tree. Some tree buyers intentionally adopt such trees, feeling sympathetic to their plights. The term comes from the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree in the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas."

So yes, our tree has seen better days, but I consistently resist replacing it.  This year, in fact, the DH offered to get up early on the Friday after Thanksgiving to go buy us a new one for a "great price".  (He would not have trampled anyone to get it however!)  I told him we should save the money and put up our Charlie Brown tree.  It has such sentimental value to me.  The box it is stored in is the original cardboard box.  It is covered with about 15 layers of masking tape which our little cat immediately began gnawing on.  Sorry.........I'm digressing. 

The cool thing this year (as shown in the above photo) is that my boys are actually able now to help assemble the tree.  For the first few layers of branches, I was actually able to coach them from my chair while I sipped a mug of lemon tea with honey.  They were also total troopers in hanging the ornaments on this year.  So in some ways this year's tree decorating was less work for me than usual.  (The DH's contribution to our yearly tree decorating is to haul the box in from the garage after which he goes for a run.  So........he's in great shape and comes back afterwards and admires our hard work.  The great bonus this time was that he later put up our icicle lights and angel outside. Thanks, hun!)

   

Here is the tree after being decorated.  You can see that it's "style" is eclectic.  I completely love having a mixed up bunch of ornaments on the tree.  While I can aesthetically admire other people's themed trees, I wouldn't have anything other than a tree like this in my home.  It is covered with ornaments from my childhood, ornaments given to me by students, and ornaments my children have made.  I love it!!  The tree skirt is one that I made before I had children.  The hearts are actually little pockets; however, I forget that every year and never hide anything in them!!  Maybe this year since I've blogged about it I will remember to hide some fun surprises in these for the boys.

  

This photo didn't turn out very well, but a new addition to my Christmas decor is this greeting card hanger given to me by my mom.  She hung this in our kitchen doorway every year of my childhood.  You insert the cards into the links and can hold many cards this way.  In the past, I just tape the cards we receive onto the posts you see in the photo.  However, now that I've inherited this retro/vintage piece of wonder, it will become a new tradition in our family.  In the photo below I have taken a close-up of a sprig of fake mistletoe.  I used to get a big kick out of this as a child and can remember trying to get my parents to kiss under it.  I really love it in all its cheap-plastic beauty.

   

 

On top of my antique china cabinet, I draped a fabric garland that my cousin Phyllis made and gave me a few years ago for Christmas.  It is really neat.  She just cut little strips of various Christmas fabrics and tied them onto a rope.  This would be a great project in many seasonal variations.

 

My dad made this wooden Nativity set for us before we had children.  This is the first year I've put it up since our boys were born.  I am so happy to have it on display again.  It is my absolute favorite Nativity.  The color variations you see are from each section of wood being stained a different shade.

 

This is another treasure made for us by my dad.  It is a tree with 12 ornaments which represent the 12 gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas song.  There is a close-up photo below.

   

This shows the partridge in the pear tree and two turtledoves.

 

This Santa advent calendar is made from fabric and was another gift from my cousin Phyllis.  There are 25 little pockets designed to hold Hershey's miniature chocolate candy bars.  This is a favorite of the boys.

 

I ordered this fabric advent calendar a few years ago.  Each pocket holds a piece of the Nativity scene and in the last pocket is the baby Jesus.  I wanted to have an advent calendar that would represent the true reason for the season.  This way we can focus on that message a little bit each day as we add another piece to the calendar.  I couldn't find a link to this exact calendar; however, here is a link to some that are very similar.

 

This shows a little shelf with the wooden Nativity, our advent wreath, and a quilted wreath wall-hanging that I made before kids.  Unfortunately the photo is really dark and you can't see the colors in it very well.

 

 

 

These three photos show the pieces of our Christmas village that we set up on our shelves in the dining room (actually we have a very open floor plan so our dining room, living room, and kitchen are all pretty much one area).  We are so lucky that Grandma Donna purchased these beautiful pieces giving us one per year until we didn't have room for more.  This year we only put out our 6 favorite pieces.  The boys are so happy to have these upstairs.  They all light up and most have moving parts as well.  In the past we've had these in our basement (which is finished) and so we haven't been able to enjoy them as much.  They will be much loved up here on our main living floor.

  

This beautiful wall-hanging was also a handmade gift from my cousin Phyllis. It hangs in a place of honor next to our tree every year.

 

Here is a little hodge-podge of items on the windowsill over my kitchen sink.  I spend LOTS of time here since we don't have a dishwasher.  The photo didn't turn out well, but most of these decorations are ones I've had for years.  I never buy new decorations.  After writing this post, I realized that most of our decorations have been given to us as hand-me-downs or as gifts.  And I really love it that way.  There is special meaning to nearly everything I put out each year which is just as it should be, in my opinion.

Stocking Advent Activity Calendar

Since I saw the idea of an advent ACTIVITY calendar on several blogs last year, I've wanted to do one for my boys.  In fact, I had a whole list of activities ready last year but didn't get around to pulling it off.  Oh well, always another year, I say.  Last Monday afternoon I saw this idea on the Skip To My Lou blog and decided to jump in with both feet and tackle it.  I happened to be going to the craft store that day so I bought some green and red glittered felt and pretty ribbon.  By LATE Monday night (almost Tuesday AM) I had sewn almost all 25 stockings.  Yes, I stayed up late, but they really stitch up very easily.  However, you could easily and very quickly replicate this whole idea using ready-made little stockings.  See some close-up views of my stockings below.

   

The next photo shows the first four stockings hung up on a long piece of extra-wide rick-rack.  I used little clothespins to hang them up.  I used round metal tags (found in most office supply stores) and number stickers to number each stocking.  I removed the wire ring on each tag and used some silver thread to tie the tags onto the stockings.

 

Inside each stocking is a little piece of paper that tells what our special activity will be that day.  I typed these up in a word document on the computer, but you could easily just handwrite them.  My boys will take turns pulling out the paper each day, but the activity will be for all of us to do together.  The photo below shows a few of our papers close-up.  Following that you will find a list of our activities with links provided.

Our activities list is as follows.  (NOTE:  There are not actually 25 activities on the list because on several of the days our special activity will be going to one of the boys' various programs that are in December.)

*Make a red and green paper chain of 25 links to count down to Christmas.  One link will be removed each day.

*Make and play with peppermint/glitter homemade playdough using our Christmas cookie cutters.

*Make glitter-covered pinecones to hang on the tree.

*Work on our Christmas lapbooks.  (I'll do a post next week on what we're using for these.)

*Make snow globes.

*Make merry marshmallows.

*Drink hot cocoa under the tree with merry marshmallows, sprinkles and whipped cream.

*Make paper snowflakes and hang them in the windows.

*Hand-stamp wrapping paper.  (I'm ordering these stamps from Let's Explore along with some of her giant stamp pads.)

*Hand-stamp gift tags.  I have LOTS of Christmas rubber stamps in my stash that we'll use.

*Wrap gifts in hand-stamped paper.  These will be our grandparent and teacher gifts.

*Make holiday pretzel treats.  I make these every year.  They are so easy, so good, and are a great gift for bus drivers, secretaries, etc.

*Make sugar cone Christmas trees.  Just take a sugar cone (for ice cream) and frost it with green frosting then decorate with mini m&ms, sprinkles, etc.

*Make Handprint Santa cards. 

*Make a cut paper garland.  I just googled to find a link to explain what this means and can't find one.  I will try to do a post on it to show you. I got the idea from a great book I purchased this fall.  I need to blog about that as well.

*Bake and frost Christmas cookies.  Deliver cookies to neighbors. 

*String popcorn and cranberries for a garland for our outdoor trees and outdoor animal friends.

*Make beaded candy canes and beaded Christmas wreath ornaments. These are both such easy and classic Christmas crafts.  However, I've never done either with the boys and I know they will love making them.

*Make up a batch of snowy trail mix and munch it under the tree while we read every Christmas book in the house.  This will be a real treat because I NEVER make sweet snacks like this for the boys.  They will be in heaven!

*Bake and frost cupcakes for Jesus' birthday.  We will do this on Christmas Eve and decorate the cupcakes like ornaments.  I bought a cupcake holder a few months back that will be perfect for displaying these on Christmas Day.  (We host everyone at our house on Christmas.)

WOW!  I think that looks like an ambitious list!  But I may just be tired from looking up and typing all the links.  Actually, I have a VERY short shopping list for things to get to do the above activities.  Pretty much everything we can do with things we have around the house.  My goal is just to focus on doing something fun together each day.  I am excited to start this new tradition. 

Appalled and horrifed......

..........is how I feel every time I think about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death by shoppers in their mad dash for a bargain early this morning.  I am sure many people read this headline and did not think twice about it, but I cannot stop thinking about how incredibly insane and out of control the materialism in this culture has become.  It sickens me to no end.  I thank God that there has never been nor will there ever be any material item that will mean so much to me that I would get out of bed at 4:00 a.m. to stand in line for hours to buy it.  I am so saddened and sorry for this young man and his family as well as for the shoppers who were there this morning.   I know I don't usually rant like this on the blog, but I couldn't help but wonder today about what might have prevented this tragedy.  Soon after that thought crossed the synapses I realized that what we teach children in Montessori classrooms around the globe is EXACTLY what can prevent this kind of tragedy from occuring.  Instilling the idea that it is appropriate and respectful to wait for your turn.  That it is good and right to respond to another's suffering with kindness and caring.  And that, above all, working towards a peaceful world is what is most important in life.  Yes, I do believe as parents and as Montessorians we are doing important work each day that can prevent such horror from occuring. And that awareness and knowledge has brought me a small sense of comfort as I try to process what happened today in my country.  

Gratitude 2008

  Though I don't blog about it much (if ever), I am a scrapbooker.  I haven't actually scrapbooked per se for several months, but it is something I enjoy doing.  Hopefully my boys will appreciate my efforts to document their childhood.  They both enjoy looking at their completed albums (and urging me to catch up on those that are behind!!).  On Thanksgiving I was inspired to pull together a little mini-scrapbook project. It actually is not very decorative, so I'm not sure it would count as a scrapbook in some people's minds.  Still...........it captures a special afternoon spent with family so I think it counts!  My inspiration for the project was an idea that was described in Amanda Blake Soule's book (there is a link to her book in my Amazon sidebar.....it's a good investment, in my opinion).   In her book she writes about doing a "Gratitude Alphabet" with her children.  They sit together and try to think of something they are thankful for that begins with each letter of the alphabet.  I was immediately drawn to this idea.  

So..........for our little book I took 28 tags I happened to have on hand (available at any office supply store) and with my 7yo son placed a letter of the alphabet on each of 26 tags using some letter stickers I had.  One blank tag became the title page after I adhered letter stickers to it spelling out "Gratitude 2008".   The other blank tag was our back cover on which I wrote the date of our Thanksgiving dinner.  We took the loose tags over to my parents' house when we went there for Thanksgiving dinner.  After the meal my oldest son passed out a pencil and 5 tags to himself and the 4 adults (my youngest son got "Z") with the directions that each person had to think of something they were thankful for that begins with the letter on their tag.  They had to write their "thankful thing" as well as their name on the tag.  After everyone was finished we tied all the tags together to make a "book" and my oldest son read the entire book out loud (of course I taped it on my digital camera!).  I think this will be a tradition that we will repeat in future years.  It will be fun to look back at our gratitude books and see everyone's handwriting as well as the things they listed being thankful for.  Below are a few photos of our book.

 

NOTE:  I think this is a project that could be done at any time of the year, not just on Thanksgiving.  Obviously, there are many parts of the world who don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  So.......what I'm trying to say is if you like this idea go ahead and do it no matter when it is.  You will treasure the finished product, the time spent reflecting with family and friends, AND you'll be glad to say you've completed a project.  It's very quick and easy with little prep work.  GO FOR IT!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving here in the good ol' US of A.  My little family of four will head over to my parents' house for a feast.  It will just be the six of us so it should be restful and relaxing.  My mom is cooking the turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberries, green bean casserole, and I'm not sure what else.  I will be bringing Dilly Spoon Rolls.  I made these a few years ago using a recipe from a cooking magazine.  They are really good and really easy.  You stir them up and spoon them into a muffin tin.  Much easier than forming individual rolls and much better than frozen dinner rolls.  I googled to find a recipe and (hopefully) they will turn out as well as I remember.  I am kind of notorious for trying out untested recipes on major holidays.  It usually works out okay.  I am also bringing a Corn Casserole that I've never made before.  I got the recipe from Stacy Julian's blog (she is the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine) and it sounds easy and good.  So we'll see.  Scroll down in the link I've provided for the recipe.........you'll see it near the bottom of her post.  AND............I'm making a sweet potato casserole that.........I've never made before.  I got the recipe from Janice, who has been the babysitter of my children since they were infants AND she is a fantastic cook and swears by this recipe.  I have typed it up for you here.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup half and half

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.  Spread into an 11X7 baking dish.  Sprinkle with topping (see recipe below) and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 T. flour 

1/4 cup butter, cold

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine first two ingredients.  Cut in butter.  Add pecans.  Sprinkle on top of mashed sweet potato mixture and bake as described above.

Sorry for no photos.  I've actually been up to a lot that I'll be posting about soon.  Something Christmasy and a couple more lapbooks.  And lots of new activities for the classroom once I get in there this weekend.  So.......stay tuned.........and until then, consider what you have to be thankful for.  Following is my list:

I am thankful for............

my family (a husband who is a kind man and a loving father and two beautiful healthy sons)

my parents, who taught me to work hard, love God and give to others (THANKS, Mom and Dad!)

my mother-in-law, who is loving, laid-back, and fun to be around 

my home which is cozy and comfortable, just how I like it

my job which I love so much that I blog about it nearly every day!!

my faith (I am so grateful to have faith in a loving God and to pass that faith on to my children)

my friends who like me even though I am a lame-o and don't call them often enough!

my material loves such as:  Diet Pepsi, books, craft supplies, my computer!!, flannel pajama pants, hot tea on a cold day (Ginger Peach tea is the best tea EVAH!!  I am asking Santa for 2 tins of it; one black tea and one green tea) , blankets to snuggle under, warm mittens, Camille Beckman glycerin hand therapy (best lotion ever!)

I am reflectively amused by the "material loves" list.  It is definitely indicative of the kind of weather we've been having here in the Midwest recently.  However, this week has been pretty warm for November. Seriously, though, if I had my family, friends and that (pretty short and not-too-materialistic) stash of material items I would be totally set.  It was kind of fun making that list.  I need to do it more often!

PS:  If Santa is reading this list.......I would love some new flannel PJs in addition to the 2 tins of tea if that's not asking too much!

Take-Home turkey project

A few weeks ago, I sent home a blank turkey with each student.  I attached a note to the turkey asking parents to help their children think of things they are thankful for.  After the child decorated their turkey as they wanted to, the parent either drew or wrote the things the child was thankful for OR the parent and child found pictures or photos to represent those things and glued them to the turkey.  This week the children have been bringing their turkeys to school and sharing them at line time.  It is a nice opportunity for them to pratice speaking in front of a group.  I have been so pleased with the variety of turkeys that were created as well as the time the children spent with their parents working on this project.

 

Here is a photo of the blank turkey.  I copied them on white cardstock for sturdiness.

 

Once presented the turkeys were hung on the bulletin board in our waiting area next to the tree covered with our watercolor-painted leaves.

 

Here is a closer-up view of a few of the turkeys.

Thanksgiving Lapbooks--Part 2

Here is the lapbook my 3-year-old son completed.  We did this over the course of a few days in bits and pieces.  The first thing he did was color the pumpkin pocket shown in the photo below.  He had amazing concentration for this and worked hard until he had completely colored it orange with a green stem.  He only left a few blank spots that he asked me to color for him.

I printed the Thankful Pictures and Pumpkin Pocket from Christian Preschool Printables.  (They have LOTS of free printables on their website.) My son and I looked through the pictures and put the ones that showed what he is thankful for into the pumpkin pocket.

On the inside left page of the lapbook are a maze printed from Kaboose (free) and a counting crows worksheet printed from Kidssoup (this page was a member-only printable).  I cut apart the crow counting worksheet into individual boxes and let my little boy use number stamps to stamp the numbers for the quantities since he can't write yet.  The next photo shows the counting pages out of the pocket.  

 

Also on the left side is a little library pocket I printed from Homeschoolshare.  They have the most amazing amount of free resources to print.  (I found the template for the pocket after I had already done the other one for the crow counting cards.) I will definitely be blogging about that website more in the future as I am SURE I will be using some of their activities both at home and at school.  Inside the little pocket are some Thanksgiving ABC cards I made and printed up.  If you would like you are welcome to print them off for your own use.  Here is the document link: Download Thanksgiving lapbook ABC   My son is just beginning to associate printed letters with their sounds and make the connection between a given sound and things beginning with that sound.  So we just went through the cards and talked about that "/t-t-t-/ T is for /t-t/ turkey", etc.  Below is a photo of the ABC cards.

On the right hand side I stapled a Mayflower tracing paper from Kidssoup.  My little guy worked really hard at tracing the blue waves and yellow sun.  He was so proud of himself.  Beneath the Mayflower paper we glued a little brown die-cut Mayflower that we got for free from our local public library.  (Thanks, Miss Teresa, if you're reading this!)

   

And on the back cover is a jigsaw puzzle I printed from DLTK. To help him complete the puzzle since it was made of paper, I first glued the top left piece down and then had him make the puzzle.  Then I helped him glue them in place.  See photo below for the puzzle (Don't you love those little fingers at the bottom?  I know I do!)

 

As promised, here are some links to a few great lapbooking resources I've found online:

1+1+1=1 is a great blog with LOTS of great resources and links.  In addition to several lapbook posts, you MUST checkout the TotSchool posts if you have a little one at home.  Lots of super ideas!

Homeschoolshare is also an amazing wealth of free information.  In addition to an extensive lapbook section, there are many, many great resources for unit studies on a variety of non-fiction topics as well as many great children's books.  I am greatly looking forward to exploring this site a lot more.

Lapbook Lessons is another site where you can sign up for free to access lots of great printables.  

Enchanted Learning and Kidssoup are two paid membership sites that I belong to.  They both have a wealth of great resources and I consider them well worth the membership fees.

DLTK-Kids has many, many free printables that would work great in your lapbooks.  I used several of their printables for our Thanksgiving books. 

  

Thanksgiving Lapbooks--Part 1

I have been wanting to do lapbooks with my boys for quite a while now.  I often look at the blogs of homeschooling moms and have seen lapbooks on several of them.  (BTW.....you may not realize this, but I am kind of a homeschool wanna-be.........I am really happy with the school situation for both of our boys, but I also frequently have little homeschool "fantasies" in my head which usually involve me being able to sleep in ever so slightly every morning after which I head outside to milk our (currently non-existent) cows, then use the milk to churn butter with the boys, etc.........like I said, pure fantasy and I'm digressing!)  ANYWAY...........I decided to dive into the lapbook thing and have each of the boys make a Thanksgiving lapbook.  I was greatly inspired by this post at the 1+1+1=1 blog.  After reading that post and checking out what Carisa (the blog author) had done with her son, I decided to give it a go.  Today I am posting the lapbook my oldest son made.  He is 7.  Tomorrow I will post about the one my 3 1/2 year-old did. 

  

Here is the front of my oldest son's lapbook.  I was going to do a fancy fold with the file folder, but found that using it "as is" worked better for the projects I had for him.  I printed the turkey shown on the cover from DLTK. He used some of my scrapbooking stamps to stamp "Thanksgiving" on the front.

  

Here is the inside of his book with the flap folded down.  I needed more room than just one file folder so I cut a second folder in half and taped it to the inside at the top.  That is the "flap" with the colored turkey on it. I printed this turkey from Kaboose.  The ABC order cut and paste was a worksheet from Enchanted Learning that I cut apart so it would fit better into the book.

  

This shows a close-up of the inside left page of the lapbook.  The Syllable Matching with Thanksgiving words worksheet  was also printed from Enchanted Learning (I have a membership which is required to be able to print these pages.)

  

This photo shows the lapbook with the flap "up". On the underside of the flap is a Thanksgiving crossword puzzle printed from DLTK.  The Thanksgiving maze is from Kaboose (they had several versions in varying difficulty levels; I printed an easier one for my younger son's lapbook).  The First Thanksgiving mini-book was printed from Teacher Vision.  I am not a member of this website, but it looks like you can print up to 3 items for free.  The little orange pocket has a folded up math worksheet that I printed from KidZone.  There are many different free math worksheets available at this site.  You can see the unfolded paper in the photo below. 

  

 

This photo shows the back of my oldest son's lapbook.  The puzzle was printed from DLTK......there are several puzzles available for printing in various difficulty levels. 

My oldest son enjoyed doing his lapbook very much.   He wanted to pretty much do all the activities in one sitting.  As I've looked at the lapbooks of other moms and teachers, I would say that this lapbook was more about "fun" than actual learning.  It was our first attempt at lapbooking and my purpose, more than anything, was to give him a variety of Thanksgiving theme-related activities to do.  However, I am already thinking ahead to the type of lapbook we could do for Thanksgiving next year that would include more research and learning about the first Thanksgiving and the Mayflower voyage.

In tomorrow's post I will include a bunch of links I've found for free lapbook resources on the good ol' 'net!

Parent-teacher conferences

I have just finished my last round of parent-teacher conferences.  In my school, conferences are scheduled for 15 minutes.  In most cases this has been just about the right amount of time.  I have decided to do a short blog post about how I do conferences for those of you who are interested.  I would also love to hear how other teachers structure their conferences as I am always looking for ways to improve what I do.  I have asked my parents (through our November newsletter) to give me feedback about the format I used but so far have not had any feedback.  So, if you are a parent who attended one of my conferences, feedback would be appreciated!!  :0)

Although I have a very nice office adjacent to my classroom (I know, I'm SO lucky!!), I prefer to do my conferences right in the classroom.  That just makes it so easy to point out different areas and materials to parents when I am talking to them.  I also like this because it allows the parents to somewhat experience our little environment.  It seems cozy somehow.  The photo above shows how I set up for conferences.  As you can see, I set up a card table in the center of my "line" area.  I added two folding chairs for the parents and wheeled in my desk chair from the office.  Next to that table I set up two of our classroom tables next to each other to hold my conference materials.  More on those in a moment.  You can also see that I have a laptop computer set up on the card table.  Since I upload classroom photos constantly for the blog and take MANY photos of the children (ones that aren't on the blog that show their whole little selves, not just hands!) I decided to set up files on my computer for each student.  That makes it very easy when I upload photos to just quickly send individual photos to their respective files.  Before conferences, I saved these photo files to a flashdrive and took an extra laptop computer we had at home so I could begin each conference with a little slide show of the student.  I think the parents really appreciated this glimpse into their child's classroom life.  And it was a very positive way to begin each conference.

On the tables next to my chair I had a standing file which held each child's individual folder along with our peace rose and an article from a Montessori journal about the peace rose (I gave a copy to each parent).  I also had a little pad of Post-its for either me or the parents to jot down a note if needed.  And I had my clipboard of data sheets so I could explain my record-keeping system to them.  I also pulled some of my language materials off the shelves and had it ready to show as many children are beginning sound books and I wanted the parents to be able to see the materials I use for those.

So, after the slideshow, I opened the child's individual folder (they each brought one as a class supply at the beginning of the year) and showed the parents the following:

1.)  Cutting sample:  Each fall and spring each child cuts out a circle and square to show progress and mastery of cutting skills.  It is nice to show how this skill improves over the school year.  These samples remain in the folder so they can be compared to spring samples.

2.)  Self-portrait:  Each child completed a self-portrait in class after I did a demonstration on a small white board at group time.  Again, this is nice to have because we will compare these to their spring portraits.

3.)  Progress report:  I used a form that had been used at this school when my older son attended.  This particular form (which I don't have a digital copy of.....sorry!) has Personal and Social Growth on one side and Work Habits on the other side.  There are several descriptors under each category and for each descriptor I marked "Most of the time", "Some of the time" and "Seldom" according to the frequency with which I see the individual behaviors listed.  There is also a small space for me to add child-specific comments (which I did for each student).  The parents got to take this report with them.

4.)  Curriculum overview sheet:  This is a form I filled out for each student.  I typed up a list of the basic materials/activities in each curricular area of the classroom and used an orange pen to X off the activities that I have presented and/or that the child has self-selected.  Before showing this form to the parents I explained my record-keeping system to them.  I have a clipboard (shown in the photo above) onto which I have clipped a paper for each classroom session (i.e. Monday AM; Tuesday AM; Tuesday PM).  Each paper is divided into 20 small spaces and each student's name is written into a space.  During the work period I use this form to jot down lessons I give to individual students as well as work that I observe them choosing independently.  That way I have an anecdotal record that reflects SOME of what they are doing in the classroom.  I will continue to add to this form during their time at my school.

5.)  Other work samples:  My students pretty much take home work as they complete it.  However, their sound books and number books stay in their cubbies until they are complete.  Prior to conferences, I pulled these out of their cubbies and placed them in their conference folders to show parents.

I like to end the conference by asking if the parents have any other questions or concerns to discuss.  I also like to ask them what their children enjoy doing at home.  Sometimes children love to count at home, for example, but don't choose the number work at school.  I find the insight from parents to be crucial in helping me decide what lessons a child may be ready for next.

What we've been up to this week

Here's the weekly gallery.  For some reason (even though I always have my camera at school) I didn't get as many photos this week.  Still..........here is your weekly glimpse of what's been going on (AKA my ridiculously easy Saturday morning post that requires little effort!).

   

This student is working on coloring their own Parts of a Fish booklet.  I haven't done a post about this work yet, but I purchased the cards from Montessori for Everyone.   

   

This student is stamping the words they read from one of the yellow word drawers.

 

Patterning with beads activity

Painting a watercolor turkey 

Turkey feathers button activity 

Using the math drawers and number cards to count quantities 

 

Knobbed cylinders

Another student stamping their words from a red word drawer 

 

Using number stamps to complete a counting worksheet (printed from Kidssoup)

 

Cutting strips of paper for the Indian corn art project

Leaf puzzle 

 

Two little girls were so proud of the design they created using the Wedgits.

 

These adorable basset hound puppies, Boomer and Sooner, were our Wednesday Show and Share.  They were SOOOOO cute.  I did not realize how laid back this breed of dog is.  The children loved seeing them and petting them too.