My Montessori Journey

Spoiler Alert! Parent Gifts

NOTE:  If you are the parent of a child in my classroom and you haven't opened your gift yet, you may want to skip reading this post or read it when your child isn't looking or read it later!!

Last week we were busy in the classroom making gifts to give parents for Christmas.  I wanted to find something for the children to make that fit the following criteria:  easy enough for preschoolers to complete pretty independently and something that the parents can bring out every year during the holidays.  Additionally, I wanted it to be something useful.  After quite a bit of Googling I stumbled across this idea and loved it.  Since I had to do gifts with 60 children my next task was to find a place to buy 60 globe shaped candle holders.  I ordered this kind from Dollar Tree.  They were available in smaller quantities at my close-by Dollar Tree, but I had to order them online to get the number I needed.  I had them shipped to the store which saved me the shipping costs.  I was really pleased with these.  They were all in great condition, packed well, and are a nice quality candle holder.

These candle holders were so quick to make and turned out really beautiful.   In case you would like to attempt this with many children I will tell you how I did it.  I set up a table in our classroom with 4 chairs.  I placed a vinyl gluing mat at three places and had three children at a time work on their candle holders.  I wrote each child's name on the bottom of their candle holder along with the year using a black Sharpie marker.  I gave each child a thick paintbrush (like the kind preschoolers would use on a paint easel) covered with white Elmer's glue.  I learned it was easiest to plop the glue-covered paintbrush into their candle holder instead of letting them dip the glue out of a bowl.  A large glob of glue was plenty for the project and when they dipped themselves the glue dripped all over the table and onto the sides and top of the candle holder.  After giving them the brush with glue they spread the glue all over the bottom and halfway up the sides of the candle holder.  Then they were able to choose what color glitter they wanted.........we had many colors to choose from.  This was super exciting since we don't use the glitter very often and young children LOVE glitter.  We dumped a fair amount of glitter into the bottom of the candle holder and then I showed them how to roll it around to get the glitter to cover the glue.  We dumped the extra glitter out onto a paper plate and that was it!!  Once they had dried a little bit the children chose tissue paper to wrap them, then we placed them into some brown lunch bags that they had stamped with Christmas stamps.  They added a tealight candle to the bag.  Then we folded over the top, punched two holes and tied a ribbon through.  They were SO excited to take these home to their parents.  By my best guess most of them could not wait until Christmas to have their parents open their gifts.  Even though my little boy is a student in my class and sat with ME to make MY gift, as soon as we got home that day he wanted me to open it right away! 

Here are some photos to illustrate what we did.  The first two photos show the candle holder my son made.  He used silver glitter and it turned out so pretty.

This photo shows our little gift bags all lined up and ready to go home.

 

Solar System Project

This month we have been starting our study of the solar system in my classroom.  When I taught in a Montessori preschool about a decade ago, I had purchased the book Exploring Space from Evan-Moor.  This book is a fantastic resource of information, printables and activities.  Although it is intended for first through third graders, I have been able to adapt many things to make them appropriate for younger children.

 One project that has been out for about a week now is this solar system model.  Below you can see how I have it set up.  The materials are on top of the shelf with the sample project attached to the back of the shelf.  Two children at a time may do this activity.  They sit at the two white tables facing the shelf.

The materials shown here are:  copies of the planets printed on white cardstock and a basket of colored pencils.  (NOTE: The printable is from the Evan-Moor book I linked to.  However, Coloring Castle has some similar ones that are free to print, both with and without Pluto.)  I have included Pluto in my project since my sample already had it.  However, I have told the children that scientists no longer consider Pluto to be a planet.

Next on the shelf are: scissors, a bowl with "suns", a pencil, glue sticks and vinyl gluing mats.

To do this work, the child first colors the planets using the colored pencils.  Then they cut out the planets.  After they have colored and cut, they ask a teacher for a long piece of blue paper (two pieces of 6X18 inch paper taped together) and glue the planets in order as shown below, placing the sun at the far left.

The next two photos show close-up views of one child's finished project.

 

 
Once a child has finished this project I help them name all the planets in order.  We have learned a song to help us with that.  It is sung to the tune "Puff the Magic Dragon."  The lyrics are: 

"Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter,  Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto way out far.

These are all nine planets that revolve around the sun.  They are found in outer space and now our song is done."

If you have a similar version without Pluto, I'd love to hear your lyrics.
 

Jingle Bell Bracelets

 
This week I am putting out a simple jingle bell bracelet activity.  I put this out right before Christmas last year too.  I set it up as a permanent station meaning that the materials will stay right on this table and the children will not carry them to another place to work with them.  From the top left I have:  a tray of sparkly pipe cleaners, a bowl of gold jingle bells, and a red tray with stickers numbered 1-5.  This is a control of error so that the children will get exactly the right number of bells.

To do this work the child selects a pipe cleaner and places it on the red tray.  Then they count out 5 jingle bells and place one on each sticker dot.

Once they have counted out their bells, the string the bells onto the pipe cleaner as shown.

The final step is to ask a teacher or friend to help them twist the pipe cleaner into a circle to form a bracelet.

 

Seasonal ABC Work

Something that I have out on my language shelves this month are these Christmas Tree alphabet mats from PreKinders.  She has SOOOOO many great resources on her website that you must head over there and check it out.  She makes it all available free for classroom use.  How generous and what a blessing to the rest of us.  I printed out all the mats and laminated them.  I placed them in a stack on a tray with a little dish of colored discs.  There are exactly enough discs to complete one mat.........3 of each color.  The bottom photo shows a completed mat.

 

Christmas Wreath Art Project

There is a lot going on in the classroom but I guess I have done a poor job of documenting it lately.  Our Christmas program is this Friday and I've been fairly wrapped up in the last minute details of getting that organized.  I did come up with a new little art project to put out today so that's what I'm posting here.  Someone (Jamie!) asked about the Christmas gift ideas post I did last year.  I don't think I have time this year to do another one but here is the link to last year's post in case you are interested. 

My students love to make things that they can take home.  Yesterday when I was up at school I thought of this project.  I have it all set up on the bottom of my art shelf as shown below.

To do this work the child gets a basket (far left) and places in it:  a wreath (small paper plate with the center cut out), scissors, 2 strips of green paper.............

..........3 squares of red tissue paper, and a bottle of glue.  They also take a green gluing mat.

At their table they remove all the materials from the basket.  Then they cut the green strips into small pieces, letting the pieces fall into the empty basket.  The pieces are then glued onto the wreath shape.  Next, they roll the tissue paper into balls to make "berries" or "ornaments".   These are then glued onto the wreath.  Once it is all dry we punch a hole in the top and tie a loop of yarn for hanging.  The ones the children made today turned out so cute!!

 
 
 

Christmas Sort and Count

I put together this sort and count activity with some Christmas erasers.  On the large tray I have a sorting tray, a basket of number cards, tongs, and a bowl of erasers.  To do this work the child uses the tongs (strawberry huller) to sort the objects into the compartments.  Once they are sorted the child counts them and places the appropriate number card next to the set.  Then they have a teacher check their work before putting it away.

This is what it looks like when finished.

 

More Christmas transfer work

Here are two more Christmas transfer activities.  I am sure I got the little tree trays at a thrift store or garage sale.  I just filled one with porcupine balls to look like ornaments.  The children transfer them with sugar tongs.

The green snowflakes are votive holders picked up at a garage sale.  I also bought the Christmas marble chips at a garage sale.  The children spoon them with a little spoon from one to the other.