My Montessori Journey

Our Classroom Giving Tree

For the past two years I have had a "Giving Tree" set up in the foyer area of my classroom.  I bought it at a teacher supply store.  There are a bunch of little leaves that can be attached.  In the past I've written some needed supplies on the leaves with a dry-erase marker.  This year I decided to do something different since we are really well-stocked with classroom supplies.  I came up with a list of several children's books that I wanted for the classroom to support our curriculum.  I printed up white labels with the title and author as well as the Amazon price for each book.  Then I stuck the leaves onto the tree for parents to take.  I have the best group of parents.  Seriously!  After my parent orientation meeting, there were only 3 leaves left on the tree!  After our Open House before school started the tree was totally bare!  This week our books (and a few art posters to go with our artist study) have started coming in.  I will put a label inside each book designating the child who donated it to our school and the school year.  I think the parents have enjoyed contributing to our classroom in such a meaningful, tangible way.  It leaves a legacy for their family in our school since the books will stay with the classroom and be enjoyed for years to come instead of being quickly consumed (as in the case of glue sticks or paints). 

Since the tree lost its' leaves so quickly I had to come up with even more titles that we would like.  How great is that?

Below is a photo showing the tree with the labeled leaves.

And this blurry photo shows a close-up of one of the leaves.  I have designated books we'll use soon with a sticky note that says, "We would love this ASAP." 

 
 
  
 

Dog's Colorful Day Extension Activities

I am so excited to share with you two extension activities that I developed to go with the story we've been reading, Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd. 

The first one is a group activity.  After reading the book a few times last week, this week we tried a hands-on group activity.  I gathered pom-poms in the colors of Dog's "spots" and placed those into a cloth bag along with the pictures I created to go with the story.  (You may download those using the link below.)  A few years ago I also made a "Dog" from white craft foam.  I just used the book as a guide to help me draw Dog.  I used a Sharpie marker for the details. For the group activity, I got out the "Dog" and placed him in front of me on the floor.  Then I passed the cloth bag around and asked each child to take one item from the bag (either a pom-pom "spot" or a picture).  After everyone had something, I read the book out loud.  When we got to each page the children with the corresponding picture and spot came up.  Pictures were placed below the Dog from left to right and pom-poms were placed directly on the Dog in the correct location.

This photo shows the foam "Dog" with the pom-poms and pictures.  Here is the link for the pictures.

Download Dog's Colorful Day pictures

This photo shows Dog with his red spot of "jam" and the corresponding jam picture.  The children love getting involved with the story in a hands-on way.

The second extension activity is a coloring page.  I made the pages by placing my Dog on the copier and copying him onto paper.  Then I drew "spots" in the correct places on the paper copy.  Then I made a bunch of copies of the "spotted" Dog.  Next, I made a little flip book to break down the task of coloring the correct spots.  To make the flip booklet I reduced the size of my copied Dog on the copier and colored one "new" dot per page.  I wanted the children to be independent in coloring the dots and my assistant, Miss Melissa, came up with the flip book idea.  We piloted it in class today and the children were really successful.

Below you can see how I've set up this work on a tray.  The copies of Dog are on the bottom with the flip book and a tray of crayons on top.

To do this work the child carries the tray to a table and sets up the workspace as shown below. (I don't know why there is an extra gray crayon in the container.  There is only supposed to be one of each color needed which is a built-in control of error.)  Also, in this photo the flip book is turned to the second page which shows the red dot of "jam" on Dog's back.

After flipping to the above page, the child would choose the correct color (red) and color the correct dot as shown.

The next page had the previous dot colored in (in this case, the red one) and one "new" dot (in this case, blue).  So on each page the child has to find the correct color crayon and the correct dot to color.

I snapped this picture during work time today.  You can see the page in the flip book on the right.  Yay!  This child is independently completing his paper.  I can see the "used" red and blue crayons on the table.

And here is the "finished" Dog!  Since I know some of you will ask, I wanted to tell you that I don't feel comfortable making copies of the coloring page or flip book available here on the blog since I am not the illustrator of the book.  I have confidence that you could easily replicate the foam dog yourself by looking at Emma Dodd's simple line drawings.  Really......you can do it!! 

When the child brings this page home, I have encouraged them to share it with their family and to try to retell the story in order by describing what caused all the different colored dots.  Story retelling is an excellent memory and oral language activity.  If your child brings this home, have them tell you about each "spot" on Dog.  For example, "He got the red dot from jam.  He dipped his tail into blue paint.  He rolled in green grass at the park, etc."

  

  
 
 
 
 

About our first week so far.......

I love my job.  Seriously.  It is really such fun to be around little ones every day.  I feel truly blessed.  I am writing this particular post specifically for the parents of children in my class.  However, I know that many of you readers all over the world are interested in what we do in our little spot each day.  So hopefully, you'll all enjoy this post.

This week during our group time we have been singing the ever-popular Bakery Shop Song.  It is an all-time favorite of all children I've ever sung it with.  I am hoping to put together a "work" soon where the children can make their own props to take home so they can sing the song with their families.  I will be sure to post when that happens.

Additionally, we have listened to the story Dog's Colorful Day at group time.  This is such a fun little color and counting book.  I wrote a post about it a few years ago and if you CLICK HERE you can read that post to see the group activity I developed for this story.  We haven't yet used the props in the classroom, but that will be coming soon next week.  Using the link below you can download a file of pictures to use as props with this story.  The book image below is from Amazon.

Download Dog's Colorful Day pictures

We have also been singing several songs from some of Frank Leto's CDs.  I went to a workshop led by Frank Leto a few years ago.  He is a Montessori-trained musician and has developed his songs specifically for use with young children.  We LOVE Frank Leto songs.  I use his CDs every single day in my classroom and could not give him a strong enough endorsement.  His music is AWESOME!!  If you have a child in my class.........we are singing these songs from Frank's CDs:  "Good Morning Song", "Put Your Hand on Your Head", "Backseat Driver" (BIG favorite!), and "Come on Everybody!"

How to talk to your child about their day at preschool

Here is another little "cheater" post.  I'm going to link to a post I wrote two years ago for parents about how to talk to your child about their day in my classroom.  If you are interested, please CLICK HERE to go to the post.

A few links for my new parents

Hello!  Tomorrow morning is the start of our new school year.  I am really ready and excited to see all my new students and to welcome back my returning students.  I am linking to a few posts I wrote at the beginning of last year.  If you are a parent who is new to my classroom (or if you are anyone who has just started reading this blog since last August), these two posts will give you a really nice overview of our classroom and the Montessori teaching philosophy.  I love to hear from readers and especially from my parents.  So please leave a comment or shoot me an email to let me know what you think.  Hope you enjoy.  CLICK HERE FIRST.  And then CLICK HERE.

When I was just now linking up to these two posts I decided to reread them myself.  I'm really glad I did.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you go ahead and read both these posts even if you've already read them.  It's always good to be reminded of why we do what we do. 

Giveaway Winners!

Sorry for the delay in posting the winners of the ABC Twiggles giveaway.  This has been a hectic week.  Both of my boys went back to school this week, and I hosted a parent information night and an Open House for students at my school.  I start with students on Monday.  Can't wait!!

Anyway........on to the giveaway.  Thanks for all your great comments.  If you didn't win I hope you'll consider a subscription anyway........the price is VERY reasonable for all you get.  Within the next week or so I'll show you how I'm planning to use the ABC Twiggles materials in my classroom.  I used random.org to generate two numbers between 1 and 88, since there were 88 comments. 

And the winners are...............#54, Kim, from Savor The Days, and #86, Erica. Congratulations, Kim and Erica.  I will forward your email addresses to Jolanda at ABC Twiggles.  You should receive an email from her soon telling how to activate your subscription. 

Practical Life for the beginning of school

I know I have posted about some of these activities before, but a reader recently asked me what PL activities I would have out to begin the school year, so I thought I'd show you what is on my shelves for the first few weeks in the Practical Life area.  When I think of what to put out early in the year I try to find work that can easily be done successfully and independently by our new three-year-olds.  I also consider "points of interest" or, in other words, how to present a material in a way that will draw the child in so that they want to interact with it.  Considerations for point of interest include the uniqueness of the materials themselves as well as the types of vessels, trays or containers and how they coordinate to make the activity aesthetically pleasing.  All activities in the Practical Life area should in some way encourage children to use and refine their fine motor skills.  These activities also indirectly assist the child's development by increasing their concentration as there is an obvious point at which the child is "finished" or "not finished."  We encourage children to finish each work they choose before returning it to the shelf.  It also must be returned in the same condition it was found.  Of course this takes lots of practice and some direction from the teachers.

For less than $2 at your local hardware store you can put this nuts and bolts activity together.  To do this the child simply finds the correct nut and threads it onto the corresponding bolt.  This is a wonderful activity for forcing "handedness" in that it requires children to use one hand as the "working" hand (the one that is threading the nut) and one hand as the "helping" hand (the one that holds the bolt).  It is interesting to observe individual children and how they approach this work.  This also requires a pretty good amount of concentration.  An additional point of interest are the glass bowls I have chosen.  When holding the metal nuts and bolts they add a pleasant "clinky" aspect to this activity.

Thrift store plastic apple bowls and fake apples (again thrifted and cut off from an apple garland).  The tweezers are used to grasp the apples by the stems and transfer them to the other bowl.

I love these purple metal footed bowls that were here when I acquired this classroom.  When paired with the glass stones, there is, again, a pleasant auditory point of interest to this work.  The child spoons the glass stones from one container to the other.

Always on my shelves at the beginning of the year, this marble tonging work rarely stays on the shelf during work time.  You can't see this well in the photo, but the tongs are slightly concave which allows them to be perfect for transferring the marbles to the teddy bear's suction cups.  You will need to experiment with the utensils you have on hand to be sure you find one that the children can successfully use with the slippery marbles.  (I am going to write a post VERY soon about sources for the suction pads because I get that question a lot.)

Jars and lids is a classic Montessori PL activity.  Just find an assortment of small containers with lids and group them together.  The rolled felt is to be unrolled and placed on the table.  The child then removes each lid and places the lids and containers on the felt to prevent rolling.  Then the child re-matches the lids to the containers, rolls the felt and.......done!

Apple erasers (available at most teacher supply stores.......these might actually be pencil toppers), tongs and an ice cube tray.  Ice cube trays are great for a variety of sorting, spooning, and tonging activities.  So don't forget to pull out your old trays and think outside the box!

 

I almost always have some variation of a pegboard out on the shelves all year.  This is the one I start with.  The pegs are large and it is easy for children to complete it.  As the year goes on the size of the pegs decreases and the quantity increases so by later in the year I have out a pegboard with very thin pegs and 100 total pegs.

This screwdriver board is a hit with all children.  It is available through Montessori Services.  See link on the sidebar.

I have not put this out before and now I can't imagine why!  Squeezing the clothespins with enough strength to attach them to the rim of the jar is perfect for exercising and strengthening finger muscles. 

A close-up showing one clothespin on the jar rim.

Very early this summer I bought the three ice cream bowls and spoons and the green polka dot tray at Dollar Tree.  I don't know if they still have them, but I am sure that's where I found them.  I added some pom-poms I had on hand to represent the ice cream scoops.  This is a combination activity that works on sorting by color and the fine motor skill of spooning.  This will be new to everyone this year and I am hoping the children enjoy it.

   
 
 Well, this concludes my little tour of the practical life shelves.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!
 
 

Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for the overwhelming response to the ABC Twiggles giveaway post!  It is good to be back blogging here, especially after such a warm welcome.  Since so many of you have recently left comments, I am not going to be able to reply to each comment individually.  Please know how much I appreciate hearing from you.  If I have neglected to reply to a comment you sent me this summer and you are still waiting to hear, please email me again.  While I try to carefully respond to those of you with specific questions, I do occasionally (but unintentionally) forget to reply due to the volume of emails I get.  It's a nice problem to have in a way, but I do want to make a personal connection with people as my time allows.  Which reminds me.........if you have invited me to be a friend on one of the social networks such as Facebook, Jhoos, Twitter, etc., please do not be offended that I have not accepted your invitation.  As of this moment, I am not a member of any social network.  It is just a personal decision.  That's where I'm at for now.  I have had lots of encouragement (and grief!) from friends who know me in real life to join, but for now I'm not "out there."  I know enough to never say never.  (I thought I'd never switch from film to digital photographs.  I also thought I'd never switch to digital scrapbooking, and I haven't totally made that switch, but I can see it coming.)  I will be SURE to let you all know if my social network status ever changes.  Then y'all have to be my friend, okay?  (Just kidding.)

In other news..........

I am so excited about the new school year.  I love fall and all the great aspects of that season here in the midwest of the United States.  I also love thinking of new activities and materials and routines and organizational systems to add to my classroom.  AND I love sharing those ideas here.

Today I am sharing something I made this summer that I think will be very useful to me this year.  It is a little ring with cards that have seasonal songs, poems and fingerplays printed on them.  I am sure that most of you who work with young children have a stash of favorite songs and poems that you use each year.  I do as well, but I must admit that I haven't always been very organized with them so sometimes I forget from year to year which songs I like.  I also find things online and print them out to bring to school, but it's cumbersome to have to shuffle through a bunch of papers when teaching a new song. So....this summer I took the time to make a bunch of files of my favorites and to format them so they could be cut apart into little cards.  I then laminated these cards, hole-punched the corner, and now I have a little "ring of songs" for each season: fall, winter and spring.  I stuck one of those little removable hooks right by my calendar area and my fall ring of songs is hanging on it right now, waiting for the first day of school!

And just in case you were reading this thinking...........gee, that looks great, I sure wish Laura would make it available as a download.......HERE YOU GO!  Let me know what you think.

Download Apples Download Apples Leaves Pumpkins Download Pumpkins

Download Pumpkins Trick or Treat Download Pumpkins Trick or Treat Turkeys

Download Turkeys God's love

These are each single page files.  I printed mine on white cardstock.  After printing I cut them out (into fourths), laminated them, trimmed them, hole-punched them and put them on a ring.  You can't see it in the photo but to cutesify them I tied some seasonal ribbons onto the ring.  Hope you enjoy!

Montessori Materials Night

Last Thursday night I "hosted" a Materials Making night at my school.  It was a great way to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.  I wanted an informal event to allow parents to get to know each other.  Additionally, I wanted parents to have a way to feel directly involved with what we do in the classroom.  And I was also able to get a bunch of materials prepped for the school year.  I asked the parents to bring a snack to share.  Below you can see the sign I posted on the door.

My school is housed in a Catholic church which has a really great fellowship hall.  I had pre-prepped a bunch of materials so that parents could come in and help assemble things for our classroom.  This took a LOT of pre-planning and preparation, but it was so worth it because now I have so many things done that I would normally do on the weekends during the school year.

This photo shows how I set up a station to prepare the sound books we use with our sandpaper letters.  I had everything laid out with a little note telling what needed to be done.  A close-up of the note is in the second photo.

 
 

To prepare for Materials night, I had done a lot of planning this summer.  This year we are going to study an artist each month.  I have planned an art activity to go with each artist study.  Also, I have seasonal art projects that I put out throughout the year.  I created a planning sheet (which you can download below) to help me visualize the projects for the year along with what materials needed to be prepped for each activity.  As I (or the parent helpers) prepped the different items I highlighted them with a yellow marker so I can easily see what still needs to be done for each month's projects. 

Download Art planning sheet

Here's a close-up so you can see what I am trying to describe.  This was a pretty nifty little process and I am thrilled to have so many things highlighted before school even starts!  Maybe I'll get to spend most weekends home with my family this year! 

 

I'm back!! Did you miss me? (And I have a great giveaway!)

Hello, everyone!  If you are a regular reader of this blog you probably noticed that I've taken nearly three months off from writing posts.  I don't teach during the summer so there is not always a lot to write about!!  I also spend my whole summer catching up on things at home and hanging out with my two little boys.  This summer I DID spend a TON of time getting things planned for the upcoming school year........so I have a lot to share with you on that very soon.

First of all, however, I wanted to tell you about a great new website that I just became aware of called ABC Twiggles.  It was created by the founders of Kidssoup and I LOVE Kidssoup.  I have previewed their Letter A activities (which are free to download and review) and there is SO much good stuff there.  I love the fact that everything is already created and ready to be printed off and used.  I end up creating a lot of my own materials because I can't always find things formatted or made the way I like.  I really like the way they have put together their materials.  I am planning to download and print a bunch of things and I will blog about how I plan to use them in the classroom.

 

Here's the best news..........the great folks at ABC Twiggles are offering a FREE MEMBERSHIP to two of my blog readers!  Isn't that awesome?  To be eligible for this giveaway, please head over to ABC Twiggles and check out their free Letter A materials.  Then click back over here and leave me a comment telling what you like about what they have to offer.  I will accept comments until midnight on Monday, August 17th.  Then I'll randomly choose two people to receive the free memberships.  Also, if you don't win but really love their materials..........their subscription prices are VERY reasonable.  I can't wait to hear from all of you!  I've missed this blog and am excited to get going again.  Talk to you SOON!