My Montessori Journey

A few oldies but goodies

For the parents of my current students who look at this blog for updates (as well as those of you who don't have the time or inclination to read through the entire archives of this blog!), I wanted to share links to a few activities that are on our shelves now that I've written about in past years.

If your child has been trying to describe the ROTTEN EGG GAME to you, CLICK HERE to read all about it.  It is great fun to play this with a friend.

Similarly, if you have been the recipient of some darling CHICK DRAWINGS, CLICK HERE to see how this work is set up on our shelves so you can see the steps your child used to create his/her artwork.

On our math shelf, we have this EASTER COUNTING GAME which is also fun to play with a friend.

I also have out many of the activities that I have linked to in THIS POST.

There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea

Another fun (and totally silly) book we have read quite often during our desert unit is There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward.  This is a silly and outrageous version of the "Old lady who swallowed a fly" books, and it's set in the desert. 

 

 

I wanted to make a project to go along with this book and was thrilled to discover a free printable activity from the author's website.  I used it to make two activities for the children to do independently.  CLICK HERE for a link to the website where you can print your own copy.

The photo below shows the shelf in my science area where I have set up this work.  The middle shelf holds all the materials for this particular book.

 

At the far left in the photo above is a basket which has a laminated numbered strip and laminated pictures of everything the coyote "ate" in the story.  To do this work the child unrolls the strip and places the picture cards in correct order.  They are also numbered on the back so the work is self-correcting.

 

Below you can see the first two cards placed on the strip.  Typepad would not allow me to rotate the photo.....so I apologize for its position.

 

Next to the basket with the sequencing activity are two trays with pages printed directly from the author website.  The child takes one page from each tray and a basket with scissors, glue and a gluing mat (shown at far right in the first photo).  They cut out the pictures and sequence them in order on the grid page.  Then they can take the paper home and retell the story to their family.  Retelling a story is wonderful for working on oral language skills as well as memory.

 

 

Book Giveaway

This is not a Montessori-related book, but I wanted to let you all know that I have a copy of the book Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness by Candace Cameron Bure to give away.  Please CLICK HERE to read my full review of this book on my other blog.  You can register for the giveaway on that blog as well. 

 

 

October Artist Study: Vincent Van Gogh

This month we are studying about Vincent Van Gogh.  The painting we have learned by Vincent is shown below, "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers."  After learning a little bit about Vincent, I set up this art activity for the children so they could draw their own sunflowers.  I have read a little bit from the book Sunflowers and Swirly Stars  so the children could learn about Vincent.  Then, I got two real sunflowers and placed them into a vase with the painting hanging nearby.  It has been fun to see the many variations of sunflower drawings that have resulted from this activity.  A few are shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

Life Cycle of an Apple Tree work

This week we are picking apples from a tree near our playground.  We have been walking by this tree every day on our way to recess and we usually stop beneath it to sing our new apple song.  We have borrowed a few "apple pickers" from our families since the branches are too tall for us to reach. Next week we are going to bake little apple pies with our apples.  I will be sure to post about that process....so stay tuned.

At group time this week we are learning a little more about how apples grow.  I have read parts from the book How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro.  This book has beautiful illustrations and lots of great information about the life cycle of an apple tree.

 

On our science shelf this week is an activity where the children can sequence a set of photos to show the life cycle of an apple tree.  To make this work I used images from a free download from Montessori for Everyone.  It is under the "Botany" section in the free downloads.  Lori has so many beautiful mateirals on her website.  I have purchased many from her.  I also have a set of printed and laminated apple life cycle 3-part cards on the shelf.  I used those to make the cut and paste paper for this activity.

This is how I've set up the materials on a tray on my science shelf.  There is a little woven tray which holds the cut-apart pictures.  I copied them on a color copier and they look awesome!  Then there is a stack of white (cheap-o) paper plates which have an address label stuck to the middle.  It says, "Life Cycle of An Apple Tree."  You can download a sheet of the labels using the link below.  And we have a little basket with scissors, gluestick and gluing mat.

Download Life Cycle of Apple Tree labels

 

This completed life cycle plate is stuck on the wall near the science shelf to use as a control for the work.  I love using a plate for life cycle activities instead of a booklet because they really demonstrate the cyclical nature of life cycles so well.

 

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins

For the past week we have been reading the book Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins.  This is a fun, rhyming, rhythmic text that children can easily begin to "read" along with an adult. It also reinforces math concepts in that one apple is removed from the tree on each page.  Children can predict how many apples will be left on the next page. 

When I plan to add an interactive activity to our story time, I always spend about a week just reading the text to the children so they can become familiar with it without the distraction of props or materials.  Then I add the props to our story time the following week.

This summer I found some printable materials to go with this book at Hubbard's Cupboard.  (A great website if you have never checked it out.)  CLICK HERE to go to the page about Ten Red Apples.  You will have to scroll down to where the pocket chart activity is and you will find the printables to download.  I loved the way this activity was described at Hubbard's Cupboard; however, I enjoy making hand-sewn props for my classroom.  So instead of using the apple cards in the printables, I sewed up some felt apple beanbags.  I used this pattern from Making Learning Fun to make the felt apples.  (Sidenote:  When I make things with felt I have found that I love working with wool blend felt so much more than the cheap acrylic felt you can usually find at craft stores.  If you are interested in purchasing the "good stuff", I always order online from Colonial Crafts.  They ship superfast and their prices are reasonable.  Their wool "squares" are 12 X 18 inch rectangles which is much bigger than the typical acrylic pieces.) 

For our group activity, I placed the ten felt apples into a basket along with the "character cards" I printed from Hubbard's Cupboard.  The children passed the basket around the circle, each child taking one item out of the basket.  Then I read the book out loud.  When I read the part about an animal eating an apple, the child holding that animal card stood up and took an apple from someone holding an apple.  Then they returned to their place on the line with the apple and animal card.  We tried this for the first time today and the children really loved this activity.  In a week or so I will put it out on the shelf for them to use as an independent activity.

 

Here is a close-up of the little apple bean-bags.  I was very happy with how they turned out.  I took the brown stem pieces and folded them in thirds and hand-stitched them to make them more "stemmy".  Then I inserted the stem and a felt leaf between the two layers of red apple and zig-zagged around the edges, leaving a small opening for adding lentils.  Then I zig-zagged the opening closed.  I just love these little apples. 

 

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." 

 
 
  
 

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!"

Random Acts of Reading Interview

Hello!  I'm just popping in over here to let everyone know that Shannon from Letter, Numbers & Books Oh My! has interviewed me about my Random Acts of Reading project.  CLICK HERE to read the interview.  Since this blog has OODLES more subscribers and readers than my other blogs I wanted to promote the project over here.  If you would like to be involved you can read THIS POST or THIS POST to find out more details.  My goal is to collectively give 2,010 books in 2010.  I have personally pledged to give 100 this year.  Obviously that means I'll need many more people helping out.  So far it's been a really fun and rewarding project for me and my family.    I hope you'll consider joining in.  THANKS!

PS:  Coming soon............more posts about our solar system unit in the classroom.

Printable labels for Random Acts of Reading

Since I have not been able to figure out how to link to Word documents on Blogger I am embedding the links for the Random Acts of Reading labels over here at Typepad.  If you are interested in participating in Random Acts of Reading and want to do it through my Random Acts of Reading blog so your book drops can count toward the 2010 total, please print off these labels and attach one of each to your book packs.  I usually put clear packing tape over the labels so they are more weather-resistant.  These documents are formatted for 2X4 inch shipping labels (Avery #8163). 

Download Take me home labels

Download Congratulations labels

NOTE:  The "Congratulations" labels say:  Congratulations!!  You have just found a book pack from Random Acts of Reading.  Please share your discovery with a child and enjoy the wonder of reading together.  For more information check out our website:  www.ourrandomactsofreading.blogspot.com