My Montessori Journey

Group Activity for "Way Out in the Desert" Book

Wow!  Sorry I've been absent from the blog for so long.  Life gets busy.  Anyway, I wanted to post a group activity we have done recently to go with the book Way Out in the Desert.  We have used this book as a literature-based way to get to know several desert animals.  In fact, this book prompted me to create a desert animals booklet-making activity that you can read about here. 

For our group activity I used laminated pictures of the ten desert animals from the book and numeral cards 1-10.  I placed these into a cloth bag.  At group time, the children passed the bag around the line and took a card from the bag without peeking.  Each child had either an animal picture or a numeral card.  As they passed the bag I asked each child to name their numeral or animal.  Once everyone had a card, I read the book aloud.  When I read each page the children with the corresponding numeral and animal picture came up and placed them into a pocket chart.  When I finished reading the book, the children and I "read" the pocket chart (i.e. "one horned toad, two hummingbirds".......etc.).  This was a great way to involve the children in the rereading of a familiar text.  It also helped to reinforce the vocabulary of our desert unit.

 

 

Desert Animals Books

One of the books I have been reading to the children to go with our desert unit is Way Out in the Desert.  This is a charming little board book based on the poem "Over in the Meadow" and features many desert plants and animals that we will be learning about. 

 

To piggy-back on what we've learned from this book, I made up a little cut and paste booklet activity.  My students LOVE to make little booklets and they really don't take me that long to create.  Below you can see how this work is set up on a shelf.  The children sit at the two white tables to do this activity.

 

There is a basket of "blank" booklets which have the names of the animals printed one per page and a holder with the animal photos to cut out........

 

...........and a basket with 2 pair of scissors, 2 glue sticks and 2 gluing mats plus a jar with a pencil for writing names on the cover of the booklets.

 

These laminated cards are attached to the back of the shelf for reference as the children make their booklets.  They are the same animals from the book, just using real photos of the animals instead of illustrations.

 

This photo shows a student getting ready to glue her scorpion photo in place.  I have found that setting up these booklets in this manner allows even my youngest children to be pretty independent at completing them with minimal adult help. 

 

Desert Sunset Art Project

Inspired by a trip I took to Tucson, Arizona last October, we are studying the desert in our classroom right now.  In addition to learning about how deserts look different from our landscape here in Iowa, we are learning about desert animals.  I came up with a little desert art project that has been out on our art shelf for about a week.  I love see how each child's interpretation of this is different.

Below you can see how I've set this up on the shelf:  a paper holder holds gray construction paper half sheets and brown newsprint paper cut into 3 inch wide strips.  The child takes one of each papers and the green tray to their work space.

 

The green tray has a vinyl mat, a textured plastic template, a box of crayons and a basket with a glue stick.  The first step is to place the brown paper onto the textured template and rub it with a brown crayon.  This makes the "sandy" desert ground.  Then they tear the textured piece in half to make it look even more realistic.

 

Before gluing the sandy ground in place, the child uses the various colored crayons to make "sunset stripes" across the gray paper.  Then the sandy ground is glued to the bottom.  We also have traced cactus to pin-punch and children who have punched out a cactus may add it to their desert scene.  Many children are also adding their own artwork which reflects their individual tastes and abilities.  So fun!

I tried to get the next photo to post horizontally but Typepad didn't cooperate.  This was taken while a child was working on it.

 

Here is another variation.  They have really loved making this project!

 

 

Melt an Ice Cube Game

This is a super-fun game for two friends to play.  Be forewarned that this activity elicits many giggles and squeals but it's SO fun!  We don't have this work out anymore, but we did have it out for the last two weeks of January.  Since much of the country is buried up to its eyeballs in snow, now would be the perfect time for you to play this game either at home with your own children or in your classroom.  The directions chart for this game can be found by CLICKING HERE.  In the photo below you can see that I've printed and laminated this chart and hung it on the wall right above this work.  The chart shows the children what action they must take depending upon what number they roll on the die.  Other materials needed include:  a basket with a towel or washcloth for wiping off cold/wet hands, a container to hold the die, a bowl filled with water, a salt shaker, a bowl to hold the ice cube, and a placemat.

 

 

 

While this activity may be done by one child, most children choose to play with a friend.  First, they bring the empty bowl to the teacher and ask for an ice cube.  After returning to their work spot, the children take turns rolling the die and doing the various actions in an attempt to melt their ice cube.  They quickly learn that the salt is the most effective method for melting the ice quickly.   (They also learn that rolling a "2" is the most exciting because you have to put the ice DOWN YOUR SHIRT!!!  My assistants and I had a blast demonstrating this work to the children.  They were so surprised to see us put ice cubes down our shirts!!)

Arctic Animals Books

Wow!  We haven't even had school for three days now due to the winter weather. I know many of you are in the same boat and maybe have it even worse than we do here in the Midwest.  Anyway......I finally got my home internet service up and running again AND found the camera cord, so I'm back catching everyone up on what we did the last few weeks of January.

We have been studying animals of the Arctic (North Pole) and I found a great resource over at Kidssoup that I used to make this Arctic Animals Book activity.  My little ones LOVE LOVE LOVE to cut and paste and make their own little booklets to bring home.  From the printable at Kidssoup I chose six animals that we had discussed and learned about.  I downsized them on the copy machine and made a master sheet with the animals on it.  Then I made files on my computer for the inside pages of the booklets.  I forgot to take a photo of these, but they just have the animal name in bold print.  The children have to color and cut the animal drawings and paste them on the correct pages.  There are control pictures attached to the back of the shelf for reference.  

The animals we are focusing on include:  walrus, seal, polar bear, narwhal, beluga whale and arctic fox.

 

 

 

"Iceberg" Activity

We have been learning about animals that live in the Arctic.  I have taught the children (by showing them on our globe) the difference between the Arctic (North Pole) and Antarctic (South Pole). We are now learning about the different animals that live in the Arctic.  In a week or so we'll talk about the animals (mainly penguins) that live in the Antarctic. 

I have enjoyed reading this book to the children as it has helped them learn about a few of the animals of the Arctic. 

A popular activity in our classroom right now is this iceberg activity.  I put a bunch of bowls and cups of water in the freezer to make mini-icebergs.  To do this work, the children sit at the two tables shown below.  They request an iceberg from a teacher and the iceberg is placed onto the blue tray which represents the ocean.  They can then use the small animals and figurines to act out arctic scenes.  There is a basket with a towel which they may use to dry their hands if they get too wet or cold.   This has been a really fun sensory activity for the children.  The arctic figures we are using are from the Arctic TOOB by Safari Toys.  You can often find these TOOBS in the hobby section of Hobby Lobby.

 

 

 

Snowflake Cut and Paste booklets

As I mentioned in this post, I decided to make some cut and paste snowflake booklets for the children using the snowflake photos I found.  Below you can see how I've set this up.  The wooden holder holds the snowflake booklets and the tray holds the matching pictures to be cut apart.

 

A little bottle holds a pencil for writing names on booklets and a basket holds scissors, glue sticks and gluing mats (these are just vinyl placemats cut into smaller pieces).

 

Here is the cover of one of the booklets.

And here is an inside page.  After the child cuts apart all the snowflake pictures, they glue the matching pictures into the booklets.  There are 9 pages in all. 

 

Snowflake Matching Cards

I decided to make up a little snowflake matching card activity using some real snowflake photo images I found online.  The image I found was in a grid, so I cut and pasted it into a Word document and then copied it and reduced it down so one grid was teeny tiny.   I wanted to post a download to this file, but when I posted it a reader informed it that it wouldn't open correctly.  I have looked into it but have been unable to correct it.  So.......if you are interested in this file please email me at [email protected] and I'll try to email it to you as an attachment.

I have laminated the big grid and took the little teeny grid pictures and cut them out.......

..........then I glued them onto squares of black construction paper as shown below (sorry for poor photo!).

I placed everything on a tray with a big magnifying glass.  Children can use the magnifying glass to look at the tiny snowflake on the card and match it to its "mate" on the big grid.  I am thinking of also  making this into a cut and paste booklet.  I'll post that if I get it done.  My kiddos LOVE making little booklets and the cutting and pasting is so great for their fine motor skills.

 

 

 

Animal Tracks Booklets

A new work in the classroom this week was Animal Tracks booklets.  To make these I used the free Animal Tracks download from Montessori For Everyone.  (It is listed under "Zoology" on the Free Downloads page......THANKS, Lori!)

I introduced this work at group time and showed the children each animal and the track it makes.  We talked about which animal tracks we might commonly see here in Iowa and those we would probably NOT see.  During the work period, the children can choose to make a booklet if they wish.

Below you can see how I've set this activity up in the classroom.  The materials are on top of a shelf with control cards attached to the back of the shelf.  To do this work, the children sit at the two white tables right next to shelf.

 

I made up a set of animal tracks booklets using the free downloads as masters........and also a cutting page with the animal tracks (reduced to 80% on the copier).

 

Also on the shelf is a basket with 2 pair of scissors, 2 gluesticks and 2 gluing mats.  In between the tray with booklets/cutting pages and the basket of materials is a little jar with pencils for the child to write their name on the booklet.

 

Here's a close-up of the laminated cards (from the download) attached to the back of the shelf.

 

The next photo shows a page from inside the booklets.  The animal photo is on the left with a blank area to the right for the child to cut and paste the corresponding animal track. 

 

I did not get any "action" photos of children making the book.  I know some of you will ask for a master copy for the booklets.  This is one of those times when I am going to just encourage you to go to Lori's site and download and print the files for yourself.  With some simple (yes, also time-consuming) cutting and pasting and copying on your part, you'll be able to replicate what I've done.  I hope you understand.  :-)

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Every fall I put out a pumpkin life cycle activity.  Prior to putting this out on the shelf, I read books about pumpkins to the children.  The two best books I've found about pumpkins for this age group are shown below.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is a newer (2009) book about pumpkins that I used this year for the first time.  I bought my copy at Barnes and Noble this summer, but it can also be found on Amazon.  The photos in this book are amazing.  I especially like the huge photo of the yellow pumpkin flower. 

 

My other current favorite is It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall and Shari Halpern.  It is a simple story with great illustrations that shows the pumpkin life cycle in a straightforward manner.  It can also be found on Amazon.

 
This year we did our pumpkin life cycle as shown below.  I prepared "pumpkins" using two orange paper plates staple together.  I cut a slice from one side of one plate to make an opening.  I also pushed out the rounded part of the top plate so the inside would be "hollow".  Then I stapled a little stem on top and taped a piece of green yarn inside for the pumpkin vine.  Two very helpful moms prepared the life cycle pictures by cutting them out and paper-clipping them together in a set.  Other supplies were glue sticks and colored pencils.

 

I stuck a finished life cycle vine to the back of the shelf for the children to use as a reference for coloring and sequencing their pictures.  CLICK HERE for a link to the printable I used for the life cycle pictures. 

Below is a photo of a life cycle completed by a student in my class this week.  I have been so impressed with how successful even my youngest students can be with this activity when it is presented as shown. They are so proud to take home their pumpkins and pull the "surprise" out of the inside to show their families about the pumpkin life cycle.