Our Week

We spent a lot of time doing work outside on our deck this past week to take advantage of the sunshine. Here are photos of some of the work happening inside and outside the classroom lately.

Variation of the numerals and counters materials for 1:1 correspondence 

Practicing coordination and grace and courtesy for Mother's Day Tea

Transferring tiny eggs from a nest using tweezers

making a hanging bead stair 

addition with the decimal (base 10) system materials, also known as the golden beads

working with the positive snake game

Researching the definitions of the parts of a caterpillar

addition with the number rods

making a diagram for the parts of an insect

push pinning a triangle traced from the triangle metal inset, a writing preparation material

examining a blue jay feather in the nature basket

decorating invitation for Mother's Day Tea

Winter birds

 

I gave a hundred valentines.

A hundred did I say?

I gave a thousand valentines

One cold and wintery day.

I didn't put my name on them,

Or any other words

Because my valentines were seeds

For February birds!

 A few weeks ago we noticed a squirrel hanging upside down from a tree branch finishing off the suet from a feeder that had been left unattended by the birds. The children thought that we should put out some more seed for the birds after the naughty squirrel ate it all. So we did and the birds came. We have been talking about the different birds that have visited and have added work to the science shelf about the parts of a bird.

We have two feeders hanging now in prime viewing locations for bird watching. The grapefruit feeder below was made today and the inspiration came from my cousin Erin's blog readingmytealeaves.com. 

The chickadees took turns visiting the feeder this afternoon.

The squirrel is planning his next move.

Connecting science and cultural units to the practical life area

"I climbed up the apple tree
 All the apples fell on me
 Apple pudding
 Apple pie
 That was very good
 Oh my!"

The last few weeks we have been studying apples. We sang apples songs, talked about the parts of apples, and learned about Johnny Appleseed. Most of our cultural and science units are carried throughout all curriculum areas. While we were studying apples, the practical life area of the classroom had beautiful apple bowls, apples for scooping, and apples for stirring. Here's a glimpse of the the practical life shelves.

There are three practical life shelves. The shelf pictured  to the left is for pouring, scooping, and squeezing activities. The next shelf pictured below is for twisting activities, sewing and threading, and care of self. The third shelf is for care of the environment; sweeping, plant watering, window washing, etc. (sorry no photo).

The practical life materials aid in the development of coordination, concentration, independence, and order. As with all areas of the curriculum, the materials are carefully prepared to isolate a particular skill, be attractive, complete, and allow a child to work independently.

The materials are arranged on the shelves from left to right and top to bottom by order of the sequence of skills.
                                                                                 A favorite work was using an apple hole punch
to make a "bushel" of tiny construction paper apples to take home. We do love to collect
things! And though we don't realize it we are
also strengthening our hands and developing our fine motor skills in the process.

pom pom squeezing

Another favorite work was using putting pom pom "apples" into individual apple shapes in an apple ice cube tray. This work helps to practice using a pincer grip for writing, while building concentration and a sense of order. One of the tenants of the Montessori philosophy is repetition. Repetition is very important in developing fine motor coordination.

Using the apple cutter with play-do helped us to get ready for food
                                                         preparation with apples. We have already practiced rolling a ball   during prior play-do lessons. After rolling a ball of play-do, a child carefully centers the apple cutter over the play-do and presses down to create perfect "apple" slices.

apple cutter with play-do 

apples with cinnamon recipe

Sitting with a friend; enjoying conversation and the apples with cinnamon that they prepared

                                                                                 

I saw a little bird going hop, hop, hop. I said to the bird will you stop, stop, stop. He flew to the window said, "How do you do?". He shook his tail and away he flew.

Making books of birds

Tracing the parts of a bird puzzle

We have begun our studies of the five vertebrates with the study of birds. We talked about the parts of a bird and did writing work to make a book or traced the parts of a bird puzzle to make our own diagram of the parts of a bird.While doing this work, we were also strengthening our pincer grips by tracing the puzzle pieces and coloring, we added many bird names and words to our vocabularies, and we practiced careful handwriting. We talked about the characteristics of birds that make them different from the other vertebrates. We also talked about the characteristics of bats that let us know that they are mammals and not birds. There was a listening center with headphones on the science table for listening to real bird sounds. At circle we read Flute's Journey: The Life of Wood Thrush by Lynne Cherry. It is the story of a young wood thrush's first migration-across thousands of miles-from his nesting ground to his winter home in Costa Rica.

Listening to bird songs

We hung several bird feeders around the school.

The squirrels appreciated the bird feeders too.

Busy Fall

Hi Everyone!

The fall is flying by! It was wonderful chatting with you all at conferences. As always, feel free to email, call, or send a note in the morning with any questions or information to aid your child's experience in the classroom. The Fall Festival was a huge success! We had a great turnout from the Meadowbrook community and met families from our larger community who came for the open house. I especially enjoyed watching a few of the primary students decorate their parents faces at the face painting table! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the festival.

Thank you to everyone who has brought flowers for the classroom! Many children have chosen the flower arranging work and have taken great pleasure in caring for our classroom by decorating with their arrangement.

I'm sure many of you have noticed the lovely flower boxes around campus. You may not know that these boxes have maintained all season long by Ina (Matt's mom). Anna and I are very grateful for all of her hard work & for donating flowers. Please remember to thank her next time you see her.

Ames' 5th birthday

Ewan's 4th birthday

 We began our sewing work with a group "sewing circle". The first and second year friends sewed two foam pumpkins together and added stuffing before sewing them closed. The third year students began their sewing by practicing with a circular stitching board. They then attempted designs with an orange pumpkin shaped sewing board. The children were very proud of their finished projects.

On Friday mornings, we have been cooking our snack to share.

We read the book Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. It is about three friends making pumpkin soup together. It illustrates the difficulties that can occur with friendship. The Cat slices up the pumpkin, the Squirrel stirs in the water, and the Duck tips in just enough salt. But one day the Duck wants to stir instead, and then there is a horrible squabble, and he leaves the cabin in a huff. The Cat and the Squirrel start to worry about him and begin a search for their friend.

peeling potatoes

peeling an onion

Finally we joined the elementary classroom to share our pumpkin soup.

Many of the children have been very interested in the math work available and we are happily moving along through the math sequence. Each of the children are moving at his/her own pace through the sequence from working with the number rods, to numeration work and one to one correspondence, and then to the bead chains and linear counting. This work prepares them for the work with the operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). 

Two of three math shelves

working with the teens boards

 

one to one correspondence with a sets basket

counting a squaring chain

one to one correspondence with the sets boxes

The children are also very interested in any work that leads to writing. Wednesday and Thursday afternoons are devoted to writing time. We read at circle and then the children choose  independent writing work. Sometimes they chose to work on themed paper. We have used leaf themed paper, pumpkin paper, and solar system papers. They are recording their work in sensorial, math, and language. Many of the children have also chosen to copy books and information from our pre-cosmic education unit on the Universe. The Universe boxes were introduced to the children at circle. This is a lesson to show the children their place in the Universe. The Universe boxes are nesting boxes, the largest showing the Universe, then the Milky Way Galaxy, then our Solar System, Earth,  North America, The United States of America, Maine, Freeport, Meadowbrook Montessori School, and then in the box of Meadowbrook Montessori School is someone very, very special.

Universe box work 

Our work with the Universe Boxes led to a unit on stars and galaxies. We talked about how Earth orbits the Sun, which is the closest star to Earth. We are now working on learning about the planets in our solar system. We have been singing a Solar System song.  The lyrics to "The Family of the Sun" can be found here.

matching work with models of the Sun and planets.

A few more photos of classroom work.

writing words with the moveable alphabet

knobbed cylinders

matching color box II

punching out a star with a push pin