On The Shelf: A Picture Diary of Montessori Work In Our Classroom

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Some spring stuff.

Spring forward to new materials...

Friendship bracelets for friends!

Tonging mini eggs into a nest.

What's hiding in the grass. "Peep, peep."

Pouring sand with a funnel.

Local birds with three part nomenclature cards.

We have been learning to draw faces. This outline helps children think about placement of eyes, nose, and mouth.

Self-portrait work. This work offers the child a bit more of a challenge: having to draw the shape of the head and all the details of their face that they see in the mirror.

We took close of shots of each child, then cut the pictures in half. The child completes the other side of his or her face.

Children learn gentle touch and enjoy a break from busy work cycles with the massage materials.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Polygon-o-rama and solar systemania!

Our polygon game. Children can use this material as a 1, 2, or 3 person game. Children spin the spinner and then connect the polygons to create shapes. Sometimes the children draw what they make on the chalkboard or on paper as an extension to this game.

This is our polygon work. It consists of popsicle sticks and a chart of some simply polygons: triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon. I found this material on Counting Coconuts. This has been my latest inspiration for making materials for our classroom.

Friends at Namaste have been enjoying embroidery and sewing. With this material children can make up their own constellations by connecting the stars or they can follow a constellation from the book.

Some of the friends painted these planets for our solar system work. Children can then sing the solar system song: (in the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon)

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and la, la, la, la, la (used to be Pluto)

These are all 8 planets that revolve around the sun. They are found in outer space and now our song is done!

Solar system laid out.

The control card above the mat helps children remember the order of the planets.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Some solar system stuff...

Here are some fun solar system materials we have been using in our classroom.

Color, cut, glue the planets in order of proximity to the sun.

1-9 counting with heavy, big rocks. This material is great for the child that needs to get some energy out. It is REALLY heavy.

Make a book of 1-? Put the number of stars that correspond to the numeral.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Moons and bunnies...

In honor of Chinese New Year's we are beginning to study the moon and soon the planets!

With this material, children follow the guide above and color in the phases of the moon.

This material has large moons with all the phases. The control of error is on the back to make sure the child has the moons in order. With this work, the children learn the concepts of waxing and waning moons.

Some of you have met our bunny, Snowbell. She loves her new home and has made a second home under our pink tower!

This material has a few steps to follow: trace, rip tissue paper and crumble up, and glue. Children need to take their time to fill up the whole bunny outline with tissue paper.

Rabbit 3 part cards. We have been exploring different rabbit breeds. This material shows only 8 rabbits, but we know there are MANY more. We used to have a Flemish Giant named Bumpkins. RIP Bumpkins.