The Mystery Bag is a much-loved activity that has yet to lose its fun with the children.  I use it as a high-interest hook to draw the kids away from free play into group time.  After the activity, they’re already in a circle and in a concentrating sort of mood, so it’s easier to transition to the Bible story.  The original instructions state that each child should place his hand in the bag, describe what he is feeling (“I feel something soft and round”), make a guess as to what it is, then remove the object to check how accurate his guess is.  Our class attempted this.

Teacher – I feel something hard and poky…I think it is the star. Pulls it out. I’m right!  Passes bag to girl on right.

Girly Princess – Furrows brow, and carefully feels around bag. I feel something…brown?  Um…

Mischievous Cherubic Boy -  Figures he’ll take a shortcut, for why would he bother guessing when he could just pull it out? It’s a soldier!  Bang!  Bang!

The children simply did not have the vocabulary to think of adjectives to describe the objects before pulling it out.  So I changed the rules so that each child had to tell me what they were planning to pull out before they put their hand it.  That way, they’re still focusing on the tactile input coming into their brain. That worked out well.

Today, I dumped out the bag, and set out retiring some of the pieces and adding others.

The Favorites

The favorite objects seem to be ones that children can do something with.  The prism is always the first out, and promptly brought up to the eyes to look at the light through it.  The jingle bell can be run, so it is generally second.  The boys like the metal soldier for reasons beyond my comprehension.  The bracelet can be put on the wrist, and one can put things in the velvet bag.

The Second-Stringers

The star has an easily identifiable shape, and the little bear is kinda cute.  The wooden knob, stone, cotton ball and shell eventually do get picked.   This shell is made of sterner stuff than the first shell I used, which broke within the first week.

The Rejects

I’m getting rid of the lego because I feel like it, and the penny because it always falls to the bottom of the bag and is difficult to find.  The ribbon tends to stick to a child’s fingers when she is trying to pull another toy out.

The Additions

I’ve got a pair of buzz magnets around the house somewhere that I’m going to add.  I’m also throwing in a plastic horse, and a dollhouse sized wooden barrel with a lid that comes off and on.

Cylinder Blocks & Knobless Cylinders
Theoretically all the knobless cylinders can replace the knobbed cylinders in the cylinder blocks–except when both are purchased from separate discounted manufacturers.  I think what DS enjoyed the most about the exercise, however, was discovering that a small dowel poked from the underside helps to remove a knobless cylinder that may be in the wrong hole.

Knobless Cylinders in Cylinder Blocks

We worked with the Tangoes Game again today (see the previous post).  For those of you with an iphone, we’ve discoverd a game called “Tanzen” which uses the same seven shapes.  We’ve been using the free version but DS has just made the connection and is really enjoying it so we’ve upgraded to the paid version (which costs a whopping 99 cents).

DS also learned to braid today.  We took a cue from the Montessori Moments blog and braided using Wikki Stix which worked out pretty well.

Here’s a rundown on some of the things we’ve done this week that I haven’t posted about before.

Color Basket 1
We started Montessori well after DS knew his colors so I only made Color Box 3 (or, in our case, color basket 2).  But while I was making it I presented this version of color work that I made using clothes pins and paint swatches.  We discussed that we were doing this work for the last time as DS has outgrown it and it’s coming off the shelves.  He has really outgrown both, but he’s not ready to give up the other one yet.

Color Basket 1

Home Made Compass and Treasure Map
As a followup to all the map work we’ve been doing lately we did two fun projects.  We made our own compass and used it in conjunction with a treasure map I prepared.  The treasure map was made in the same style we’ve been using to map the rooms in our house.  The “treasure” was a golden dollar that we put in the household ”Treasure Chest” (a box with special coins and paper money we’ve collected).  It was a nice conclusion to our lessons on maps.

Knobless Cylinders Blindfolded
DS doesn’t really like to be blindfolded.  That being said, he cooperated very well and did a pretty good job.

Knobless Cylinders-Blindfolded

Continent Song
We’ve been doing the Melissa and Doug World Map puzzle a lot lately so I taught DS a song to name the continents.  I made it up but it’s similar to many that I’ve heard.  This one is sung to the “Frere Jacques” tune.

“Seven continents, seven continents,
Name them all, name them all,
North and South America,
Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia,
Antarctica.”

First we sing it at a slow and reasonable pace and as we repeat it we sing it faster and faster which makes it fun for him.  Kids are so amazing.  He learned it right away.

Color by Number
In my constant worry that the child has never been interested in coloring,  I tried to entice him to color by number.  At first, he wasn’t interested, but after presenting it a couple of times with subject matter he likes, he seems to have taken to it.  I created my own “color key” and I color code whatever I think will interest him.  Since this picture was taken, we’ve switched from crayon or marker to good quality colored pencils (Prismacolor) which are a joy work with.  They have the added benefit in that the number doesn’t show after adding the proper color.

Color By Number

In fact, later in the week DS wanted to roll butcher paper out onto the floor to color on and cover it with fields of a farm to which he added natural colored blocks as hay bales.  Then he re-enacted planting and harvesting.  Of course, I  followed the child.  He did want help and I obliged.  It was a big undertaking.

Farm Drawing 1

Farm Drawing 2

Letter Swat
We also played a game with letter cards in which we each use a (clean) flyswatter to see who can find and swat the proper letter to go with the sound.  We usually reserve this for playing with others but DS decided we could play it with just the two of us if we put some cards down and then both back away.  I would say the sound and then we would run for it!  So I gave him a starting spot that was closer to the letters than mine and after every letter one of us took off the floor we added one from a pile on the table to replace it.  We actually went through all the lowercase and all the uppercase letters playing this way and he had a lot of fun.

Tangoes Game
A great find to follow up on the contructive triangles…

Tangoes Game

Building Sandbox with Dad
Last but certainly not least, here’s DS helping DH build our great new sandbox.  I’ll try to get a picture up soon with the sand in it.  DS has been playing in it every day since we filled it, but the last couple of days it’s been rainy and a bit chilly.

Building The Sandbox

Notes for me about other things we’ve done this week as well…
-pumpkin parts and pumpkin lifecycle
-USA puzzle
-Button snake
-The combination lock
-An “I Spy” matching game in which the match had the same subject matter but the rest of the picture was not an exact match
-Sewing (lacing) cards
-Necklace work
-Chickyboom Game
-Generic Coloring
-Sandpaper Letters

Geography
It was lots of fun continuing our work with the compass today.  DS drew three arrows on blank index cards for me and I wrote “South”, “East” and “West” on them to go with our “North” card from yesterday.  Using the compass we correctly placed the cards in our school room and then we went to the living room and pretended we were camping.  We talked about the sun rising from the east and setting in the west.  I pretended to wake up from my night of camping and DS used a flashlight and pretended to be the sun rising and setting, then once he knew which direction was east or west, of course, he could figure out north and south.  It was great, and not only does he know how to orient himself with a compass, but without one as well.

Pipe Cleaner Work
This is something we first did last year.  Pony beads fit perfectly on the pipe cleaners.  They’re super easy to put on yet they don’t slide off.  There are two six inch pipe cleaners of each color and one has a pattern of pony beads on it which have been hot glued at each end so they won’t come off.  The exact number and color of loose pony beads are provided to complete all the patterns.  I’m not surprised he chose this work since we’ve been paying attention to patterns lately.

Pipe Cleaner Work

Hundred Board By Threes
DS asked to do the hundred board by threes today–cool.  I expected him to put the numbers right next to each other but he wanted to put them in their proper place.

Hundred Board by 3s

Yeast Feast Revisited
We repeated the experiment today using a much smaller bottle (a 12 oz glass coke bottle) and have realized that we needed to wait a much longer time than we first expected.  The balloon is still getting bigger as I write this.  I’ll post a picture on Monday.

Additionally, we noticed how the construction paper ghosts we made have faded in the sunlight and the saltwater we made in a previous science experiment had evaporated and left salt on the bottom of the cups.

It was a good school day today.  Have a great weekend.

Esse e outros paradigmas da publicidade como “merchandising sempre funciona” e “mensagem subliminar é o futuro” são abordados pelo mago do branding Martin Lindstrom em seu mais recente livro, Buyology – Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Traduzido para o Brasil como A lógica do consumo – Verdades e Mentiras sobre por que compramos. Editora Nova Fronteira, 2009).

Martin prova por a + b (com a  ajuda de máquinas de ressonância magnética rs) como as decisões de compra executadas pelo cérebro têm menos  a ver com a percepção consciente que acreditamos ter de um produto/serviço e sim com as associações INCONSCIENTES  que são linkadas em frações de segundo.

E nós, que sempre acreditamos em pesquisa de opiniões e grupos focais… esqueça! Esqueça conforto, praticidade, preços baixos, sexo, e tudo aquilo que você sempre achou que venderia na publicidade. A verdade sobre porque compramos reside verdadeiramente no processamento de sensações relacionadas à marca, desde as visuais, até as mais (aparentemente) imperceptíveis, como as olfativas (sim, cheiros podem ser mais poderosos que imagens).

Esta é a era do branding sensorial, com menos logos e mais sugestões de sensações. Sem querer soar apocalipticamente 2012, mas os profissionais de publicidade e marketing que não compreenderem isto estão com seus dias contados.

Fica aqui nossa sugestão de leitura. Este definitivamente é um dos livros de cabeceira que todo aluno de publicidade que se diga minimamente interessado em marketing deveria ter =)

I personally think that Justchrys has a good Marketing strategy, at least a new and daring one. Nevertheless, I don’t always appreciate their artistic photo creations. The world they build throughout their communication images is so artificial and distant that I think consumers wouldn’t easily be able to identify with this lifestyle and atmosphere.

Courtesy Justchrys

Above is the Autumn picture on the front page of Justchrys‘ website. Well, I understand they wanted to associate the Chrysanthemum image to a more luxury and sensorial positioning, but the execution, in my opinion, is not at the height of the project.

I have done a little research in my image archives and have found two photos that I would use to represent the Chrysanthemum. The image of Chrysanthemums here is glamour and aspirational but remains natural and accessible.

  Courtesy Elle Magazine and Numero Magazine

Thermometer
In the latch box this morning I had an outdoor thermometer for kids.  It has pictures of the typical clothing that would be worn for various temperatures.  DS was thrilled with it and excited to be able to determine for himself what type of clothing to choose for the day.  We’ll see if he actually uses it.

Thermometer

Primitive Map Symbols
Today we began a series of mapping lessons.  These are primitive map symbols we practiced drawing in the sand tray, and then we made our own primitive maps.

Primitive Map Symbols

Primitive Map

Afterward we mapped one of the shelves in our school room.

Shelf Map

Then we tried to map the first floor of our house, which proved to be too difficult.  DS wanted to be much more precise than his abilities would allow.

House Map

Bull Dozer Puzzle
I guess the kidlet’s brain needed a break by then because he chose his bulldozer puzzle.  Actually, it’s not the easiest puzzle we have but it’s a big floor puzzle–always a draw, he has a system for solving it and a pivoting bucket once it’s put together which he thinks is just grand.

I’ve been struggling with presenting new work lately.  DS goes through things REALLY fast.  I find that I’m spending A LOT of time preparing my poor man’s version of Montessori materials and then he breezes through them and is ready for the next thing.  I know it sounds like I haven’t found exactly what level of work is the right challenge for him but I’m not so sure that’s it.  Anyway, what I was getting at is that I’m having to fill in new presentations with non-traditional Montessori work while I’m preparing new things (during successive middle of the night work sessions which seems to be the only time that I have available).  Anyway, so my struggle is to find things that are in the Montessori spirit but that I can throw together with little effort and maximum attractiveness.  I wish I could afford to purchase the entire math curriculum because I know DS is going to LOVE it.  But alas, I foresee a lot of bead work in my immediate future…

Spider Sifting
This idea came from the Itty Bitty Love blog.  The spiders are rings (with the ring part cut off) that came in a pack of 50. They’re Wal-Mart Halloween party favors.  They are much finer plastic than you might expect and the work was more challenging than I thought it would be.  DS enjoyed it.  There were twelve spiders in the bowl which corresponds to the twelve receptacles in our sorting tray (which is a Mancala game board).

Spider Sifting

Tong Work
The object is to place marbles in the suction cups on the reverse side of the bathtub safety doohickeys (I can’t for the life of me remember what they’re called).  When I originally presented the work it was with three stars, each with 20 suction cups, and exactly 60 marbles (20 of three different colors).  Other than the obvious motor control I was emphasizing the 1-to-1 relationship.  But after a few times with the work, he seemed bored with it and it seemed as if his creativity was being stifled.  Little by little more marbles and suction cup thingies were added and now he takes pleasure in the work again, designing each one and “tonging” away as he does it; so that’s just fine with me.

Tong Work

Tweezer Work
Well, it’s that time of year again so we’ve been able to replenish the tweezer work with actual Indian corn.  DS was so-o-o excited when DH brought it home the other day.  A happy boy with  seasonal decorating and happy squirrels on the horizon (for more info see the original post on “tweezer work”.)

Tweezer Work Again

We also gathered up the vases we placed around the house a few days ago and snipped any faded flowers and leaves.  Then DS very carefully added new water to each vase.  That’s his favorite part, to be sure–carefully pouring in the water.

Bead Stringing Patterns
These bead stringing patterns are way too easy for DS.  I need to put out the more complicated ones or make my own.  FYI for those interested, I got the patterns and the corresponding beads from a retail teacher supply store called “The School Box”.  With homeschooling becoming so popular these days, I wonder why these types of stores don’t start catering more to the home school and Montessori crowds?

Bead Stringing Patterns-PAB

Geometric Solids Concrete Extension

Geometric Solids Concrete Extension

We had trouble finding a pyramid today.  We have some pyramid shaped dice that we usually use during this work, but we couldn’t find them for some reason.  After not coming up with anything at all, I used pieces from one of the constructive triangle boxes to fashion a temporary one.  Ah-h-h the mother of invention.

Almost everything DS chose to do today, Constructive Triangle Boxes 1-5, Clothesline work, Pumpkin Nomenclature, and the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin have all been pictured in recent posts.  What you haven’t seen before is our Latch Box.  I asked my brother to come up with some sort of latch board work and this was what he made for us.  I love having a big brother!  For those who want to do something similar, the ABC box came from Hobby Lobby.

Latch Box

Latch Box 1

Latch Box 2

Latch Box 3

I’m thinking about placing an intriguing little something in the Latch Box on Mondays and using it to introduce one of the new lessons we’ll be covering during the week–or maybe I’ll put objects in it to spell with the movable alphabet.

Knobless Cylinders
I purchased some knobless cylinder pattern cards from the Montessori Print Shop.  It’s inexpensive and quick because you get immediate download access to your purchase.  But it’s one of those things that I just should be able to do on my own if I wasn’t doing 800 other things.  DS really liked the patterns that stacked the colors, and was a little distressed that the printed circles were bigger than the pieces.  So actually, I think I’ll just layout some patterns, and then trace and color them with colored pencils.  Then if I ever get around to doing them on the computer–fine.

Knobless Cylinders Pattern Cards 1

In the next picture, first, DS completed a pattern card that used two colors, then we added in the other two colors to make our own final creation.

Knobless Cylinders Pattern Cards 2

The next picture is another angle of our creation.

Knobless Cylinders Pattern Cards 3

Geometric Solids
An abstract extension of the work we did yesterday, today we matched pictures to the geometric solid shapes.

Solid Geometric Shapes Categorization

DS has grown out of many of his socks, so today we turned the old ones into school work…

Clothesline Work

First, DS helped me install a retractable clothesline in his school room.  Then we put ten pairs of socks into a small kid sized round laundry basket.  I got it a couple of years ago from a thrift store and we’ve used it for MANY activities since then.  I put some wooden clothes pins in a zippered bag and tossed them on top of the socks in the basket and, voila, pincer grasp and practical life work.  It kept him interested, at least for today anyway!

Clothesline Work

Geometric Solids
It’s been a while since we did this work, so I reviewed all the names using the “3 Period Lesson”.  Next, we placed all the shapes in a bag.  I showed DS a picture of the shape and asked for it by name.  He finds the shape in the bag by touch only.  This is all pretty easy for him, but if I don’t review it now and then he doesn’t remember the proper names for everything.  I have a few extension activities (pictures to match to the correct shape, and running around the house retrieving and categorizing things with each shape), but if anyone can think of something else to do PLEASE share it with me.

Geometric Solids

By the way, we got our shapes and cards from two different sources and they don’t exactly correspond (although I’m working to rectify that).   I find it frustrating that no one in the Montessori world seems to differentiate between a square prism and a rectangular prism.  Also, my solid geometric shapes came with both a square based pyramid and a triangular based pyramid but the cards only came with a “pyramid” (the square based one).    Argh!

DS was choosing intellectually comfortable work today.  Who can blame him, he’s been through a lot in the past few days?  We started with a matching game using the huge set with the geometric shapes.  Then he chose one of his old standbys, tweezer work.  Remember, with the corn kernals?  If you don’t remember, check the post for Monday, August 17th for a description.

We also did addition and subtraction (and longer and shorter) with the number rods  (as described in yesterday’s post), but DS wanted to ask me the questions this time–and he did quite well at it.

The Money Trading Game

This is new.  Recently, we’ve started Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace, Jr. with DS.  In short order it was evident that he would need to understand the relationship of monetary denominations.  My first thought was that I should go ahead and cover fractions with him.  I still think that’s appropriate but while I’m making the work I ran across a variation of this “Money Game” on the A Montessori Classroom blog.

The Money Trading Game

I changed it up a bit from the way the teacher who wrote the blog setup the game, but it’s not a whole lot different.  The object of the game is to get four quarters which you then trade to get a silver dollar coin and win the game.  You get the four quarters by taking turns rolling a die and taking one cent for every dot on the die.  Each player must trade up to nickles and dimes until they can trade two dimes and one nickle for a quarter.  It’s amazing how fast DS has started to learn the value of each coin.

For a shorter version of the game (it takes longer than you might think) play for a half dollar.  That also provides an opportunity to familiarize the child with another little used coin.

Well, between multiple foot soaks, ointment applications and two rounds of antibiotics daily, school is going to be a challenge to fit in; but we shall make a valiant effort.  By the way, DS is over being good about taking the yucky antibiotics.  Only four more days…

Addition and Subtraction with the Number Rods

Number Rods

After DS arranged the Number Rods in size order, I asked him for the number five rod.  Then I asked for things like, “Give me the Number Rod that is two more than the number five rod.”  We worked through all of them using addition, and then we repeated the exercise using subtraction.  We also did the work asking for a rod longer or shorter than a specific number rod.  And, of course, when we were all done, DS added the Red Rods and created a huge maze to walk through.  This seems to be the most exciting version of  “Walking the Line” lately.

Nut and Eye-bolt Work

Nut and Eyebolt Work 1

This is fairly straightforward work.  Four different sized eye-bolts and four matching nuts.  The dish is a magnetized dish used in a workshop to keep those pesky screws, washers, nails, nuts and bolts from escaping.  The magnetized dish really ups the interest factor for DS.

Nut and Eyebolt Work 2

Not pictured here, the child screws the nuts onto each corresponding eye-bolt.

Hardware Work

A while ago my brother build DS a stool with different sized threaded openings and various sized bolts attached.  The stool was presented with a container holding a large variety of corresponding hardware that would fit somewhere on the stool, appropriate tools and a tool box.  Of great interest at first, DS hasn’t chosen it for awhile so he worked it with renewed freshness today.

Harware Work 1

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Hardware Work 2

After great fun at the beach, we drove home most of the day on Sunday, so we’re back to school today (Monday) but we’re easing back in.

Baric Tablets

Baric Tablets

The child differentiates the weight of 21 tablets, lightest, medium weight and heaviest.  We’re only using the lightest and heaviest at the moment.  This is the first day DS would actually do the whole thing with a blindfold; he’s not very fond of it.

On Tuesday morning DS woke up with an infected toe accompanied by a red streak running up his foot to his ankle.  After a trip to the pediatrician we found out he has a staph infection.  He needed two GIANT shots (one in each thigh).  Even after waiting 40 minutes for an allergic reaction before checking out it was still painful in his thighs for him to walk to the car.  But I was so impressed on how incredibly brave he was during the whole thing–and so were the nurses!  We also have ointment for the wound and yucky tasting antibiotics to take twice a day.

Needless to say, we didn’t have much time for school on Tuesday.  I did demonstrate the cylinder blocks blindfolded but DS wasn’t going for it in the least.  Though at one point later I tried to make some progress on painting one of his globes and he wanted to paint as well.  After letting him help me with the actual globe as much as he could I handed him some paper plates and paint pens.

Painting

Painting Stick People

The first figure is a stick person leaning over and the second is a stick person with “cut hair”.  DS has just been introduced to stick figures because the doctor asked me if he could draw them during his annual visit.  Well, DS has never been much of a colorer or drawer so I had to say that I didn’t know the answer to that question.  (By the way, the doc said it was fine when he found out that DS could write his name.  He was just looking for a certain level of fine motor control).  So DH and I have recently showed him what stick figures are.

Painting Porcupine, Butterfly and Figure Eight Plus

These “paintings” by DS are quite surprising to me.  I’m sure they wouldn’t be much for most four year olds, but as I said, he’s never been much of a colorer or drawer so for him, it’s quite a milestone!

Back to the doctor on Wednesday and two more GIANT shots.  Poor boy.  And he’s been great with his antibiotics even though he despises taking them.  By the way, three teaspoons at a time is a lot when it doesn’t taste very good!

Thursday’s doctor visit was much better, no shots, hooray!

Cutting Work

I had a poster with pairs of geometric shapes which I was using the paper cutter to cut apart, but DS really wanted to cut them apart with his scissors.  Now, so far, in the cutting work that he does in his school room, he’s cutting strips of paper and he’s had no appetite for cutting curves or anything fancy of any kind.  These were sizable rectangles so, first, I pre-cut them into pairs so all he had to do was cut through them to separate the pairs and he did a fine job.  I was quite surprised.  I’ll try to add a picture to this post to show you.

By the way, for a long time I would pick up paint strips from the store, you know, the kind with four different shades on them.  I would get them in all colors and add them to his cutting basket.  At first I cut them lengthwise so it would be easier for him to cut through.  Eventually I left them whole and started adding lines on them to make it more challenging.  They were much more interesting to cut then plain strips of paper.  Even on the plain strips of paper I would spice it up by printing words (like his name) and placing the letters wide enough apart for him to cut between.  Way back when that was another opportunity for letter recognition.

Another approach to make the cutting work more fun was to let him cut it for his toy garbage truck.  That inspiration was enough to keep him going daily for months and he still goes back to it when he finds something interesting to cut—like craft foam!  Craft foam is very satisfying to cut, but that’s pretty much a special treat.  Who could afford to provide that for cutting work all the time!

There was no opportunity at all for school work on Friday or Saturday because we were having our community garage sale.  It’s been quite a week.  Let’s hope next week is much less eventful.

Today we played a matching game with some beautiful space flashcards that are full color photographs taken from NASA’s own spacecraft.  I bought two sets to increase the versatility of what we could do with them and the matching game is a no brainer.  I won’t be able to do this one for long though because DS in reading now and there are facts on the backs of the cards.

Bricklaying Game
This game has different length square prisms, each length with it’s own color.  There are enough pieces to make a perfect fit in the game board, no more, no less.  There’s also a matching die with all five colors and a blank. The object of the game is to be able to place a prism until they’re all gone.   Today, however DS was making a pattern with them which was just fine with me.

Apparently patterns were on his mind today…

Red Rods and Number Rods Extension Activity

Pink Cubes and Brown Prisms Extension Activities

Sandpaper Numbers and the Sand Tray

Now, it’s off to Mexico Beach for a long weekend with the in-laws.  No school until Monday or Tuesday, depending on when we return.

Knobless Cylinder Blocks
DS used to do one block at a time but now we start the work using all the blocks and all the cylinders.

Knobbed Cylinder Boxes

Knobbed Cylinder Boxes

Next we add the knobless cylinders to in some way to match them up to their counterpart in the cylinder boxes.  You can’t tell in this picture very well, but the matching knobbed cylinder is stacked on top of the knobless cylinder.

Extention - Knobbed Cylinder Blocks with Knobless Cylinders

Sequence Cards
I’m trying to put together a homemade set of sequence cards but I’m just not there yet.

Sequence Cards

Puzzles
DS was never really into puzzles when he was younger and is playing catchup with them now.  Today he completed six beginner puzzles which even he admitted were too easy for him and have now been taken out of the school room.  The next step up we have is this Melissa and Doug farm puzzle which he completed by himself for the first time today.

Farm Puzzle

Then I introduced this world map floor puzzle today which DS completed with some advice along the way.  Next time we’ll try it without advice .

World Map Puzzle

Tracing Geometric Shapes
In lieu of a geometric cabinet, we’re using another Melissa and Doug puzzle.  I’m thinking of making the various components for the geometric cabinet out of mat board.  If any of you Montessori homeschoolers out there have some suggestions about how to make this work I’d love to hear them.

Tracing Geometric Shapes

Constructive Triangle Boxes 1, 2, & 3
I made the first Constructive Triangles Box a while ago using a pattern graciously made available by jmj publishing and tracing it onto craft foam.  Today I reintroduced the original work and then added Box 2 which has the same triangles but using solid blue pieces.  DS was to create the same shapes without the color to help him identify the correct pieces to match up and without the black line the help him figure out the proper alignment.  This was way too easy for him.  Luckily I had already made Box 3.

Constructive Triangles Boxes 1 and 2

Constructive Triangles Box 3 has a solid isosolese triangle and then the same triangle made from two, three and then four pieces.

Constructive Triangles Box 3 - Trapezoid

After completing the work DS proceeded to arrange the triangles into a trapezoid and then a hexagon (until he ran out of pieces) which are some of the lessons with the next constructive triangle boxes.  I guess I’d better make the others…

Constructive Triangles Box 3-Hexagon

Sentence Strip
If I wasn’t trying to maintain a certain level of anonymity I’d show you DS’s actual work where he spelled his name three times with a marked improvement over each one…

Sentence Strip

Sewing Cards
I changed the cards in the sewing basket from miscellaneous animals to construction vehicles.  That was a big hit.  DS can “sew” both overcast and running stitches.  He was quite proud of his tractor.

Sewing Cards

Observations

Adherents of the Montessori method claim that children naturally enjoy and choose the Montessori activities.  In fact, Maria Montessori first picked which activities to keep in her classroom by observing what the children chose to spend their time with.

Montessori classes require an uninterrupted independent  three hour work period, and a prepared environment.

In my Sunday School class I have 1 and 1/4 hour teaching time. As it is a room shared with another class, any materials must be portable, brought in immediately before teaching, and taken down immediately after.

Research Question

Will 4-and5-year-olds actually enjoy a sensorial activity?  Can some semblance of the activity happen in my not-very-Montessori classroom?  And will it be a worthwhile activity?

(worth·while adj.  Sufficiently structured and engaging; distracts Boy #1 and Boy #2 from climbing to the top of the art easel and screaming madly)

Experiment

Using materials from the dollar store, and some essential oils which I already owned, I created Smelling Jars.  I dearly wished for some myrrh to use as a scent, but alas, I had none.  I did use some juniper berry, as well as cedarwood and cinnamon — all materials mentioned in the Bible.  A snippet of yarn was placed in each jar, so that each pair would require one blue jar and one orange jar.

Results

The kids enjoyed it!  They crowded around, unscrewing lids, smelling each smell, excitedly holding it up so I could also smell this new and interesting scent, and carefully repeating the scent names after me.  As the new activity in the room, no one wanted to play with puzzles or blocks, only these.  Which kinda backfired because…

Smelling Jars does not work as a group activity.  At all.  Way too chaotic.  I even tried it the next Sunday to be sure.  This activity really needs a “prepared environment” classroom, so that all the activities have the same level of newness.

I kinda had fun with it though.  Now that the bottles are made, I may use them during a lesson on Solomon building the temple (cinnamon was used in incense, and cedarwood for the walls), or for the Christmas story.

But I’ll need to buy that myrrh first.

A Xunta de Goberno da Deputación de Pontevedra, na súa sesión de 16 de setembro de 2009, acordou a aprobación das bases do premio Carmen Ferro, dedicado este ano á integración das persoas con discapacidade física, psíquica ou sensorial.
Neste senso, a convocatoria 2009 do referido premio ten por obxecto apoiar ós proxectos de carácter integral e innovadores, orientados á inserción sociolaboral ou social das persoas con discapacidade.
Poderán presentarse a esta convocatoria todas as entidades de iniciativa social, cunha antigüidade de dous anos,  que desenvolvan a súa actividade na provincia de Pontevedra e que traballen en proxectos da devandita índole.
A dotación orzamentaria da Deputación ascende a 18.000 euros, repartidos en tres modalidades de premios: dous de 6.000 euros cada un, para proxectos de inserción sociolaboral, e un premio, tamén de 6.000 euros, para proxectos de inserción social.
Cada asociación ou entidade unicamente poderá presentar un proxecto. Así mesmo, as entidades beneficiarias deberán atoparse desenvolvendo o proxecto presentado ou comprometerse a levalo a cabo durante o ano 2010.
Os avances producidos no campo da discapacidade e o novo concepto desta, baseado na igualdade de oportunidades, son os que levaron á Deputación a dedicar neste ano o premio á integración deste colectivo, en aras a que poidan acadar unha vida normalizada, integradora e autónoma.
Cada ano a Deputación pon en marcha o premio Carmen Ferro para distinguir o labor no ámbito social de asociacións sen ánimo de lucro da provincia de Pontevedra.

Memory (Matching) Game
DS wanted to start the day with the same matching game that we finished the day with yesterday.  The cards have nine different shapes and nine different colors.  Right now, we’re only matching the colors OR the shapes.  Soon we will match the color AND the shape which will make it MUCH more challenging.

Primary and Secondary Colors
We’ve mixed colors in the past with both paints and food coloring.  Today, however, mixing secondary colors was the primary lesson.   The end result didn’t photograph well, but being able to create green, orange, purple (and brown) by lining up the appropriate red, blue and yellow jars was just so easy and so fun.

Color Mixing

Textured Dominoes
I haven’t yet made the tactile boards but I thought that in the meantime this makes a simple precursor exercise.  I found a set of textured dominoes awhile ago.  What we do is to play the game with our dominoes hidden from view by placing them inside a tote bag.  We play simple dominoes but we must feel in our individual tote bag to find whether or not we have a match.

Textured Dominoes

Sand Paper Letters and the Sand Tray
DS is great with his letter sounds and recognition (has been for years now), but is only recently interested in starting to write them–sometimes.  There’s a definite payoff to demonstrating the sandpaper letter and then making the letter immediately afterward in the sand tray.  Our sandpaper letters have a dot punched out of the letter to help him remember where to start when writing them and I’m glad they do.  We got the purple sand for the sand tray from my brother who has a nursery (agricultural).  If the sand alone isn’t enough of a kid magnet, the purple color seals the deal!  My only problem is that my son has very clammy hands and the sand always sticks a lot.  If anyone has any suggestions to ‘de-clam’ his hands please share them with me!  Next time we do the work, I’m going to have him try powdering his hands with cornstarch baby powder first.

Sand Tray with "q"

Sand Tray with "j"

A while ago DS made necklaces daily.  I added some letter beads to the work tray and took the tray out to work with myself, then sure enough he joined in.  I made a bracelet with his favorite color and his name hoping to inspire him to do something with the letters.  I never would have expected this though…

Necklace with Sentence

Other than needing to discuss that “tabl” needed a silent “e” and suggesting a bead for space between the words, he did the whole thing by himself.

We also did the Spoon Walk again today, but we did it going up the stairs .

And another twist on the Hundred Board…

On Daddy’s suggestion we tried it backwards.  For the entire board I would ask DS:  “100 – 1 = ?, 99 – 1 = ?”, etc. and we made it through the whole thing. Ta-da!

Hundred Board Backwards