A bit of biology

I picked up a human body model at a carboot sale last week end for £2 and I thought it would make a fun and interesting activity for some of my older children. I get grossed when I see pictures of organs, or even think of the organs we have inside us, but I managed to pull myself together long enough to make some cards for the activity.

I made 4 part cards, 1: picture and word, 2:picture, 3:word 4:information card. The activity is done as follows.

1. The child lays out pack 1 of cards in a vertical row and the top of the mat.

2. The child finds the matching picture, then word and then reads the information card.

3. The child searches inside the body to find the organ that resembles it. This step is the fun bit, as not all pieces are visual when the body is complete. The child must first remove the lungs so as to find the heart and so on. Hopefully this will help the children remember where each body part is in our body.

4. The child goes to the next card on the vertical row and does step 2 and 3.

5. The final step is the child has to put all the organs back in the body and its harder than in looks. It took about 10mins for one of my 6year olds to put the body back together.

One of my 8 year olds did this activity, after she completed it, I asked her if she enjoyed it. She replied 'No, it made my stomach hurt!'. Nice to find someone who feels the same!!

You can download these cards here.

And I'm very sorry for not replying to some previous comments, I promise I'll do so soon.

May's Pictures

I have had such a busy month and still no internet connection at home!!

So much has been happening at school and the children have taken me on a long learning rollercoaster. Here are some photo's taken in May: 

Making geometric solids.

Working with addition chart A.

Drawing with pastels. This girl made some AMAZING pictures.

Little-Ns castle drawing/story. He often tells a story of how the knights fought the bad dragon, as he tells the story he draws his picture and includes all these tiny details.

Addition chart C.

Past and present verbs.

Addition on a number line: although this isn't an original Montessori material, I think its important for the children to learn how to use one.

Little-N and a caterpillar that we found, a few weeks later it turned into a big black moth . 

Using the grammar symbols with the farm.

A pattern made by an 8yr old with the pattern blocks.

Little-N dressed as a pirate and making costumes for his friends.

Practicing crochet.

After presenting the VERBS i give the children a story and ask them to highlight all the verbs they can find in red.

Working with the 5 bead chain. 

A few patterns made with constructive blue triangles.

Thought I'd like to share a classroom organising idea. The children at school have been sewing a lot recently, so I've had to buy some more supplies. After a few children get into the thread drawer it looks a bit like this, which isn't neat enough for a Montessori classroom. 

Organising the threads was a project we did one morning. A girl mentioned that her mom has a little box with pieces of plastic that each thread is wound on. So we got a big piece of thick card and cut strips of it as long as the drawer and about 3 cm wide.  We cut small triangles out on each end as above.

All the children wanted to join in the winding, it was a very social activity. Once all the threads were wound on their card pieces we put them back in the drawers and they looked as neat as could be.

Just Moved!

I'm sorry for not posting for so long. I just moved houses again and have been very busy getting things organised. I also have no Internet at my new home.

School has been great, we have a new 8 year old girl who joined 2 weeks ago. She was homeschooled for 1.5 years and attended a primary school for 2 years before that. She was once diagnosed as a selective mute, but now speaks all the time, well at least at our school she does. Having a child who never attended a Montessori school means I had to take her through some early materials, like the golden beads. So far she has been enjoying all the activities, even if she has already mastered the concepts on paper. She is very artistic and has great life skills, I taught her to knit in 5 mins and to crochet in a matter of seconds. Where possible, I'll be giving her the opportunity to present craft activities to other children. It's been very interesting watching her work with the materials and comparing her actions to that of the old Montessori children, so far we can definitely say that the Montessori children are more independent in their learning and are more creative in terms of literature and imagination. I'll keep you all posted on her progress into Montessori.

End of year production

My brain can't seem to come up with any good ideas for the end of year production day. My children have to sing, read a poem or act out a play and I just don't feel we have anything that's suitable.

 The theme for the whole school is supposed to be peace but I can do something different if its good enough. Do any of you parents, teachers or homeschooling mums have any good ideas? What is it that you find appealing in your children's parties? Anything you tried out that worked/or didn't work?

Thanks!

Little-N just turned 5

Little-Ns special request for his Birthday was no party or sun walk at school. All he wanted was loads of Lego gifts.

5 years, not the best picture but says a lot about who he is!

I'm finding it hard to believe he's so old now!

A few pics from April

Measuring in feet.

Little-N measuring in feet

Little-Ns spaceship.  This was taken on his Birthday, he didn't want a party,  just gifts. So now Little-N is 5.

Little-N in the garden, now that he's 5 he wont stop climbing and doing dangerous things [Which I'm loving BTW].

Living, non-living and once living Venn diagram.

Understanding the relationships between the squares in the Decanomial Square activity.

Building the Decanomial Square

Using a Microscope to examine a dead wasp we found on the window sill.

Students embroidery

Food chain activity

Peace Game

Grammar presentation

Building the short bead stair pyramid.

The grammar files that I posted about last week are no longer on eBay as I just found out that its against eBay policies to sell digital delievered materials. So I have move the file to Lulu  [thanks to the idea given to me by Jo].