Countries, Capital Cities and Flags Sheets

Map work is still very popular with all the children in my class. Many have learnt all the countries in Europe and know their capital cities and flags. As an extension to the pin maps I made a little sheet for the children to record their knowledge on. It's very simple and the children are enjoying it, so I thought I'd upload it to box.net so that you can use it too. If you would like to download it click here.

Finding The Rhythm

I can't believe that its been so long since I blogged! This month I have been extra busy for three reasons. Firstly I am doing a Degree in Montessori which will finish Summer 2011. It's been keeping me very busy as I am now back to essay writing, background reading and researching. Secondly I will be taking my Elementary Montessori exam this November and I'm not quiet sure if I'm ready for it :(. Thirdly I am working many more hours at school than I ever did in my life. With all these things keeping me busy I'm finding it hard to find a much needed rhythm and balance between work, studying, Little-N and personal time. Don't worry tho, I will continue blogging and as soon as I find my rhythm I will once again share with you all the amazing things the children are doing at school this year. There really is so much more going on at school the children have not progressed but they have LEAPED and we are only 6 weeks into the school year! Anyway I'll be back soon that's a promise.

Parts Of The Tree

This is the work of one of my 6-9yrs children, she spent a whole week working on this doing bits here and there. She traced around each piece of the tree puzzle and then carefully cut them out. She then stuck them in her science book, where she made a little pocket to hold labels for each part of the tree. I think it looks amazing!

World Animal Week

Last week was world animal week and we had loads of exciting activities planned for the children.

On Tuesday the children had bear day. Each child brought in their favourite teddy, they then had a group session all about bears.

On Wednesday we had a bake sale to raise money for animals. The children baked cakes and we encourage parents to come in and buy them.

My class made simple coloured cup cakes and decorated them all individually. It's fun cooking with them and I am planning to do so once every month.

The ladybird and bee cakes were made by my sister. They sold out really quickly, she also made tiger and monkey cakes but they were all gone by the time I got my camera out.

The tray on the left are the cupcakes that were made by my class.
On Thursday the children came in dressed up as their favourite animals. Little-N was a lion, I couldn't find him a costume anywhere so together we made him one from felt the night before. We also invited a lady from the WSPA to come in and talk to the children about endangered animals. They all enjoyed the week so much! This year we are planning to do a lot more of these weeks focusing on different topics.

Life Science files

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have just uploaded to My store some of the life science materials that I posted about last month.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their comments. I absolutely love comments and I appreciate every one that you leave. This month I have been very very busy and have hardly had the time/energy to reply and I'm very sorry for that. I promise you all I'll be back in action very soon [as soon as I get myself organised].

I love awards

A while ago I received two blog awards :), many thanks to those who nominated me!

The first award is from Leptir:

Rules for the award- Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people with the award, and be sure to let them know they have been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don't forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

So here are ten things:

1. I just started a Montessori degree course today

2. I'm a vegy

3. My favourite colour is purple

4. Last week I left school after 6 every day

5. I'm about to start a research project about handwriting

6. I believe 100% in the montessori method, no one can even try to convince me that something is wrong as I have an answer for everything!

7. I used to do a lot more crafts and art, slowly the time for these things have vanished

8. I don't have a sense of smell

9. Little-N looks just like me when I was 5 :)

10. I drive a VW

I would like to pass this award onto the following blogs

Our Montessori Chronicles

Montessori Spanish

Montessori Ponderings

The wonder years

Montessori candy

The Magnifying Glass

coloured buttons

Montessori Secrets

Mi escuelita Montessori

Life with our boys

The second award was from Spors in the Desert

I'll pass this award onto the following four blogs

Adventures of a rainbow Mama

Beautiful sun Montessori

Itty Bitty Love

Montessori en el hogar

First week of school

School reopened and we have had a wonderful very busy week!

I'm so happy that the week went well [I panic a few days before school starts], the children went straight to work and everyone continued as if they have been here all throughout the summer.

This year I have 6 children ranging from the age of 5.5 to 9. We decided not to take on any new children and instead focus on giving these six children 100%.

Day 1 started with a recap of the responsibilities of the class. We have three responsibilities :

1. To respect the environment, each other and the materials

2. To choose suitable work and complete the activities

3. To prevent disturbance

Once the children were reminded of their responsibilities they were allowed to freely choose work. Most children immediately went to the library and looked at the new books we had. Some children got out the maps and another decided to start the school year with a poem.

Last year was very free and easy going, this year I plan to have a bit more structure. The day schedule is as follows

9.00 the children arrive and go straight to the garden. At this age the children come to school full of energy and have lots to say to each other. In the garden, I get them to run around and chat as much as they want so that when we come into the class everyone is calmer and ready to work.

9.30 The children come into the class and we have the morning group. Each morning my group is different, I usually do three things. An action activity, a grace and courtesy lesson, and a little talk about something interesting that is relevant to that day. The group lasts 15-20mins.

9.45 The children set off to work. Some of the children are working from individual weekly plans which I plan with them on Mondays. The other children are working from daily plans which we plan daily. The children can freely choose any activity in the class whether its on their daily plans or not, but they must complete the work on their plans. I check their plans regularly to ensure that everyone is on track. The children are allowed to take their activities to the garden and work, but during the workcycle the children can not run, climb or use the slide in the garden.

12.30 - 1.30 The children tidy the class, check everything is in order and then prepare for lunch. After they eat their lunch they can run around in the garden and play games.

1.30 The children come back inside the classroom for a short group [5mins] and then everyone returns to work.

2.45 The children tidy up and do their cleaning chores.

3.00 Everyone gets ready to go home, except Little-N who always stays late with me as I finish things off

So far this schedule is working great, but I am prepared to change it as needed. A Montessori teacher should always be ready to adapt and change her class to suit the children's needs.

Now for the interesting part, a few pictures of work that I managed to capture during the week:

Sanding the wooden beams in the garden. We purposely left these poles un-sanded so that they children can do them.

Little-N feeling Autumn, working with the leaves cards that I got from Absorbentminds.co.uk

Recap on Grammar work.

These children chose to research about parrots.

Working with the parts of a volcano cards.

Map of Europe work.