Moveable Alphabet box -Origami

These are boxes I made for my small moveable alphabet. I used two Ferrero Rocher boxes and made small individual origami boxes for each letter, a total of 25 for each box and I split one box for the 'i' and 'j'. Instructions for Origami boxes can be found here. What I really like about these boxes is that each letters box can come out individually, so sometimes we don't take the whole box to the mat but instead we just pick out the letters we need.

Land Water and Air

I recently presented this activity to a new student, Little-N joined in he hasn't done this activity for years. I made the cards for this activity years ago and I am happy to share the cards with everyone, you can download them here. While searching for the cards I found a file that I wrote explaining the presentations for this activity. I have included the explanation of this activity below.

Presentation 1:

Materials:

-Tray

-Three jars colour coded (white(light blue)-air, blue-water, green-land)

-Spoon

-Jug

-Water

-Source of mud or sand

-A word card for each land water and air colour coded

Presentation:

Lay the materials on the tray as follows: land jar, spoon, water jar, jug and air jar.

Invite the child to work with you, introduce the activity and take it to a floor mat.

Remove the jars from the tray and place them on the mat in this order, Land, water and air.

Tell the child that the first jar (land) represents land and guide him/her to put some land in it (from the garden) using the spoon. Ask the child where we can find land on the earth.

Hold the second jar (water) and ask the child to get some water in the jug and pour in into the jar. Ask the child where we can find water on the earth.

Finally hold the third jar and ask the child to put some air in the jar. Show the child how to blow in the jar. Ask the child where we can find air on the earth.

Explain to the child that on the earth of three different things land, water and air.

Next help the child to match the word cards to the jars.

Presentation 2:

Materials:

-Tray

-Three jars colour coded (white(light blue)-air, blue-water, green-land)

-Spoon

-Jug

-Water

-Source of mud or sand

-Land water and air cards

-A word card for each land water and air colour coded

Presentation:

Follow the same presentation as above.

Insure the picture cards are shuffled, explain to the child that ‘I have some pictures or land, water and air’.

Show the child the first picture, ask him/her ‘ Is this picture of land water or air?’. Guide him/her to place it under the corresponding jar and label.

Do the same with the other picture cards.

Presentation 3:

Materials: Land water and air picture cards

Labels

Presentation:

Guide the child to read and place the labels across the top of the mat, in order land, water and air.

Ask the child to look at the pictures then place the cards under the corresponding labels.

Help the child to recognize the words on the labels by using the

three-period-lesson.

Plans for 3 year old Mu-Mu

My nephew Mu-Mu is three years old and I have decided to find away in which I can incorporate him in my 6-9 years classroom. He has excellent fine motor skills, great memory, good concentration and an inner built desire for order. All these are essential skills needed if I am to bring him into my classroom. My plan is to meet him 3-4 times a week, each time for just an hour. At first he will come when there are no other children so that there are no distractions. I will present lessons in practical life, Sensorial and grace and courtesy. I will explain to him that the other materials [for 6-9] are for Little-N and older children and that he should not touch them, redirecting him to his activities. His activities will be stored on two shelves, practical life and sensorial. Once he has settled in the class and has become normalised I will have him come from 1.30-3.00 while the older children are having the afternoon work cycle. I will insure that there are suitable activities that he can do with them and Little-N is eager to present to him. He will continue attending the afternoon sessions until he is ready for the morning session.

I am not sure how long it will take him to get normalised, hopefully not long as he already has many characteristics of a Montessori child! It's really exciting for me to work with him and I do hope that all goes well. If all works then there maybe one more three year old that I may introduce to my classroom. Has anyone tried this before? Do you have any tips?

Classroom at home!

I've lost count of the number of times I have set up a Montessori classroom! I thought it would get easier the more times I do this, but it's getting harder! I'm finding it hard to get motivated! Things are dragging on and I'm just so frustrated I want to get it finished! Frustration and motivation aside, I'm really happy that finally I've accomplished one of my dreams: I have a beautiful Montessori classroom in my home! I do feel really lucky. But I wish I can find the motivation to get it finished! There's so much left to do. So much!!! I want it to be perfect!

Over the summer my plans for teaching changed a lot. Firstly Big-S who is now 10yrs will no longer be attending. After many discussions, me and her mother felt it was best for her to go into regular school in order to prepare her for secondary school next year. She is now attending a private school and has settled in well enjoying the socialisation. I will miss her so much, however it is best for everyone this way. All the really advanced activities have been put away. The students I am left with are my son Little-N [6yrs] and his friend Little-S [6yrs] . Then two weeks ago we were joined by Little-M [5yrs], he's a wonderful, funny and cute boy. He needs a lot of sensorial and practical life activities to develop his concentration and focus, I had to rearrange the class to include some of these for him. Also my nephew Mu-Mu turned three and I decided that I must find away to include him in the classroom somehow [I'll post separately about my plans for Mu-Mu]. As you can see there have been big changes. My classroom now consists of 3 boys between the ages of 5-6yrs and we have a little 3yr old on the side.

Anyway here are some pictures and detailed posts will follow once I feel that I have perfected each area. The classroom is actually very small, somehow it looks bigger in the pictures!

The shelf to the right has practical life activities. The centre shelf is sensorial and shelves to the left are for mathematics.
The shelf to the left of this photo is the science section.

My map shelf which also contains the continent boxes and some folders containing geography related activities.

Oliver making sure he leaves cat fur on the maps.

This is the reading corner with non-fiction books to the left and fiction reading books to the right.

The shelves on the right are for literacy activities.

Mathematics shelves. I made a bead cabinet which is on the left of this photo but I will post about it separately.
Grammar shelf and the pink tower.

Many of the shelves are still empty!!! And I am not happy with the order of some of the materials. I will still be doing a lot of rearranging and material making over the next few weeks.

I'm eagerly awaiting everyones feedback on the classroom set up and any advice is welcomed. If you see anything that I can do better or have any neat ideas for arranging the materials then please do let me know!!

Animal kingdom Questions

Recently I made these animal question cards to go with the animal kingdom classification work. I made a set for each group fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Each set contains ten questions that children need to research using books to find the answers. I made sure that all the answers could be found in the various books available in the classroom and I colour coded the cards so that the children would know what animal group to look for. Little-N especially loved this activity as he is very fond of all animals and he surprised me with already knowing many of the answers from his reading.

I'm not sure if this activity will be of interest to anyone, if it is you can download them here. The colour coding is Fish- green, amphibians- purple, reptiles-brown, birds-blue and mammals-red. Please make sure all the answers can be found in the resources you provide for the children so that they can find the answers without getting frustrated!

Pin Maps

I decided that it would be too expensive to buy the Montessori Pin maps and I could better spend the money on something un-makeable. So I made my own. I noticed a few other blogs that had home made pin maps, but not exactly what I wanted. I spent a long time making these files that include flags, countries and cities for each continent [except Antarctica]. You can make your own or take the easier route and buy them from here. It takes a very long time to cut everything out and put all the pins in, but its well worth it. Little-N said that these maps are much better than the wooden ones he used to use. I think it's something to do with the colour coded pins.

Beyond 10

When Little-S started with me in June he knew how to count to 100 in French but not in English. I decided to take him through the Montessori materials for counting beyond 10. Here is a list of the Montessori activities for learning to count beyond 10.

Teen beads: Child learns to count from 11-19 using the beads.

Seguin board A: Child learns the symbols for numbers from 11-19.

Seguin board A with beads: Child matches the quantities and symbols from 11-19.


Tens beads: Child learns the quantities 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90.
Seguin board B: Child learns the symbols for 10-90 using the tens board.

Seguin board B and beads 1: Matching the symbols 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90 to quantities.

Tens beads 2: Child counts through the beads starting with 1 and continues adding a unit bead and counting. When the child places 10 unit beads it should change it for a ten bar. Read more about this here.

Seguin Board B 2: counting through the symbols. Child counts from 10 to 99.

Seguin Board B and Beads 2: Child starts from ten and counts through the numbers all the way to 99. He makes each number on the board and matches the beads at the same time.

For further practice with the tens beads I made this activity. Download the file and read more about this here .

Hundred chain: Can be done counting in units or counting in tens. It provides the children with further practice in counting from 1-100 and also ensures that the child really understands the quantity of the hundred square used in golden beads exercises. Read more about it here.

Hundred board: Further practice with symbols from 1-100. Can be used in many ways to reinforce the understanding of numbers from 1-100.