Saturday, May 16, 2009

Field Day Fun

Here are some more pictures from our last day of school.

Miss D and Miss K set up most of the activities, which included three-legged races...




...sack races...


...soccer relays...


...parachute fun...


...water and sponge relays...


...and water balloon tosses:


We ended the day with a fun picnic, including oreos (gasp!)...


...and popsicles, which were a huge hit...




...especially with the teething babies:




We had a blast! (Or should I say, we had a field day!)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Class Photo

We had a great last day, with tons of Field Day fun. Before all of the festivities, my husband got the whole crew together for a class picture:



From left to right we have me with my three girls, Miss D with her two daughters and son, Miss K with her two girls, and Miss C with her two boys.

Field Day photos coming soon - we had a blast!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Year in Review

It doesn't seem possible, but tomorrow is our last day of school!

Today for Circle Time, Miss K's theme was "The Year in Review," and she and the kids went over all of the topics we've discussed over these many weeks.

We have a Field Day planned for tomorrow, complete with a three-legged race, a water balloon toss, and face painting. We'll end the day with a picnic at a nearby playground.

I hope to have many pictures to share, as well as reflections on the past year.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Wikisori

Wow! This morning I was looking something up in Google and came across Wikisori.

Did I already say, "Wow!" ?

Wow!

I've been thinking about this for some time - how frustrating it is that I have all of these links to all of these different Montessori resources and that it would be helpful to have them all in one place. Well, this is that place! Anyone can join and contribute links, materials, videos, etc., and the goal is to become a sort of "one-stop shopping" for all things Montessori. I've added it to my sidebar. Check it out!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Busy, Busy

On Monday, things were buzzing in the classroom, especially as a result of this little guy:


Miss C's son has taken his classroom work to a "whole nother level." He chooses his work, diligently finishes it, puts it away, chooses his next work, diligently finishes it, puts it away, lather, rinse, repeat. On this day, he chose the hanging bead stair (above)...

...this sensorial puzzle (check out that rabbit!)...


...the open and close boxes...


...pouring rice...


...another sensorial puzzle...


...grinding spices with a mortar and pestle...


...and numerous other activities that I missed because I just wasn't quick enough with my camera!

(By the way, the spice grinding activity, which I saw at The Wonder Years, has been the most popular PL activity in the classroom for about five weeks running now. I started out using a whole black peppercorn/coriander blend that I happened to have in my spice cabinet, and now we've moved on to allspice berries, which I also happened to have. After taking another quick look in there, I've also found celery seeds and dried whole thyme, which I'll put out over the next couple of days.)

Miss D's son busied himself with the stamp game...


...and more word drawers (he's definitely in a sensitive period for reading and writing right now):


My daughter worked on the map of Asia...


...she spontaneously grabbed the dustpan and broom to clean up some crumbs...


...and then she and Miss D's son played dominoes, which is their current favorite activity.


Initially the dominoes were on the shelf for domino math, but they played one time a couple weeks ago, and now they play daily. I know dominoes isn't a traditional Montessori activity, but I don't mind it because my set goes up to double 12. I love that they can look at a domino and say, "That's the 11/6," or "I have a double 9." (In the meantime, I'm looking over their shoulders, trying to count the dots :)