More Fun with Fall Leaves

On Monday, the kids wrote a Fall poem with Miss K's help. I didn't manage to write it down that day, but the poem was an integral part of Circle Time again on Wednesday:

An Ode to Fall :)

Fall is a time for long-sleeved shirts,
Fall is a time for falling leaves,
Fall is a time for a pumpkin patch,
Fall is a time for jackets,
Fall is a time for Thanksgiving,
Fall is a time for warm hats.

Miss K came back to class armed with pictures that matched the words in the poem, and the kids took turns reading each line and matching the pictures to the words:



Next, Miss K led the kids in a sorting and counting activity. She and the kids sorted a big pile of leaves by color...


...and then counted how many they had in each category and graphed the results into a bar graph:


Independent Work time was more chaotic than usual, because the two-year-olds came in right away, before everyone else was settled. In the future, I'll definitely make sure to have the older kids focused on their own work before the 2yos come into the room, because they definitely require management. One new item of note, though: Miss D's daughter worked with this beautiful Thanksgiving-themed matching activity that I downloaded for free from Montessori for Everyone (thanks!):



For Arts & Crafts, Miss K led the kids outside to collect a few more leaves, as well as a mum flower for each child. Then, using paper plates with the middle cut out, the kids glued the leaves all around the edges to make pretty Fall wreaths. I have to say that I thought the results were just lovely:




We ended the days with the "K" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Keep your tongue from evil," Psalm 34:13.

A Fall Poem

Miss K's Circle Time theme for this week is Fall. She asked the kids to come to class with some leaves, and then they spent a long time looking at their leaves, comparing and contrasting them, counting the number of points on each leaf, etc. Then she taught the kids a little more about Fall and about why leaves change colors and fall off. Finally, she and the kids talked about some of the characteristics of Fall, and they all worked together to write a Fall poem. Miss K hand-wrote the poem on large sheets of paper, and she used the exercise as an opportunity to review the connection between letters and their sounds. It was a really nice activity for the readers and pre-readers alike, because it was a creative writing exercise for the readers as well as a lesson on the connection between letters/words/sentences for the pre-readers. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the final poem, but I'll try to get a copy from Miss K and update the post.

New in the classroom this week? Pin-punching:


Miss K's daughter worked so diligently on this! She also built "towers" with the golden bead material:


I was able to give her a three-part lesson on the beads before she moved on to building more towers:


My daughter did the sandpaper numerals and cornmeal tray...


...pin-punching...


...and the 3-D Feel & Find puzzle with Miss D's son:


Miss D's son also did bead sequencing and domino math:


Miss C's son did the pink tower/brown stair extension...


...and the sandpaper letters and cornmeal tray:


Miss D led the kids in PE (they stretched and did some warm-up exercises, and then they had some fun with the parachute before kicking soccer balls through cones and into a net), and then we did the "K" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Keep your tongue from evil," Psalm 34:13.

Tuesday is Veteran's Day, and we don't plan to meet. We'll be back on Wednesday!

Counting up the Votes

Today I revealed the results of our class election for president. I showed the kids how many votes each candidate got, and then we discussed whom our class had "elected." Then I showed the kids how many votes the candidates got in the country-wide election, and we discussed the results.

I gave the kids a very basic lesson on a few different forms of government (democracy, dictatorship, monarchy) and explained that the United States is not actually a democracy but a constitutional republic (yup, had to consult the hubby on that one - gotta love it when you're learning right along with your preschooler! :), and then I gave a very brief explanation of the electoral college. I showed the kids a map of the US and explained that a majority of the people in the blue states had voted for Sen. Obama, and that a majority of the people in the red states had voted for Sen. McCain.

Then I explained that Sen. Obama is not actually our president yet, but that he's our president-elect and will be inaugurated in a special ceremony on Jan. 20, 2009. Next, Miss K (who couldn't be with us again today because her 9-month-old has been very sick :( ) sent me a very nice activity called "Meet Our New President-Elect," and we learned more about Sen. Obama, his wife and family, where he grew up, etc. We also learned about our new vice president-elect, and we talked about what a vice president does. Then we had a little fun looking at pretty pictures of the White House, where our new president and his family will live.

During our "Meet the President" activity, I pulled out the map of the United States, and we found Hawaii (where Sen. Obama was born), Kansas (where he grew up), Illinois (where he served as Senator), and Delaware (home of Sen. Biden). Both my daughter and Miss D's son wanted to work on the map when we started independent work:


Having the map of the US out encouraged Miss C's son to do the map of North America again, which he finished before moving on to the constructive triangles. I presented them to him, and then he said he wanted to do something else. He put them away all by himself, which in and of itself was completing the activity - love it!


Miss D's son worked with the addition strip board again...


...and then he did Sound Box 3 from Laura's system. He got the box out, which is labeled on top, and then he pulled out the corresponding sandpaper letters himself (I don't have my letters organized next to each box like Laura does because I don't have the room right now). Even though he used upper- and lowercase letters, I really admire the initiative he took here:


The two-year-olds joined us again today. Miss D's daughter did bead sequencing (she was able to follow a pattern card - I was amazed!), bear sorting, and water transfer:


My daughter did the nuts and bolts activity, the 3D Feel & Find puzzle, water transfer, and the sound boxes:


For Arts & Crafts, I gave the older kids a copy of the electoral map, and they used it to color their own maps of the United States red, blue, or gray (if a state was still undecided):




This was a great extension of the United States puzzle they had just completed, and although I didn't plan for the day to go this way, all of our activities flowed extremely well from one thing to the next.

We closed with the "J" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,'" John 14:6.

Election Day!

Today during Circle Time our class held its own version of the presidential election. Miss K (who couldn't be with us today but who still sent me a lesson plan - thanks!) created ballots for the kids, and I used a sheet to turn our Learning Tower into a private "voting booth":



We all stood in line, and everyone (moms included) took a turn voting for their choice for president. I explained that voting is a very private right and responsibility, and that, while we are free to discuss our choice with other people, we have the right to keep it secret as well. We all cast our ballots into a very sophisticated ballot box...



...and tomorrow during Circle Time I will reveal the class's choice for president, as well as the country's choice. The kids loved voting, and Miss K even thought to create "I Voted" stickers for everyone!

Today Miss C's son worked with the sorting bears, a new nuts and bolts activity that I saw on itty bitty love (thanks so much for this simple yet appealing activity! Everyone chose this today)...


...color box 4...


...and bead sequencing:


My daughter worked with the Healthy/Not Healthy sort that Miss K created last week, the nuts and bolts activity, and the addition strip board:


Miss D's son did bead sequencing, metal insets, the nuts and bolts activity...


...and the addition strip board:


He was reluctant to do this at first because he didn't want to have to write down his answers, but the draw of doing addition (he loves math) helped him overcome his pencil-shyness.

Miss D's daughter chose the nuts and bolts activity, wooden cylinders...


...and water transfer with a medicine dropper and funnel:


My 2-yo chose the wooden cylinders, water transfer...


...spooning/pouring split peas...


...and the nuts and bolts activity (did I mention this was popular?):


Miss D led everyone in Music today (including a song she made up about voting, to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat": Vote, vote, go and vote, go and vote today; Cast your vote, do your job, it's the American Way!).

We closed with the "J" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,'" John 14:6.

George Washington and the Cherry Tree

Tomorrow is Election Day, of course, so our Circle Time theme for this week is the President of the United States. Miss K couldn't be with us today, which left me in charge of Circle Time (eek!).

We read the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree from The Children's Book of Virtues. I'm not all that crazy about this book, but it has an extremely compelling version of this story (when we got to the part where George Washington's father discovers that his beloved cherry tree has been chopped down and confronts young George about it, Miss D's son's eyes were very wide and he was covering his mouth with his hands - so sweet!). We talked about how this honest young man grew up to be our very first president, that there have been 43 presidents in our country's history, and that tomorrow we will elect a new president. We talked about the candidates, and we discussed voting (I reminded the kids about Miss K's lesson in which we all voted for our favorite apple, either red or green, and that the apple with the most votes won).

During Independent Work time, my daughter and Miss D's son spent a lot of time with the geometric solids and matching cards (I made these myself and will try to upload them tonight):


Miss C's son worked with the constructive blue triangles, and he and Miss C played "I Spy" with the phonetic objects:



Miss D's son did the entire color box 3:


Color box 3 is a nice bridge between color box 2 (in which you pair 11 different colors) and color box 4 (in which you grade 7 different shades of the same color from darkest to lightest). Color box 3 is made up of 8 different colors broken into 4 pairs that are graded from darkest to lightest. Today Miss D's son and I worked together one color at a time to grade one of each pair from darkest to lightest, and then he matched them:



As for the 2-year-olds, surprisingly, they haven't been all that eager to get back into the Montessori classroom. Today my daughter wandered over and asked to do the pink tower. She got the whole thing out but wouldn't actually build it. As with all things Montessori - so amazing in their simplicity - at least she had to build it to put it away :)


For PE, we headed outside, and Miss D led the kids with the parachute and kicking soccer balls through cones.

We closed with the "J" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,'" John 14:6.