Susana at Montessori Candy asked me about the materials we're using in the classroom. I got them from Montessori Outlet, and so far I'm really pleased with everything.
My daughter's old school had all Nienhuis materials, and while Montessori Outlet doesn't carry "official" Nienhuis stuff, on their website they claim that they carry "premium-quality materials at outlet prices," and that "all of our products are made based on the authentic blueprints approved by Mr. Bert Nienhuis. All of our new premium materials are 100% compatible with Nienhuis materials."
Also, all of the materials are lead-free and non-toxic.
So far, I would say I'm totally satisfied with everything. I did a lot of research before choosing a supplier, and (at least for a package deal) their prices were the lowest to be found (I can't vouch for "a la carte" purchases). The materials are beautiful and feel very substantial in your hand, and they have an inherent appeal that makes them hard to resist - you just want to handle them.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'
On Wednesday, Miss K continued her Circle Time lesson on Fire Safety with a very simple yet very effective activity. She printed out a large flame and used masking tape to stick the flame to her shirt. She reminded the kids that if their clothes ever caught fire, they should "Stop, Drop, and Roll."
Then they took turns stopping, dropping, and rolling:
For Independent Work time, I was hoping a Daily Plan would work again after having had so much success with it the day before. As with almost all things, it seems, the second day did not go as well as the first. For starters, when I asked my daughter what she wanted to work on for the day, she glanced at the Practical Life shelf and rattled off the first three things she saw: sorting 3D objects, lacing cards, and open/close boxes. I wrote them down on her list and added Word Drawers 2 and 4, which she still had on her list from the day before, as well as domino math.
She diligently got to work on the domino math while I asked Miss D's son if he would like to make a plan for his day - he said yes. He suggested the 3D Feel & Find Puzzle that he hadn't gotten to finish the day before, as well as the Tool or Toy sort game that Miss K had presented during her Fire Safety lesson and put out on the shelves as an activity. I suggested that we also add the next set of yellow letters, h/u/s/c, which he would sort according to their beginning sound. He agreed and got right to work on the Feel & Find game while Miss C's son and Miss K's daughter worked with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K played I Spy with Miss C's son...
...while my daughter and Miss D's son strayed from their Daily Plans and worked with the binomial and trinomial cubes instead. (My daughter completed her domino math work, and Miss D's son did the entire Feel & Find game, so each of them completed one item on their lists. I told them I would save their lists until Monday. I think the plan is a good idea and gives a great sense of satisfaction as each item is checked off, but it might also feel like something hanging over their heads if there is something on their list that they don't want to do. My own To Do list includes things I put off because I don't want to do them, and when I finally just suck it up and do the thing I'm avoiding, I find that it wasn't that big of a deal at all, and I think that experience is a good one for them to have too. I've gotten some helpful comments about using a plan (thanks!) and I'd love to hear any other opinions on keeping kids on task and also being flexible.)
For Arts & Crafts, Miss K led the kids in making their own fire trucks. Here is Miss D's daughter coloring hers:
For the older kids, Miss K used a white crayon to draw an outline of a tire on black paper, and the kids cut the tires out themselves.
We closed with the "G" story and verse from My ABC Bible Verses: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
Then they took turns stopping, dropping, and rolling:
For Independent Work time, I was hoping a Daily Plan would work again after having had so much success with it the day before. As with almost all things, it seems, the second day did not go as well as the first. For starters, when I asked my daughter what she wanted to work on for the day, she glanced at the Practical Life shelf and rattled off the first three things she saw: sorting 3D objects, lacing cards, and open/close boxes. I wrote them down on her list and added Word Drawers 2 and 4, which she still had on her list from the day before, as well as domino math.
She diligently got to work on the domino math while I asked Miss D's son if he would like to make a plan for his day - he said yes. He suggested the 3D Feel & Find Puzzle that he hadn't gotten to finish the day before, as well as the Tool or Toy sort game that Miss K had presented during her Fire Safety lesson and put out on the shelves as an activity. I suggested that we also add the next set of yellow letters, h/u/s/c, which he would sort according to their beginning sound. He agreed and got right to work on the Feel & Find game while Miss C's son and Miss K's daughter worked with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K played I Spy with Miss C's son...
...while my daughter and Miss D's son strayed from their Daily Plans and worked with the binomial and trinomial cubes instead. (My daughter completed her domino math work, and Miss D's son did the entire Feel & Find game, so each of them completed one item on their lists. I told them I would save their lists until Monday. I think the plan is a good idea and gives a great sense of satisfaction as each item is checked off, but it might also feel like something hanging over their heads if there is something on their list that they don't want to do. My own To Do list includes things I put off because I don't want to do them, and when I finally just suck it up and do the thing I'm avoiding, I find that it wasn't that big of a deal at all, and I think that experience is a good one for them to have too. I've gotten some helpful comments about using a plan (thanks!) and I'd love to hear any other opinions on keeping kids on task and also being flexible.)
For Arts & Crafts, Miss K led the kids in making their own fire trucks. Here is Miss D's daughter coloring hers:
For the older kids, Miss K used a white crayon to draw an outline of a tire on black paper, and the kids cut the tires out themselves.
We closed with the "G" story and verse from My ABC Bible Verses: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Stop, Drop, and Roll!
October is National Fire Prevention Month, so Miss K's Circle Time theme for this week is Fire Safety. After saying the Pledge, singing the National Anthem, and reviewing the calendar/weather/season, Miss K talked to the kids about fire and that fire does good things (warms us, cooks our food, roasts our marshmallows :) and bad things (can hurt us, etc.).
She showed the kids pictures of matches and lighters and explained that they are tools, not toys, and that children should never touch them. She explained that, although their house likely would never be involved in a fire, they needed to know what to do just in case it ever were: First, they should never, ever hide from the fire. If they hear a smoke detector, they should "Get out and stay out." She had the kids repeat that phrase several times and explained that, even if their very favorite blankie in the whole wide world were inside the house, they should never, ever go back inside to get it. She asked the kids to identify exits from the classroom and explained that smoke rises, so if a room is filled with smoke, they should crawl on their hands and knees to an exit because the air is cleaner there.
Then Miss K lit a big jar candle and explained that, just like we breathe air, fire does too. She put the lid on the jar and the kids watched as the flame slowly burned itself out. She explained that if the kids' clothes ever were to catch fire, they shouldn't run around, because that would simply feed the fire lots of air, helping it to grow. Instead, they should "Stop, Drop, and Roll." She led the kids in this song (to the tune of "Hot Cross Buns"): "Stop, Drop, and Roll; Stop, Drop, and Roll; If your clothes ever catch on fire, Stop, Drop, and Roll." She also explained that the kids should call 9-1-1 if they were ever in a dangerous situation without an adult.
Next she reminded the kids that fire, matches, and lighters are tools adults use and that they are not safe for children to use. She had the kids take turns pulling pictures of various tools (oven, saw, lighter, matches) and toys (teddy bear, tricycle) out of a bag, and then they sorted them into the tool or toy category.
These kinds of lessons always give me a big lump in my throat, and I'm so grateful that Miss K is teaching the kids such important stuff.
We were very excited to have Miss C and her family back today. After Miss K finished Circle Time, the kids got right to work.
I recently read this post at The Learning Ark, and I knew a daily plan would totally appeal to my daughter. This morning before school, I asked her, "What work do you want to do today," and she immediately rattled off, "Word Drawers 2, 4, and 9; metal insets; and mystery bag." Well OK then! We wrote out her To Do List, and I drew a small square next to each item so that she could check off each thing as she went (right up her alley!). When we started our Independent Work time, she immediately got her list and got to work on the Word Drawers:
Miss K's daughter worked with the knobless cylinders, Miss D's son worked with the number cards (unfortunately, my flash stopped working right here, so I didn't get any good shots), and Miss C's son worked with the latches board:
Miss D's son wanted to do Word Drawers, too, so I asked him to get Word Drawer 1, which has words made up of the first 8 "red" letters, r/a/m/f/b/i/t/g. We laid out the pictures and then sounded out the words and matched them. We did the same thing with Word Drawer 2, which has words made up of the first 8 red letters, as well as the 8 "yellow" letters, p/o/n/l/h/u/s/c. To this point, though, I hadn't introduced h/u/s/c, so this was more of a challenge for him. Tomorrow I plan to introduce h/u/s/c, as well as review the previous 12 letters. I also will ask him if he would like to make a plan for his day.
At this point, my daughter had finished everything but the mystery bag (actually this sensorial game), which she and Miss D's son played together.
Miss K's daughter busied herself with dominoes and the latches board while Miss C's son worked with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K's daughter took a turn with the mystery bag game, as well. Here she is holding the bag as Miss D's son closes his eyes and tries to pull the proper piece out of the bag:
For Music Time, Miss D had many different songs prepared, including Stop, Drop, and Roll (only this time, we sang it to the tune of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"), and she included movement with it. She also had the kids pretend they were trees, and they sang a song about leaves falling to the ground.
Finally, we read the "G" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15. We discussed that "Gospel" means good news, and that the good news is: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," John 3:16. Of course, that's the "F" verse we did last week, which is one thing I absolutely love about My ABC Bible Verses - the verses build on and reinforce the previous ones - it's a very well thought-out book, and I highly recommend it.
She showed the kids pictures of matches and lighters and explained that they are tools, not toys, and that children should never touch them. She explained that, although their house likely would never be involved in a fire, they needed to know what to do just in case it ever were: First, they should never, ever hide from the fire. If they hear a smoke detector, they should "Get out and stay out." She had the kids repeat that phrase several times and explained that, even if their very favorite blankie in the whole wide world were inside the house, they should never, ever go back inside to get it. She asked the kids to identify exits from the classroom and explained that smoke rises, so if a room is filled with smoke, they should crawl on their hands and knees to an exit because the air is cleaner there.
Then Miss K lit a big jar candle and explained that, just like we breathe air, fire does too. She put the lid on the jar and the kids watched as the flame slowly burned itself out. She explained that if the kids' clothes ever were to catch fire, they shouldn't run around, because that would simply feed the fire lots of air, helping it to grow. Instead, they should "Stop, Drop, and Roll." She led the kids in this song (to the tune of "Hot Cross Buns"): "Stop, Drop, and Roll; Stop, Drop, and Roll; If your clothes ever catch on fire, Stop, Drop, and Roll." She also explained that the kids should call 9-1-1 if they were ever in a dangerous situation without an adult.
Next she reminded the kids that fire, matches, and lighters are tools adults use and that they are not safe for children to use. She had the kids take turns pulling pictures of various tools (oven, saw, lighter, matches) and toys (teddy bear, tricycle) out of a bag, and then they sorted them into the tool or toy category.
These kinds of lessons always give me a big lump in my throat, and I'm so grateful that Miss K is teaching the kids such important stuff.
We were very excited to have Miss C and her family back today. After Miss K finished Circle Time, the kids got right to work.
I recently read this post at The Learning Ark, and I knew a daily plan would totally appeal to my daughter. This morning before school, I asked her, "What work do you want to do today," and she immediately rattled off, "Word Drawers 2, 4, and 9; metal insets; and mystery bag." Well OK then! We wrote out her To Do List, and I drew a small square next to each item so that she could check off each thing as she went (right up her alley!). When we started our Independent Work time, she immediately got her list and got to work on the Word Drawers:
Miss K's daughter worked with the knobless cylinders, Miss D's son worked with the number cards (unfortunately, my flash stopped working right here, so I didn't get any good shots), and Miss C's son worked with the latches board:
Miss D's son wanted to do Word Drawers, too, so I asked him to get Word Drawer 1, which has words made up of the first 8 "red" letters, r/a/m/f/b/i/t/g. We laid out the pictures and then sounded out the words and matched them. We did the same thing with Word Drawer 2, which has words made up of the first 8 red letters, as well as the 8 "yellow" letters, p/o/n/l/h/u/s/c. To this point, though, I hadn't introduced h/u/s/c, so this was more of a challenge for him. Tomorrow I plan to introduce h/u/s/c, as well as review the previous 12 letters. I also will ask him if he would like to make a plan for his day.
At this point, my daughter had finished everything but the mystery bag (actually this sensorial game), which she and Miss D's son played together.
Miss K's daughter busied herself with dominoes and the latches board while Miss C's son worked with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K's daughter took a turn with the mystery bag game, as well. Here she is holding the bag as Miss D's son closes his eyes and tries to pull the proper piece out of the bag:
For Music Time, Miss D had many different songs prepared, including Stop, Drop, and Roll (only this time, we sang it to the tune of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"), and she included movement with it. She also had the kids pretend they were trees, and they sang a song about leaves falling to the ground.
Finally, we read the "G" verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15. We discussed that "Gospel" means good news, and that the good news is: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," John 3:16. Of course, that's the "F" verse we did last week, which is one thing I absolutely love about My ABC Bible Verses - the verses build on and reinforce the previous ones - it's a very well thought-out book, and I highly recommend it.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sail, Sail, Sail Your Ship...
(Sorry, that song has been stuck in my head all week!) Miss K wrapped up this week's Columbus Day lesson by having the kids make their own ships using a snack-size Pringles container, a popsicle stick, some playdough, and a white index card. Then they tried to sail their ships from Spain to North America:
Using only their breath, the kids tried blow their ships through water from one end of a tub to the other - it was harder than it looked!
The sails on Columbus's ships displayed various things Columbus felt loyal to, including a Y for Queen Isabella and an F for King Ferdinand, so Miss K had the kids decorate their ships' sails with things they wanted to tell the world about themselves: that they "came in peace," that they loved Christ, etc. They were really proud of their ships and loved this activity.
After Circle Time, we reviewed the eight "red" letters (r, a, m, f, b, i, t, g), and then I introduced the first four "yellow" letters (p, o, n, l). First we played I Spy to get the kids listening for the sounds, then I showed them the actual letters and had them sort phonetic pictures for each letter. Laura at My Montessori Journey has spiffy pre-made letters for the kids to paste into their Sound Books once they've mastered a new letter, but of course I've been having to make my own. Up to this point, I had been printing out a sheet of letters and then cutting them out for the kids to paste in. On this day, I was running a bit behind and hadn't gotten a chance to cut out the letters. But it actually worked out really well, because my daughter wanted to use scissors to cut out the letters herself. I didn't get a picture of her work, but she did a really precise job, so that hardly any white paper could be seen along the edges of the black letters - it was very sweet to see her concentrating so hard, and the whole exercise ended up being a nice extension to the Sound Book. I haven't gotten around to uploading documents yet, but when I do, I plan to make the phonetic pictures and Sound Book letters available for download.
Miss D's son wanted to try the Sensorial puzzle I had introduced the day before, and he chose to make a ship:
My daughter chose to work with a drawer from the Geometric Cabinet:
She matched the circles to all three sets of cards. When Miss D's son was finished with his ship, I set the thin outline cards on one side of the room and the circles on another and asked each of them in turn to "find me this circle...," while pointing to one of the cards.
Miss K's daughter started with her current favorite activity...
...only today she made a "football game." ;)
All three kids had a nice time working together with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K's daughter worked with the fabric box, and then she and my daughter built the pink tower/brown stair extension:
For Arts & Crafts, the kids finished the calendars they started three weeks ago; they turned out great! Miss K put a lot of effort into this ambitious project, and it deserves its own post - be on the lookout.
Finally, we finished the day with jobs and the F verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
I have been so impressed with the kids' ability to learn these verses. Every day we go over all of the letters from the previous weeks, and with very little help, they can recall all of the verses. By the end of the week, they get a little antsy to move on to the next letter, but by doing one letter a week, the verses and stories seem to be sinking in.
Sadly, Miss C and her sons were absent all week due to illness. We'll be taking next Monday off for Columbus Day, but we're looking forward to having the whole group together when we meet again next Tuesday.
Using only their breath, the kids tried blow their ships through water from one end of a tub to the other - it was harder than it looked!
The sails on Columbus's ships displayed various things Columbus felt loyal to, including a Y for Queen Isabella and an F for King Ferdinand, so Miss K had the kids decorate their ships' sails with things they wanted to tell the world about themselves: that they "came in peace," that they loved Christ, etc. They were really proud of their ships and loved this activity.
After Circle Time, we reviewed the eight "red" letters (r, a, m, f, b, i, t, g), and then I introduced the first four "yellow" letters (p, o, n, l). First we played I Spy to get the kids listening for the sounds, then I showed them the actual letters and had them sort phonetic pictures for each letter. Laura at My Montessori Journey has spiffy pre-made letters for the kids to paste into their Sound Books once they've mastered a new letter, but of course I've been having to make my own. Up to this point, I had been printing out a sheet of letters and then cutting them out for the kids to paste in. On this day, I was running a bit behind and hadn't gotten a chance to cut out the letters. But it actually worked out really well, because my daughter wanted to use scissors to cut out the letters herself. I didn't get a picture of her work, but she did a really precise job, so that hardly any white paper could be seen along the edges of the black letters - it was very sweet to see her concentrating so hard, and the whole exercise ended up being a nice extension to the Sound Book. I haven't gotten around to uploading documents yet, but when I do, I plan to make the phonetic pictures and Sound Book letters available for download.
Miss D's son wanted to try the Sensorial puzzle I had introduced the day before, and he chose to make a ship:
My daughter chose to work with a drawer from the Geometric Cabinet:
She matched the circles to all three sets of cards. When Miss D's son was finished with his ship, I set the thin outline cards on one side of the room and the circles on another and asked each of them in turn to "find me this circle...," while pointing to one of the cards.
Miss K's daughter started with her current favorite activity...
...only today she made a "football game." ;)
All three kids had a nice time working together with the knobless cylinders:
Miss K's daughter worked with the fabric box, and then she and my daughter built the pink tower/brown stair extension:
For Arts & Crafts, the kids finished the calendars they started three weeks ago; they turned out great! Miss K put a lot of effort into this ambitious project, and it deserves its own post - be on the lookout.
Finally, we finished the day with jobs and the F verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
I have been so impressed with the kids' ability to learn these verses. Every day we go over all of the letters from the previous weeks, and with very little help, they can recall all of the verses. By the end of the week, they get a little antsy to move on to the next letter, but by doing one letter a week, the verses and stories seem to be sinking in.
Sadly, Miss C and her sons were absent all week due to illness. We'll be taking next Monday off for Columbus Day, but we're looking forward to having the whole group together when we meet again next Tuesday.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sail On
Today Miss K continued her Columbus Day lesson by showing the kids a globe and tracing Christopher Columbus's route from Spain to North America. She and the kids discussed how long it would take to sail such a route (5 weeks), what the explorers would have needed to take with them on their ships, etc. They reviewed yesterday's songs and played the explorer game again, in which they hid North America somewhere in the classroom and searched for "new land."
All of the geography talk inspired Miss K's daughter to take a crack at the puzzle of North America...
...and I was thrilled that Miss D's son wanted to try the "game" (love it!) where we match objects to letters by their beginning sound:
My daughter used the moveable alphabet to spell out the names of some consonant/vowel/consonant phonetic objects...
...and then Miss D's son used the moveable alphabet to spell out the names of the objects from Laura's word drawers 1 and 2, which are made up the first 8 red letters: r, a, m, f, b, i, t, g.
Miss K's daughter built her "barn" :)...
...and then (hooray!) finally discovered the knobless cylinders. This blog's followers will know that I've been trying to get her to work with these for weeks now, because she enjoys building things, but for some reason they never "took." I think Miss K might have mentioned something about making a birthday cake for Daddy, and that was all the hook she needed:
Miss D's son got in on the knobless cylinder action...
...while my daughter and Miss K used the blindfold and the fabric box:
Once Miss K's daughter saw Miss D's son using the red knobless cylinders, she wanted to try building with all four sets:
Can you tell that Miss K's daughter is rubbing off on the other students in the classroom :) ?
Today Miss K's daughter tried this Sensorial puzzle:
She chose to make the ship in honor of Columbus Day.
At this point, Miss D's son wanted to try the teens board, which he saw my daughter do yesterday. I've mentioned before that he has really bigpaws hands, and for the life of him, he could not thread the unit into the two grooves to cover up the zero in the ten - you know what I mean? Bless his heart, he tried so hard, but he could only get one side to go in at a time, so that the unit would end up lopsided over the zero. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for making this easier? I'd truly appreciate any input.
After our work cycle, Miss D led Music Time. The kids used rhythm sticks, shakers, tambourines, and movement in a bunch of different songs, including some fall-, Halloween-, and Columbus Day-inspired ones. They love this part of their Tuesday and totally look forward to it each week.
We closed with the F verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses, and another day was in the books!
All of the geography talk inspired Miss K's daughter to take a crack at the puzzle of North America...
...and I was thrilled that Miss D's son wanted to try the "game" (love it!) where we match objects to letters by their beginning sound:
My daughter used the moveable alphabet to spell out the names of some consonant/vowel/consonant phonetic objects...
...and then Miss D's son used the moveable alphabet to spell out the names of the objects from Laura's word drawers 1 and 2, which are made up the first 8 red letters: r, a, m, f, b, i, t, g.
Miss K's daughter built her "barn" :)...
...and then (hooray!) finally discovered the knobless cylinders. This blog's followers will know that I've been trying to get her to work with these for weeks now, because she enjoys building things, but for some reason they never "took." I think Miss K might have mentioned something about making a birthday cake for Daddy, and that was all the hook she needed:
Miss D's son got in on the knobless cylinder action...
...while my daughter and Miss K used the blindfold and the fabric box:
Once Miss K's daughter saw Miss D's son using the red knobless cylinders, she wanted to try building with all four sets:
Can you tell that Miss K's daughter is rubbing off on the other students in the classroom :) ?
Today Miss K's daughter tried this Sensorial puzzle:
She chose to make the ship in honor of Columbus Day.
At this point, Miss D's son wanted to try the teens board, which he saw my daughter do yesterday. I've mentioned before that he has really big
After our work cycle, Miss D led Music Time. The kids used rhythm sticks, shakers, tambourines, and movement in a bunch of different songs, including some fall-, Halloween-, and Columbus Day-inspired ones. They love this part of their Tuesday and totally look forward to it each week.
We closed with the F verse and story from My ABC Bible Verses, and another day was in the books!
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