Showing posts with label Montessori. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montessori. Show all posts
Europe Continent Study for Grade Schoolers
Saturday, November 14, 2015
We are revisiting our Europe study, this time I’ve decided to take it by regions. But before we dive into that, we reviewed some of the things we’ve learned in the past years.
Montessori Decimal System (Base 10) with Golden Beads
Thursday, September 17, 2015
It's the time of our 12 Month of Montessori Series, and today I'm sharing with you how Mavi learned the concept of the decimal system and base 10 using the Montessori golden beads materials. We worked on this when he was about 4yrs old and at times he still wanted to do the complete layout (see the bottom of the post for this). The aim of studying the decimal system is for the child to understand, organize and classify the numerical quantities into different hierarchies of units, tens, hundreds and thousands.
One of the best thing about these golden beads material is that it provides a sensorial approach in learning mathematics. In using the golden beads, a child can easily differentiate a unit from tens, from hundreds and thousands through its depth, weight and quantity. In effect, there is retention to the concepts because the child can easily visualize the quantity of numbers.
So without further ado, here’s Mavi’s presentation of how we use the golden beads in learning the decimal system.
Units, Tens, Hundreds, Thousands
Here’s a short presentation which Mavi and I created on how to use the materials in introducing units, tens, hundreds and thousands.
Now for the overall view of the decimal system, combining the number symbols and the quantity, here’s Mavi working on the decimal system layout. Sorry if he only worked till 4000, as we do not have enough thousand cubes Enjoy!
This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.
Amazing blogs involved in the 12 Months of Montessori Learning
Ultimate Collection of Practical Life Activities (Part One)
Thursday, June 18, 2015
“Practical life or real work activities, along with the development of language, may well be the most important work in the first six years of life. By means of these activities the child learns to make intelligent choices, to become physically and mentally independent and responsible. He learns to concentrate, to control muscles, to act with care, to focus, to analyse logical steps, and complete a cycle of activity. This lays the groundwork for sound mental and physical work throughout life.” – Susan Mayclin Stephenson, CHILD OF THE WORLD
Scooping Pasta
Materials:
- bowls
- pasta
- spoon
Spooning Rice
Materials:
- bowls
- rice
- tablespoon
Whisking
Materials:
- bowl
- whisk
- something to whisk (liquid or powder)
Latches
Materials:
- Melissa & Doug Latches Wooden Activity Board
- Melissa & Doug Locks and Latches Board Wooden Educational Toy
Wooden Puzzles for Toddlers
Materials:
- Melissa & Doug Farm Wooden Chunky Puzzle (8 pcs)
- Melissa & Doug Farm Animals Jumbo Knob Wooden Puzzle
Shape Punching
Materials:
- SiCoHome Paper Punches,Pack of 3,Heart,Circle,Star
- Paper Punch Hole Puncher -- (3 PACK Circle Maple Leaf Retro Flower)
Roller Painting
Materials:
- paint rollers (Rimobul Artist Studio Sponge Painters - Set of 6)
- non-toxic washable paints (Crayola Kids' Paint Washable, Assorted Colors 6 Bottle, Crayola 6 Count 8 oz. Washable Kids Finger-paints features 3 Bold Primary colors & 3 Bright Secondary colors)
- painting paper
Sharpening Pencils
Materials:
- pencils
- handheld pencil sharpener
Spooning water
Materials:
- bowls
- liquid medium
- spoon
Garlic Press
Materials:
- garlic press
- garlic (or foam)
Paper Clips
Materials:
- paper clips
- bundles of paper
Lacing
Materials:
- Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads with 30 Beads and 2 laces
- Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Lacing Beads with 27 Beads and 2 Laces
Nuts and Bolts
Materials:
- nuts and bolts (Melissa & Doug Take-Along Tool Kit Wooden Construction Toy, Jumbo Nuts and Bolts Set with Backpack by Skoolzy)
Clamping using Pegs
Materials:
- clothespin
- bowl/s
Color Sorting using Chopstick
Materials:
- chopsticks (Training chopsticks for kids, adults, and beginners)
- sorting tray (Learning Resources Sorting Muffin Pans)
- counters (Bug Counters Set of 72)
Sponge Painting
Materials:
- sponge
- non-toxic paint (Crayola Kids' Paint Washable, Assorted Colors 6 Bottle)
Painting using Brushes
Materials:
- paint brushes (Crayola Paint Brush Set)
- non-toxic paint (Crayola 6 Count 8 oz. Washable Kids Finger-paints features 3 Bold Primary colors & 3 Bright Secondary colors)
Gluing
Materials:
- papers
- different glue types (Elmer's Disappearing Purple School Glue, Elmer's Liquid School Glue Washable)
Glitter Glue
Materials:
- glitter glues (Elmer's Liquid Glitter Glue Washable)
- paper with lines
Using a Fork
Materials:
- fork
- package foams
Transferring using a Chopstick
Materials:
- chopsticks (Training chopsticks for kids, adults, and beginners)
- sorting tray (Learning Resources Sorting Muffin Pans)
- pompoms (Creativity Street Bright Hues Pom Poms)
Transferring using a Tweezer
Materials:
- pom poms (Creativity Street Bright Hues Pom Poms)
- tweezers (Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set)
Transferring Glass Beads using Jumbo Tweezer
Materials:
- jumbo tweezers
- glass/crystal beads
Transferring Glass Beads using Tweezer
Materials:
- tweezers (Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set)
- glass/crystal beads
Sticking
Material:
- assorted stickers
- paper
If you are looking for more ideas you might want to check the Ultimate Collection of Practical Life Activities (Part Two).
Complete Guide to Insect Study for Grade-Schoolers
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
We just concluded our study of insects and oh boy, both Mavi and Vito had a wonderful time learning all about these creatures! We’re having zoology (animal study) for this month (12 Months of Montessori Series) and I’m going to give you a complete guide on how to study insects with your kids.
What is an insect?
Start your unit study by learning what is an insect. Put it simply, it is an animal that has 6 legs with segmented bodies. And yes please, spiders are definitely NOT insects. Now for Mavi to have a wider understanding of this subject, I've set up a sorting activity of the 4 major groups of the Arthropods. Since we've done this last year, Mavi has a prior knowledge of the difference between insects and spiders. He got confused with the crab though, if its either arachnids or crustaceans LOL. Initially he placed it in the Arachnids These animal figures were from Safari Toob Insects and Insect Lore.
The Life Cycle of an Insect
Now after learning about the animals that belong to the insect family, we looked into the life cycles of an insect. Here we talked about the insects that undergo “complete metamorphosis” and those with “incomplete metamorphosis”. Note complete metamorphosis means, it has the stages of: egg-larva-pupa-adult.
Parts of an Insect
We also learned about the different parts of an insect. I have a separate post on this one and you read it here or click the image below.
Insect Habitats and Bug Hunting
I created guides on hunting insects in different habitats. We have insects found in woodlands (in the forest), those found in rivers and lakes, the ones found everywhere and in the meadows/fields. We used these guides as we go “bug hunting”.
We were able to catch a few insects like ladybird (escaped from our net after a few hours), this unidentified insect in the outdoor stairs and ants.
Vito was fascinated with ants! He also had a separate insect study for toddlers.
Previous Post on Insects
- The World of Arthropods Part One
- The world of Arthropods Part Two
- FREE Arthropods Chart
- Insect Activities for Preschooler
- Life Cycle of a Butterfly for Preschoolers
- Grasshoppers
- Parts of a Ladybird
- Life Cycle of a Ladybug
If you need some learning materials about insects you can also buy the following from my printable shop:
The Arthropods Learning Pack
The Insect
The Ant
The Grasshopper
The Dragonfly
This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.
Montessori-Inspired Parts of an Insect
Thursday, June 11, 2015
We are having a blast looking into the world of insects! In this post, I will show you how we are learning the different parts of an insects as well as the source of our materials.
Montessori Puzzles
I purchased these puzzles before I had Vito. We used it to identify the different parts of an insect and worked on it
Mavi loves to trace the puzzles and made his own version of butterfly.
The puzzle was also enjoyed by Vito. He loves butterfly (even if he hasn’t seen one yet) and chose to work on the puzzle.
Pin this!
Did you like this post? I recommend you pin this for later!
Let’s Connect!
Receive notifications of my updates, giveaways and freebies instantly by following my social media sites. I would love to have you on baord!
Seen on the picture are the materials we are using to learn about the insect’s body parts. The insects that we examined here are ants, butterfly, ladybird, grasshopper and dragonfly. As you can see, this is NOT really hands-on because of two factors:
- The absence of these insects (except for ants and ladybird) during the time we have this study. No grasshoppers (tropical country) and no butterfly at all!
- We cannot dissect ladybird and ants. They’re just too tiny!
With these, we just used our nomenclature cards and animal figures. Speaking of animal figures, I highly recommend Safari Toobs Insects. You can easily demonstrate the body parts because of the details in the figures.
Resources in the picture:- FREE Insects and Spider Silhouette Cards.
- Insect cards from my Arthropods Pack
- FREE Butterfly Nomenclature Cards
- Grasshopper Nomenclature Cards
- Ants Nomenclature Cards
- Caterpillar Nomenclature Cards
- Dragonfly Nomenclature Cards
- Insect Nomenclature Cards
- Usborne Bugs Book
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Montessori Butterfly Puzzle
- Montessori Wasp Puzzle
- Safari Toob Insects
We worked on the entire nomenclature cards in the span of one week. Because of the repetition of the activity, Mavi was able to identify the similarities of these insects, like:
- They have segmented bodies: head, thorax and abdomen
- 6 legs
- Most have antennae
Each nomenclature card comes with a definition booklet of the body parts. Mavi loves reading our booklets (this is a perfect way to let your child improve their reading skills!)
Montessori Puzzles
I purchased these puzzles before I had Vito. We used it to identify the different parts of an insect and worked on it
Mavi loves to trace the puzzles and made his own version of butterfly.
The puzzle was also enjoyed by Vito. He loves butterfly (even if he hasn’t seen one yet) and chose to work on the puzzle.
Pin this!
Did you like this post? I recommend you pin this for later!
Let’s Connect!
Receive notifications of my updates, giveaways and freebies instantly by following my social media sites. I would love to have you on baord!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)