Golden Beads Addition

On days that we're not doing any "themed" activities, we work on our bead materials and lately the golden beads has been a favorite in the house.  Technically, this activity is good for 2 or more participants but since we have no other kid at home that can participate I volunteered for that position :)

So this is a simple addition "game" as I always tell my son.  Using our small number cards, I would create a random 4 digit number for both of us and we're going to fetch the equivalent of that number using the golden beads. 

           

Then someone has to add or combine them all together to determine the total.  But since we don't have a third person to do that, my son and I did this together.  We combined our beads and counted them.  I made him identify the number of thousand cubes, hundreds, tens and ones. 

 

Using the small number and large number cards, I made him add the numbers to check whether our counting with the golden beads is correct.  Here I showed him that we can add quantities by combining or manually counting, but it always easier to do the addition using the technique below.

  Here's the layout of our work.And we did a few more.  I also made him use the activity sheet (Stamp Game sheet) from Montessori Printshop so he can practice writing 4 digit numbers.

            

          

Though it's a good activity for addition, it is quite overwhelming for one child to do.  After a few work on numbers he complained that its tiring.

Next, we'll attempt to have a Stamp Game.  We'll see how he'll react to it :)

Bird Unit Activities

Son's request was for us to have another bird unit (click here for our previous lessons).  So here are the activities and materials I have gathered for this week's unit study.

Bird Nomenclature and Definition Cards.  Whenever we study animals, I always start by introducing the different parts of the animals and how they function.  I just have to say we've been using 3 part cards method and it has accelerated my son's reading.

Following the nomenclature and definition, my son always works with the activity sheet identifying the parts.  Here he can make his own booklet of bird parts using colored pencils and crayons. 

 

Bird parts booklet.  This method enables my son to practice his spelling and a much deeper understanding of the bird parts.

Bird species matching.  I provided bird pictures in the my Bird Pack which we use to identify the different species of birds. We use our Safari Toob bird collection (and Schleich too).

 

Bird's feet classification.  I made a table of the different types of bird's feet and list down the bird (figures) that we have.  This activity aims to identify the the bird's habitat and lifestyle.

 

Similarly, I printed out a picture of the different shape of the bird's beak from here.  With this activity Mavi will be able to tell what the birds eat.  This activity was inspired by this one.

               

Bird's colors.  Because Mavi loves to color, I collected these images from the web.  The aim of this activity is for Mavi to color the birds based on our figures.

              

The nomenclature cards, definition and bird cards were also from the Bird Pack.  Click the image below for the link.

For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.

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Home + School = Afterschool!

Fruits and Vegetables Activities

We are currently having a Fruit and Veggie Unit and here are the activities we've done so far and the activities we'll be doing this weekend.

Alpha Fruit and Veggies.   Here Mavi's ordering the the names and the fruits and vegetable cards.  He then matched the cards to the upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet. 

 

 

 

Read and Spell

Here's my friend's daughter little C, working on the read and spell cards which you can download for free here.

          

Mavi also worked a few grammar lessons.  Here we use our fruits and counter to study the plural forms of the fruits.  I also included this activity in the Fruits and Vegetables Unit Pack.

Here I introduced Montessori Grammar Symbols. 

 

   

 

Mavi also enjoyed working this inside fruit matching.  This is included in the Fruits and Vegetables Unit Pack.

            

Now for other activities which we will be doing in the next few days, here they are.  We've done them in the past and will be doing it again. I just have to post this ahead as I am not sure if I can take any photos because for sure my hands will be very busy as well plus the fact that our little guy, Baby X is kinda clingy this days so I won't be able to hold a camera as well.

Inside and Out Prints of a Fruit.  This is one activity my son truly enjoyed.  I bought different fruits from the market, cut them into half and use paints to make prints.

We will be working parts of an apple.  We will dissect an apple again and identify the parts. (Click the image for the history of the picture)

 

Same thing with tomato.  We'll be working with it as well. My son loves these and will love to all of these again! (Click the image for the history of the picture)

Thank you for dropping by!  So did you like the activities?  Please don't forget to click "notify me" in the comment section so you will receive my reply to your comments.

For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
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Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!
Natural Homeschool's Montessori Linky
History and Geography

Europe Study Part III (FREE Volcano Cards)

And this is the last part of our European Study series. You can read Part I and Part II here.

So first we had Major Rivers of Europe.  We used this printable Major Rivers of the World to look at the longest rivers in Europe, traced how long they are and how does it affect the economy of the people.

Here Mavi is plotting the location of the rivers.  We are also identifying the countries that some of these rivers flow through.  The map seen on the picture was randomly "googled".

 

We also talked about the active volcanoes in Europe.  My son was really really interested on this one as they were having lessons about it in school too.   To avail the FREE file of Volcanoes in Europe please click the image below.

 

We used a map again to plot the location of the volcanoes.  He discovered that were a number of active volcanoes in Italy and got a little bit scared that we used to live near it.

           

 

 

  

We also did a few math activities one of which is relating Euro to Montessori Golden Beads.  We talked about how each Euro bill corresponds to Golden Beads and using the currency we played pretend shopping :)  Of course the little guy was the cashier to practice simple mathematics like addition.

Here he is counting the total cost of Mommy's purchases.

                   

And lastly, the subject that I've been wanting to revisit for the longest time, Artist Study.  Using the books and cards that we have we talked about the famous painters in Europe.  We did a couple of Artist Study a few years back and worked on Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Picasso and Degas.

I've always wanted to try Monet.  My initial plan was to bring him to the park so we could paint the flowers there in the field, but lately the weather has been really really bad so I guess that has to wait.  Instead, we painted the Poppy Fields of Monet using a  picture card as a guide.

I told him that Monet is an impressionist, that his paintings look like blobs or blurry and that it doesn't give you an exact detail of the subject but just an impression.

And here's our first try of painting like Monet :)

 

And here's Mavi's rendition of Monet's The Poppy Field.  What do you think?

 

And that concludes our Europe Study series.  Hope all of the series of post I have for this lesson have given you enough idea to start your Europe Study as well.

For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!
Natural Homeschool's Montessori Linky
History and Geography