Retro Learning

Ok, I'm showing my age here, but does anyone else remember these totally rad bell charms from the 80's?

I had a bunch when I was a kid and I recently found more on Ebay. :) They bring back such fun memories - I remember my friends and I use to bring them to birthday parties and trade them. Collecting as many as possible and filling up an entire plastic chain was the goal. They were a must-have accessory for 80's preteens!

Fast forward 20 some years and they are still a must-have for me. True I don't/won't wear them as an accessory, but these little lovelies just make me smile. Of course I'll pass them on to Juliet when she's old enough and hopefully she'll pass them along to her children thus keeping the 80's forever alive. :) But what do I do with them in the meantime?

Turn them into learning tools, of course! I came up with a list of 13 different ways to use these charms for learning. Here are just a few:

~I Spy~

You know the game, "I spy with my little eye...". I've written a list of all of the charm in the above photo on a separate card. James will go down the list and check them off as he finds them.

~Sorting By Type~

I threw this together in order to get a photo, but when James does it he'll have 6 little baskets to sort in to. There's the possibility of a bit of crossover with a few of the charms, but ultimately each charm really only belongs to one category.

~Clipping~

I couldn't think of a better title for this activity. :) Basically it's just clipping each charm onto a notch on the chain necklace. I'm not sure if it's because these little charms are nearly 30 years old, but they require a steady hand and some focus in order to attach them to the chain. Excellent fine motor activity.

~Spelling~

James is quite good at spelling, and he enjoys it too, so I know this one will be a huge hit. We're using our Moveable Alphabet to accompany this activity.

~Measuring~

It's surprising how large some of these charms are! I image we all looked pretty ridiculous, little as we were, carrying around this mass amount of giant plastic charms around our necks! Their varying size make for a good measuring activity, though. :)

The rest of my learning activity list includes:
:: arithmetic
:: mystery bag
:: counting - skip/ordinals/rote
:: more sorting - by color/exact type (I have many duplicates)
:: transferring - tweezing/pouring/tonging
:: shadow matching
:: bingo
:: pretend play

If any of you can think of more learning activities, let me know! I'll gift one charm to the first 5 people who comment on this post with an idea! :D

~Thank you for your comments!~

Story Starters

Once a week, James writes & draws in his story journal. Sometimes he makes up a story, other times, when he's feeling not so motivated, he needs a little help coming up with ideas. That's when I decided to create a tray of "story starters".

I went through some second hand National Geographic magazines and clipped some interesting photos. James selects a photo from the tray and stares at it for a minute or two, allowing the creative juices to get flowing. :)

I always enjoy seeing what he comes up with!

~Thank you for your comments!~

On Our Shelves - July & August

This is my last "On Our Shelves" post for a few months. The baby is due is just 5 weeks (!) and I'm now shifting my focus toward preparing for her arrival.

Our theme is summer. Keeping the theme broad like this really allowed me to put pretty much anything on our shelves, so long as it looked summery! :) As always, there are a few activities that aren't theme related. Click here and here to see what was on our shelves last summer.

Practical Life
Water Transfer. When James is ready to do this work he'll need to fill the bowl of little sponges with a bit of water. Then he'll place one sponge square into the garlic press and squeeze the water into one section of the ice cube tray. Oops - I now realize I need to add another bowl to the tray for the squeezed sponge squares. To remove the water from the ice tray, James will simply put the squeezed sponges back into the section to absorb the water and then transfer them back to the bowl.

Pencil Sharpening.

Pouring Sand. This is sand from one of our local beaches. I added a funnel to make this work a little more exciting. :) The bottle on the left is in a basket to keep it from falling off of the tray. James is really careful about transporting his work to the rug or table, but this tray just isn't that great.

Paper Punching. This is something new for us and I think James will really like it. The blue container (from Mexico) holds small paper squares of various colors, textures and weight. The silver container will hold the punches.

Tweezing & Transferring. We've done something similar to this several times before, so this is nothing really new, but I know James will enjoy it. The mason jar is what I think he will find most interesting - there are two parts to the lid and they have to go on in a certain way in order for them to fit properly.

Sensorial

Sensory Tubs. We have two available right now: Pond & Transportation

Sandy Playdough. Same as last year. :)

Creating Polygons. These colored popsicle sticks have been used for so many activities in our classroom! I printed out this chart from the internet and James will use it as a guide to create some basic polygons. I provided a control of error by using a single color for each polygon.

Still on our shelves: Knobbed & Knobless Cylinders, and The Pink Tower.

Language
Poetry Basket. I found this poem online and modified it a bit. I needled-felted the water and grass, and knitted the little fruits in the basket.

Summer Bingo. I made this myself using graphics from here. The small bingo cards are in the little box, and the colored shells will be used as card markers. (Btw, I did not color the shells - I found a bag of them at our local thrift store.)

Sequencing. These stars are filled with water (meant to be reusable ice cubes). We'll use them to create various patterns.

Tracing. James finds worksheets a bit boring, so I try to liven this kind of work up by adding fun writing utensils to the tray. You'd be surprised how often this works to entice him. These printables came from abcteach. (Btw, since a few people have asked, yes I do have a membership to this site and yes I do find it well worth the price - I use it quite often).

Moveable Alphabet. I collected a bunch of images from Google and made these cards to accompany our moveable alphabet. James will spell out the name of image. In the case of the card shown in the photo, he can opt to spell either 'shovel' or 'pail'.

Memory Game. This is one from last year when we focused on Independence Day.

Books. On The Seashore by Anna Millbourne, The Sun Egg by Elsa Beskow, Bermuda 123 by Dana Cooper, Summer (Series) by Nuria Roca, America a Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney, L is for Liberty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison, Coral Reef by Marcus Phister, The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller, Swimmy by Leo Lionni.

Still on our shelves: Dry Erase Spelling, and the Grammar Farm.

Math
Buying Water Balloons. Put on your creative hat, go into the dollar store and you'll be amazed at what you turn into a learning activity! In the past, I would have made a simple sorting/matching activity with these balloons, but since that's a bit old hat for James, I decided to go this route instead. James will need to "buy" these balloons for a penny a piece/25 cents for the lot. I provided various coins that equal that amount and it'll be up to him to decide which combination of coins to use. This activity falls in line with our recent Money Matters lesson.

Cards & Counters. It's true we're a bit past this kind of work, too, but if I've said it once I've said it a million times - repetition is a good thing. Plus, I have a bazillion of these fruit counters and I've been dying to use them. :) I bought them at a garage sale a few months ago, but I think you can buy them from Lakeshore Learning.

Less Than/More Than/Equal To. I chose sea glass for this work and I think James will really like the look and feel of it. The less than/more than/equal symbols come from this magnetic set.

Lego Math. You can read more about this here.

Skip Counting. I made these bead bars out of pipe cleaners and pony beds. Super easy. The tiles come from our Hundreds Board.

Still on our shelves: Telling Time, and Sandpaper Numerals.

Science & Culture
Discovery Tray. It's been a while since I created a discovery tray for our shelves. This one is full of ocean treasures - shells, coral, sea glass, and bits of pottery washed up after a hurricane a couple of years ago.

Examining Sand. My husband found the idea for this activity here. We'll put some sand on the white paper and make note of what colors and particles we see. We'll do the same with the black paper and see if we notice anything different. We'll use the jumbo magnet to see if any iron-rich minerals stick to it. We'll also talk about why Bermuda sand is pink!

Still on our shelves: (Parts of) the Africa Continent Bag.

Water Experiments - coming soon!

Art & Music

Composer of the Month: Verdi. I often get asked what exactly we do with our COM. Right now I'm keeping it really simple - I download that composer's music onto my iPod and we listen to those songs during our schooltime for the entire month. I also print out a photo of the composer. At some point we'll likely spend more time learning about the composer and the style of music, but for now it's just not something James is interested in.

Coloring Book. I printed this mini coloring book from abcteach.

Circle Time Songs. I can make these available, just let me know if you're interested.

Line Art. The idea here is simple - James can use the ruler to create lines in various lengths and angles. He can color the shapes in if he wishes to.

Happy summer!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Gender Chart

I created this "gender chart" (for lack of a better name) for James so he could learn the proper pronouns and titles associated with males and females. He sometimes confuses he/she, her/him, his/hers, etc. Since he's able to read just about anything now and since he's such a visual kind of learner, I thought this would be a fun chart for him to learn from. I know more could be added to this list, but I just chose basic pronouns and titles - ones he uses in day to day conversation.Click here to download a copy of your own. I should note the images are from Google Images and they aren't of the best quality. As always, my printables are for your personal use only. Please do not sell or offer them in a giveaway - thanks!

~Thank you for your comments!~

The Grammar Farm

One of my favorite learning tools that's commonly found in a Montessori classroom is the Grammar Farm. In short, it's a farm setting (complete with a barn and farm themed figurines) and its purpose is to introduce the parts of speech to children in a fun, interactive way. You can read more about Grammar Farms here.

Over the past year and half, I have been creating a Grammar Farm of our own. Because I love farms, and because I love natural toys, and because I wanted this set to be something my children could pass along to their own children, I invested a bit of money into this little farm. I purchased our wooden animals from here and here, and the barn was purchased second-hand, but you can find it here. I made the cards myself ages ago and they are color coded (In Montessori, the parts of speech are color-coded.)

This is James' first introduction to the Grammar Farm, and as such we're focusing on just nouns at the moment. Very soon we'll move to articles, adjectives, and verbs. Next, we'll create sentences by lining up the cards (like this) and finally I'll introduce these grammar symbols to accompany not just this farm, but other language activities as well.

I really enjoyed putting together our own farm, but you can purchase Grammar Farms online - here are a few links I found:
:: A very basic set, which you can add to.
:: Complete sets here and here that appear to have everything you'd need (minus the grammar cards).
:: Don't forget thrift shops - Montessori Tidbits found a fantastic set at the Goodwill!
:: For the grammar cards, you can make your own or you can purchase them from my favorite store for Montessori printables, Montessori Print Shop.

Here's a link on how to make your own farm (to keep it thrifty, you could use these animals) and here's a link on how to present the Grammar Farm to a child.

Lastly, (if you're not all linked-out by now!) be sure to check out these posts:
:: The Work Plan made her Grammar Farm work for toddlers!
:: For another DIY farm, check out A Bit of This and A Bit of That.

~Thank you for your comments!~

On Our Shelves - May

Last year, in April and May, we focused on a rainbow theme, which I think is perfect for spring. But, this year I decided to do a unit on farms. I'm excited about it because I've always had a soft spot in my heart for farms/farming, despite the fact that I grew up in the city. When I was young, I used to pretend I lived on a farm and I make my poor cat play the role of a variety of animals. :) Something about all those lovely stinky animals and living a sustainable life has always appealed to me. My husband grew up on a farm and I know that fact was one of many reasons why I fell in love with him. But I digress... :)

Here's what's on our shelves. You'll notice there are not as many activities as usual. Now that the weather is nicer, we're spending more time out of doors and so our school week has been reduced to 3 mornings per week.

Practical Life
Pouring Milk. Oops, I see I forgot to photograph the sponge that accompanies this work (for spills). And that isn't really milk in those cute little milk bottles, it's just water and white paint. :) This work is great not just for concentration and a steady hand, but also for learning about the concepts of more/less, half/full/empty.

Tweezing Apples. The fun thing about this activity is that the apples (found at Michael's craft store) make a nice "tinking" sound when the enter the glass jar. The fact that the opening of the jar is a bit small means James needs to be more careful when transferring. After a successful round of tweezing, we played a game where we stood above the jar, aimed the apples over the opening, and tried to drop them directly into the jar. Not as easy as it sounds!

Measuring Scratch Feed. I suppose this doubles as a math activity, too! This is the same scratch feed I used in this month's sensory tub.

We also plan on making butter again and visiting one of the local farms.

Still on our shelves: Flower Arranging.

Sensorial

Farm Sensory Tub.

Playdough - I'll be sharing about that later this month as it'll follow a different theme.

Pattern Puzzles.

Still on our shelves: Knobbed and Knobless Cylinders, The Pink Tower, Butterfly Matching.

Language
Spelling. This is a good example of how you can mix and match toys/office supplies to create a learning activity. The magnetic animal pieces are from an old puzzle, and the dry-erase board was something I found at Office Max a couple of years ago.

Worksheets. These are a variety of sheets (from abcteach and KidsSoup) dealing with tracing, word matching, and handwriting. I have mixed feelings when it comes to worksheets. On the one hand I know they're not very Montessori, and I have to admit I do prefer more tactile ways of learning, but on the other hand I cannot deny that worksheets are very useful, too. I'm starting to incorporate them more into our learning because my husband is always eager to see what James has learned in school.

Old MacDonald Storyboard. This felt set and the board both come from the lovely shop, Storytelling Fun.

Magnetic Storybook.

Books. A reader recently asked me about our book collection and whether I buy all of our books. The answer is yes I do and I almost always purchase them second hand. Our local library has a limited selection and only allows us to borrow 3 books at a time (I hear you can borrow as many as 50 at a time in the States! That blows my mind!). Some of the books, like the Farmer Grover book seen above, are my own from when I was a child.

Poetry Basket. Click here to download the poem. To see/read more about our poetry baskets, click here.

Farm Activity Book. This is a "green" (i.e. recycled) book full of stickers, worksheets, and activities. We do one or two sheets a day.

Still on our shelves: Green Sandpaper Phonograms

Math
Feed the Chickens. This game comes from PreKinders. We used corn kernels as the counters.

Roll A Farm. I found this cute game in this fantastic download - be sure to check it out, it's full of really cute farm printables.

Worksheets. A variety of sheets focusing on skip counting, quantity matching, and dot to dot. Again, all are from either abcteach or KidSoup.

Telling Time. I purchased this clock at our local teacher's supply store. I made the number cards myself.

Still on our shelves: Sandpaper Numerals, Ladybug Math, and Seed Graphing (a favorite!)

Science & Culture

Parts of a Horse. These are from Montessori Print Shop.

Matching Adult & Baby Animals. Click here to download these cards.

South America Continent Bag. This particular portion of our bag focuses on just the animals of South America.

Where Does It Come From? Another great printable from Montessori Print Shop. We had this on our shelves last month and James really enjoyed it. For this month, I only included the sets that related to farm animals.

Still on our shelves: Continent Globe & Puzzle.

Art & Music
Composer of the Month: Chopin. A reader recently asked what exactly we do with our COM. Right now I'm keeping it really simple - I download that composer's music onto my iPod and we listen to those songs during our schooltime for the entire month. I also print out a photo of the composer. At some point we'll likely spend more time learning about the composer and the style of music, but for now it's just not something James is interested in.

Circle Time Songs. Each month I search the internet for fun and simple songs for us to sing during our circle times. Click here to download our songs.

Tractor Painting. Just like it sounds. Toss some paint on a big sheet of paper and drive a tractor through it. Good fun! I love experimenting with different painting tools.

Scissor Practice. I made these strips a bit wider than I usually do so James will have to use two or three cuts in order to sever the paper.

Still on our shelves: Flower Rubbing.

That's all for now. I have a few more activities which I'll post about separately throughout the month.

Happy May!

~Thank you for your comments!~