Number cards and counters

Here Bean is using his number cards and counters (glass beads from Michael's).  After laying out numbers 1-10 in order he had to count out the correct amount of counters for each number.  I helped him lay the first several sets out so that he could see how some numbers have "buddies" or "pairs" while others don't.  This was the precursor to learning about even and odd numbers. 

Sorting objects by initial sounds

In our classroom I have this handy little organizer for our sound objects.  As soon as we decided to homeschool this year I started scouring our house and stores for small objects to use for learning phonics.  We use these when we review a letter sound but also use these when practicing listening for the initial sound in a word. 

 

Here Bean uses his sandpaper letters and sound objects to sort out by listening for the initial sound in each word.

Apples!

During the month of September we started talking about and studying apples.  Although it's normally a great fall theme on its own around here it takes on a bit more importance as we usually get 2-3 bushels of apples that invade our kitchen for a bit until I can turn them into applesauce that we enjoy throughout the year. Here's a few of the activities and things we did to celebrate the apple harvest season. 

Taste testing different varieties of apples.  It was a unanimous family decision for Jonagolds!

 

Studying the life cycle of an apple tree.

3 part language cards for the parts of an apple tree life cycle.

Collection of apple books we had in our bookshelf.

Dissecting an apple and learning about the different parts.  Labelled picture downloaded from http://montessoritidbits.blogspot.com/2010/10/parts-of-apple.html

Labeling his own picture of the parts of an apple.  Again, picture from Montessori Tidbits (see link above).

 

Probably Bean's favorite project-shrunken apple heads!  He made his into a vampire pirate.

Tissue paper art.

Bean's drawing of an apple.

Bean's new apple corer/slicer.  This was used for not only snack time but helping mom prepare apples for the crockpot during applesauce making time.

Downloaded book from Enchanted Learning.  Lots of neat little activities and coloring pages to extend the theme.

One of the pages from his book.  Identifying an apple tree during the four seasons. 

El Dia de los Muertos-Remembering Corey

November 1st is El Dia de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead.  It is a holiday to remember, honor and celebrate our loved ones who have passed on.  I think this is such a wonderful holiday and our family has started to incorporate it into our traditions.  Families typically visit the cemetery where the loved one is buried and bring a picnic dinner of their favorite foods, sing songs that the loved one enjoyed, share stories about them, light candles and sometimes spend the night in the cemetery.

 Here are two of the books we read tonight.  Of course the Rookie Reader for the holiday which always does such a wonderful job of explaining things so simply and clearly.  The top book "I Remember Abuelito" was a really wonderful story of a little girl and her family celebrating El Dia de los Muertos by remembering her grandfather.  It showed the many traditions they had in honoring their loved one who passed away, including sprinkling marigold petals on a path to the house so their spirit can come visit, which I would love to incorporate in future years.

This year we remembered my brother Corey who died last January at the age of 20 in a car accident.  I had kept a candle from his service and we lit that tonight to show how our love for him still shines even though he isn't here.  We looked at pictures and shared memories.  Bean remembered our last trip to Florida, mere months before Corey died, when they played Legos together.  My husband remembered how Corey was the only one who could get kisses from our old dog Sophie.  I shared lots of memories from when he was much younger before I was married or had kids.  Then we enjoyed some of Corey's favorite foods from when he was little-deviled eggs, butter bread and olives.  He could sure pack away his favorite foods when he was younger and tonight Bean would have made him proud.  He enthusiastically ate each of them, had second helpings and declared that he loved all the same foods as Uncle Corey.  What a wonderful walk down memory lane and the reason I really have grown to love this holiday.

On our shelves for Halloween

I try to make sure that we have several choices for interesting independent work on the classroom shelves for Bean to choose.  In anticipation of Halloween I had been hoarding fun, little activities I had picked up from Michael's, Target and the Dollar Store as well as things from my old teaching stash.  Here's what he has been enjoying in the two weeks leading up to Halloween.

Halloween tree with costumed Smores men ornaments.  Great for practicing balancing since the tree will tip if they are not evenly spaced out.

Some of the books we had out for Halloween.  The one in front I made from a download from Montessori Print Shop.

Halloween cutting strips.  After he would cut them into strips we would cut them out individually and use them for art or patterning work.

Making Halloween cards.  Foam shapes and letters to use for decorating.

Lacing Halloween rings (spiders, skulls, bats).  He wasn't much into the lacing but perhaps we can use these next year for sorting by type or color.

Halloween playdough.  Always a hit when I put out seasonal cookie cutters and seasonal colored playdough.

Make a Jack o' Lantern face.  Kind of like a Wooly Willy but for Halloween!

Making a Halloween necklace.  Last month I had out pony beads and he made tons of bracelets and necklaces with them.  When I found this little pack of beads for $1 I knew it would be his thing.

Decorate a foam pumpkin with plastic face shapes.  I was hoping he would do this several times but he made one face, declared it done and perfect and had no interest in doing it again.  Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Fun with Color!

For the past several weeks we have been playing around with color.  We've used all sorts of materials to see how different colors are made.  Here's a few of the activities and experiments we have done. 

On our work shelves I set out this color mixing activity.  Bean had 3 eye droppers and bottles with the 3 primary colors (watered down red, yellow and blue food coloring) in them and 4 small glass bowls for mixing colors.  Initially he was given the freedom to explore his own color combinations.  After we had done more talking about making secondary colors from primary colors I pulled this work off of the shelves and we used it to make secondary colors together.  But honestly most of the time he would take delight in mixing all of the colors together to make a dark greenish-brown concoction he would call "coffee".  At least at those times he was practicing fine motor control with the eye droppers, right?  :)

We have a couple of sets of these great color paddles.  We hung one set in the big window of the classroom so that we could enjoy the "rainbow" it would make as the afternoon sun shined through the window.  We also used the other set to play around with mixing colors.  We would put the red and yellow paddles together to see how it would be orange where they overlapped.  We did that for blue/yellow and red/blue as well. 

 For his birthday Bean had gotten a prism and now was the perfect time to bring it out again after we read the Rookie Reader "All the Colors of the Rainbow".  We used it inside and outside to find rainbows that it would make. 

Here are a couple of our favorite books we read about mixing colors.  Bean loved "Mouse Paint" since the mice jumped in the paint and stirred it with their feet.  I really loved "Color Dance" and would recommend it to anyone doing a color unit.  Dancers mix colors by twirling their colored scarves together as they dance.  It also talks about how white makes color more pale and gray makes colors darker.  Just a beautifully illustrated book overall.

I got a copy of these color 3 part cards from a friend.  I didn't make them into traditional 3 part cards.  Instead we used them to show how colors mix together.  At the top of the mat, I would put all of the single color cards.  In the middle I would lay down a mixed color card and ask Bean to find the two (or more) colors that make up the mixed color.  After all of our earlier lessons he breezed through this.

 We also watched as color danced and mixed in a cup.  We started with a glass of water and put a thin layer of oil on the top.  Then we would put a small drop of food coloring on the oil layer and wait patiently for it to drop down into the water where it would mix.  As we added different colors they would mix together to in the water to make new colors.  The most fun part is watching the color as it explodes in the water after making its way through the layer of oil.  Kind of like a lava lamp!

We also tried mixing color in milk when a drop of dish soap is added.  We had done lots of experimenting with colors and water and would see how they would mix to make new colors.  This activity was a bit different.  We started with a dish of milk and put one drop of each primary color of food coloring spaced out evenly around the edge.  Then we added a few drops of dish soap in the middle and then tried to bring the colors together to mix.  However the dish soap would keep the colors (mostly) apart and we ended up with a cool tie dye effect!