Montessori activities 3

Here are some of the Montessori activities we have been doing this week.  We took a break for a couple of months and now Mena is much more excited about school.  She even asks me to do work with her now.  The first activity is of a mini calender I found at Micheals a while back.  I have Mena match the small picture with the big picture using a magnifying glass.  The next picture is color matching using the color samples for Home Depot.  The third pictures is of counting beads and numbers.  We have just started practicing numbers and she does not yet know each number or the order.  She likes doing this activity with my help.  The last picture is of animal families and I have her match the families together.

New Snack Drawer

I have been loosing my mind geting up every five minutes to get Mena something that she wants from the kitchen.  I finally decided to make something that I had had in mind for ages, Mena's very own snack drawer.  We don't have a huge kitchen, so this was the best I could think of at the moment.  Mena loves it.  Since we are doing Montessori in the home this fits right in.  Mena now gets her own snacks when she needs them and so far has done very well with it.  I knew she would.  She loves the independance and is so good about coming to show me what she gets every time or when she just wants me to open something.  Either way,  I have not had to worry about her sneaking snacks all day long.  Hooray for independance!!!!!!! 

Montessori Mena

Here are a few of the activities I did with Mena today.  We have gotten away from our everyday schooling in the basement but I am trying to get back into it.  We have been extremely busy lately and I have let that be an excuse to not teach.  I am now realizing this and hope to remedy it!  She loved these new activities because she is so interested in her letters right now.

Here is a shot of Mena doing her sandpaper letters.  I first ask her to find the "m" out of the four letters at the top, I do this with each of these letters.  She traces each letter with her finger and says the letter sound and then uses her sand tray to draw the letters.  I then introduced the letter tray which at the oment has all objects of colors that start with that sound.  I found a couple, then we walked around the room and found some together.  These activities are now on the shelf for her to choose from.  I plan to add obects for each of the letters but she was done with school for the day!

Here are two shots of Mena playing in her sensory bucket.  I noticed she wanted to play in the sand when she traced her letters so I immediatly created this sensory bucket for her to play in.  She loved it.  I filled it with beans, rice, and mini marshmallows.  I added some measuring cups and such for her to scoop and pour.  It worked out well. 

Autumn "stained glass windows"

I whipped together a craft for Mena the other day.  I cut fall colored tissue paper into squares, taped sticky side out a piece of contact paper on the window in our kitchen, and let Mena have at it!  She made some beautiful Autumn leaves on our doorwall!  I love having a door wall for crafts like this as Mena can reach things so much easier!

Necklace making

Mena made a necklace out of noodles and cut up straws.  I did put some masking tape on the end of her ribbon to make it easier to string.  YOu could string so many other things but this is what I through together in 2 minutes for her to do!  It did manage to hold her attention for a few minutes and she couldn't wait to show her daddy.

Apple paper plate craft

Here is an apple craft that Mena made.  I cut red paper into strips and let her tear them into pieces.  She can't use scissors yet so this allowed her to do every step of the craft.  She applied glue and then stuck the pieces on a paper plate.  She was so happy with her paper plate apple.  We hung it on the wall in her art area in our classroom! 

New Montessori Works

Here are some new Montessori activities we have out right now.  Mena is starting to like picking things out to do but still want's me around her.  I try to step back to observe and I am sure the day will come when she will be comfortable with that. 

 I found these leaves at Micheals for less than a dollar.  I made number cards and had Mena line them up accordingy.  We are starting with 1-5 and will add more later.  We used the three part lesson to learn the numbers.  She can not yet identify them so we are going to practice this even more.

Here is a silly picture of Mena practicing her nuts and bolts set from Melissa and Doug toys.  She was really enjoying turning it and seeing that if you turn it one way it goes on and the other way makes it come off! 

These are the Montessori Red Rods.  I am so excited about my purchase as I got them used and at a resonable price.  I tried showing Mena how to use them but she was only interested in building with them.  I kindly directed her toward her building blocks and again stated that that is not what these are for.  I decided today to take away half of the rods as this may have been a little to difficult to introduce all of them at once.  My thinking is that they may have overwhelmed her.  We will see how it goes with half and then I will add more later.  You can also do the same thing with the pink tower.

Day and Night Routine

Here are our new day and night routines.  I found them on another blog.  I can't remember where at the moment, but will attatch the link soon so you can make them too if you want.  I changed the pictures and added or removed some steps to customize it.  Mena loves following these charts and they are also helping me out as I am a very unscheduled person! 

First Day of School Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures of Mena before her first day of Atrium at Christ the King, in Ann Arbor.  She was so excited!  So excited in fact that she couldn't eat much for breakfast and she barely slept last night.  Poor thing.  Anyway,  I was anxious to see how the drop off would be since she has never been without me for something like this.  No daycare in her past or classes that I wasn't right in the room for.  Well, there were tears.  She was not to enthused about me leaving her at the door with strangers, although I knew most of the familys.  I finally convinced her that she would be okay and handed her over to the room mom to take her into the class.  There was screaming for a minute or so and then all was quiet.  They say she did wonderful!  I wish I could have seen her and been a fly on the wall to watch my little girl be all independant.  I can't believe it happening.  She is growing up.  My how time flies.  Sorry about the tangent, I was the nursery mom so I was just next door which made it a whole lot easier on me.  Most of the activities they did today were Montessori and stuff that we do already in our homeschool setting.  I think this made her a little more comfortable.  Soon they will get into more catechesis.  I love these pictures of her...sorry, another tangent!  After school we went to see her Aunt that works nearby and invited her to lunch.  She couldn't make it today so we went by our selves to McDonalds.  Just as we started eating, Mena spotted one of her classmates so they joined us for lunch.  So much fun for the kiddos and the mommies!  Although, my little kiddo was ready for nap.  She konked out as soon as we hit the road.  We are totally ready for next week.  Hopefully it will bring a smoother drop off because I don't know how many more of those I can handle!!!   

My Sunflower!

Here is Mena's sunflower now that she grew from seed.   The bee's just love it!  I can't get over how much water this thing needs.  Mena loves to climb on the rocking chair inside just to look at it and say, "Oh!  My sunflower is so big!"  How wonderful to be able to teach her about God's beauty and power in a way that she can understand!   

Montessori activities 2

Here are our new activities on our shelves in the classroom. Some of the same stuff but here are the additions! I purchased the mini Pink Tower and the mini knobbed cylinders to add to the classroom as well. There are actually 4 sets of the cylinders but I am introducing them one at a time. She does not seem to interested in them yet.

This is our new magnet board from Ikea, $12.99. The cheap magnets are a little hard to keep from sliding down since they aren't very strong but it will be perfect later on for her Mass Kit that I am making. I just need to get it laminated and we'll be ready to play. I will take pictures of it later.

Sorry this picture is blurry. Can't wait to get our new camera! Anyway, I found this dog dish at The Dollar Store. It was a great find. I never would have thought to use a dog dish for Montessori activities but they seem perfect. I also bought these hair ties there for $1 and they come in a pack of 1,000! I am starting with all one color and eventually will make pattern cards and have her try that. She loves this activity. Very simply, she puts the pony holder on the cylinder from her play blocks. This is a great activity for starting out using two hands at a time.

My Mother in Law let me borrow this veggie tray. I put shells in the middle which I found at Micheal's for 47 cents. I taped a piece of paper with the numbers one through six written on them to each compartment. Mena puts the corresponding shells in each compartment.

Here are some colored bowls that I bought at Micheal's on sale for 47 cents a piece! I found these flower plastic hair clips at The Dollar Store for a buck! She sorts them by color.

This is simply a four section Christmas tray. I taped colored construction paper in each compartment and Mena uses Pom Pom balls sorted by color. Eventually I will add tongs to the activity.

Sweeping

I tried letting Mena sweep into a dust pan but that was a little too difficult for her. Here is what we do now. Put masking tape on a tray in the shape if a "C "so that she can sweep items into it. Works a lot better so far!

I forgot to take a picture of our smelling bottles. I found some salt and pepper shakers from The Dollar Store and put the same scent on two cotton balls inside the jars. Mena then matched them up according to scent. I think this would work better with plastic or colored salt and pepper shakers as you can't see the colors of what you add. However, this is what I found and I am making due!

Flower Button Board

Isn't this an awesome idea for teaching your child to button. I think even I, with my limited sewing experience, may be able to make this. Check out Chasing Cheerios for more fantastic Montessori inspired ideas. I will post pictures if and when I get around to making this. It is a great idea and I hope I can get to it.

Handmade Bubble Blower

Here is an idea for a bubble wand made out of straws. It worked pretty well. We used bendy straws and were able to send the bubbles off in all different directions.

Thanks to Chasing Cheerios for this great idea!

Here are the bendy straws after I bundled them together with masking tape.