map work

Today the girls made a world map by pin punching around each continent. We just used large push pins to punch around the continents. Why didn't we just use scissors, you ask? Because the contienets were small and I knew it would be hard for the girls to cut something that small and keep the shape of the contients. It was also really good practice for hand-eye coordination which is a necessary skill in writing. It was a lot of prep work on my part (my finger is still sore from using an exacto knife last night!), but I think the end result turned out nice!


materials -
pattern of continents
construction paper - orange, pink, red, green, yellow, brown, white and blue
large push pin
exacto knife
glue

directions -
1. print and cut out the paper templates
2. trace onto cardborad
3. use an exacto knife to cut around the continents
4. trace the continents onto the appropriate color of construction paper
5. have student pin punch around the outlines
6. cut 2 circles out of blue constructions paper
7. glue the continents onto the world

world geography

This week we will be learning about world geography. Each day they will do some type of work related to the continents. Today, we started out by learning that there are 7 continents. I made a push pin world map for them out of some very inexpensive materials. We also learned a song about the continents sung to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". I will be using the traditional Montessori continent colors for this unit: North America - Orange, South America - Pink, Europe - Red, Asia - Yellow, Africa - Green, Australia - Brown, Antarctica - White.




materials -
print out of the maps
2 sheets of foam
rubber cement
7 white push pins

directions -
1. print out the maps
2. cut out the 2 maps and glue each one onto a foam sheet
3. provide student with 7 push pins and the continent labels
4. the control map is the map already labeled with the continents; the other map is blank and that is where the student will do their work
5. have students pin each continent name onto the continent; students can use the control map to check their work

busy boy

Ethan has been busy at school, too. As with most 3 year olds, his attention span is only about 3-5 minutes per activity! Needlessly to say, he finishes "school" very quickly! Maybe next week I can offer him more activites. But, this week he has been busy -

pouring water

finger tracing ABC tactile cards

using his magnifying glass to look at small pictures and then match it on the board

cutting play dough

harold and the purple crayon

This week we have been rowing Harold and The Purple Crayon. We have done lots of different learning activities and an art project to go along with this book.

art -

materials - chenile sticks, pom-poms, button, sequins, felt shapes

Ethan, age 3 (had a little help!)
Gracelyn, age 6
Ella, age 5

math - fractions (1/2, 1/4 and 1/8)

cutting purple playdough pies into halves, fourths and eighths

exploring fractions

math journal - Harold had 12 pies. He ate 2 and gave 5 away. How many pies did he have left?

math journal - draw a triangle above a square. draw a circle next to a rectangle

copy work and poem -

illustrate a monster to go along with the poem

war!

This week we have been reviewing math concepts that we learned last year. To review greater than/less than, we played the classic card game - War! The kids really enjoyed this game too! They even challenged their granddad who is visting us this weekend to a game! I think they enjoyed how animated he made the game :) We only used playing cards 2-10 and took out the face cards.