World project

I didn't have the time to write, nonetheless we have been very busy with all our activities and project.
M. is now attending a Montessori nursery 2 mornings a week, at home I am trying to keep the nursery routine, even if ours is more relaxed! I am doing "circle-time" where I teach numbers, shapes, colours, and different topics in a fun way, we also have "story-time" and if M. is up for it "music and sing time".

I have been working on my world project. I found Montessori children and foods cards on e-bay for real cheap, then I added some of my own, found in magazines and real photos we took of people and food we encounter every day. I have also took M. twice to events about world food where we also could taste some of it, even if M. is not always quite keen!

It surely made her aware of differences and similaraties between herself and other children, it also made her aware that people from different part of the world do not live or eat the same food as us. She found this topic very interesting and she often looks at the pictures.










I have also made the Europe puzzle, but this one was more difficult to make than the World Puzzle, didn't come as good, and because there are so many pieces, it is also quite difficult for Muhajiza.

HAND AND FEET PRINTS

This is a very fun activity for children, but so messy!!! So you must be prepared to control your stress level! Even with due precautions your floor and clothes will get a bit dirty.

Get your self a big paper roll, the one usually used for display boards at meetings and similar. Roll it out on your hall floor. If you have carpeted floor is best to cover it with naylon. Stick the corners to the floor with sallotape.
Prepare a few large plastic container-lids with hand paint. Also prepare some containers to put some regular paint, get out a brush, sponges of different shapes, stickers and any art and craft materials you come about.

Give your child a nice size apron!!!!

Now let your child explore witht he different types of paint and the different ways he can use them. Encourage him to use his feet and walk all the way to the end of the paper and look at his feet-prints. He can use his hands, paint with a brush, and sponge paint. You may also need to change the paper when he gets too busy.










This can be a nice piece of art to hung on your wall :)

WORLD PROJECT

This is a huge project I have in mind. It will take time and effort to make but it will teach M. so many things about the world, its geography, people, cultures, animals and other things.
I got the inspiration from a world puzzle I saw in a Montessori classroom, which brought my memories back of when I used to work on it as a young child.
It is so difficult to find a world puzzle or is so expensive, so I thought I could make one using a very cheap poster of the world.
I bought two posters from the 99p shop.

MATERIALS:

2 world posters
utility knife
a thick card board the same size as the posters
glue


1. Start by laying one of the posters over the card-board
2. Keeping the poster firmly still, cut around the borders of every continent, making sure that the utility knife is also cutting through the card board.
3. you should obtain the cut out continents, their exact shape in card board, a world map without continents and a cardboard with empty continents shapes.
4. glue the cut out continents to their card board shapes, and put aside
5. glue the world poster without continents to the card-board, making sure that they perfectly match
6. glue the second poster to the cardboard so that its continents are visiable through the cardboard cut out continents shapes.
7. colour the back of each continents piece with the Montessori world colours (Africa: green; Europe: red; Asia: yellow; Australia: brown; North America: orange; South America: pink)
8. to make the puzzle last longer you could laminate the continents pieces or use sallotape instead.





Once the child is quite confident in putting together the puzzle and can recognize the continents, you can start witht the second part of the project.

ANIMAL WORLD PROJECT

Get lots of pictures of animals living or originated from differnt continents. Stick them on same size card boards.
Colour the back of the card boards with the right colours of the continent the animal belongs (for example tiger:yellow, zebra:green). Some animals can be found in different continents like the wolf or the owl, these while have more then one colour at the back.
At first show your child all the animals, tell him what they are.
Then place each animal on the right continent.
Eventually your child will be able to place all the animals on their right continent. The colours at the back are a control measure where your child will instantly know if he has placed the right animals on the right continent by turning them around and look at their colours.





Next I am planning to do the same thing with pictures of mothers and babies from differnt cultures, then with food and landmarks.

CLASSIFICATION CARDS

This is a game that promotes language development and enriches the child's vocabulary.
It take some time to make it at home from scratch, but once is done it will last for ages.
You have to choose five or six different environments in your head and find and cut out photos of objects that belong to that environment from magazines,cheap books, news papers, catalogues (say for example "garden" and "flowers, pots, swing, watering can etc"). You should find between ten and 15 of these objects and also find a picture that identifies the environment you chose or simply draw one.
Cut same size card boards for all your objects and environments.
Glue your pictures on them.
Laminate all your cards.
Find a box where to store them.


Choose objects that your child can say well and other that he doesn't or doesn't have in his vocabulary.
Show each and every picture to the child saying clearly what it is, make him repeat it after you.
Then you can start playing by laying out in a row all the environments; by picking a card from the objects pile, the child has to recognise what it is and where it belongs, then he has to put it down under the card with the right environment on.

SINK AND FLOAT

This is a fun scientific experiment about one of water "magic abilities"!
You will need a sink or large container full of water, a few household objects of different materials and sizes (piece of paper, a key, a small plastic toy, a stick, a nut, a ring etc)
Invite your child to drop in the water one object and observe if it sinks or floats and explain why. Next ask your child to guess if the next object will sink or float, drop it in the water and observe.

Next you can try to make a boat using different materials. First of all paper, then by using a plastic plate as base, a wine bottle lid, a shell etc. Observe some of them sink, and other float.


Here is M. trying sink or float with some rubber toys, a small stone and a boat made with a plastic plate and a sailing.

Montessori experience

In my quest to find a suitable nursery for M., I have visited a few Montessori nurseries (but only a couple could be called Montessori) and I have learnt and copy a few activities to do at home without the expensive Montessori materials.
It is so frustrating visiting this so called Montessoi nurseries because, really, they are not at all following the Montessori methodology, many do not even have the materials or they keep a few hidden away. It is so bad that any nursery can call itself "Montessori" and knowing nothing about the method! This is because dr. Montessori did not make a trade mark of her name.

Anyway, myself that knows exactly what to look for to distinguish what is real from what is not, observed anything that could be done at home, and here I am telling you, I have also found other activities and inspiration in various books I have read about Montessori activities.

PEGS

Used in a Montessori nursery as "practical life activities": a part from learning to use it as an everyday skill, it also helps develop fine motor skills and a good grip for when the child will learn to hold a pen and write with it.




LOCKER AND KEY

Another "practical life activity": the child learns how to open and close a locker, also good for fine motor skills development.

NUTS AND BOLDS

"practical life activity": the child learns to screw and unscrew: fine motor skills

PUZZLES

Shapes, halves, body parts, world map




WASHING UP







SPOONING AND USING A SPONGE

Very good as every day skills, but also to improve eye-hand coordination, and develop a knowledge about volumes.









COOKING



CLASSIFICATION CARDS

Like flash cards on different environments and animals (I will explain in the next post)


WATER AND FLOATING

Put in a bowl full of water different objects and observe if they float or sink (I will explain better in the next post)

trees and roots

After a long time here we are again. it will be hard to summarize all we have done in these months, but I will try to write at least the most interesting activities.

BOTANICS
Muhajiza showed an interest in trees. I explained to her the parts of the tree and made a model for her to understand the roots and the importance of rain and sun for the tree and its fruit to grow.

First I made her put her hands and wrists on a sheet of paper and draw with a black pen around them to make the trunk and the branches of the trees; then I draw only her hands again on another paper to make roots. In this way she understood that roots are like branches but underground! I cut the around the "roots" and glued them on the wrists of the first paper.




I then I made the leaves and fruits by sticking around the branches pieces of green, pink and purple rolled paper (green for the leaves, pink for the unriped black berries and purple for the riped black berries).




To hide the roots underground, I coloured green a rectangular paper of the same lengh of the paper where the trees are. Then I put it on top of the roots and sticked it with a long piece of tape. In this way the roots are hidden and when the green paper (grass) is lifted you can see the roots.

On the left corner of the poster I cut a rectangular with an utility knife. I prepared a circle and drew on it on each side a sun and a rainy cloud. I then inserted in the rectangular hole.
Each day M. will look at the weather and turn the wheel either to show the sun or the rain, both of which are useful to the tree and the berries.