Cutting

Do you open your child's backpack on Friday afternoon and wonder why there are so many envelopes filled with little tiny snips of paper?  Well, this is cutting work!  So many children are working on this skill right now that there is hardly a time in the morning when the scissors are available!  We have scissors and cutting strips available and also different shapes for more advanced cutters.  This pair of scissors is actually a beginning pair that is really easy to use for children who have a hard time mastering the standard child-sized pair.  They are called My First Scissors by Faber-Castell.  In our lesson on cutting we show the child how to put their thumb on top and the other fingers on the bottom.  Holding the paper in the opposite hand, you place it inside the blade and push down with the thumb.  Voila!  They spring open once you let go and your cut paper falls to the table.  The children love to fill up their envelopes to take home.  Many children comment that these will be presents to their parents!  Enjoy the snips!

Shoe Polishing

We are polishing a shoe in school!

Step 1 is to get the polish from a teacher and put it on the applicator brush. Step 2 is to brush the polish in with a different brush. Step 3 is to shine it with a lambswool buffer.  

Dr. Montessori thought it was important that children do purposeful activities. She advised teachers to include in their classrooms “objects which are designed through their use to achieve some definite purpose..objects which invite the child to do something, to carry out a real piece of work having a practical goal to be aimed at.” The Discovery of the Child p. 77. 

Afternoon Sculpture Work

As one of our teachers has a Masters in Education with a focus on using the creative arts in learning, we decided to spend some time learning about sculpture today.  We had previously discussed the Lincoln Monument while using our microscope (see previous post) and had talked about it being a sculpture.  Today the afternoon children were read 3-D ABC, A Sculptural Alphabet by Bob Raczka.  This helped them to see many different types of sculptures.  (We also read had a book about the Lincoln Memorial and were able to see how big this was - much different from the back of a penny!)

We had been saving lots of items that would have been recycled and also went to the Scrap Box to obtain the rest of the parts to create our own sculptures.

                         They chose what items they would like to incorporate into their work.

Here are some masterpieces. 

 

This was a lot of hard work!

 

Glimpse of "afternooner" work...

We are busy in the afternoons!  After lunch we clean up the classroom and start working!  Besides more in-depth math and language, we have been looking in mircoscopes....

gardening...

and conducting experiments!!

 

By the way, if you have a microscope, put a penny under the light and try to see Abraham Lincoln.  We tried this with seven pennies before we saw it!  As we "follow the child" in Montessori, we ended up studying Abraham Lincoln and discussing erosion (as on the pennies that were worn away.)  We also branched off and decided to clean some of the pennies and conducted an experiment to see what the best cleaner would be! 

Sewing has begun!

We have now begun our sewing curriculum!  The children used a very blunt needle to sew through holes in cardstock.  We progress through activities increasing in complexity and will hopefully be sewing pillows by the end of the year!

Land and Water Forms- Island and Lake

The children began studying islands and lakes in geography this week.  Using our models, we gave them lessons on an island - land surrounded by water- and lake- area of water surrounded by land. 

The children were shown how to fill up a pitcher with water and pour it into the model to increase their understanding of these concepts.  We also discussed their own experiences on islands and different lakes they had visited. 

As an extension of this work, some children chose to color pages showing island and lake.

Vertebrates and Invertebrates

This week we began studying vertebrates and invertebrates.  Thanks to one of our parents we had an amazing model of the spine! (THANK YOU!)

We discussed animals that had backbones and those that do not have backbones.

We classified animal pictures into two columns, ones with backbones and ones without.

The children wanted to make books to take home.  Please look for these tomorrow in your child's backpack.