After Halloween Sensory Bin

So, what do you do with those misc. plastic toys that your kiddos get from trick or treating?

Put them in a sensory bin!

Here's ours...

What's inside?

- black beans

- kaleidoscopes

- eyeballs

- spider rings and spider toys

- plastic rings, teeth, and pumpkin shaped toys

- centipede

- skull

- necklace

... and a couple of pieces of candy!

(My typical Sunday freebie will be posted tomorrow.... so check back mid-day, for a little artsy/math download!)

Following the Child -- pumpkin style

One of the things that I love about Montessori is her philosophy to "follow the child." Today was a typical example of this, as we went from art to practical life to math to science -- all in one morning session!

Aikman is ALL about painting right now, and I had been wanting to do some veggie stamping activities with him, like the ones seen here, here, and here. Aikman helped me cut a pumpkin in half (actually it was a decorative gourd, but I didn't tell him that). We didn't try to carve anything unique out of it... just paint the half to see what the print would look like.

To his surprise, the seeds did not print on the paper. This lead to him discovering that since the seeds sank in some from the skin/flesh, that they did not show up on the paper.

This lead to digging the seeds out with a spoon, followed by washing the paint off of the seeds (practical life activities).

We then laid the seeds out to dry, and his next comment was, "I think there are 100 seeds in the pumpkin." I told him after the seeds dried, we would count them to see exactly how many seeds we collected.

We then talked about the "parts of a pumpkin" and how it had many of the same parts as the apple -- skin, flesh, seeds, stem. This lead to a discussion on the pumpkin lifecycle, which I printed from here. (You can see the perfectionism in him already as he not only had to cut each piece exactly on the lines, but he also had to cut out each image in the order that it grew.)

Whew... what a fun, and adventuresome (rainy) day -- all about pumpkins and all initiated by Aikman.

Fabulous Finds Friday!

Recently, I went to Goodwill, and found this fabulous farm set. At first, I thought it was just a few brand new animals, with the tags attached, until I realized that it was 13 BRAND NEW Schleichs! Then as I was looking over the barn, I noticed that it was a Schleich barn too. A few of the animals were priced for $0.99, but there was no price on the barn or to purchase it as a set, so I asked the lady how much.... well, it was too great of a price to pass on! The barn has a few missing pieces -- the roof, a piece of fencing, and a door, but for the price, it was well worth it! (pictured with the barn are horse and colt; sheep and 2 lambs; dog; donkey and foal; brown cow, bull, and calf; black and white cow and calf)

I was quite excited about this find, in hopes of using this for the Montessori grammar farm. I'm going to use Walk Beside Me's grammar farm word list as my starting point! You can see her grammar farm set up and in action here.

There are a couple of animals that weren't included with the set that I wanted (pigs, chickens, etc.), so I headed to our local Tractor Supply to see what Schleichs they had in stock and how much these last few pieces were going to damage my wallet. Well, I found a bunch of critters -- both farm AND African that were clearanced for $1.00 or less! WOO HOO!

(Pictured are: cow and piglet, calf, donkey, miniature horse, cat, mouse; zebra, wildebeest family, giraffe, gazelle family, tiger family, meerkat family, seal, cheetah, jaguar, and a baby jaguar.)

Feeling quite lucky... and with a quickly expanding collection of animals, I found these Safari Ltd. animals at Michaels on clearance between a dime and $0.60!

(Pictured are: cockatoo, beluga whale, elk, collie dog, 2 horses, elephant, harp seal, bear, organtan family, African oryx.... and this cute little pirate! ARG!)

So how much? Less than $28 for ALL of these pieces (barn and all!).

Oh yeah... remember those piglets or chickens I was originally looking for, in order to complete my farm set... I'm still on the look out for them!

African 3 part cards

Today I am quite excited, as I have 2 different people who have graciously offered to share their 3 part cards with my readers!

First, I'd like to thank Andrea Ray-Howett for sharing some of her creations, especially from someone who is FROM Africa! Andrea lives in Johnannesburg, South Africa, and will be the Principal/Head Directress at a local school in January. She is certified 3-6, and is currently getting certified in 6-12.

Andrea is sharing her African flags and African bushveld animals 3 part cards. You can get her flag cards here and the animal cards here.

*Side note: Honestly, I had never heard of the bushveld. From what I understand, it is a type of savanna, but instead of being flat grassland, it includes mountains. The animals that are found in a typical African savanna are also present in the bushveld. In her file, it contains the animals that the children in her area would typically see in the wild.

Secondly, I'd like to thank Emily Hartmann for allowing me to post her African instruments 3 part cards. Emily so graciously posted these to one of my yahoo groups a while back, and upon contacting her, she is kindly permitting me to post her work here!

You can get Emily's African instrument cards here.

THANK YOU LADIES for creating these wonderful resources and being willing to share them with all of us Montessorians-at-heart!

PLEASE make sure you send a little love (ahem... COMMENTS please!) of thanks to these 2 wonderful ladies for sharing their resources!

Foreign language?

Does your child speak more than 1 language at home? My husband and I are NOT bilingual in any way. In fact, my husband will tell you that he didn't learn anything in ANY of his Spanish classes in high school. My great-grandparents, who moved to the US in the 1880's, were German, but very little of that heritage was passed down to me -- such a shame! I did study German in high school and for several semesters in college, but I haven't even thought of it since I graduated college nearly 15 years ago, and honestly, I only remember a few key words and phrases.

We attempted to at least expose Aikman to another language by buying Rosetta Stone, but it was too difficult for him. (I thought I had blogged about it, but I guess I didn't blog about it not working out well, as I can't find the post.)

Needless to say, I was a little surprised when he told me that he could tell cars to stop by speaking Spanish. So, here we are.... crossing the parking lot, when he sees a car heading towards us. He stops in the middle of the parking lot, and then begins yelling, "RA-BUL!" and waving his hands out in front of him.

Of course, the car stops for the pedestrians (us!) crossing.

He then turns to me and say, "I told you I could stop the cars by speaking Spanish." hmmm.... not quite son!

Later, I asked what "rabul" meant... he said it was Spanish for stop.

So, where did this come from? Either that lovely imagination of his, OR he could have semi-picked up the word from Dora the Explorer. (The actual word for stop in Spanish is parada, which his version isn't too far off ... in his own unique way.)

Solid, liquid, or gas -- and a freebie

For the past week, we have been discussing the 3 main states of matter --solid, liquid, and gas.

In order to introduce it, we talked about ice, water, and water vapor (or steam as he called it). We compared the properties of these 3 items, but unfortunately, Aikman decided that "all solids are cold." We then talked about how all things are either a solid, liquid, or gas, and we spent some time feeling other solids so he could get a better understanding of being a "solid."

In order to reinforce this concept, I've created some sorting cards for the 3 states of matter. There is a label as well as 8 pictures for each state of matter. I also included a control so that you would know what each item is.... the jar of maple syrup looks like a jug of whiskey -- hehe.

You can get the cards here.

Mom gets another presentation of materials

"Mom, let me show you something...."

Is my son trying to tell me he wants to be a teacher, or that he just enjoys the structure of presentations?

Fabulous Finds Friday!

This past week, my mom was actually sweet enough to bring me some things that she had found and bought at the local CARES store (similar to Goodwill, but is a Christian 2nd hand store that is locally operated).

So what did she find for us?

This cool looking basket, which I am already imagining as a fall "pick the seeds out of the corn" activity basket or a basket for holding South American items.

An orange juicer, with a spout... much better than our old juicer that I was trying to rig to the top of a jar. Homemade orange juice... here we come!

My mom spotted the Golden Gate Bridge miniature as she was walking out the door -- right next to the cash register. LOVE it, especially since DH and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on our honeymoon. This will be a nice addition to our North American continent box.

How about those animal cards??? I thought they were REALLY cool, since they had whether the animal was a mammal, bird, reptile, etc. plus some characteristics about each animal on the back. That is UNTIL I saw that one of the cards said the animal was a bird, and this "bird" was in the "bird" category of the animal classification. Same for the fish! Needless to say, I'm going to have to make some supplemental cards when we study animal classifications.

She also gave us some great new books -- too many to mention today!

Thanks, Mom, for buying us some great new educational tools!

How many more? (add/subtract facts for 5)

I came up with a Montessori-ish game to play with Aikman to see if he could discover the addition/subtraction facts for 5.

Materials:

a small box

5 identical objects -- in our case, 5 identical erasers

(if necessary, a piece of paper with 5 circles on it)

The planned presentation:

1. Show the child the box and the 5 items in the box. Let the child count the 5 items.

2. Close the lid on the box. Shake it up, and take a few of the items out and laying them in front of the child.

3. Let the child count the items and determine how many are left in the box.

4. If the child does not know the answer, let the child place the items on each corresponding circle on the paper, and then count the remaining circles to determine the answer.

Control of error: The child can count the items in the box after the "guess" is determined.

So, what was the outcome for us: TOO EASY for my son! The first time, I laid out 3 erasers, leaving 2 in the box. He immediately knew that there were 2 erasers still in the box... no need for counting. I repeated this about 10 times, including laying out 0 and 5 items. Finally, he decided that HE needed to teach ME how to do this.

Here's a picture of his presentation to me: (don't ya just love that koolaid mustache!)

I guess I need to move on to the formal writing of addition OR do the addition facts for 10 instead!

Montessori Print Shop HUGE giveaway

Have you entered MPS's current giveaway? It's for their ENTIRE collection of materials! That's 800 files, valued at $600 -- FOR FREE!!!

Think you can't win? Well, even if you don't win the BIG prize, they are even offering 4 additional prizes for $20 - $50 credit in their store!

So, what are you waiting for??? Go enter!

Fire Safety training

Previously, we had never talked about fire safety in our home. I don't know if I just assumed that "it would never happen to us" or that Aikman was too small to learn. However, last night, all I could think about was how I had not prepared him in the case of a fire. So, I decided that it was TIME that we learned what to do if we have a fire in our home.

(This is the FIRST lesson that I gave on this, with the intention of doing additional presentations later this week and next week.)

Today's lesson -- using the different doorways as a means of exit (depending upon the location of the fire), having a central meeting location upon exiting the home, and the need to state to responders who is left in the house.

First we discussed if a fire was in a certain area of the house, where would be the logical place to exit the home. DH held up a blanket in different rooms to simulate a fire blocking viable exits, so that we could discuss that not all doorways are possible and that we don't run THROUGH the fire to get out. We used the smoke alarm "test" button to practice hearing the alarm, exiting the house immediately, and then heading straight to our designated meeting place -- a tree in our front yard.

Something I had never considered, but as DH (a policeman) pointed out, we needed to teach Aikman that 1) we don't leave our meeting place, especially when we see the firetrucks and flashing lights coming barreling down the road at us -- in the case of an emergency, we DON'T need our sweet little one run over by emergency personnel because he ran into the street to greet them; and 2) that in case Mom or Dad get "stuck" in the house, Aikman needs to be able to clearly communicate how many other people/pets are still in the home.

We haven't addressed calling 9-1-1, smoke inhalation, "drop and roll", etc., but we did crawl out of the window. We will definitely need to practice opening windows (EEK!) by self and re-discuss why it is important that we DON'T need to grab our shoes -- his big concern -- if there is a fire.

Do you teach fire safety in your home? What else do you teach your child about fire safety?

Learning progress update

A few weeks back, I posted about this Kindergarten assessment that had been shared with me. I was reflecting earlier today about the progress that we've made and what we still need to work on before the next checkpoint and re-evaluation in 6 weeks.

(Please note: most of this is a reminder on what I need to be working on with Aikman.)

Handwriting is coming along nicely. We should finish capitals and numerals 1-9 by the end of November (the checkpoint). His letters have drastically improved since we begun Handwriting without Tears, and I'm really looking forward to the 2nd half of the book, which is lowercase letters. He still needs more practice on M, Y, and O. Yet to learn are: Q, G, S, A, I, T, and J.

MATH is also coming along well. He's had a presentation on the hundreds units, and the next presentation we do on this will most likely be on building 3 digit numbers. He's pretty much mastered 2 digits, other than the teens, which we are still working on.

He's mastered counting by 10's to 100, and counting by 100's to 1000. We still need to work on counting by 2's, but I may change it to counting by 5's instead. I think that may be easier. Aikman very much enjoys counting dimes, so we will most likely do more games involving money... hmmmm, a future post!

Language: UGH! I just never seem to do enough with language!!! Word families are helping, but I don't feel like I've done enough to help him. I've made a couple of powerpoints that allows him to read the word, and then a picture pops up, so he can self-check. He LOVES these, so I need to make more. I'm also planning on us making word family books this week for all of the short a families (-at, -ap, -an, -am, etc.) Suggestions greatly welcome!!!

Parts of an apple

I love that apples are in season right now, and I tend to buy a LOT of them in the fall. I figured this would be a wonderful time to discuss parts of an apple.

We cut up apples and spread caramel (my FAVORITE) over top, which Aikman absolutely LOVED. We then talked about the different parts of an apple, and... of course... his first question was, "what's the brown stuff on the bottom called?" I honestly had never thought about it, and had to look it up. From what I've read online, it's actually part of the calyx -- one of the remaining parts of the flower.

Well, I've made a simple parts of the apple download. You can get it here.

A field trip to Kentucky Down Under

Earlier this spring, we ventured to Kentucky Down Under, near Cave City, KY. This was the first time Aikman and I had visited this tourist attraction, and we LOVED it so much, that we bought a season pass. We returned just a few weeks ago, to finish seeing all the things that we just didn't have time to do the first time. (Aikman is with 2 of his buddies next to the Kangaroo shaped rock.)

So, what's so special about this place?

Well, first of all... you get a cave tour. The cave was discovered by a little girl in 1799, and then her older brothers had the great idea of dropping her down into the cave with a rope tied to her waste. They discovered a beautiful cavern, with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. It even has these amazing "column" formations (center of picture)!

Second, they have a kangaroo and emu area, in which you learn about and even get to touch the animals. On our first visit, a baby kangaroo had just been born that morning, and they had to delay this exhibit from opening until the kidney bean-sized joey climbed into his mama's pouch.

Third, they do a sheep shearing and animal demonstration. EVERYTHING is hands-on, so you attempt to set a sheep for shearing, feed the sheep, and even even milk a cow (what this has to do with Australia, I'm not sure, other than to show the kids that cows live there). I had NO idea that there were so many different types of sheep, and if some of them get wet, that their wool will literally rot off of it.

I thought for sure that Aikman would want to milk a cow, but he fessed up today that he was scared that he would hurt the cow if he tried to squeeze it. (How thoughtful!) Anyways, this is my wonderful husband who is milking the cow.

What else is there? 2 bird feeding stations as well as other birds (in cages) native to Australia. An aborigines demonstration, including a bullroarer (the 2 different types -- for men and women Aborigines), boomerang demonstration, and a didgeridoo demonstration. Above is a picture of my husband trying out a didgeridoo. There was a program to learn about the sheep dogs and how they herd, and even a camel. I had NO idea that there were even camels IN Australia!

We've enjoyed our membership so much that we actually just bought more tickets via groupon, for next year, after our membership expires.

FREE resource for North America

I will (hopefully) be posting quite a few links for North America continent boxes later today or tomorrow, but until then, I wanted to share with you a wonderful resource that is ONLY available until this Saturday, October 16... it's a FREE unit about beavers!

Here's the link to this week's newsletter! You have to scroll down wee bit to where it says "Free Unit of the Week" and "download it here." (After I signed up for the newsletter, I totally missed the first couple of unit because I honestly didn't see the link where you download it!)

<--- a="" above="" and="" can="" clark="" find="" he="" href="http://www.ishoptoday.com/prod_lewis_and_clark.htm" is="" lewis="" link="" longer="" nbsp="" newsletter="" no="" the="" thematic="" unit="" update="" valid.="" you="">here

.--->

If you do not subscribe to this newsletter, I would highly recommend it, especially if you are a homeschooler! They come out with a new FREE unit every week. If you've missed one that they've already posted, then you can go to their store and buy it only $2!

So, make sure you sign up for their newsletter, because.... speaking of North American resources.... next week's unit is another GREAT unit for North America -- Lewis and Clark!

Note: I am not compensated by SchoolExpress. I have enjoyed receiving their complementary weekly units and newsletters in the past, and am simply sharing my opinion about this resource with you. I was just lucky enough that this week's unit coincided with my geography blog hop! I did contact them to ask their permission for sharing the link to the newsletter with you, and they graciously obliged.

South America links

Sorry for the delay in these... we've been out of town, and well... posting SO MANY posts so quickly takes so much time to prepare! I can't imagine doing quality posts 3 and 4 times a day, like I know many people do!

So, here are some additional resources for South America...

Others post their South America continent box:

- One Hook Wonder

Others shared their studies of South America:

- Itty Bitty Love's booklist for South America

- Adventures in Mommydom did a story/art (stArt) project here and here.

- Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns studied the rainforest.

- Love2learn2day posted about an Incan math activity (very cool and hands-on!)

Free downloads for your South American continent box:

- Homeschool Creations lessons plans and links

- Adventures in Mommydom posted some South American printables

- A Bit of This and a Bit of That sailed to the Galapagos, and has a free download of Galapagos animals, along with an activity to go with a book.

- The Homeschool Den posted her layers of the rainforest cards. Make sure you go back and read some of her older posts, as she shared about rainforest plants, birds, and reptiles. (These are for both South America and Africa, but I figured I'd put this here, as most people associate the rainforest with South America.)

In the Continent box -- North America

Today's continent box -- North America!

First off, THANK you to ALL who have joined in on this blog hop -- whether you have stuck with us to read it, or if you've joined along with the posts.

It has been very educational, as I've gotten to look at many blogs and their continent boxes, and this has also given me the chance to sit down and actually seek out more information for my continent boxes! It has been wonderful seeing the continent boxes of my dear friends Colleen at Sunrise Learning Lab and Karen at Little Acorn, as they have stuck with this blog hop. I KNOW how time-consuming this has been this week!

Now, off to what we have in our North America box....

I am planning on posting resources later today for North and South America, AND I'm hoping to get at least 2 more freebies posted for you. So, stay tuned...

These 2 magazine files hold brochures for the US (blue) and Canada (orange). While we or family/friends are on vacations outside the state of Tennessee, I ask them to bring back a few brochures and/or postcards from other states. The plan for these is to eventually make a file folder reference section, and most likely they will be notebooked. I haven't quite decided what to do with the Canada ones just yet.

Books that are about North America. Some were mine when I was a little girl. Some were picked up at Goodwill/yard sales. The Aztecs one was purchased at Fred's.

- landmark cards (with writing prompts on the back) purchased at Dollar Tree

- US Presidents, US Animals, US States, landmark cards from Target. Animal cards from the zoo.

- Toob animals

- Bear that says Canada on it and Hawaii tray -- picked up from Goodwill

- St. Louis arch -- from a trip my husband and I went on before Aikman was born

- Nassau cup and saucer, Liberty Bell, Niagra Falls salt shaker (yard sales)

- Native American seed bead necklaces from Cherokee, NC

- Native American dreamcatcher

- A piece of Alcatraz -- purchased while visiting San Francisco on our honeymoon

- stamps from Karen at Little Acorns

... and (most) everything is stored in either this US-themed tin or another Subway bag!

Honey at Mondorfment held a swap this summer, and Sara, Annie, and myself represented Canada, Central America, and the US, respectively.

Sara, who is a Canadian, proudly represented Canada. She sent us a flag, 2 mousepads that are the image of Canada, stamps, handmade maple leaf buttons, prints of the flags of Canada, postcards, book, and a pencil.

Annie, who represented Central America, sent us some wool, a little bunny doll, teepee, and some soapstone with a carving knife. She even carved a cross with the soapstone.

Don't forget.... later today I'll be adding the last bit of links, and hopefully, will be posting a couple of freebies... just for hanging out with us this week!

In the Continent Box -- South America

Today's continent box -- South America. I must say that this box is my WEAKEST box. I just don't have a lot of resources for this continent, and it is definitely the hardest one for me to find things for.

So, what's in the box?

landmark and animal cards -- the animal cards are from the Nashville Zoo, the landmark cards with the white border are from the Target dollar bins, and the 2 larger pictures (in the back, under the other cards) are from a mini calendar that I picked up at Michael's for a quarter.

stamps -- these stamps are from Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, and Brasil. These treasures were given to me by my dear friend Karen at little acorns.

Some cute poison arrow tree frogs (Target dollar bins)

... and everything is stored in a Subway kids meal bag!

In addition to these things, I did a continents swap with Honey at Mondorfment, and received some cool items from M. and Marina to represent South America.

Here's some things that I received from this swap:

From M....

Prayer bag with beads for stringing (these are to simulate cocoa beans, which are commonly eaten as a snack), llama wool, insects to show the diversity of the rainforest, box with worry doll prayer bag, prayer charms (primary religion is Catholicism). Oh, goodness, I forgot to mention that they are on an ultra-cool mat that is PERFECT for South American work!

Aren't these little worry doll adorable! They came with their own little pouch AND an open/close practice box!

From Marina...

- a moveable parts maps of South America -- pieces are cut off of a map, and then they reattach with velcro... AND it folds up neatly!

- animals -- sloth, poison dart frog, capybara, anteater

- Carnival beads

- snake

- llama hair

- feed the piranha activity

- pan flute

- raw cocoa beans in a box (not pictured -- swiped by Aikman to explore as SOON as I pulled them out of the box!)

- LOTS of printed resources about South America

craft ideas included: make your own rainstick, make your own blue morpho butterfly, color the anaconda

I must say that one of my favorite things that was included in her part of the swap was the "feed the piranha" activity... she took a bathmat and cut teeth into it with scrapbooking scissors, and then added rocks and "cheater chopsticks" to complete the activity! What a great alternative to this typical tonging activity.