Trekking Across the US -- postponed this week

Sorry, guys, but Musings of Me and I are not posting our Arizona stuff today. We've both had some things going on, so neither of us got to finish all of the Arizona stuff done that we wanted to finish. We'll be back next Sunday with Arizona.

However, I did want to inspire you with a couple of things...

The Grand Canyon... isn't it beautiful? I'll be posting 2 art projects for Arizona, and one of them involves painting the Grand Canyon.

The Sonoran Desert... dry. desolate. Or is it? That's one thing we will be exploring, as well as talking about how the animals that live there have adapted to their environment.

I've made several files that I'll be sharing with you, including how we're introducing some of the Montessori 6-9 geography terminology -- but tailoring it for the 3-6 age group!

What I love about a Montessori education...

INDEPENDENCE!

While I was purging the some old files from my mom's basement, DH was at home with Aikman. DH got a phone call from a friend, and really wasn't paying attention to Aikman while he was playing. A few minutes later, he heard Aikman clanging about in the kitchen and found this...

That's right! He made his own sandwich! It's a practical life skill we've been working on lately -- how to properly use the sandwich maker to make his own lunch!

So, what did he do?

- got out the cheese and bread from the refrigerator.

- got the sandwich maker out of the upper cabinet.

- removed bread from loaf, and removed wrapper from cheese.

- made sandwich and put it in the sandwich maker.

- plugged in the sandwich maker, shut the lid, and let it cook.

- got plate out of cabinet.

- removed sandwich and with a butter knife, placed it on the plate.

... all of this without DH knowing!

Fabulous Finds Friday!

Recently, we went to the local thrift store, and discovered that if you simply ask one of the workers how much it costs to fill a box with books, they'll let you buy it for $1!

Seriously???? I've bought books here tons of times, and had to weed out books because I was going over my self-imposed budget... when I could have bought so many more, IF I would have only asked for a box!

So I loaded up a box with some easy readers -- mostly from Scholastic, as well as some chapter books that looked intriguing for a little boy, AND some books with an audio recording (grouped in plastic bags).

So, have you found any great deals lately?

Working on those teens....

I'm a member of the makinglearningfun yahoo group, and one kind soul made a game that practices the teen numbers.

After playing it yesterday afternoon, with 3 players -- him, me, and his tag-along Bakugon toy (yep, he had to answer for both him and the Bakugan), he got pretty good at recognizing all of the teens.

He then asked to play again, right at bedtime...

... followed by playing a third time, as soon as he woke up the next morning... this time, with TWO Bakugan tag-alongs. I must say, one of the best ways to practice was letting the toys play with us! He was having to practice the numbers 3 times as often, because he had to answer for all of those toys.

After only 2 days, he now recognizes all of the teen numbers, except 12. Poor 12... he knows it starts with "twww....", thinks about it for a split second, but it always comes out as twenty.

Trekking Across the US -- Alaska

Welcome to Alabama! Musings of Me and I are doing a trek across the US -- state by state.

Below are some hands-on activities for Pre-K to 1st grade about Alaska. (Please NOTE: I'm looking for some people to send us postcards from each state. We're still seeking someone to send us one from Alaska, as well as for next week's state of Arizona.)

Sensory Bin:

This week's sensory bin for Alaska includes:

cotton balls

beads received from Honey at Mondorfment for the continent swap

felted polar bear, also from Honey

state quarter

Arctic Toob items

cutout of the state

AK -- state abbreviation

(you can also add a dragonfly, as it is the state insect)

I am also adding a jar that has SOME of the items from the Alabama sensory bin. Included are: astronaut, pecan, pine needles, cutout of the state, state quarter, small pom pom for cotton, letters AL. I'm going to keep these items out, placed next to the sensory bin, and then after we studied 4 states, I'll combine them all together and let him sort them out (hopefully!), as a unique twist of an "assessment."

The Iditarod:

After talking about the Iditarod, Aikman took the caribou and sled dog out of the sensory bin, and they became their own mushing team around the house. (Yes, the caribou is the musher!)

Taking care of the dogs:

I found this great printable on how the vets take care of the dogs. We then practiced taking care of our dogs by simulating that we were the vets on the Iditarod. Aikman followed the steps of the vet from the poster, EXCEPT for the last step --- we DID NOT take the dogs' internal temperature. (Eeeew!) Above, Aikman is checking the paw of our dog, to check for any damage from being out in the snow.

Mushing commands:

After watching a couple of videos about dogsledding, we took turns pretending that we were the musher leading the dog. The commands that we practiced were:

"Hike On!" -- Let's go!

"Gee!" (pronounced like the letter G)-- turn right

"Haw!" -- turn left

"Pick it up!" -- go faster

"Whoa!" -- stop

Dog booties:

The other thing that the mushers do to protect their dogs is to cover their feet with booties. We made paper booties out of coffee filters and rubber bands. Aikman attempted to put them on our dogs. Then in perfect timing with the overnight snowfall, we let the dogs out to test their booties -- only to have them come off before they even made it out the door. So, Aikman decided he was going to be the dog and wear the booties, which lead to the THIRD day in a row of practicing musher commands.

Mapping the Iditarod (with a little math mixed in):

Again, I am pre-writing this post, so this is one of the activities that we haven't gotten to yet -- the Iditarod map. He will roll the die and determine if it is odd or even (for those kiddos who haven't learned odd or even, they can look at the dice on the control sheet to determine which route to follow). The child then traces the route to take. You can laminate or stick inside of a page protector, and then use a dry erase marker to trace the route. You can download this activity here.

Mt. McKinley/easy-made igloos with snow:

While playing in a bin of snow indoors (being southerners, my son is NOT fond of the cold, wet snow), Aikman discovered that he could make an igloo out of the snow with a funnel. Then he noticed that it looked similar to a mountain -- PERFECT timing to mention Mt. McKinley!

Aurora Borealis:

About a year ago, I contacted the tourism dept. of Canada's Northwest Territories. They sent me a brochure last year called the 2010 Aurora Guide. (It is not showing that it is currently available, but if you specifically ask for it, maybe they can find this for you.) This guide is wonderful in explaining that there are 5 different types of auroras -- depending upon the color. It also goes into detail to explain how and why each is created. Also included is a description of clothing that you would need to wear if you visited there.... hmmm, that may become an activity later this week.

Sorting the auroras by color:

Anyways, I created for you a little printable that has images of the different auroras. My son quickly learned how to sort them whether they contained green, red/green, or purple auroras. There should be a difference between the reds and the purples, but I think my printer is running out of magenta, as the reds and purples looked almost identical in color. (They do not show up that way on my screen.). So, we eliminated the "red" label and just went with the 3 categories. You can get the aurora borealis sorting cards here.

Paint the auroras:

I saw the idea here on how the class painted the aurora borealis with watercolors and salt. Here is our version of making the auroras (which Aikman kept insisting that they were called it the "a-boras"). We colored a coffee filter with washable markers, and then "painted" it with salt water (we used 1/3 cup salt and 1 cup water). We waited for it to dry, and then cut a dark green piece of construction paper at the bottom (to simulate the forest), and then cut the sparkly coffee filters into the shape of the auroras.

Other activities:

Pin pushing (map found here)

Quarter rubbing pages found here (this photo is from last week; Aikman enjoyed searching for the quarter and looking at it, but wasn't interested in the quarter rubbing part)

interactive printable games and worksheets from Musings of Me, including a "see, trace, and make" page for practicing writing the word Alaska.

connect the dot pages (counting 1-25) at makinglearningfun

Icebergs:

We did a similar activity to what My Montessori Journey did with a block of ice and the toob animals, but her photo is MUCH better than mine, so I'm just going to link to her!

I hope you enjoyed our activities, and that they have inspired you to study Alaska too!

Just when I thought it wasn't sinking in...

Last night, right as 9pm rolled around (and bedtime had arrived), Aikman sneaks into the classroom and pulls out our US puzzle map.

This is what I found....

He was getting so excited because he identified the puzzle pieces for Alabama, Alaska, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and knew exactly where to put them on the map! I'd also hand him a piece and say that it was next to Alabama, and he'd immediately look around that state to find where the puzzle piece went.

Ahh.... satistfaction knowing that our time learning isn't a waste!

Fabulous Finds Friday!

(Sorry, guys... this has been in my drafts for about 2 weeks, waiting for me to add photos. Just got around to uploading them tonight. Hope you enjoy.... I know my son has, as he LOVES writing notes on the Christmas tags.)

Ahhh.... I love a good deal, and NOTHING makes me happier than great educational finds in the post-Christmas clearance sales!

So, this past week, I've been able to find some great bargains....

At the local junk store, I found these packs of folding Christmas tags for a dime a piece.

They seem pointless, yes? Absolutely not! For a little boy who is constantly drawing pictures on full-sized sheets of paper -- and then must fold it in half before handing it to you; they are perfect. Plus, I believe they will also perfectly fit his current desire to "make books" daily.

And look at these little wonders... I believe they are for saving money for Lent. I picked them up $0.02 each! (at our local Lifeway Christian Store) I'm planning on using them when we skipcount quarters. Or, I may make an activity where he has to put the labels/money in order, find patterns,etc. ... oh, the possibilities are endless! I really like that they count up by $0.25 to $10, plus the tactility of physically putting the quarters into the slots.

So, have you found any great finds this week?

America's Favorite Pastime -- and a freebie

Recently Aikman started a baseball clinic, in prep for tee-ball in the spring. Since he's never played before, Grandma thought this would be a great opportunity for him to learn the basics.

Being a baseball fan, I had never considered that baseball could be so complicated. Luckily, the instructor knew exactly the types of things to cover. The first week, he covered how you get to each base from home. I would have never thought to explain that you have to run to first base FIRST.... it just seemed like it would be obvious.

Goodness, I guess even sports have to take a Montessori approach -- demonstrate how it's done!

To practice at home, I've made a simple printable to match the bases and the in-field players on the field. I've also made some command cards to go along with this activity, as well as added some baseball players to simulate a game.... there's even two umpires signaling "safe" and "out."

I hope someone else can use these besides me. You can download them here.

A return trip to the Clay Lady

Last week, we ventured back to visit the Clay Lady with our homeschool group. Last time, we made a Santa bowl by hand-molding the clay. This time, the class was on the potter's wheel. Typically, this class is for ages 7 and up, but the Clay Lady was so nice that she removed the age restriction!

I had never thought about how difficult it would be for an adult, let alone a 4-year-old to sit and patiently mold the clay into a pottery piece. There are SO many components to master in order to make that perfect piece of *simple* pottery. First, he had to master the pedal that controls the speed of the wheel. Then, he had to center his clay on the wheel (photo above). Next, he had to put his thumbs into the center of the clay, to begin forming the bowl.

However, the most difficult part for him was shaping the sides and the rim of the bowl. Up until this last step, he did everything by himself, and only needed help on getting the sides of the bowl to lengthen upward. At one point, he had formed everything perfectly, only to accidentally hit the side -- resulting in an off-centered, and quite odd-shaped, bowl.

The Clay Lady has designed special paints, so that after the bowl was made, it could be painted while it was still on the potter's wheel. This way, we only have to go there once -- rather than creating the pottery piece, waiting for it to be fired in the kiln, and THEN painting it, followed by firing it again.

A BIG thank-you goes out to the Clay Lady, who really inspired us this week! THANKS, Clay Lady.... we can't wait to get our pieces back in 2 weeks!

If anyone is in the Nashville area, we would HIGHLY recommend going there for some of her pottery classes! The Clay Lady is extremely talented, and is more than glad to share her knowledge and expertise of this art with others!

I'm linking up to The Adventures of Bear.

Advanced counting with dice

I noticed a few weeks ago that Aikman was having trouble counting, if I designated the number which he was supposed to start. So, I came up with an activity for him, using a regular die and some "Hands-On Equation" dice.

For those who are not familiar with "Hands-On Equation" dice, the red die is numbers 0 to 5, while the green one is numbered 5-10.

For our activity, Aikman had to choose one colored die --either red or green -- to roll, along with the regular die. He would read the number on the colored die, and then continue counting the dots on the second die.

For instance, if he rolled a 2 on the red die, and then rolled 4 dots on the 2nd die, he would say 2, and then continue counting the dots -- 3, 4, 5, 6. Afterwards, he would then find the card that corresponded to the number.

If one uses the green die, the child practices counting in the teens. This has been great practice with my son identifying the number cards necessary to make these numbers -- and he's FINALLY getting it.

I ended up making a worksheet for him to record his answers. The first column was to write the number on the colored die. He drew the dots for the second column. The third column was for recording the number to which he counted. (I love the photo above, as Aikman decided he wanted to draw the outline for the number 10.... ahhh, my artsy little one!)

I also like that the red die can land on zero, which reinforces that 0 comes before 1 when counting.

Another great use for these dice is for identification of 2-digit numbers.

Trekking Across the US -- Alabama

Welcome to Alabama! Musings of Me and I are doing a trek across the US -- state by state.

Below are some hands-on activities for Pre-K to 1st grade about Alabama. Since I am writing this on Wednesday, we haven't quite finished our study of Alabama yet, so some of these activities have been created, but we haven't gotten to them yet. We will finish our studies of Alabama on Monday with a MLK Day lesson (a post about this on Monday).

Sensory bin:

Our sensory bin will slightly change weekly, accumulating items for each state we study until 4 states have been covered, and then the bin will change. This way, by the 4th week, the child can sort the items according to what state each item in the sensory bin belongs to.

In the Alabama sensory bin: (Since the Space and Rocket Center is in Alabama, many items are similar to Counting Coconuts space bin)

- black beans

- astronaut

- marbles to represent planets and a globe from the top of a toob

- pecans -- the State Nut

- small white pompoms (cotton)

- long pine needle and pinecones to represent the State Tree -- Longleaf pine

- the letters AL to represent the abbreviation for Alabama

- yellow feathers to represent the State Bird (not in our bin!)

- US quarter with Alabama on the back

- cutout of Alabama

Space related items:

We had a day with LOTS of space related items out, but I did not take any pictures of it. OOPS!

You can find more hands-on activities for space at Counting Coconuts here, here, and here. You can also find space-related printables for PreK - 1st grade at Musings of Me, Totally Tots, and Homeschool Creations.

Alabama native Helen Keller:

One of the first things that we did was to see what it would be like to be blind. I know that Helen Keller was both blind and deaf, but simulating deafness is a little difficult to do in our household! So, I just went with the blind part.... (WARNING! This activity would have probably worked better IF I would have given him more warning about what it would be like to be blind. He was NOT happy about doing this!)

To simulate being blind, Aikman attempted to eat blindfolded, walk around the house, and attempt to get undressed --with the potential of getting dressed as an activity too, but that just DID not work out for us. As I say in the last paragraph, he was NOT happy about not being able to see, and was near the point of throwing a FIT if I didn't take the fleece earmuffs off his eyes. Oh well.... maybe next time this will be a fun activity! We did talk about how hard tasks can be if we cannot see, but by this point, he was DONE.

We're also planning a visit to the library tomorrow to look/touch a Braille book. If you'd like a free Braille alphabet card, please go here to sign up to get one in the mail.

Pecan sorting activity:

Sort the pecans from the non-pecan nuts, using tongs. Or, with the basket shown below, it can also be sorted according to the type of nut.

Carding cotton:

Cotton is one of the cash crops for this southern state. I thought about saying something about the cotton gin, but instead I decided to make an activity out of the old-school method of removing the seeds from cotton bolls -- by "carding cotton".

For this activity, place cottonballs between 2 dog brushes and rub back and forth. Sorry, I don't have a picture of this yet.... I forgot to buy the brushes! (If you live in a part of the country that doesn't have cotton, I've actually bought "educational grade" cotton bolls at a great price from The Cotton Man.)

Pinpush Alabama: (I'm hoping to get permission from a couple of people to provide you with a printable of this! I'll let you know when I hear something.... until then, you can find this image here.)

Quarter rubbings:

Print page from here (reduced to 2-in-1 when printed). Then we found an Alabama quarter and rubbed a colored pencil across the top of the paper. Make sure you hold the quarter carefully, or it won't work very well.

Major cities in Alabama:

Print map from here. Then add stars on the major cities (dots for each location are already on the map). Eventually, I'll be adding in a "map review" time, where we will try to find the name of the city on a more detailed map, and possibly then write that name on this sheet... but this is a thought for the future.

Alabama See, Trace, and Make:

(printable can be found here at Musings of Me)

State Bird -- the Yellowhammer: (printables can be found in today's post at Musings of Me)

(Above: counting out ants that the yellowhammer is about to eat.... that is, until the ants "attack" the poor yellowhammer --aaaaaahhhhh!)

On youtube, you can hear its song here, and see its funny hop here.

We will finish with Alabama on Monday with a short lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr. and civil rights on MLK Day (We'll be adding a picture of MLK to the sensory bin at that point.), and hopefully, I'll have some more pictures for you then!

Gearing up for a trek across the US

Tomorrow, my bloggy friend Michelle at Musings of Me and I are going to start a trek across the US. We'll be introducing a new state a week, with activities and printables geared for Pre-K - 1st grade.

I hope you'll join along with us, as we talk about Alabama tomorrow.

I'm also hoping to make a notebook/scrapbook of our adventures across the US, and I'd LOVE for Aikman to get a postcard from each state to add in (plus it will help with our map-reading skills). So, if you would like to send us a postcard, please email me at montessoritidbits (at) gmail (dot) com. If you'd like a postcard back, please let me know, and I'll return the favor.

See ya tomorrow in 'Bama!