Spelling ... and a great tool...

Today we were working again with our movable alphabet. It has become a really helpful tool whenever my 6 year old feels like writing without having to actually practice his handwriting...

It has been one of our most used Montessori  materials, and it definitely has a liberating quality to it. Since children this age (especially boys) are not particularly inclined to practice their handwriting, they need to find some other tool for those times when they feel like composing sentences or even short stories, and the alphabet certainly helps.

Here I have added some great resources explaining how to use it,  and some helpful extension activities for it:

Montessori Mom Movable alphabet

Movable alphabet Video

Simply Montessori DIY

Lesson Plan

Album page for movable alphabet

All about plants

This year we started our Botany study, and we are including the classification of leaves by shape as used in Montessori schools. We build our own Botany cards.

 

This is how to make them:

• Cut white cardstock into 18  5 x 3.5" cards (needs to be very firm, and with a non porous finishing if possible, since they are not to be laminated).

 

• Using this control chart as a guide (Once in the page click on the image to see a bigger version), cut the shape of each leaf type in green felt (the shape size should be such that leaves at least a ¼ “ margin on the card.
• Glue the shapes to the cards.
• Make 2 labels for each shape.
• Attach one label to the reverse of the card (This is going to serve as a control of error)

Work of the child

This work aims at a nomenclature acquirement, so you can basically work with the 3 period lesson with it. After that, the second set of labels can be use to identify each shape.Even though this material  cannot replace the puzzle, at least the use of felt gives it an extra tactile dimension, when compared with just simple laminated cards.

Writing in Ancient Egypt

For our second lesson in the history of writing, we focus on Egypt. First we made some natural dyes using only plant material.(These dyes can be used for other historical periods- even for prehistoric art)

These are the materials used:

Hot pink: Red rose petals

Green: Spinach (is a brownish green)

Yellow: Curry powder

The process is similar for all of them:

Collect the material, chop it fine (if needed), place in a saucepan and put enough water just to cover it. Boil for 15 min, then simmer until liquid has reduced to half. Strain.

For the other three colors we used black beans.

Lilac: Place half a cup of black beans in a bowl, and put enough water to cover them by an inch. Let it sit all night. That’s it.

Purple: Use the same process as in the lilac color, but add white vinegar to it. Reduce to half.

Dark Brown: Cook the beans in some water. Strain.

We also made our own “papyrus” paper, by cutting strips of construction paper and waving them. We use school glue generously all over it, to obtain a single sheet.

After it was dry, we wrote my son’s name in hieroglyphs. This site has a very neat “translator” where you can input any name and it will give you the “equivalent”. 

As a side project, we dyed some cotton yarn, to explore how the ancients may have "put some color" into their clothes. We got this sample page, that helps us documenting our hard work :)

It was a very interesting, hands on project!

The history of writing

This is our first activity in the series “the history of writing”. We are following along the history units of the history of civilization, focusing on a “hands on” approach to the subject of handwriting, as emphasized in Maria Montessori’s “Five great Lessons”.

In this particular activity we replicate “cuneiform writing” developed by the Sumerians around the 30th century BC.

These are the materials we used

-          A wooden dowel, one end shaped as a wedge

-          A print of the cuneiform alphabet

-          A package of crayola magic model sculpey (any type of modeling clay would work)
- A small cutting board

-          A tray to contain all the materials.

After a brief introduction and explanation, we explore together the cuneiform signs, noting that they are basically composed of two shapes repeated and combined so as to form all the letters needed for their language.

After practicing this two shapes on the clay, we smooth it again and my DS suggested trying to write his on name on it. 

We left it to air dry and continue discussing how the storage of these tables would have been. We ended the activity by watching some pictures of actual tablets. (found here)

DIY Apron

Children’s aprons are really one of the most used tools in our classroom, together with the mats!! We use them every time we work on art, science, or practical life activities that require protecting our clothes. 

So I though it would be a good idea to share with you my very favourite DIY Montessori apron out there. It is from Sew liberated  (photo below)

The main characteristic of this apron (apart from the cuteness factor!) is that it is designed in a way that allows the children to put it on and fasten it by themselves, without adult help. 

Happy sewing!!

 

Pattern blocks

We have been using the Melissa and Doug Pattern blocks for years now, and we love them! But any good quality pattern block set will prove to be a very versatile tool for learning. 

This material is not specifically a Montessori one, but it certainly shares a lot of the Montessorian "spirit". My six year old loves it, and he has moved away from the pre-made puzzles he cherished at 4, to create designs of his own.

He calls them "my art project", and since they are non-permanent by nature, we take pictures of them before restoring the material. Here is one example:

                                         "The precious stone catcher"

I also use it for my 4 year old (and the 2 year old tags along) as a means to learn the name of the shapes and the colours. 

Creating your own stories (with some grammar practice)

Extension activity for introduction to noun phrase

I found a great activity for practicing the concepts of these three parts of speech, which could be done after presenting the concepts and symbols for article - adjective - noun. It combines grammar with the joy of story telling and imagination.

Age group: 6-9

Materials

• three small baskets, each containing the same amount of paper strips (anything from 5 to 25 strips). The boxes should be labeled "article","noun" and "adjective", with each symbol on the label.

•  5 to 25 index cards (the same amount you chose to put in each basket)
• pencils

Introduce the baskets to the child(ren). Encourage him (them) to write any nouns they can think of in the strips of paper belonging to the noun basket, being careful not to repeat any.

 Do likewise with the adjectives.

 When the articles strips need to be done, let them struggle with the task of coming with no repetitions and then remind them (if they do not bring it up by themselves) that we only have three pronouns in English and they will have to be repeated.

Children will then take turns to take one strip from each basket and make a noun phrase with it, which should be then copied on the index card. Some will be quite striking or non-sensical, but it adds to the joy of making them fit in a cohesive story.

Proceed until every index card is completed.

Shuffle the cards and pick 3 or 4. Explain to the children that you are going to make up a story with them The only rule is that you should use all the cards you picked in it, in the order you got them.

When you are done, ask a child to make its own story.