My Favorite Childrens' Movie

My kids and I were reflecting back on our good and bad times of 2011. It led to some great conversation and I can really say that my family has grown a lot in 2011. We have learned to accept responsibility, and become resilent when bad times come our way. My kids say that much hasn't changed in my favorites department. I agree I am just one of those people that once I like something it is hard to beat. My favorite childrens' movie of all times is Horton Hears A Who. I just love Horton, he is who I sometimes look up to, and find great words of encouragement. Dr.Seuss gave Horton many great qualities that I would love to be able to say I share with him.

 A persons' a person, no matter how small- Dr. Seuss Horton Hears A Who

The many things that Horton says just rings so true to me.  So yes Horton Hears A Who is still my favorite childrens' movie in 2011. Have A Happy New Year!! Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Responsible.
                                                                        

Oh My! Look How You Have Grown!!

Do you remember Eli when he was first presented with how to use a brush to groom his hair?

Look at him now! Cleaning up after using the cornmeal tray to trace Sandpaper Numerals:)

When I was observing him working with the cornmeal I was saying to myself "Oh boy, does anybody else see this mess of cornmeal". I was secretly hoping that one of the children would come to the rescue and begin to clean it up . As soon as he put his work away, he went straight to the broom and dustpan. Eli didn't miss one spot! This is huge, the power of a multi-age learning enviroment.                                                                       

                                                                        

                                                                              

                                                                             

Something New Because We're Winners!!

In December  I won a giveaway from Joyful Learner! I was very excited because it was the first giveaway I ever won. It is pictures of children from around the world. Joyful Learner and her daughter K did some wonderful activities with this manipulative.

Here is a photo of the set, plenty of duplicates to create a variety of works.

I plan on using these for counting and addition work. I have a child who knows the meaning of the plus sign, and the equal sign. Lil will love this, probably just as much as sorting our children of the world on the World Map.

For the older children  they'll use this to help with spelling. It helps to add some fun to spelling names that don't always follow the rules.

 Thank you  Joyful Learner! We always love winning and learning!!

                                                                        

Wow!!

Do you see what I see? I see all my pictures are warning signs. I can't fix it, it happened on both my blogs!! Help please!! If you know what I could do to fix this problem, could you please leave me a comment:)

December Works In Action:Montessori Monday

It really motivates me when I go back and look at all the pictures of the work the chidren accomplished. They are incredible!!  I have quite a few to share, take a look.

                         Knobbed Cylinder block

                                Pouring buttons

                              Transferring water with an eyedropper

                   Finding and coloring matching numbers

                Comparing Knobless Green and Yellow Cylinders

               Matching designs with Pink Tower and Brown Stairs

                             Soring "an" and "at" words

                          Pinpunching a Gingerbread Man

                           Blue Constructive Triangles

            Working with cards from North America Continent Basket

                            Flipping Gingerbread Men

                        Play doh work

                      Making designs with Knobless Cylinders

                           Tracing Sandpaper Numbers

Completing a coloring sheet of the knobless cylinders that he was working with. The Sensorial Work Cards are found at Montessori Print Shop

                    Color Box#2

 Using cornmeal to practice writing the number.

                        Crushing peppermints

                                                                       

                     Scissor practice

                       Collaging a wreath

 Matching table Number Rods to numbers

      Sorting living/nonliving objects. Lils' most favorite work to do.

Its' safe to say it is time for some more extension lessons with the Sensorial materials, and to introduce more work across the areas. They have grown so much this month! 

To see other children doing activities inspired by the Montessori Method please visit One Hook Wonder and Living Montessori Now for Montessori Monday.                                                               

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing everyone the magic of knowing the true meaning of Christmas. See you all back here on Monday with the December Edition of the children in action.

                                                                        

Missing,Wanted, Lost Gingerbread Man!!!

 As the story is told, we made a Gingerbread Man

 We put him in the oven to only find out he had gotten away

 We really wanted to be friends with him so we made signs to prepare for our search for our Gingerbread Man

 We looked all around the neighborhood, high and low                                                                          

Only to discover that he was also looking for us !!                                                                                

Our Gingerbread Man wrote us a letter about his adventure.

Todays' activities were inspired by these Gingerbread Man books.

Linking this to the Preschool Corner.

Christmas Cards

It never ceases to amaze me how focused a child is when creating things for loved ones.

                                                                             

                                                                        

Hanukkah Celebration Starts At Sunset

I think it is so important to celebrate our differences.Whether it is a different way that we worship,or a different language that we speak.We were all created so uniquely different, and that is what I believe makes us all so special!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
 In the photo Lil (age 4) is showing Michelle how to play the game of Dreidel a Hanukkah game that is traditionally played during this wonderful celebration among the children.

                                                                         

                                                                         

Counting Down To Christmas:Montessori Monday

Some of you Lucky Ducks are already on school vacation. Not me!! Not until Friday. I am not complaining, because I am going to have so much fun with the children this week They are planning the party events and it sounds like a whole a lot of fun. I never did this before but I know on Friday there is going to be Pajama Wearing. They talked me right into it. Here are some last minute trays I put together.

Using a mortar and pestle to crush peppermints. We will be watching the Polar Express on Friday and the kids talked of peppermint flavored Hot Cocoa, so we will be using this to add as topping on marshmallows or whipped cream whatever is your preference. Lots of fun practical life skills in this work, unwrapping the candy a point of interest.

 Peppermint puzzles that I downloaded from the blog Our Country Road. I found lots of inspiration from this blog, you have to go check it out!! I made two trays to make it more doable for all the kids. For the children who want to combine the works, that is great too,

 I added this work to our scissor practice tray. The printable was a part of Homeschool Creations in the Gingerbread Baby pack.

                                                                             
To see other children doing activities inspired by the Montessori Method please visit One Hook Wonder and Living Montessori Now for Montessori Monday.