a montessori-inspired placemat

A place for my plate

my napkin,

my glass,

and my fork, knife and spoon?!

Brilliant!

Yes, Elise, my little love, I think so, too...

Not only does this placemat appeal to your sense of order,

it reinforces your vocabulary as you name each item,

it provides a control of error as you set your place at the table,

and it offers you an opportunity to match objects to pictures -

which is helping you to develop visual discrimination.

Wow.  :)

For more matching objects to pictures,

come back on Tuesday!

We're matching the whole dang house!!!!

(Well, not really, but almost.)

on the shelves - 20 months

A handful of E's favorite activities this month:

1. color basket one
A homemade version of the traditional Montessori material, Color Box I.  I made our color tablets by simply gluing paint samples onto rectangles of cardboard.  Elise is able to successfully match all three primary colors, and she really enjoys checking her work by "telling the whole story:" red, red; yellow, yellow; blue, blue!

2. caring for a plant
Up until this month, our only house plant had been a small, happily-neglected cactus.  When I saw these little daffodil plants at the grocery store, spring fever got the better of me, and I decided to bring one home!  Although it's looking a little past it's prime, Elise continues to enjoy smelling the blossoms and keeping it well-watered. ;)

3. beginning sorting 
While I drooled over a million and one awesome sorting activities on pinterest, I decided to keep this introductory activity simple.  I put two different types of objects in a basket - cotton balls and wooden eggs, and showed Elise how to sort them into a divided baking dish.  She caught on right away, and has has been getting a lot of satisfaction out of the activity - it must appeal to her sense of order!

4.  matching animals to their babies
Elise has gone completely baby crazy, so this is quite possibly her favorite activity of all time.  I tried to include both male and female animals - if you've ever examined a Schleich figurine, you'll know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, I'm glad I did because while Elise is very much a mama's girl right now, she is really drawn to the male animals, especially the dog - she calls him "Papa" and the puppy "Elise."

5. smelling jars
This is another homemade version of a traditional Montessori material, the Smelling Cylinders.  I'll add another set of jars soon, so Elise can match the scents.  For now, she is busy figuring out how to open the lids, and happily sniffing away at the essential oils I dabbed onto a few cotton balls.  While this activity may seem simple, I think it's really increased Elise's awareness of aromas in the environment.

6. hot and cold cards
Elise continues to be fascinated by hot and cold.  I made these cards out of photos I took of hot and cold things around our house - a steaming tea kettle, an ice cube, etc.  (Thanks to Elsa for the idea!)  Eventually, this will be another sorting activity, but for now we've just been talking about the cards and matching them to the environment.

busy hands

A quick glimpse at all the fun things Elise has been up to the past few weeks:

smelling bottles

 stacking rings 

 shoveling snow

 pushing pipe cleaners

 

reading books

 sliding in the park

matching objects

washing dishes

 

washing a dog

washing herself!

matching objects to objects

^^ salt and pepper shakers ^^

"Two!"  Elise continues to delight in discovering pairs.  Everywhere we go she points them out - two dogs in the back of a truck, two crows flying overhead, two shoes on her feet...  Similarly, I've found no shortage of objects for her to match around the house - seriously, I can't stop!  ;)

Here are a few of our favorites:

^^ mittens ^^

^^ objects from nature ^^

^^ buttons ^^

^^ socks ^^

^^ earrings ^^

^^ animals and their babies ^^

three Montessori language games for toddlers

Here are a few simple language games to play 

before introducing the alphabet...

Matching objects supports the development

of visual discrimination.

One of the principles of Montessori education is to move from 

concrete to abstract.

A three-dimensional object is more concrete than a picture,

so Elise is matching objects to other objects right now.

Eventually, she will match objects to pictures,

and finally, pictures to other pictures.

Playing sound games like "I spy"

is a great way to model beginning sound isolation

and build phonemic awareness.

/h/hat, /b/boot, and /f/feather

I spy with my little eye a...

/b/boot

Can you find the /b/boot?

At twenty months old, I refrain from asking Elise

"Which one starts with /b/?" or "What sound does boot begin with?"  

Instead, I try to find as many ways as I can to model 

separating the beginning sounds from words,

with the understanding that Elise will eventually catch on.  

As simple as this may be, Elise adores this game!

Learning the names of a classified group of objects

enriches vocabulary.

I often use a three period lesson to present the names of items to Elise

that she encounters in her daily life or interest her.

These are tableware.

This is a glass.

(first period)

Please hand me the glass.  Thank you!

(second period)

What is this? (pointing to the glass)

(third period)

Since Elise is under two and just beginning to say words,

 I rarely ask her third period questions

- unless I'm absolutely sure she knows the answer.

As you may remember, Elise is already an expert table setter(!),

but it's still useful for her to hear

exact terminology and correct pronunciation.

(Other examples of classified vocabulary we've explored include

pets, farm animals, personal care items, and parts of the face.)

for penny...

It never ceases to amaze me that this life which can offer us so much joy can also, in just the blink of the eye, hand us a giant serving of sorrow. This happened to my dear teaching friend Bethany two weeks ago when she lost her friend and coworker at Maine Mountain Children's House, Samantha Wright, to a tragic car accident.

This is the message Bethany sent me:

Hi Annie,
I have been thinking about you and I wanted to share something with you. My dear friend and director of my school passed away last Monday in a fatal car accident. It has been very sad and hard for our community as a whole (as you can imagine) but the saddest part is she is leaving behind her husband and her beautiful little girl Pennelope Quinn, who just turned 1 in November. The reason I'm telling you all this is that I introduced her to your blog after Penny was born and she has been an avid follower ever since. She creates new lessons for Penny each week and a lot of them are based on what you are doing with Elise. I don't know if you want to mention her on your blog or maybe come up with a neat lesson that a 1 year old would like, but if you do I would create it for her and bring it over to her house. Also, I will continue to follow you and make lessons for little Penny using your fabulous ideas and creativity. I just wanted to let you know just how far you reach and how your work effects a lot of people. Miss you annie. xoxoxo

I never had the chance to meet Samantha, but after hearing more about her these past couple weeks, I am sure she and I would have been good friends. My heart aches for her friends and family, especially her daughter, Penny. Good teachers like Samantha touch a lot of lives, so I am hoping that there is a strong community of people out there offering each other support. All my loving thoughts are with them! As per Bethany's request, here are a few lessons inspired by Penny - if you have any other suggestions of comforting activities for little ones, please share them in the comments!

 1. "I spy" tub:

Elise loved looking for objects hidden in our Halloween-themed "I spy" tub.  Include laminated photos of the objects, and this can be a matching activity, too!

Here's what you'll need:

2.  a box inside a box:



This is a special activity that Elise and her papa have been doing together lately.  Every night after she's gone to bed, he hides a tiny object inside the smallest box - a feather, stone, or some other little trinket.  Of course, the first thing Elise does when she comes downstairs in the morning is open all the boxes!  At first, she only opened the boxes; now, she is starting to close them, and nest them back together, too.

Here's what you'll need:

3.  smelling bottles:

Elise is always sniffing things - maybe it's because her big sister is a dog?  A drop or two of an essential oil like lavender or grapefruit on a cotton ball is fun for a little one to smell, and can lift up his or her spirit.  Place the cotton ball in an empty spice container to preserve the scent and strengthen fine motor control.

Here's what you'll need:

We love you, Penny!  You too, Bethany!!!  :)

pink tower vs. rainbow stacking boxes

As soon as Elise started to show an interest in stacking blocks, I began to debate which of these two materials to buy for our home.  Some may say this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but here we go...  

the stats:

the verdict:

The pink tower is a beautiful Montessori material that isolates the quality of size, and prepares children for many mathematical concepts.  No Montessori preschool classroom would be complete without it, but I decided that it wasn't necessary for our home environment - yet!  I ended up purchasing the rainbow stacking boxes because they seemed to offer more opportunities for exploration and play.  While they aren't as precise as the cubes of the pink tower, they can offer a similar experience.  Both materials support the development of visual discrimination, and can be used for matching and language activities.  In addition, the rainbow stacking boxes can be nested together, and can hold or hide small objects.  As E begins to play more imaginatively, the boxes may become houses, nests, or caves. Call me crazy, but these boxes are lovely enough, I can even imagine them holding pencils in E's college dorm room one day!  ;)

Although we love our rainbow nesting boxes, I haven't completely ruled out the idea of buying a pink tower,  too. We'll just have to see where this Montessori homeschooling adventure takes us...

a pink tower extension

Our computer is on the fritz right now... I'm unable to upload photos, so I'm going to have to be patient and wait until next week to show you all the fun things Elise and I have been doing!  In the meantime, here are some photos of a Pink Tower extension I just found from my teaching days. 

Oh, Pink Tower, how I miss you.  You're certainly not just any old stack of blocks!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pink Tower, it's a set of 10 wooden cubes, ranging in size from 1 to 10 centimeters.  It was one of the first lessons presented to every three-year-old student in my classroom, but it was NOT just for the little ones. 

One of my favorite things about the Montessori sensorial materials is that the opportunity for exploration is limitless.  The Pink Tower can be used for matching activities, language lessons (little/big, big/bigger/biggest, ect), and in combination with the Broad Stair (This one was definitely a favorite.)  The Pink Tower can continue to challenge older children by introducing them to concepts like weight, area, and volume.

Here are some photos of a bright and busy six-year-old finding the area of one side of each of the cubes of the Pink Tower.   

First, she traced the outlines of one side of each cube on a piece of 1cm graph paper.

 

Next, she colored and cut out the squares.  This child was able to skip count by square centimeters to determine the area.  A child could also do this by counting each square centimeter.     

Here's her finished work!   

 

I'll be popping back in later this week with some more fun little things.  Hope you all have a great week!
 

 

busy hands

sorting objects by their beginning sounds
a, f, c, m, p

turkey matching

grading colors
from darkest to lightest

apple slicing

making a Montana animal book

busy hands

cleaning up a big spill
The children serve themselves milk and water at lunchtime.
It can be challenging, as an adult, to witness a big spill...
but it's all part of becoming independent!
{We use a lot of cloths around here!}

...3 thousand, 4 thousand, 5 thousand...
the big display
{a representation of the decimal system from 1 - 9,000)

sharpening pencils
{Hey! Isn't that the same kid from the big spill? - Yes, he's a busy guy!}
The new pencil sharpener is still the cat's meow...
from 6 inches to 1 inch in less than a 60 seconds.
{We've been having a lot of discussions
about sharpening pencils too short!}

playing a bell...
and listening until the beautiful sound is all gone.

matching color tablets
to things in the environment...
{"Look! The pink tower is pink! Our favorite color!"}

building words
with the movable alphabet
{It's important to remember that when a child builds a word,
she's not necessarily able to read it yet.}

Here's a photo of what my busy hands made this week...
a new hat!
Perfect for all these snowy days we're having around here.
If you're curious about the pattern I used,
I bought it here.
{Yes! I actually bought a pattern. I'm pretty sure it was worth it.}