ski day #8 & #9

These pics are from Friday's ski-venture with X-tine and the dogs.

Ross Peak looking fabulously ski-able,
but waaaay too far away.

Looks fun, huh?

X-tine in action.

Toby hearts X-tine.

Hub's and I skied at Bridger on Saturday - our first day of riding lifts this season. It was fun, but very cold. Like so cold, my bottom lost all feeling after 3 minutes of sitting. Today was even colder, so no ski day #10 yet. The ski report said that the lifts don't operate when the temp is below -25 (fahrenheit). It eventually opened at 10am, but it was still -18. We decided to stay home. :) Good choice.

bells on bobtails ring...

...making spirits bright!

Can you tell how much we're loving
this activity from
My Montessori Journey?

A LOT!

This little person bounced all morning long.
Good thing we're singing "Jingle Bells"

at the holiday performance.

our version

in action

Considering that this week has been

crazy with holiday cheer,

today was verging on
totally
awesomely
fabulously
productively
downright
good.

Christy & X-tine: You-Know-Who
actually put on his snow pants this pm
BY HIMSELF!!!

How, you ask, were
all these children able to
concentrate?

Not sure.

Possibly because
our Montessori classroom
environment is...

...so positively predictable

so consistently comfortable...

...so normally normalized. :)

The lessons never change...

...the teachers never change.
(Except when we get new jewelry for Christmas -
these earrings came from a mom
who seriously brought in a whole rack
of homemade treasure for us to choose from.)
lucky ducks, huh?

Anyway,
the children know what to expect
pretty much every single day.

The most unusual things around here
are all the pink trees. :)

The End

holiday craft-acular!

candy canes...

made from
pony beads
and
pipe cleaners

how simple is that?

sparkly trees...

made from
construction paper
decorated with
glitter, sequins, yarn
and
sparkly pom poms

we glammed it up today
with pink trees
rather than the traditional
construction paper green

festive wreaths...

made from
construction paper snips
cut by the children with
scrapbooking scissors
and
stars, berries, and snowflakes
punched by the children
out of construction paper with
decorative paper punchers

whew! that was a mouthful!

Happy crafting!
It's that time of year...
I know I can't get enough!
I've been loving
all the crafty posts out there! :)

button sorting/counting

One of the things I love

most about teaching
is that I'm able to be

resourceful
inventive
experimental
flexible
thrifty
creative...

oops... that was more than one!

As many of you Montessorians can relate, your eyes no longer see material objects for what they are, but for all the many purposes they could fulfill. This is not always so great if you're a pack rat like me. I do eventually find some sort of use for most things... hubs, if you're reading this, really, I promise...

Anyway, this lesson started as an empty water color tray. At first, I thought it would be perfect in a tonging lesson... paired with extra large pom poms or something. Then, my mind wandered to the dish of buttons in the art closet, just waiting to be used.

Here's what I ended up with:

** an empty water color tray labeled with the numerals 1-8 ( 1-9 would be better)
** a box of various buttons - quantities of different kinds from 1-8 (for example, 1 gray flower, 2 big pink, 3 black leaf)

The child sorts one particular kind of button out of the box. She lines them out across the table and counts from left to right. Next, she finds the corresponding numeral on the tray. This is where she'll place the buttons she's just counted.

At first, I thought I'd just have the children count the buttons out according to the numerals on the tray. I figured that they'd naturally want to sort them, though, so I counted out different quantities of each type of button. The lesson still works if the child just counts the buttons without the sorting, but I like the control of error the various types of buttons provide. For example, if the child ends up getting 5 of two different kinds of buttons, she'll know she miscounted or missed sorting out one of the buttons in the box.

Also, don't you just LOVE buttons? They're so juicy! Abbie, I know you'll appreciate this post. :) This photo is of a bracelet from Asta Dog Vintage. I haven't met her yet, but she lives in my town AND I love her button jewelry. It's all over in the shops around here. Check her out at etsy. I'm waiting to buy one of her bracelets because she sometimes gives classes at Tart... X-tine? Christy? Beth? Suz?

ski day #7

Don't worry! I did not play hooky today! Although I definitely could have... all this glorious snow has got me distracted.

These photos are from Saturday. I'm still pretty excited about keeping a ski day count here on itty bitty love. Ski season! Yippee!