cinnamon grating

This new lesson has been quite popular in the classroom this week. Not only does it smell good, but it requires a lot of fine motor strength and organization. Plus,the grated cinnamon tastes delicious when sprinkled on apple slices! Yum!

What you'll need:
*a small grater
*cinnamon sticks
*a spoon
*a little pot to store the grated cinnamon
*a cloth and a sponge for clean-up

The child rubs the cinnamon stick against the grater. Show him or her how to hold the stick like a pencil - this will keep the fingers away from the grater and help to strengthen the hand for writing. Next, the child pops the lid off the grater and spoons the cinnamon into the cinnamon pot or jar. He or she uses the sponge to clean up any stray cinnamon bits.

Personally, I was a little disappointed about the quantity of cinnamon produced in this exercise. It takes a lot of work to grate a whole cinnamon stick, and you end up with just a sprinkle or two in the pot. Obviously, this is the perfect example of the child's work being different than our adult work. As an adult, I am more concerned with the product (how much cinnamon is in the pot) rather than the process (grating the cinnamon stick). But, as this lesson has been in constant rotation among the children, they must be finding the process of grating cinnamon sticks to be quite satisfying!

Love grating lessons, too? Read about soap and bread grating here!

ski day #21 & #22

The snow came and went this weekend,
but it was fun while it lasted!

hiking along the ridge with Hubs

I love the view from here!
(Not just Hubs from behind,
but the mountains and valleys, too!)

I can't quite tell if this is a booger shot or not.
Oh well for you if it is! :)

snow!

Yeeeeee haw!
Keep it coming!

reusable mazes!

I'd seen some maze lessons over at My Montessori Journey a few times, so I decided it was high time for us to give them a try! After the initial disappointment of not being able to bring them home, the children concluded they were a fab idea!

Here are the first ones I made.
I printed them from here and here.
Our printer is black and white,
so I cut off any pictures that were on the maze
and used stickers instead.
FYI, the caterpillar is trying to get to spring
and the ladybug is trying to get to the flowers.
After gluing them to construction paper,
I ran them through the laminator.
Reusable mazes! Hooray!

I set them up on a tray with
a dry erase marker and an eraser.
Of course, both were major points of interest!

When I demonstrated the lesson to the children,
I modeled tracing the maze with my finger first.
But, it was awesome for them
to be able to erase and start over!
Isn't it the worst when you make a wrong
turn with ink on a maze (or a crossword puzzle)?!

Here are a few more I made tonight.
Um, yeah, who wouldn't want to spend
their free time making mazes?

busy hands

I've received a few questions about when to teach what, so I thought I'd include some descriptions of the lessons in this week's busy hands post. Hope it makes some degree of sense! :)

transferring beads with tweezers

materials: dish for beads, beads, tweezers, soap saver (?) - can be found at dollar stores or here
purpose: coordination and control of movement, indirect prep for reading, writing, & math
age: the child in this photo is 4, but a 3-year-old with strong fine motor skills could do it, too
control of error: dropping the beads

counting to 100 on the 100 board

materials: board with 100 squares, squares labeled 1-100, muffin tin for storing number squares in sets of 10 - I think this lesson could be made at home, but check it out at Alison's here
purpose: to count to 100 with numerals (abstract), I usually present this lesson to children who have already been counting to 100 in a concrete way (for example, counting the 100 bead chain), this lesson also provides an opportunity for the child to see numeric patterns
age: the child in this picture is 5-years-old
control of error: the child uses the 100 board control to check her work

building useful words

materials: the moveable alphabet, a lined board (homemade)
purpose: the child practices building, reading, and writing high frequency words that are not pronounced phonemically (for example, is, has, the, are)
age: the child in this photo is 5-years-old
control of error: teacher or control card

counting stars 1-9

materials: Usually, we do this lesson with wooden numerals and 56 ever changing objects, but I noticed over at My Montessori Journey that sometimes she makes her cards to coordinate with her theme. I thought I'd give it a try, and it's been a huge hit! I painted the numbers with white paint on black construction paper. The stars are from Discount School Supply, here.
purpose: This lesson provides practice in the association of quantities and symbols 1-9. I present this lesson to children who are able to make 1-1 correspondence when counting, and have mastered the numeral rods, sandpaper numerals, and the spindle box. The child must be able to lay the numeral cards out in the correct sequence, and then count out the corresponding quantities of stars. This activity also requires organization!
age: the child in this photo is 4-years-old
control of error: too many stars left over (or not enough) in the end, in the photos, this lesson is being done on a table (happens here sometimes), but is much nicer on a rug with lots of room

experimenting with the pink tower
and the broad stair

materials: the pink tower and the broad stair
purpose: this is a lesson extension, children are able to discover similarities and differences between the two materials
age: the child in this photo is 4-years-old
control of error: none... maybe visual disharmony

metal insets

materials: metal insets - check them out at Nienhius here, paper cut in 5x5 inch squares, pencil holder, long, sharp colored pencils
purpose: This lesson is the first official writing lesson. The child must have the coordination and control to use a pencil to do this lesson. The metal insets have both an inset and a frame. The child learns to trace the frame first. When presenting the lesson, I carefully model picking up the pencil with my non-writing hand and positioning it in my writing hand. Also, the metal insets are supposed to mirror the shapes of the letters, so keep that in mind while you trace. :)
age: the child in this picture is 3-years-old
control of error: the frame may slip and the pencil may waver, resulting in visual disharmony of the outline

Metal insets are NOT an art lesson,

but they can still be beautiful!
Aren't these a riot?!