Montessori Mom

Today’s learning and fun is brought to you by letter D-- featuring dinosaur, duck, and donuts.

I am special

In this lesson you can teach your child about where he or she lives- address- phone number, his or her full name, parts of the body. Use the 3 step approach-1)This is__. 2) Show me ___. 3) What is this?

Advanced Lesson

Do a family tree scrap book. Let your child put down a small history (when he or she was born, parents and siblings names, grandparents, etc.), what his or her favorite color, food, hobby, best friend, favorite toy, and any other information important to your child). Let your child draw a pictures for the book, (their house, friends, family, or self portrait.)

Parts of the body: Teach the following parts of the body:
Head -eyes -ears -hair -nose -mouth -cheeks -neck -forehead -teeth -tongue -lips -shoulders -stomach -arms -hands -fingers -legs -feet -foot -toes (use the 3 period lesson  to teach any new names)

Tracing Me
Materials:
A piece of paper as large as your child
Crayons, collage material such as fabric, yarn, buttons, etc.
A marker pen
Scissors and glue

Have your child lay down on the big piece of paper. Trace him or her. Have your child cut out his or her shape. Your child can draw in features such as, eyes, nose, mouth, fingers, whatever your child thinks of. Use yarn for hair and collage material or colored paper for clothing and shoes.

Fingerplays for teaching parts of the body:
"Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
and eyes and ears and nose and mouth
head, shoulders-knees and toes, knees and toes"
point to part of the body with both hands(for example put both hands on head, then shoulders, etc.) You can sing this song (the tune is like a polka) or give the commands.

Simon Says Make this command game easy to begin with and make it more difficult as your child catches on to the game.
For example, “Simon says put your finger on your nose.” “Wiggle your toes, Clap your hands, Clap your feet, (the sillier the better), Stand on one foot, etc.” You can teach concepts such as beside, next, in, out, on top, underneath, etc. with the game. As your child progresses, use this as a listening game and don’t use the command, “Simon Says” every few commands. If Simon doesn’t say you don’t do the command.

Jack in the box-creative play

This teaches the concept of in and out In a large cardboard box have your child get in the box and curl into a ball. Say this finger play as the child “acts out” the words.

I am jack in the box, all curled up inside. Do you want me to come out and not hide? Count to three and out I’ll jump out. One, two, three. I am out of the box! (The child pops up.)

Art-Advanced lesson for in and out
Loom weaving Materials:
A small box
Glue
Scissors
Plastic knife
Tape
Yarn, ribbons, fabric cut into ½ inch strips, old shoe laces
Thick rubber bands or heavy string
Method:

Cut notches (v shaped) along both ends of the box. Stretch the rubber bands into the notches. (Instead of rubber bands, you can use string securely tied and taped to the bottom of the box.) Cut the strips of weaving material about 2 inches longer than the width of the box. Tape the strip before weaving to prevent it from pulling out of the weave. Weave the strips up and down across the rubber bands. After a few row, press the weaved material strands tight with a plastic knife. Continue weaving. When finished gather the loose strands into various small bunches and tie them twice. The ends of the rug will have fringes.

Teaching left and right.
Hokey Pokey

This is fun to do with a group of children in a circle. Follow the directions in the lyrics. “You put your left hand in, you put your left hand out, you put your left hand in and you shake it all about, you do the hokey pokey (what ever move you would like to dance or karate) and you turn yourself about (each person twirls in a circle) and that’s what it’s all about."
Do right hand, left arm, right arm, right elbow, left elbow, right thumb, left thumb, right foot, left foot, left leg, right leg, whole self, head, etc. Let the children think of ideas. This game can become very silly and fun 

Art-

Make a box house or a house plan-put your address on the house

Materials:
Make your house out of old boxes(cereal, shoe boxes, etc.)
Match boxes, Popsicle sticks, old spools of thread, buttons, caps, small margarine tubs, egg cartons, cupcake liners, toothpicks, etc. Keep one side open so your child can play in the rooms and make furniture. Stack together small match boxes to make dressers, small boxes for beds, old spools of thread for chairs, small round container for a table, etc.

Make a house plan Materials:
Tagboard or cardboard

Life Skills:

Pasta necklace This sequencing lesson is great for reading and math readiness
Materials needed:
Various colored tube pasta for making a necklace
Food coloring (various colors) and vinegar
Bowl
Yarn or string
Mix together about 10 pieces of pasta into a mixture of 1 tablespoon of vinegar and several drops of food coloring. Mix well to make a consistent color. Dry on a paper towel. Do several colors.
Let your child string a sequence of colored pasta such as red, plain, green, red, plain, green or two red, two plain and two green.
If this is too difficult, just let your child string the pasta to practice his or her small motor skills and eye hand coordination.

Variation:
You can make these necklaces using Cheerios, Fruit Loops, any dry cereal with a hole in the middle.

To make the lesson a math and reading readiness skill, string the necklace in a certain pattern-one red Fruit Loop, one Cheerio, etc.
Make the pattern simple to begin with.
When the project is finished they can eat or wear the necklace

Spooning beans Materials:
2 bowls
Plastic sand shovel, scoop or spoon
Dried Beans
Place on the tray or on a small area rug.
*Instead of spooning beans, try a small plastic shovel or a scoop to begin with.
Slowly put the spoon into bowl of beans. Carefully dig out beans onto the spoon. Hold for a moment over the bowl and slowly, carefully move hand over to empty bowl. Slowly pour beans into the empty bowl. Continue until the empty bowl is full and the full bowl is empty.
Control of error: The child spills the beans.
Variations: use rice, cereal, sand, salt, or sugar
Don't worry if your child doesn't repeat the activities. They will pick and choose which activities which ones they like.

Dresssing Frames(ages 2 and up)

You can make the dressing frames. If not use clothing your already have at home. You can use an old canvas sneaker to let your child practice lacing and tying his or her shoe. Use 2 different colored shoelaces to teach tying.

You can cut out an old shirt with buttons and mount it onto a dressing frame, as well as the other fastening devices.

Bottles and tops

This exercise helps develop independence and coordination
Materials:
Various sized empty small jars with screw on lids and plastic containers with snap on tops
Method:
Slowly show your child how to unscrew the top of the jar. Slowly grasp the lid with thumb on one side and fingers clenching the other side and turn counter clockwise. Put the lid down next to the jar. Then pick up the lid and place carefully on top of the jar and holding hand in the same position as before screw on the top.

Continue with snap on lids by pulling the top off slowly and carefully. Put the lid on, pushing cover onto outer ledge, and slowly press the lid into place.
Control of Error: The tops won’t fit on properly.

Advanced math: Short Bead Stair
It is easy to make the beads yourself. You can get heavy wire, needle nose pliers, and various beads at any craft store. If you are in a hurry, try using plastic beads that fasten (snap) together (Sometimes they are called “pop beads.” You can use any color for the bead bars, each bar needs to be a different color.

Number Frames Make your own frames Materials: Poster board-divided into nine squares 2 ½ by 5 inch with the number 10 written on each square. Nine 2 ½ by 5 inch squares with numbers 1 through 9 written on each square. Velcro stick on circles or squares Method: Make a strip of nine squares, over each “0” place a small stick Velcro piece. On the back of each number card (1-9) place the corresponding Velcro piece.

Advanced Number Activity

Bank roll number line

Purpose: To practice writing numbers in sequential order
Make squares on paper or use large graph paper with 4 squares across the paper
-Use the fourth square for the 1's place-3rd square for 10's place
-2nd square for 100's place
and 1st square for 1000's place.
Start with one through nine on the far right side of the paper or the 4th square.
For 10 put “1”on the 3rd square and “0” on the 4th square, and so on. Calculator paper works great. It is fun to use strips of paper with only a row long enough to write the numerals 1 through 10 to begin with. When your child is ready, add a new paper strip by taping it on to the finished lesson. Getting a new piece of paper and watching the number line grow is great motivation for your child. Have your child roll up the paper each day, secure it with a rubber band and keep a pencil tucked in the rubber band. Let your child work on his or her number line whenever he or she wants to. Also, you can help your child by writing in a few numbers as a control for error. For example, after 9 write in the number 10.

Science time:

Materials

• Eye dropper
• Water
• Glass
• Waxed paper or plastic wrap
• Newspaper

Have your child pour water into the glass either from a small pitcher or the tap. Show your child how to squeeze the rubber tip of the eye dropper to fill it with water. Slowly have your child squeeze the water out of the dropper onto the waxed paper. What happens to the water? (It makes round drops of water.)
Put a drop of water on a newspaper. What happens to the water? (It is a flat drop that soaks into the paper.) (The type of surface helps determine the shape and movement of water.)

 

Art and Science.
You’ll need red, blue and yellow tempera paints. (white tempera to make lighter colors)
Paper or a Styrofoam egg carton
Brushes or cotton swabs
Method:
Have your child take a small amount of paint (yellow) and place it on a piece paper or in an eggcup. Let your child choose a second color (red). Let your child put the second color on top of the first color. Mix well. What color does it make? (orange) Continue until you have used all of the combinations.
Color mixtures:
Purple-blue and red
Orange-yellow and red
Green-yellow and blue
Brown-red, blue and yellow
Black-red, blue and green or red, blue and yellow (it depends on the base paint)

Advanced color mixtures: You can change colors to make them duller or vivid.
Soft Yellow-white and yellow
Vibrant Yellow-yellow and a small amount of orange
Greenish blue-add a small amount of green or yellow to blue
Steel Blue-add a small amount of black - orange to blue
Orange Red-add a small amount red to orange
Deep red-a small amount of blue added to red

Art Project-cutting a circle
Materials:
Scissors
Pencil and crayons
Plain stiff paper
Method
With a plate let your child trace a circle and then cut it out. Your child can draw lines across the circle with either colored pencils or crayons.
Let your child find other circle shapes to cut out.

Introduce the letter d.

If your child already knows the name of the letters of the alphabet this is one way you can introduce the sounds. Even though Montessori introduces just the sounds of the alphabet first, kids who know the letter name get upset if you don't introduce it as follows:

Show your child the letter “d” and say this is d, ask your child to point to the letter “d”, point to letter “d” and ask, what letter is this? Tell your child what sound d makes- hard “d” sound, like in dog.

If your child has difficulty with both the letter name and sound, just introduce the sound of the letter d.

To reinforce the new letter, let your child point to the letter and rap or sing to melody of “Row, row your boat”…d,d,d, the ding dong sound, “d” makes a ding dong sound.
d,d,d,d, “d” makes a ding dong sound.
If this is simple for your child, add another hard “d” sound, such as dinosaur, duck, donut.

Put letters a, b, c and d together, Ask your child to find each letter, then ask the name of each letter. Lastly, ask your child to say the sound of the letter. Don’t worry if you have to go back to the second lesson, (Show me the “a” sound letter, etc.)

Sand letters

Put some sand in a square cake pan or box for drawing purposes. Help your child trace the lower case (small) “d” Feel and say the short a sound. Another variation you might want to consider finger painting whipped cream on a black garbage bag taped onto a surface outside. Your child will have fun tracing the letters in this new medium.

Family Weekend Projects
Dig into the garden and make a butterfly garden complete with homemade pavers.

ABC Cooking
Art you can eat.
Your child can make a dinosaur, a self portrait, or just an abstract
You’ll need:
A full graham cracker rectangle or a flat bread
Various dried cereal, chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, candy sprinkles, etc. for collage
Honey
Pastry brush or plastic knife
Use the honey as paste. Let your child spread the honey with a pastry brush or a plastic knife and then cover the cracker with the edible collage pieces. Let your child tell you about his or her creation.

Donut delight

You’ll need toppings (sprinkles, nuts, raisins, coconut etc.) and frosting Unfrosted, plain donuts Give each child a donut, a plastic knife, a dollop of frosting, and some toppings
Let each child frost the donut and decorate. D is for donut. Yum!

Reading out loud Corner
Here are some great books to read out loud.
Title: Dinosaurs by John Cooper.
Title: T-rex is missing! by Tomie De Paola.
Title: Cómo dan las buenas noches los dinosaurios? by Jane Yolen.
Title: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter
Title: Read free on line books by Beatrix Potter
Title: Super-scrumptous jelly donuts sprinkled with hugs : a book about hugs by Barbara Johnson
Title: Do donuts fall in winter? by Viki Woodworth
Title: Duck, duck, goose! by Kristen Hall
Title: We're going on a picnic! by Pat Hutchins
Title: Silly Goose and Dizzy Duck play hide and seek by Sally Grindley

Spanish Corner Sandpaper letters can be made for the Spanish alphabet. Here is a link to help you pronounce the  alphabet sounds. This is a great interactive one with lower case letters.

Use the 3 period lesson to introduce the letters. Do this when your child is well versed in his or her own native language alphabet and phonetic sounds.