Montessori Mom

Today's learning and fun is brought to you by the letter p- the peanut butter letter, peanut butter you can make and peanut butter playdough you can eat, activities and games for letters and words.

Language

As your child learns the sandpaper letters you can do this simple game.

Newspaper Scavenger Hunt
Materials:
Scissors
Letters(sandpaper or tactile)
Pages from newspaper or magazine

Take some large print pages from the newspaper or magazine. Have your child pick out the sandpaper letters he or she wants to work with, use one or two to begin with. Have your child hunt through the pages for matching letters, let them cut out the letter. Next your child can match the newspaper letters in a column under the sandpaper letter.

Advanced Games
1. Let your child cut out both lower and upper case letters of the alphabet.
2. Have your child cut out words he or she knows how to read. Put the words together to make a sentence or phrase.

The printed word and objects

Children who are discovering letters and words enjoy the printed word put by familiar objects. My children loved having their name printed on their bedroom door. Print signs for objects in their room. Let them choose the object and help print the word.

Rhyme time: Make up fun and silly rhyming words. Here is an example: pig, big, wig, dig, and jig, gig -see word list for more words-

Make up a poem using rhyming words such as this,
Here is a pig
Who is big?
He did a jig
With a wig
What a gig!
Can you dig?

You can have the children act this out. Use props like a wig and let them dance a little jig. Young children have great powers of imagination so simple props will do.

Advanced Game:

Print out the words on individual cards, pig, big, wig, dig, jig, and gig. Have children who can read the word put it up when ever their word is said during the dramatic play. Have them stand where the audience can see them.

If your children like music make up a song for the words and then act out your musical. Use your favorite tune.

Make a book with the story illustrated with pictures and text.

ABC Cooking

This recipe is a great sensorial experience. It involves taste, smell, touch, and sight.
Peanut butter play dough
Combine in a bowl:
1/3 cup of corn or rice syrup
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup dry milk (dairy, vanilla soy, or rice)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
If it is too sticky add crushed crumbs (cracker or cookie) or wheat germ

Mix well. Cut into pieces. Let each child roll and form a shape on waxed paper. Use raisins, nuts, pretzels, and cereal pieces for decorating his or her creation. You can eat this right away or chill and eat later.

Peanut Butter Recipe
Peanut butter song-
pea-nut- peanut butter- jelly! -pea-nut- peanut butter- jelly! First you take the peanuts and you crush them, crush them..... (repeat)
You will need:
Roasted peanuts

Heat oven to 350-place raw clean peanuts one layer deep on baking sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Let the peanuts cool on baking sheet. Take off when cool to make peanut butter.
Cooked peanuts-cook the peanuts like any other dried bean. Cover with water and cook about 3 to 5 hours.
Food processor or high powered blender
1. Put about 1 cup of roasted peanuts in a blender
2. Add about 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3. Grind
4. Add salt to taste
5. Eat on bread or crackers

Activities:
Use different nuts (almonds, hazelnut) to make other nut butters.
Sensorial feeling Exercise:
Put some different types of nuts, shells still on, in a bag.
Put on a blind fold and sort the nuts according to their shape.

Introduce the letter p

Continue to introduce the sandpaper letters, p, d, and so on. To motivate your child, teach him or her the letters in his or her name. Use the hard consonants and short vowel sounds. Use the 3 period lesson.

Science Time:
Materials:
Pencil
Plastic wrap or waxed paper
Paper-different types
Sandpaper-fine type

Have your child try to write on a shiny surface such as waxed paper with a pencil. Experiment writing on different materials, such as a magazine, newspaper, and sandpaper. What happens with each one? Why? The waxed paper is too smooth and the pencil's graphite won't rub off. The fine sandpaper provides a rough surface for the pencil to rub off its graphite. You barely have to touch the sandpaper to make a mark. The rough surface of the sandpaper makes friction when the pencil is moved over it. Different surfaces will have different effects when using a pencil

Introduce geometric shapes

You can use this lesson with shape puzzles with circles, triangles and rectangles Make cards for matching the shapes. Make one a solid shape, the second one a thick lined one, and the last a thin lined one.

Try this:
When you introduce the puzzle shapes to your child, put the puzzle on a table or mat on the floor. Remove each figure and put it on the table next to the shape. Slowly do this following exercise and pause long enough each time so your child will have time to grasp what is being demonstrated.

Take the first shape. Show the how to feel around the edge of each shape and its silhouette socket with the first two fingers of your right hand (if you favor your right hand), and replace. This feeling must be done smoothly and exactly with good coordination of movement. Hold each figure very still while feeling it. Encourage the child to do this exactly as you have demonstrated. This helps reinforce the differences in shapes by sight and touch. Also, the knobs help with pencil grip and the feel of each shape helps with writing readiness.
Lastly, teach the name of the shapes to your child using the three period lesson.

Practical Life Use colored paper and a paper punch to make confetti.

Reading Out Loud Corner

The Life and Times of the Peanut by Charles Micucci This book explains how a peanut is grown and made into peanut butter. Loads of beautifully illustrated pictures.

A Little Night Music by Charles Micucci This book is a great book about a kitten and a violin. It's delightful for preschool children.

The Life and Times of the Apple by Charles Micucci Again the author writes about the life cycle of the apple, its history in his beautifully told and illustrated book. The Life and Times of the Honeybee by Charles Micucci Great detail and illustrations. It shows a bee's life outside and inside the hive.