Montessori Mom

Lesson of the Day 7
Brought to you by the letters "t" & "m"
Terrific tails
Circle on a string
Sharing Game-Division
Mirror Math
Counting with Cereal 0's
Letter games

Introduce the letters t and m using the 3 period lesson .  T is for tail, toast and toys.
T-t-t-the terrific sound, "t"  makes a terrific sound.  M is for mirror, me,
and mom. M-m-m-the mirror sound, "m"  makes a mirror sound.

Find the beginning sound .
Start with one letter sound and find objects that match the beginning sound of that letter.
For example, find an object that begins with the letter b.
Make sure the room has plenty of objects that start with b, such as ball, baby, boot, bat, bed.
Next try another letter sound, such as p. Put objects in the room that are easy to find, such as pot, puppy, pan, pen, pencil, etc.

More games - I Spy
Place various objects on a table, such as a ball, tack, cup, and doll

Say, "I Spy with my little eye something that starts with the t sound." "Can you find it?"  The child finds the object. Continue with the game.

Later your child can be the "spy" and you find the object.

Start with simple beginning sounds, then beginning and ending sounds, and lastly you can add the middle vowel sound.

Practical Life
Tweezer and Beads exercise
You will need:
Tweezer
Small beads, pom poms or buttons
2 small containers

Put the following materials on a tray or a serving platter.
Place the two bowls next to each other on the center of the tray. Put the beads or objects bowl on the left side. (Right side if you are teaching your child to read right to left.)
Show your child how to grasp the tweezer in one hand.  Demonstrate to your child how to open and close the tweezer by squeezing and releasing.  Let your child practice this.

Next place the tweezer over the object, touch the object with the tweezer and grasp the object by pinching the tweezer. Put the object in the empty bowl.
This helps develop a strong pincher grasp, eye to hand coordination, and depth perception.
Control of Error, the bead is dropped before going into the bowl.
Variations
You can do this by using a needle nose pliers and small screws.  A little more difficult exercise can be done by using a regular pliers and bigger screws.

Math and Shapes
The Radius of a Circle Game
Make different sized circles by attaching a string to a red marker. For making really big circles, tape together newspaper. You can put a tack on the end of the string and let your child move the marker in a circle.  Make variations of the size of the circles by making the string shorter or longer.

Mirror shapes
You will need:
2 small mirrors taped together
paper
marker
ruler

On the longest side of the paper, in the center, make a straight line using the ruler.  In the middle place a dot. Place the mirrors binding on the dot.  Move the mirror in different positions to make different shapes.  The number of shapes will vary according to how much you "open" or "close" the mirror hinges.

Here are some Drama Mirror Activities for all ages.

Counting your oatie o's
This printout has the numbers and quantities 1 through 10. Your child can place the objects on or below the counters. This a good exercise to do before the spindle boxes and numbers and counters. There are two constants with both the numbers and quantities already given.

Snack time division
Have your children take turns evenly dividing a bag of snack food. It's a great way to teach  beginning division.  How many snacks did each person receive?  Also, the left over snacks that can't be divided evenly with the children is called the "remainder."

Animal Tails
Many animals have tails.  Feel your backbone to where it ends.  An anima'ls tail is attached to where your backbone ends.   A tail is a bone extension of the back bone.

How do tails move? It is not the bone that makes a tail move.  Muscles make a tail move. Tails help animals in different ways.  They may help the animal move, balance, talk, or even keep them warm.

Here are some animals who have tails-

A cat uses his tail not only for balance but for talking.  Here is a great site that has lots of pictures of a cat talking.

Here is another cat.
Leopard's use their tails  for balance

Dogs talk with their tails too. When they wag their tails they are excited. This site has great information about pet communication.

The wolf family is related to our pet dogs.  They communicate with their tails too.

A tail on a monkey is like an extra finger.  It can grasp objects.  Have you ever seen a monkey hang from his tail He does it with his finger like tail.
Here is a picture of a Baboon. Look for his tail.


A Dolphin's tail is like a propeller.  It is very strong and helps him swim.

A lizards tail is used for balance. Some lizards can grow back their tail if it gets pulled off.

The big Hippopotamus has a small tail.

Elephants have tails with fringe at the bottom.  Their tails work like fly swatters keeping bugs off them.
Here are some more animals who have tails that work like fly swatters.

Zebras Rhinoceros Antelope Water Buffalo

Squirrels have long, bushy tails that help balance so well that them almost fly through the trees.  A squirrel's tail makes a nice warm blanket in the winter.
Squirrel Printout for reading, coloring or painiting fun.

Birds' tails help them balance when they fly.
The tail of the bird acts like a rudder; it helps the bird to steer.  The bird turns its tail down when it wants to slow down. It works like a break.

Alberosaurus was a two legged (bipedal) dinosaur that used his tail to keep his feet on the ground when he leaned over to eat or drink. The weight of his talil prevented him from falling over.

Hand Work
Braid your own tail-
Use 3 different colors of thick yarn or rope
Wikipedia.org has a great illustration and history of braiding.

You can click on for a step by step illustration.

Reading Corner
Here are some books about tails and shapes .

What good is a tail?
by Robinson, Marlene M.
Shows many uses for tails, such as grasping, camouflage, communication, etc. for many types of animals.

Nose to Toes
by Obligado, Lilian
Great color illustrations of animals and their unusual features.

What good is a tail?
by Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw
Nice illustrations and general information about animals tails and how they are used.

Mi primera mirada a las formas (My first look at Shapes )
by Gunzi, Christiane
A brightly illustrated book about shapes in Spanish

Shapes by DK Publishing
Colorful pictures of objects that help your child relate to shapes. Great book for babies too.