Pom Pom Patterns

We made a trip to two stores to get some inexpensive Montessori materials. We went to the thrift store and a dollar store. I was able to get trays, bowls, a large magnet, sensory material, and much more at very affordable prices.
When Lane and I were alone this afternoon, I set up my first Montessori tray. I've done several Montessori inspired activities for the kids but I haven't set up a little tray yet. It was a little exciting for me.
I found a circle pattern and printed it for her. I trimmed it to fit in the plastic tray. I added a bowl, poms, and large tweezers to the tray. I showed Lane how to transfer poms to the tray with the tweezers. She quickly created the patterns.
This activity was great for fine motor skills, patterns, and color recognition. That's a lot of learning wrapped up in one activity.



Lane started with a two handed method but her fine motor skills are strong enough for a one handed squeeze. She was able to tell me the pattern after she finished the activity.

Living vs. Nonliving?

I decided to present a science idea to Lane. I wasn't sure how quickly she would figure it out and it didn't take her long to understand the difference between living and nonliving things. I found a great presentation with cards at The Helpful Garden. http://thehelpfulgarden.blogspot.com/2011/09/livingnon-living.html
The presentation includes animals, plants, and misc. items in the every day world. The only picture that was confusing for Laney was a mushroom. Otherwise, she easily categorized each item. After the initial presentation, I brought the activity with us to dance class a few days later. While the boys were in class, she glued and sorted the items without any problems. She even wanted the labels glued on her papers.
The next week, Alex who is in first grade, brought home a living vs nonliving classification activity. Lane went to Montessori a few days later and insisted on taking her project with her for share time.

St Patrick's Day (preschool)

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.
~Irish Blessing

I introduced Lane to St. Patrick's Day. I found a cute shamrock project on this site: http://www.childcarelandblog.com/2012/03/paint-chip-shamrocks.html A shamrock template is included on the blog site. I printed out the template and cut it out. Then we glued it to green paper. I gave Lane a pair of scissors and some gren paint chips I had collected for this type of project. I asked Lane to cut on the white lines and she did so without any hesitation. The pieces seemed too large so she cut each piece again. When she was done cutting, she glued her green pieces to the shamrock.



I found some printable cutting strips on the Montessori Print Shop. It cost 79 cents to download the two sheets of cutting strips. I put the strips in a little bucket with two pairs of scissors. An empty bucket was set next to it for the cut pieces. I need to find a decent tray for these activities. She snipped away and liked the little pictures. The next day she created art work that included these little pictues.



I think my favorite part of the evening is that it was Lane's idea to wear her St. Patrick's Day pajamas. They have been in her drawer since last year and she asked to wear them!

Letter Containers

Lane continues to work on her letter sounds. She is getting good at putting a couple of the sounds together but she needs more practice. I bought 26 plastic containers and magnetic letters from the dollar store.
The kids were off school last Friday so I enlisted their help in putting one letter in each container. Then we added at least one item that began with that letter. For example, B has a ball. As we put the items and letters in, the boys talked to Lane about the sound and how to isolate the first sound of the word.
It was an interesting assembly project. Alex's leadership skills shone as he directed Gabriel and Lane on where to put the items. I only need to print and add the letter on the outside of the containers.



We pulled out the plastic animal bin while adding objects. It hasn't been out for the kids since we moved from Iowa, over a year and a half ago. The kids were fascinated by what the bin held. Lane didn't remember the barrel of monkeys my parents had given Alex a long time ago and thought it was fun to hang the monkeys. It was a big challenge but she was up for the task.