Our Easter Activity Day

At the end of every month I make a calendar for lessons or activities I would like to get accomplished for the upcoming month. It may change a lot depending on what the girls are interested in, what did or didn't work or the interruption of short notice appointments. I'm not a very spur-of-the-moment kind or person, which I am trying to change, so the calendar helps me to see a map of what they will be learning as well as what I need to buy in advance to make the lessons. Yes, I do make most of their lessons, but that is another post for another day.

So anyway, I've found the best place to find holiday themed activities is on Pinterest. Here are some things we did last Friday in celebration of Easter.

This first is a counting game. The object is the roll the die, which only has ones and twos on the side, and the child gets the corresponding number of Easter themed erasers. The first to count out 10 wins the game.

Checking out my homemade die.


Playing the easter themed counting game.


Lining up the easter erasers.

After Lydia won the game, Delores just wanted to line them all up and count them.

Counting the easter easers

After they had changed clothes, made their beds, brush their teeth and combed their hair they came back for trays I'd put out on the shelf the night before.


Tonging poms into an egg tray. I was tempted to use jelly beans, but this was the first time Delores had used any kind of tongs so I used the poms instead. It's a good thing too because she tried to tong a jelly bean and it was too hard and she became frustrated. Always trust your gut.


Using a "B is for Bunny," template I snagged from here: Making Learning Fun . I don't particularly care for templates but I thought it was cute and it was a holiday and we have been working on our "B" sounds in our beginning sound basket so I caved.

Switch!



And just for the heck of it, practicing the padlocks and keys.


After the mats were put away I set out the egg dying stuff. There was a lot of practical life and sensorial activities involve in this. For instance spooning the eggs into the colored water. Mixing primaries to make secondary colors. Washing the eggs. Straining the eggs. Drying the eggs. The intense look of concentration on their faces told it all.

Dying eggs



Peeling eggs


Washing peeled eggs. Like all toddlers Lydia loves to play in water. When I asked if she would like to wash the eggs her eyes lit up. Just one of the many things that keep me on the montessori path.

With the peeled eggs I took one and cut it in half for each of them to try for snack with a little salt. Lydia made it very known that she did not like it and Delores just liked the egg whites. With the remaining two I made egg salad which Lydia loved and Delores hated (oddly enough).

After naps they got to "trace" Easter themed clip art onto our back door. They didn't really trace but they had fun so, oh well. You may have seen on other websites that people use things like foam or shoe polish or window paint. All of that stuff has to scraped off with a razor blade. We used dry erase markers. They scribble, the rub it off if they want to do it again and it is easy clean up.


Easter themed window "tracing" pictures.

We had a great productive, fun filled day that I'm sure we will probably be repeating for years to come.

The beginning of patterns

This past week my grandmother was visiting from Wilmington, North Carolina so we didn't get a whole lot of work done. But what we did get accomplished was enough for several posts. So lets start with this:

I mentioned before that I like to take Wednesday off to play and/or make a trip to the local library for story time and to check out books. Last Wednesday we had some new friends over so I chose to take the girls to a different library on Friday. One of Delores' favorite thing to do is play with the oversized checker board.


She always makes a tower, but this was the first time she's made any type of pattern. In fact this was the first time she showed some understanding of patterning at all. How exciting!

I love how everyday occurrences can lead to lesson ideas and possibilities unimaginable!

Surprise! A productive day!

I couldn't have designed a more perfect day for formal (but a little non traditional) lessons/ activities.

The girls' attention spans and energy levels were spot on for a good stretch of rug time (or in it case a blanket). In fact Delores spent a total of 2 hours doing lessons without a break. She was on a roll and I wasn't about to mess that up. Even Lydia spent a good 15-20 mins on a pouring/ spooning activity.

So this is what Delores worked on yesterday:

She started with spooning black eyed peas from one bowl to another and then started using her pincher grasp to transfer one pea at a time from one bowl to the other.


Next she moved on to a set of language cards of items found in the kitchen. She quizzed herself and them went on what I call the scavenger hunt, and placed all the cards with their corresponding object. After she was done I came over and asked her to retrieve each card by name.


After that she got out a memory game an work herself up to 7/10 pairs in the box an worked for a good 20 mins on this.


Then she moved onto Lydia's opening and closing bottles


And then clipping 38 clothespins around a food storage container.



And then she she did Lydia's beginning counting with three triangles.

Whew! That makes me tired just writing about it all.

Lydia also did her opening and closing of the bottles





Pouring, spooning and examining of the black eyed peas.

And the beginning counting to three. Just when you think your children are not receptive to your teaching they have a day like this. I may not understand the reasoning behind why they have good days or difficult days but there is always a renewed hope and love for montessori teaching when you have productive days like these.

Thinking outside of the mat--walking the line

After Delores' "nap" yesterday I went in to find her walking the line on some of her books.* She told me she had made a sidewalk and was walking on her sidewalk.

Children will find or create ways to walk the line without an ellipse painted or taped out on the floor for them. Of course this is how the brilliant Maria Montessori came up with this idea of creating a permanent line in a classroom setting in the first place. I am reminded, yet again, that we can learn so much from just observing the child absorb their world around them.

Having an ellipse or other shape painted or taped (fyi chalk does not work!) to the floor gives the child much more opportunity to use their desire to walk the line and refine their balance and grace. Also, having a line indoors also leads to countless extensions from carrying a glass of water to a game of catch. But really you can't beat just watching a child imagine and create and enjoy an activity all on her own even if it is outside the painted line.

* I do not encourage the misuse of books and after she had left this activity we discussed the importance if taking care of all books.

** Delores is wearing something to covering her bottom, you just can't see it from the angle of the shot.

Thinking outside of the mat--water pouring

On Wednesdays I normally take a day off to just go and do fun stuff with the girls and take a break from normal lessons.

Our day usually involves going to story time at our local library and checking out books, cd's, and DVDs that we never end up watching.

However, yesterday I had to spend all morning with the girls at an appointment of great boredom. So, we did not have lessons and today we will make up for it.

Even though we did not have formal lessons yesterday, the girls still managed to get some pouring activities in.

The girls were outside"cooking" with water out of their kiddie pool and I casually slipped them each a 1 cup measuring cup I use for pouring activities and Delores practiced her water pouring while Lydia practiced her water dumping. Lol.

This is really what montessori is all about for me. Delores especially would prefer to apply her activities to real life instead of sitting down with a mat and now I look for situations I can offer that to her.

After all the purpose is to make the child more independent in their life not to confine them to a mat.

The Hurdle that is Delores

Lately my greatest frustration with our lesson time has been Delores. I posted something over at Lisa Nolan's Facebook page about how she has been almost refusing to remember anything I try to teach her with a three period lesson and that she seems to be refusing to pay attention.

The comments I received in response were eye opening, helpful, encouraging and a good reminder of why this is a child led way of life.

We have since then taken a week off for me to more or less observe Delores' interests and abilities.

I feel confident that the next weeks will go a little better. If I can just remember to be patient and accept that if she is giving me a hard time she is just not ready and if she won't pay attention to just put it away.

I have to remember there is a very good reason you do things in a specific order, at a specific time and only one new idea at a time.

Example: I thought it would be a good idea to throw a letter card into our beginning sounds baskets so she could learn to associate the sound with the symbol. Uh wrong. Not only did she not learn the symbol she also started having a hard time recalling the sound. So, we are going back to simple beginning sounds, then move on to the I spy game and then introduce the sandpaper letters.

No skipping steps and always follow the children no matter how stubborn or strong willed she (or he) is.