It's A Montessori Life: August 2015

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Look, It Bubbles Up!

Ava is big into science experiments. I can't tell you how many volcanoes we've made. It was raining out so I wanted to find something fun for Ava to do. I was limited with my supplies but looked up a quick experiment. I came across Project Mommie's pin on Pinterest. We've been practicing color mixing and this would be a fun extension of that work.

Supplies Needed:

A baking dish or really any container that has some depth to it.

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Food Coloring

Eye/medicine dropper

The colored vinegar causes the baking soda to fizz and bubble up.

Ava mixed the colors to create other colors.

Ava accidentally got some baking soda on the tip of her dropper and discovered that it fizzes within the small containers too. She had to do all 3.

Ava wanted to pour all the colors in and see how big the fizz and bubbles would become.

Watching with excitement.

Ava asked if she could feel the fizz! hehe

Q-Tip Painting

There are many preliminary gross motor works in a Montessori classroom that help build the pincer grip in preparation for writing. Ava has been practicing with many of those works over the last 3 years. When I came across Q-Tip painting from One Plus One Plus One Equals One's I was eager to let Ava have a go at it. I'm a firm believer that we should not place a pencil in a child's hand too soon. A child really needs time to practice and build those muscles in their fingers to be able to support a pencil when the time comes. This activity was great practice for her little fingers.

Here are some pictures of works a child does in a Montessori Classroom just before they are ready to write.

Sandpaper Letters photo borrowed from Montessori Toys

Sand Tray photo borrowed from A 2 Z Montessori

Metal Insets photo borrowed from Family Fecs

Life Cycles Part 2

I finally got a chance to print out some cards for the other life cycle kits. Ava was most excited to talk about the butterfly life cycle. One of her favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and she was eager to make the connection. I found these cards and printed them out for her to match the figurines.

I also decided to do a color, cut-n-paste activity. Ava's not a fan of coloring but she loves to use glue so it worked out good. I found the activity on lake shore learning site.

Next we did the sea turtle life cycle. If you do this life cycle you have to read this adorable book called Follow the Moon by Sarah Weeks. I found the printable fact cards from the teachers pay teachers website. If you haven't visited this site before you have to check it out!

I decided to do something fun with this activity. I took styrofoam cups and pasted pictures of the life cycle on the front of the cups. I also numbered the cups 1-4 for self correction if need be. I lined the cups up in order and then stacked them one by one on top of each other in the order the life cycle happens. Ava really enjoyed this activity. She also decided to add her own idea to the work by placing each figurine under the cup that matched the pictures. Open ended play at its finest!

Our last life cycle we did were honey bees. I found these cards at Suzie's Home Education Ideas blogspot. These pictures happen to be identical to the figurines. The fact cards are very detailed and informative.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Our Little Ladybug

It's hard to believe you turned one already. It seems like just yesterday we were surprising everyone with the news. You have been the best addition to our little family and we love you dearly! We hope when you look back on these photos you'll feel all the love that surrounded you that day. :) A big thank you to everyone who came and helped make Lucy's party so beautiful!

P.S. Check the bottom of this post for party details.