Pom Pom Match

Lucy has really got the hang of her colors and matching objects. I decided to put the two activities into one with this Pom Pom Match.

The containers are actually our no spill paint cups we purchased for our art works. I placed them on a tray and used coordinating pom pom colors for Lucy to match. I would say the name of each color as I used pincer grasp to pick the pom poms up. I gave Lucy a turn and she enjoyed dropping each one into the right container.

Pumpkin Grasping

I have put a few fall practical life activities out this month. I'd like to share this pumpkin grasping work.

I picked these pumpkins up at Michael's and they are darling. I used a paint tray that I found at the Dollar Tree to place the pumpkins in. Make sure to demonstrate the pincer grasp as you pick up each pumpkin. I always start at the top hole and go towards my right when placing the pumpkins in. Do the same as you collect each one to place back in the bowl.

Pom Pom Drop

I created this work a few years ago when Ava was a toddler and decided to put it together again for Lucy. It's a great grasping work, it allows for repetitiveness of putting in and dumping back out and open and close. (every toddler loves to do that!)

I took an empty parmesan bottle but you could use any bottle/container that allows the child to open and close and to see the objects being put in and taken out. I used an assortment of pom poms and put them in a basket. Place the bottle and basket of pom poms on a tray and there you have it.

It's important that while demonstrating you show your child the pincer grasp before picking up the pom poms. Slowly take each one and place it in the bottle. Once all the pom poms are in the bottle take both hands and gently dump them back into the basket. Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Rice Tub

This work is super easy to whip together to give your little one endless sensory play. You need 2 bowls. 1 needs to be larger and deeper. The other bowl should be smaller than the first. You need rice and the objects I chose were small plastic pumpkins I bought at A.C. Moore. You can make this work stationary or put it on a tray like I did.  Put the objects in, then add the rice. Mix and there you have it. 

You could use it all year long changing the objects out and/or the rice to beans. If you have a child who's funny about getting things on their hands you can also use a small strainer to sift the object out. 

P.s. Be prepared to clean up lots of rice/beans. If it becomes too messy just put it away and say "we will try again tomorrow." 

Use Of A Crumber

Showing your child how to use a crumber is a great way to show them how to independently clean up after themselves when they have finished eating. This work will allow your child some practice before actually using it to clean up crumbs. 

When I was teaching I usually had 2 of these or the smallest dustpan and brush set labeled "table" and "floor." You could easily have a set positioned somewhere in your house where your child could find it when they are finished eating. 

For the practical life work...you'll need a tray, painters tape, a container, some beads or other easy to sweep object (i.e. beans or rice), and a crumb set.

You take the crumber off the tray...take the basket in both hands and gently pour the beads onto the tray scattering them neatly.

Then you take the brush and sweep them gently into the square....

After you've got the objects into the square you take the crumber in one hand and the brush in the other and sweep them gently onto the crumber...

You put the brush down and then with both hands pick up the crumber and pour the beads back into the basket...

Repeat these steps until the tray is clear. 

Button Flowers

I was on Pinterest and saw the cutest work that could easily fit into practical life or sensorial. The Kavanaugh Report made the cutest and most simple work using popsicle sticks, buttons, felt and a hold glue gun. I adore these button flowers. Ava could easily match the colors but the work gave her some great practice with buttons.

First Day Of Kindergarten

Be still my heart! I can't believe my oldest started kindergarten last month. I mean seriously, where does the time go? Ava woke up that morning ready to conquer the world. She got dressed, ate breakfast, put her backpack on, grabbed her lunchbox and was ready to hit the road.
 I on the other hand was having a much different experience. I held it together all morning. I took deep breaths and smiled a smile that only a proud mother has. As scary as it is to let your little one grow and spread their wings there is a peace in knowing you've done your part and you're allowed to be on this journey "with" them.
Ava waited in line eagerly awaiting the doors opening. We walked into her classroom and found her cubby. She hung her backpack and lunchbox up properly. We found her seat and she sat with such confidence as if to say, "I've got this mom and dad." It was at this point that both Chris and my eyes watered up. We took our pictures, gave our hugs and kisses, and reluctantly left the room. The clock never moved so slow. Looooonngest day EVER! haha Finally 3:00 rolled around and our sweet girl came out all smiles. Here are a few pictures before we left the house.

Color Wheel

I have been working with Lucy and her colors for quite some time now. She is catching on rather quickly. We started her off using the color box I. We have moved on adding more colors. She can identify red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green and occasionally gets red. (sometimes she says pink.) I wanted to do other works that included matching colors. I found this color wheel on Natural Beach Living's site and had to make it. My mom is much craftier than I so I enlisted her haha

I got the felt at Michael's and mom cut them into triangles. She used a piece of cardboard and elmer's glue spray adhesive. I took blocks I had from a lacing work. I used 2 of each color but you can do as many as you want and different objects as well. Lucy loves this work and can successfully match them.
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Ocean Unit

To conclude our summer session of school we covered the ocean. I managed to take some photos of a few of the works we did. The rest I'll just try to provide links that I found on Pinterest.

I can't seem to find the link I found this work from. We used it as a matching work.




I found this starfish at the Dollar Tree and we put it in water to watch it expand. I didn't get a photo of the final growth that it did but here is a picture from it expanding a bit.

I was in the dollar aisle at Target and came across this number sequence puzzle. Ava really enjoyed practicing the numbers 1-20 to see the final product.














I brought out the life cycle of a sea turtle again. It had been a while since Ava worked with this so it was like new. She was able to repeat what the cards said this time and explain in her own words the life cycle of a sea turtle.



I used memorizing the moments ocean vocabulary cards and ocean toob to complete this work.



We also used The Helpful Gardens parts of a fish printable and Ava made her own booklet. We used natural beach livings shark printable to cover the different types of sharks. I brought back out our seashell counting work from last summer and added more numbers. Great work for a child to learn their numbers and quantities.

We got to visit the The Aquarium at Pine Knolls one last time before the summer was over. It's always nice to see what you've been discussing in real life. Our girls had so much fun!

Bugs Unit

Last week we focused on bugs. There are all types of creepy crawlers but we mainly focused on bees, butterflies, and ladybugs.

We started off by talking about the life cycle of a bee. I used Suzie's Home Education's nomenclature cards and bought figurines from Michael's.

Ava wanted to know more about the honey bee so I printed out Carrots Are Orange's parts of a honey bee cards.

Next we discussed the life cycle of a butterfly (my favorite). We used lifecycle cards to match the figurines. It's always nice when you can combine the concrete with the abstract. You can't cover butterflies without reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Lucy tried her hand at matching the life cycle figurines to the cards. 

We discussed the parts of a butterfly. We used the Pinay Homeschooler's nomenclature cards.

Ava made her own parts of a butterfly booklet.

The last activity that we did on butterflies is matching wings. 

Last but not least we talked about the life cycle of a ladybug. Interesting story, about a month ago the girls and I were outside and Ava wanted to go down her slide but said there were spiders all over it. I went over to the slide to discover these (pictured below) crawling all over her slide. I assured her they weren't spiders and tried to clear them off. The next day we went outside and again they were all over their play set. This time I did what any curious person does these days...Googled this interesting bug. To my surprise I found out that they are the larvae of a ladybug. I learned something too.

Ava was excited to see a part of the ladybug life cycle she recognized while using Trillium Montessori's ladybug life cycle cards. (Sign up for her blog and receive the freebie)

Ava made her own ladybug life cycle booklet too.

If you'd like to see some other life cycle ideas of mine check out this and this. 

She Can Read

I've worked with Ava on beginning sounds since she was 2 years old. In the last year we've been working with the moveable alphabet to blend and form CVC words. (consonant-vowel-consonant) I finally got around to ordering the Phonetic Object Box 1 from Montessori Services. This week Ava worked on matching objects to word labels. She carefully sounded each letter out. She was so pleased when she actually read the word label. Ava kept saying, "Now I can read you books, Mom!" I love her joy of learning!

Plants Unit

Last week we covered the theme of plants. We started with reading the story Jack and the Beanstalk which led to making our very own magic beanstalk. I remember growing a Lima bean inside of a ziploc bag with a wet paper towel in elementary school. This was a new take on that very same idea.  Ava dampened the cotton balls with water and placed them inside the jar. Next, she put the Lima bean up against the glass and just like that the bean is ready to grow. 

We used The Helpful Garden's plant nomenclature cards to identify the parts of a plant. Then Ava made her own booklet. 

Ava made a booklet about the Life Cycle of a Plant.