a dollar's worth: a math original

my life can now finally return to more or less normal, i have completed and submitted all my work for my montessori training! it sort of all came together at the last moment thank goodness. one of my math originals is about teaching the worth of a dollar. when i present this lesson again next year and i have more time to think about exactly what i want to say, i will definitely talk a lot more about money out there in the world, but for this year and this lesson, i stuck mostly with the mathematical thinking behind what makes up a dollar. this lesson is a great work to show in conjunction or directly following lessons in fractions, which was what was happening in my classroom. the best part was that the children made the connection on their own!

in the classroom: carrots, beets, ginger, radishes and sweet potatoes

i presented this in class today and children actually used it! yay!

montessori adventures: root vegetable recognition & a note about food in the classroom.

i present my original sensorial lesson - root vegetable recognition. it is basically a stereognostic matching work that introduces seasonal vegetables. the original post and lesson plan can be found here. i am a little late getting this in, but ideally i would present this during the heart of winter. this is part of my urban homesteading unit project and i love it!

i am still trying to decide how i feel about food in the classroom in terms of activities and work. i am trying to teach my children about healthy, natural foods and i feel strongly that this activity needs the actual food to show that. using rice as a sifting activity or beans for pouring - that i tend to stray away from because it is easy to substitute a non-food item for those activities. but when teaching about the actual plant i think it is important. 

what are your thoughts about food in the montessori classroom? do you or don't you? 

felting wool (a montessori episode)

this was fun. the kids loved it. the pom poms didn't come out SUPER awesome, but they came out sort of awesome. the children got the point so that is the most important part. if you can think of a way to use warmer/hotter water with three to six year olds please let me know!

basket of wool roving, tray with bowl, tea holder, timer and soapy water

wool roving

tea holder (pom pom shaker!)

in the wild

three felted wool pom poms ready for stringing

i love kinfolk: a montessori post about urban homesteading

kinfolk is amazing. if you don't know what it is - you should find out immediately. it was more or less the inspiration for my montessori unit project. here is the sensorial lesson that is part of my "inspired by kinfolk" urban homesteading lesson series. basically everything i like to do - childcentric.

montessori spring tea: the food!

the day has come - spring tea! it was a wonderful success and a serious team effort to get this all done. the food was all delicious and all prepared by the children. a lovely time was had by all.

the spread

fruit kabobs

mini vanilla pudding tarts

mini lemon curd tarts

cucumber tea sandwiches

one of three water stations

the whole room