Here we are with more pond-related fun. This was such a great unit. There are many resources available  and ideas all over the internet. I tried to include a little bit of everything but mostly Montessori-inspired activities.

Practical life

Pouring water (this is the first time I set up on a tray this activity for Pinky. She is used to pour water while she helps me to cook, take a bath, or serve her own drinks. The outcome: She mastered, it was kind of easy for her, but fun. It was her favorite tray (you know: WATER!), repeating it multiple times. Self-explanatory (she loved to clean up the spills with the sponge) and independent.

Sharpening a pencil with a cute turtle sharpener from Target. She got really good at this one. Great concentration!

Scooping duck balls (and yellow pom-poms). Not a fav one. She did it twice, maybe.

Tweezing spiders (feeding the frog). I saw this idea featured at Living Montessori Now Leap Year activities post from The Preschool Experiment (she has such a great Pond unit post). This is an empty parmesan cheese container. I glued two green pom-poms, two googly eyes and a piece of red felt.

Motor

Pin pouching a duck silhouette. She loved it!!! Did the whole thing right away. I am thinking about using the duck for an art project.

Foam stickers for pincer grasp. This was a Math activity,too. She made her own patterns. Pinky is REALLY REALLY good at patterning. She can differentiate patterns taking into consideration their shape or color.

 

More stickers. I got this one last year, on sale aster Easter. I am never wrong with stickers!!!

 

Math

Counting lily pads (water beads) up the way ‘till 100. I got this idea from Starry Sky Ranch blog here. Of course, our mat was not that cute because I got a $1.00 bath tub mat at the dollar store which only had 8 rows on one of the sides, so I had to cut and paste pieces in order to get a 10 x 10 mat. Also, I had to paint the cups so she wouldn’t get confuse. Now you now: Make sure to get a bigger mat!!! Otherwise, we just used to practice our numbers and some pincer grasp. She loved it! So bad I didn’t get photos!   

Math game. I found this idea after reading this great Pond unit post. There you can find the link to the picture if you scroll all the way until the end…..believe me this is a HUGE all about frogs unit. I printed 2 copies and glued them on cardstock. Then, add two chips (we used 2 heart-shaped beads) and a dice. One player roll the dice, count how many dots she got and move the chip that many spaces starting at one corner (count how many dragonflies your froggy can eat). The first player to hop all the way until completing the square, wins! This was a hit with Pinky since she LOVES board games.

Sizes. Group by Large, Medium, Small. She wasn’t interested about this one. Maybe too easy for her.

I think this is everything for now! I still have lots of more stuff to post.

Can you guess the place????

Yes, you are right….The Pond!!! I’ll share more pics later! We had a fabulous time!

I am in LOVE with the Montessori method (ok, I said it!)…and all those beautiful resources out there…but what I don’t like are the prices…

I think about the price and if I really need it with just one kid to teach and enrolled to start “preschool” full time five days a week on September (so sad about this but mommy needs to take care of her unfinished career). In the meantime, I just want to try the “idea” behind these resources, so I have to come with our own educational, sort of Montessori “toys”. 

Here are our beads from a Dollar tree store necklace. I just counted and cut! I think they served their purpose.

   

Love it!

This week we did a little bit of almost everything. The weather was a rainy one, so we stayed home looking for things to do.

• Colors- we painted with food coloring ices our state map for a postcard swap we are participating (and I am sending them very late…oh my!)

• Colors- we played with the color wheel and clothes pins…them we match our homemade color tablets (just paint samples from Home Depot pasted on a white foam).

• Push pins- I found a little board on Dollar tree which is excellent for my daughter to manipulate. We did two activities with this one (first time and she loved it!) An uppercase letter A (you just need a piece of paper and a pen….trace the letter and add some HUGE dots for direction) She got really good at this and did it for more than 15 min…so it was a success!

We traced a snail, too…but we tried with some stickers later.

• Language- Beginning sound game….this is a game that “padrino”…Pinky’s godfather gave her last time he came to visit…how did he know we were practicing these activities???…the good thing is that we love to play with this game….I love it because she can do it by herself while I am doing my stuff…..(when she try it by herself she can match most of the sounds but still have to practice some). Here is Pinky with her funny face, as always!

• Spooning- some pom-poms but she found other activities like classify them by colors, sizes and count them in English and Spanish.

 

• Math- shapes…this is an old activity from Christmas….but I love it because she can practice her shapes and build with them.

• Practical life- as every week, Pinky helps mommy to things around….this week we did shopping so we were practicing some fruits/vegetable names, spices, etc…while doing the shopping…when we got back the best happened: Oh my! she saved the shopping and put everything were they belong…who thought het that?….I don’t know but I was there to enjoy it!!! Here’s Pinky in action….

We did a lot more but this post is getting too long…so I am posting them later….like our Fat Tuesdays parade, St. Patrick’s parade and our weekend with daddy!

Take care!

 Practical life: Cook…cook and cook…laundry…washing dishes….using an umbrella…

 

Language: Practicing SMAT boxes-beginning sounds

 

Math: Spindle box, Geometric shapes book

Pretending activities: modeling, I am mommy, physical therapist, photographer, I can read!

     

See you, bye-bye!

      

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