I promise this is the last post about the pond. I think I got too much excited about this theme. Well, it seems like a lot but taking into consideration that we have been doing it for almost 3 weeks (we just do it afterschool, weekends, and not everyday because we love to do plenty of other fun stuffs) and Pinky is really fast at finishing the activities or don’t get interested for a long time, it looks ok. I tried to include a little of every subject or different activities to choose but with the same subject just to have choices. In this post we have:

Language

Frog 3 part cards from the great site Montessori Print Shop (FREE). Here’s a great post from Montessori MOMents using this material.

Matching turtle figurines to cards and checking their names. (just checking their names because I don’t pretend that my 3 years old will learn them lol) I made the cards…they are not that great but if someone need them, let me know. I tried to match the figurines with the real turtle pictures (and names) the best I could. However, Pinky got to match them without any problem and realized that there are different kind of turtles.

Fish and turtle 3 part cards. These are form ABC Teach here.

Worksheets. These are from here, here and here.

 

Science

Grow your own frog. This is amazing because it only lasts a few days with this huge size until it gets back to its original size. Then, after putting back in water it grows again.

 

Frog life cycle. The printable is from here and the frogs bought them at ebay. I made the frog life cycle puzzle with a green foam sheet inspired by this. She loved it!

Tadpole                                       Tadpole with legs

  Froglet                                           Adult frog

 

Music-Song-Rhyme time

5 green and speckled frogs- These are from Childcareland.com.

Games

Pinky loves board games, her favorite ones is the memory game. Thanks to MPS for this free Frogs memory game. We have a blast and you can tell who won.

Pond field trip

Books

Lots of books from the library. After the trip to the pond, she just got home right to the books and told me, page by page the things that she saw at the pond and which she didn’t see. When I asked her if she saw the frogs, she said: “Mommy, I told you there wasn’t any frog at the pond. I told you already”. Yes, sometimes she sounds kind of bossy….lol…working on that!

Craft

DIY My pond adventure frame.

Pinky ready with her net hoping to catch a dragonfly or maybe a butterfly.

Too bad it was a little bit chilly and there were not insects around.

 

I have more ideas on my Pinterest board here. Also, you can check my other 2 posts about our pond unit here and here.

Learning about the pond was a fun experience.

Linking to:

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!