Our presidential election mini-unit lasted just two days: the day before the election and the day of the election. I t was really a fun and easy unit!

For our first half go here.

About our second half activities, we did:

• Mr. President Pin punching activity

From here.

 

• Presidential candidates coloring

President Obama from here.

• USA Map coloring representing each state won by each candidate(Blue-Obama, Red-Romney, Purple-Pinky)

 

• Math- counting and graphing

This is such a great opportunity to name the states as you color them. About the map you can pick up the one with the names United States: Capitals or without United States (no labels).

 

• Flag’s song and coloring

Here is a flag printable.

 

• If I were President interview

 

• Presidential propaganda Poster

(Vote for me)

• Now I am ready to go and vote!

(Field trip: get ready to vote with mommy! And she is ready with her pretend Voting ID card)

This has been so much fun for us!

For more ideas, check out our Pinterest Board over here.

These are simple activities but help to introduce little kids into our democratic responsibility!

Continuing with our geography study, we did an Animal Habitats activity. I wanted to do a “formal” presentation for Pinky a while back; however, I never got the opportunity until now. My goal with this is to settle down the basic knowledge before starting to “formally” learn about each one of our Continents.

*Note that I wrote` the word formal between (“)…..this is because she had been exposed to these themes for quite a time now but we didn’t discuss, explore or manage them individually.

First we talked about land, water and air.

Then, we continued with the Biomes and the animals we find there. At Montessori Print Shop you can find a short description about each biome plus great animals photos that live in each. (link below)We have multiple atlas books that we used as a reference.

Pinky classifying her animals cards (from MPS).

 

Another activity we did was to classify our animals figurines by their habitats using a 8x 11 printable of each one. (So sorry I can’t remember where I got these. They are in French. However, they are easy to make just printing a 8x 11 photo from Google.

 

Animals Habitats

 

House (Safari pets toob)

 

Farm (farm animals toob)

 

Desert (Safari desert animals toob)

 

Ocean (ocean animals)

 

Rainforest- Jungle (rainforest animals toob)

Grassland (wild animals toob)

 

Tundra (Arctic-polar animals toob)

 

Air- Birds from our Bird unit (link below)

The last activity we did was one of Pinky’s favorite ones: using Stickers!!! She LOVE stickers and make up stories with them.

 

Check out these links for more activities or great printables:

• Animal Habitats cards from Montessori Print Shop.
• Animals habitats-Biomes from the Homeschool Den for free.
• For toddlers here is an animal habitat felt matching activity that is soooo cute!
• Free animal habitat printable activity with clipart.
• I found our animal habitats cards at Early learning with Marta and Eaton.
• Our Farm theme unit fun here.

                                     

• Our Birds theme unit over here.

                                     

Have fun!!!

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Pinky (4.4 years old) is getting more interested about the world around her. She has been doing some works at her school like Pin pocking the continents. However, at home we love to learn different things. That’s our Mommy-daughter time and we LOVE IT!!

We started learning about the Compass. Daddy and Pinky bought me this beautiful compass as a birthday gift a while ago (Pinky thought I would need it…lol).

We talked about how and why we use the compass.

For activities like this,  is my goal to keep it simple for my daughter introducing just the concept or new vocabulary. I got the beautiful printable at Montessori Print Shop, talked about the cardinal directions and colored the compass rose. From the MPS free printable we just used the ones with the basic cardinal directions (N,S,E,W): one with the whole word and the other just with the initials.

Then, we found the compass rose on a real map and played a game: where is this country in relation to the USA (like Puerto Rico is East, Canada is North, etc.)

Our last activity was a treasure hunt (playtime is our way to make sure that she understood the concept plus that’s the best part!). We made our own maps simulating Egyptian hieroglyphics from our current unit Africa. She held the compass and the map and direct us toward the treasure: homemade Gold.

There are many resources for geography around the web and Pinterest is such a great help; however it can be overwhelmed when you are just after schooling. I am trying to fulfill Pinky’s interest by introducing the concept with an easy explanation (mostly short Montessori-inspired activities) followed by lots of dramatic playtime. We just let our imagination and creativity to flow at the moment and, so far, we LOVE IT! Zero stress!!!.

Here is a post from To the lesson with amazing and easy activities to try.

How do you approach Geography with a preschooler?

 

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Tonight we get to know who is going to be the President of the USA for the next upcoming years. Last election, Pinky was just the cutest 4 months old princess helping mommy to vote. This election, Pinky is a curious 4.4 years old excited to learn more about these “election-vote-campaign-presidency” terms.

Yesterday, after I picked her up from school, she reminded me about voting the next day. On our way home, we had to stop at the library, and, there, looked for election-related books (luckily I found two). I didn’t have anything prepared, and to be sincere, I didn’t planned to talk about it (I mistakenly thought she was not ready for such a complex theme). Oh boy!!! I was wrong…..she is very into it!!!

Here are the activities we came up in such a short time:

Books: Grace for President, If I ran for President, A picture book of Abraham Lincoln

Math game: Rolling a dice and then recollecting the data on a table under each candidate. It isn’t just a fun activity but also it can be adapted into addition, more/less topic and simple graphing.

Painting the candidates party colors: President Obama (blue), Miss Pinky (pink and purple) and Gov. Romney (red)

It is time to vote or, maybe, roll the dice???

Recording the votes for each candidate.

We have a winner: Here’s our President #45: Pinky!!!

She is really HAPPY!!! (Don’t you love pretending games????)

Presidential Oath of Office:

Ok….I have an explanation for this photo!!! lol

We talked a little about the past Presidents using a poster with their pictures, she realized there were not any woman, so at the moment before taking the oath, she asked me to dress-up accordly to the event: using Daddy’s clothes!

Here’s the prove that I have won!!!

Here is a pick of our make it fast Presidential Election Unit study:

Printables: Candidates coloring pages, United States map, Flag’s song, Presidential Oath, AND the White House coloring page.

Books.

Target’s presidents, states and landmarks flash cards. USA puzzle (we are adding souvenirs from some states), Presidents and First ladies posters.

As the new elected President of the USA, here is Pinky’s new “Home”……too bad she doesn’t want to take me to live with her because, as she says, the White House is just for the President.

Her campaign poster (Vote for me!), the prove that she won the election and her Voter registration card ready to vote today November 6th, 2012!!! What an excited day!!!

Pinky had lots of fun learning about the voting system and the US Presidential Election. And, for this mommy, the best part was the time shared with her learning, discovering, having fun and just dreaming!

Priceless moments!

Check Living Montessori Now for more great ideas for a Presidential Election Unit here.

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