Montessori Flower Arranging Playdough Craft

My son just turned 4 and he got a lot of playdough for his birthday so I was looking at different activities related to playdough and I found a post by Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now about montessori inspired spring playdough activities. So that inspired me to come up with this activity that I did today with my kids and they loved it!

Materials:

- Hole punch

- Stickers (any)

- Pipe cleaners

- Some star tags I found at the Dollar store

- Pen 

- Child sized scissors

- Small bucket or basket to collect flowers

- 4oz plastic cup

-Glue

So first the child decorates the cup.

Here Umi glued the star tag to the cup.

Working hard!

With the hole punch you make 2 holes on each of it sides. and use the 

pipe cleaner to make a handle (see below)

Then the child fills the cup with playdough

Then they collect flowers!

They use the scissors to cut the flowers.

Bucket full of flowers.

Done!!!

Little Princess liked the basket like that and didn't

want to add the flowers.

Umi was proud of his work and took like 10 pictures of it!

Once they were done with it we decorated the table with it. Now, when they wake up tomorrow the flowers are going to look a bit different than when they put them in. So we will discus the importance of water, food and sun.

I hope you find this post inspiring as much as I did Deb's!

UPDATE: The flowers didn't wilt as fast as I thought...It seems like the water in the playdough kept them well longer! 

DIY Water Wall

This is our water wall. We used a lattice, plastic bottles, funnels, pool noodle and 3 buckets from the dollar store ( they were even made in US!)

My husband attached all those things with a screw driver and screws. And to attache the lattice he used strings and he screw 2 screws to the top of the wall so when we leave this house nobody can see the holes! ;-)

Do you have a water wall at home? Please, leave a link to share with others!

Gadgets and Other Things We Use that Makes Homeschooling much Easier and Fun

Some things makes homeschooling life easier and can also help save some money. Making my own 3 part cards and other things helped me save money and let me be part of the making rather than just buying things all the time. I am proud with I say "oh, I made this." I like making things for my children. That is why I bought this laminator. I use a 3M schotch laminator to make 3- part cards, magnets, and anything I want to laminate. It works really well. It is very easy to use. It has 2 settings for the different thickness of the laminating pouches, for 3 mil and 5 +mil. You plug it in, choose the right thickness for the plastic pouches you have and then turn it on. Put the pouch through the laminator and it comes out warm and laminated. That easy!



My son got this Educational Insights number balance and he really likes it. In order for the balance to not be heavier on one side it needs to have the same number on the other side. So if he puts a weight in the number 6 on one side then on the other side he can put a weight also on the 6 or on the 4 and a 2. It is made out of plastic but it is well built. He really likes it and I recommend it. With this balance he can learn the makings of a number, to add and subtract, heavier vs lighter, and more.



I will be adding more things as I make more time to share things that work for me and may work for you too.

What do you have in your homeschool that you really like? Could be a gadget or a learning/teaching device or anything you'd like to share.

DIY Toddler Jar for Fine Motor Skill

I used a fruit spread jar and made 4 holes big enough to put beans through and maybe small beads and a slot for the plastic letter that I bought in Lakeshore outlet.

   This is an addition to the sensory bin. Our theme is bugs. Even thought this jar is not bug related I always like to add language whenever I can. I make the bin for Little Princes and Umi so there are things that both can do. Like for example, plastic letters for spelling (Umi) and for learning letters (LP), bean pouring, plastic bugs, little jar for putting the bugs, I may add number cards for counting, picture of bugs, etc.

I will post a picture of the sensory bin in my next post! Did you make a bug sensory bin too? Please, link some pictures to share with others!

FIAR List of Books by Country

Hello everyone!

I am excited to start working with Five in a Row curriculum. As a matter of fact we are starting tomorrow! The first book we are going to row is Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I also wanted to have a list of the books by countries so I made it today and here it is to share it with you. I made the list to make planning easier and also so I could using it along with Little Passports if it works out. That is why we are starting with Madeline. The story is based in Paris, France and we worked on France with Little Passports.

I hope the list comes in handy for you too!

Have fun rowing with your child!

Water Bead Science

For our science sensory bin this week we placed water beads in water and then we observed the changes. I was amazed by the little, fun and bouncy water balls. We did this once before but we chose one color. This time we did a little of all the colors we have. What was weird is that the clear ones were invisible! It may be obvious now that I think about it, but just like a child we did this activity with no expectations. I knew they were going to expand, but what I didn't know is that the clear ones (that didn't look that clear when they were dry and hard) were going to be invisible!

So, if you decide to play with your children with water beads you could try different experiments. For example, choose red beads and put them in red colored water. Would they be invisible too? What if you put yellow beads in blue water. Would they change the color? What happen if you put them in the freezer? You can talk about what things are invisible in the real world. Like a stick bug on a branch. They camouflage with their surroundings. Or things that are there all the time but we don't see them. For example, when we go to the supermarket we are always looking at the products they have, at the floor, at your child pulling his siblings hair, or the little toddler pulling things off the shelves! haha. We don't normally look at the ceiling, or at the art work if there is any. Then is when we notice that those things were there all the time but we never paid attention to it. Before those things were invisible to us even though they were there all the time. Next time you go to the market ask your children to look at places they never saw before!

Tatyland-Montessori has a Facebook Page!

Hello everyone!!! I exited to tell you that Tatyland-Montessori got a Facebook page. My goal with this page is to share with you some of my post and a place to discuss educational issues, success stories, encouragement, and ask questions. So please, visit us and make sure you "Like" us to receive any update!



Tatyland_Montessori's Facebook Page


See you all there!

Monica