Montessori Curriculum – Cultural & Language

Book choices for today:

How Does Your Brain Work?   Don Curry

Science: (first circle)

Need for lesson – Brain piece to tape onto the body outline and a model or picture of the brain, a basket with a variety of about 10 objects used for the memory game.

Science 14

Today we are going to talk about our brain. Your brain works very hard. It is like computer that answers your questions and sends messages all over your body. Your brain looks wrinkled, like a walnut shell and is gray in color. The brain is fragile and soft. It needs to be protected. Can you think about what protects your brain? If you touch the top of your head you can feel your hard skull. Your brain is under it. Your brain is the boss of your body. It controls just about everything we do, even when we are asleep. The brain gets help from nerves that send messages back and forth to all different parts of our body. The brain has different parts to it and every part has a job to do. The back of your brain controls how you move. The part of our brain right behind the forehead helps us with speech and learning. Behind our temples is where the brain helps us with memory. Aren’t we glad to have such wonderful amazing brains?

Add brain to the body outline and play a memory game with the basket of objects to exercise our brains (Lay objects on the mat, have children look them over for few minutes. Have them close their eyes and take away an object. Can they guess which one is missing).

Geography: (second circle)

Need for lesson – North America three-part matching cards: animals, foods, and places. N.A. Map and/or Montessori Continent Globe.

Geography 10

We are going to look at different animals, foods, and places that are in North America. (Demonstrate which cards you would like to show the children and highlight.)

One of the countries in North America is the United States (show on map). This is where we live. The country of the United States is made up of 50 different states. One of the cards in the ‘Places of North America’ work is of the Statue of Liberty. This is a large statue that you can visit and go inside of. It is in the state of New York. This statue was brought here a long time ago. It is a gift that was from the people of France for the people of the United States. France is in Europe, the red continent on our Continent Globe. The statue symbolizes, or means, freedom for many people, even today. Have any of you seen or visited the Statue of Liberty?

Additional Works:

Animals of North America –  I made a list of the animals that the children write down under each picture. On the tray they are made into booklets. Be sure to place pictures in the order of how they are listed on the card for children to go down the list as they turn each page.

N.A. with Beads – These are available for each continent. Children place small beads (bead color matches continent color) inside the continent shapes.

Art:

Statue of Liberty Crowns – Make headband pieces to fit child’s head size. Have tall thin triangle shape pieces that children can decorate and glue onto the headbands to make crowns.

Song (cd) choices for today:

Kiss Your Brain   Dr. Jean