We started to look at flowers last week.
The children can choose to make a Parts of the Flower booklet. There are a variety of flower work choices on the Botany shelf, which I like to provide options. We also planted some of the sunflower seeds that the children harvested from the sunflower head in the fall. Our discussion centered around Botany 26 Lesson on our lap card. This is found in Week 27 Day 2.
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We are going to talk a little about a kind of art called Abstract Art. We talked about different kinds of art before like Cubism and Impressionism. Well, what it Abstract Art mean? Abstract artist felt that paintings did not have to show things that were recognizable. Their paintings do not try to show animals, people, or places exactly how they really look. They like to use color and shape in their paintings to show images of emotions or moods. Some of the Abstract artists composed their paintings entirely of geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, or squares.
Continue reading “Mondrian Art and Sewing”
Let’s look at this map of Asia. We have talked about this country of China and this one, Japan. Today we want to talk about this country. It is called India. When we look at India we can see it has three sides surrounded by water. It is a peninsula. The world’s highest mountain range is in India. They are the Himalaya Mountains. India has some desert land, forest, and jungle area as well.
The cow is a very sacred animal in India. They can be found wandering through city streets. India is also home to many other animals like elephants, lions, pythons, river dolphins, and the snow leopard. The Bengal Tiger is the national animal of India. This beautiful cat lives in the forests and grasslands. They also swim and can be found in ponds, lakes, and rivers.
Indian clothing is very colorful…
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We read more on the continent of Antarctica and consider Circle Time Lesson Geography 31.
Let’s find Antarctica on our Continent Globe. What is it like on this continent? Do people live there in houses like we live in? What kind of animals are on this continent?
Penguins are one of the animals that live on Antarctica…
Continue reading “Antarctica Review”
We continue to talk about Asia. In Geography 36 lesson we have started to talk about the continent of Asia. Now we want to look at the map and find the country of Japan. Japan is actually an archipelago or string of islands on the east side of Asia. The four main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The islands have mountains, hills, forest, and many volcanoes. The people of Japan are known for being hard workers. The children are taught to show respect to others, especially their parents.
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Last week we introduced invertebrate groups. Now we will focus on spiders!
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It is very quickly going to be time to get back to school and begin the new year. I like to take a calendar and tear off each month. During a lesson on the new year, I place all the months out on the floor and discus with the children how each block on the calendar represents one day (See picture below). We talk about how many days there are in the year and go over the names of the months.
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Winter is soon to be here in the Northern hemisphere. Many schools do close for a winter break so some of these ideas can be presented for that last week before school closes, or have them ready to go when you return from break, highlighting the new season. Either way, it is important for us to prepare the materials in advance. I find most of my prep work is doen weeks in advance. That is the benefit of having the 40-week curriculum PDFs, so that you can see wha’s upcoming, the examples I provide, and how to accomplish everything needed. Here’s some ideas for the Winter…
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Sometimes i like to go around the room and explore with the children what works on the shelf they chose. Of course, not everyone can do the lesson work from Circle Time, so it is important to have the shelves filled with works that reinforce those areas of the classroom like Geography, Botany, Math, Language, Practical Life, etc. It is amazing how, in the Montessori environment, the children are given these opportunities and they are allowed to explore to their hearts content. Many from traditional schools don’t understand this methodology because they are not used to relinquishing their perceived control over the childs progress. However, for us, we see that this allows them to blossom within the controlled environment of works we provide. One student may have interest for only a half-hour, while another may take an entire day, and return to it the next day. The child is 100% engaged and retains the lessons learned. I love it!
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Recently we began to introduce biomes or plant and animal habitats.
We learned the names of some biomes found on the earth, such as deserts and forests. A biome is a region with a particular climate where plant and animals live. When we talk about the animals that live in a particular area, we can say it is the animal’s habitat. A pond and a tide pool can be an animal habitat. The tropical rain forest is one habitat that we talked a little bit about when we visited South America. We have learned that the large bodies of water on the earth are oceans. Mammals and fish are some of the animals that you can find living in an ocean habitat. When we visited North America, we talked about some of the animals that live in the Arctic Circle, like polar bears, this is their habitat. What kind of animals do you think live in deserts?
Let’s look at some pictures of animals and decide which habitat they live in.
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