Gardens Guide

I created this set over the summer for our class to use while we learned about the sense of sight.  This year I have changed from doing all the senses at once to focusing on on sense in a month.  All of the senses were introduced during the 3rd week of school, but taking each sense and focusing more in depth has been rather enjoyable for the children this year.  The sense of sight was the first sense of focus.

To begin the sense of sight we took a little walk out to our community garden with a bit of prompting to pay close attention to interesting things that we could see there.  Once back inside we had a discussion about all the things they could see.  This took some time since all the children wanted to talk about more than one thing that was interesting to them that they could see.  The next question was, of course, "What part of our body do we use to see?".  At a later circle I introduced the Model of the Eye.  I have long been of the opinion that the Early Childhood through the Upper Elementary Child can benefit greatly from good quality medical models just as much as the college student.  While I would love to have inexhaustible pockets, I do not, so I purchase the best quality I can for my budget.

This model is from EISCO and was purchased from Amazon using our Prime Membership.  It ran just about $25.00.

Parts of the Eye Nomenclature Cards click on image to link to file

Parts of the Eye Blackline Master click on image to link to file

Here are two offerings that I have finished in these last couple of weeks.  These are topics we are studying right now during October and I found I didn't have either of them created yet.

An important note is that the skeleton cards are patterned after a 3-4 year old's skeleton.  I adapted them from this printable work.

I didn't like any of the Parts of the Pumpkin cards that are out there.  You might notice the same type of cutaway as the layers of the earth.

Parts of the Skeleton Nomenclature Cards click on image to go to file

These are the blackline Masters for both sets.  I have been learning a new way to make and use Parts of Books that I really like.  The first page in the blackline masters are just the image with no words or even a line.  The following pages are to help me in making the Parts of Control Books.  First I color in the isolated image in red and then I trace over the light gray letters with a fine sharpie pen.   I cut them apart, laminate them and plasticoil bind them.  I make sure that the plasticoil gives plenty of room for turning the page with ease.


One thing I learned years back is that whatever way you write your letters the children will copy.  Another thing I learned during one of my Practicum weekends was that a segment of the population cannot make sense of dotted or dashed letters.  Each dot looks separate and does not really create a whole letter.  This was troubling news to me and I started wondering about my oldest child with dyslexia.  Did that make things harder for her?

When the child creates the parts of books they can do one of 3 things in order to write the words.  They can copy the words because they are advanced enough to do that.  They can lay their colored parts of paper over the top of the page they are trying to create and trace over the letters, or I can write the words in a yellow highlighter for them to trace.  All three methods are regularly being employed in my classroom with great success.

Parts of the Skeleton Booklets Blackline Master click on image to go to file

Parts of the Pumpkin Booklets Blackline Master click on image to go to file

I have formed a new friendship with the Nomenclature and 3-Part Cards and their subsequent Parts of Booklets this year.  Last year a few of the children really loved doing the cards and the booklets, while most of others have shown no real interest in them.  This year I have been hoping to interest more children in these lovely little cards and booklets that I have spent so much time creating (literally), laminating, cutting, coloring, binding etc.  They are great works that help integrate learning across the areas of the classroom.  They can be a pre-reading, reading, writing, coloring, story-telling, show-off to parents, memory building, science, geography, math, sensorial work.  You might be getting the picture.

WELL... this year our class has had the most wonderful thing happen, AND it was child directed.  About the third week into school I had a 4 1/2 year old, who is driven by a lovely inner voice, do the Parts of the Plant and Parts of the Fruit Nomenclature Cards at the same time.  He then made the Parts of Booklets as well.  Another child saw his work and wanted to do it too.  Both were very accomplished at their work.  At the end of the day they asked if they could read their books to the class in AUTHOR'S CHAIR (they knew this from last year and Writer's Workshop).  Of course I let them, and everyone clapped for their wonderful and challenging work.  I could have chosen to save the Author's chair for books that the children had independently created, but I am so glad I didn't.  We will make an extra special note when a child makes a book All-By-Themselves for Author's Chair.

The magic happened the next day.  Multiple children asked me if they could create their own books in order to read them to the class.  One child said... "So when I finish the Nomenclature Cards I can make a booklet right?"  I said that once she had mastered the nomenclature cards she could create the booklet.  The children spread the word and the Nomenclature Cards have NOT sat on the shelf gathering dust (that a child would clean off) this year.  The valuable lesson the children taught me is this: There is such beauty in sharing your work with your friends, and such a good feeling.  As an adult I recognize this in myself.  It is one reason I have this blog.  I love to share what I have created with people who appreciate and can really use them.  Why would it be any different for children?

I just have to say... Follow the Child, they are our best teacher.

This is the same child doing the Nomenclature Cards and the Parts of Book in the next Picture. Solar System Parts of Cards This Parts of Booklet is pre-stapled because last year I noticed how frustrated the children were  about this booklet.  They kept getting confused which planet was which.  I have some unstapled  sets for the older kids.

This child ended up getting one more rug out to hold all the name cards you can see at the top  of the picture for this work.  There really are a lot of cards to this work.  Almost enough to break it  into two sets, but they really like it together so I have kept them that way.  The Tray is from  Montessori Research and Development. Parts of the Plant Booklet

This child did not want to write the words to her booklet this day.  I let her know that as  soon as she "publishes" a book - meaning that it is colored, with all the names written and  stapled - she can read it to the group.

This year I have changed classrooms and responsibilities.  I moved from my safe little classroom to take over for some teachers who left our school.  It is my job to make this classroom successful.  I am in the Spanish dual language program classroom now.  It is a mixture of children from several classrooms, but there is a core group of children who were there last year.  These children have really needed retraining this year.  About 80% of them are boys.  I have spent a lot of time during the first 3 weeks of school observing all of the children, becoming emotionally available and a confidant, creating structure in the classroom, following through again and again with ground rules, and setting the stage for correct treatment of the environment and each other.  It is tiring work to be sure, but sticking to the difficult work at the beginning of the year really pays off.

For the first two weeks I pulled out over 25 different manipulative works and had several shelves dedicated to them just to give myself a pulse on the room and where the children were.  They used these works with gusto.  It has really helped to have only manipulatives in retraining the children to become careful with their work, return the work ready for another child to use, walk around and not through rugs, walk in the classroom in the first place, respect when a child has already chosen a work and not to disturb them etc.  This is certainly an ongoing process.  It seems like it can take an entire year for some of the younger children not to walk on their neighbor's rug if something grabs their attention.

During the third week I noticed that the older children were bored with the manipulatives so I began giving lessons.  Some of the record keeping was spotty so I had to test out to see where they really were in the different areas.  On Thursday, this week (being the 4th week of school), we noticed that it was 2 hours into our work time before any child chose a manipulative work.  YIPEE!  I only have one shelf of manipulatives now, and only the ones that the children find the most interesting.

These are some images from our last week of work.

Exploration of Metal Insets by a returning student

Mouse House turned into a Spanish Work.  Es el raton debajo de la casa anaranjado?

Hanging Bead Stair

Writing Words using the Large Moveable Alphabet

Initial Sound Object Sort - This is the Pink Mat I am so excited to have these new mats.  I handmade the set I have been using and just got these new ones this week.

Gluing noodles on apples work.  Next week we will paint these works. This allows the work to be done in more than one step but still follow the Montessori rule that art should be a shelf work.

Parts of the Plant Nomenclature Cards.  This child completed this work  beautifully and could even tell me every part of the plant and later the Fruit.  He then made the booklets for each work.

Rainbow Rings.  My children LOVE this work.  It is actually Wine Glass Markers that I found at a kitchen store in Park City.

Using Clay Lesson.  You can see how the little one is using his "watching arms" during this presentation.

Parts of the Snail Puzzle.  We wouldn't usually have this work out right now, but this child found a snail in the school garden and was really interested so I pulled it out.

Weaving with ribbons

Parts of the Flower Puzzle

Parts of the Fruit Nomenclature Cards and Magnetic Parts Puzzle

Baby Spooning Stars.  This work is pretty challenging for this child. She has been with me since last year and has needed this long to be ready for this work.

Sandpaper Letters with Initial Sound Booklets. This child was successful at all the letters in the first set and was subsequently hiding them in the classroom to then find them again.

Hand Transferring.  I just have to say how much I love the elliptical shape of these wooden bowls.  There are mung beans inside.  They sound just like rain when they hit the wood.  Many times the child will remark about this when they first have this lesson.

Object to Object Sorting with two Space Toobs.  Because I have so many boys I have geared some of the Pre-reading works to pull them in.  We are also beginning the year by learning about our place in the universe.

This is another cutting and pasting work that I just found in my files that I hadn't uploaded yet.  This work goes with the Plant and Animal presentation from this post.  The child cuts, sorts, and then pastes to a new sheet to complete this work.  There are two kinds of labels for you to choose which font you want to use.

Plant/Animal Cutting and Pasting Sheet click on picture to link to file