Halloween Science & Art

We got into the Halloween spirit at Long Key Nature Center, where we learned about spiders and their webs in a weekly class for the littlest scientists. 

We started by comparing spiders and insects, particularly how many legs each has. Zelda noted that the ant model was red, like the actual red ant that bit her foot three times during a nature walk at Long Key a few weeks prior, but unlike our ant model, which is brown. She also noted that the spiders on the plastic table cloth were "wrong" because they only had six legs. We played a spinner game (probability) and then recorded our data on a bar graph. 

Then it was time to make a golden web (in honor of the Golden Orb-Weavers that live in the surrounding trees) with glitter and glue, both of which ended up in Zelda's hair and other inappropriate places. She also got to "weave" white yarn around a notched black plastic plate to form a web. Both crafts were taped to the wall near our front door because they were adorable and I didn't want to do any actual decorating for Halloween. We finished the class with a little nature walk, where we counted spiders, spied a turtle and a heron, and did not get bitten by anything.

She's hugging the spider model. "I love him." 

Montessori Mix

I spent a year teaching and learning among many mighty Montessorians, and it was magnificent.

At home, I don't have the budget to stock all of the Montessori materials available for the 3-6 age group, so we use a few key items and then mix in materials I've bought over the years in traditional public and private classrooms. I guess the good thing about needing to buy so many of my own teaching tools is that I got to keep them.

The design of the room is Montessori-inspired but surely not up to code, so to speak. The order of concepts introduced is also in the neighborhood of what Maria would do, but with just one student, I have the luxury of veering off on tangents in accordance with her interests and learning style. We are picking and choosing, and we are having a lot of fun. I'm even using lesson notes from way back in grad school, the last time I was teaching and learning with the under five crowd.

My methodology evolves as my student grows. In other words, she's teaching me far more than I'm teaching her.

Zelda matches images to the initial letter sound they represent. The pose was her idea.

Another batch of initial sound picture cards, which we began after using three dimensional objects,
just like Maria would have wanted.
I swear I didn't tell her to pose like this.

I mixed the Moveable Alphabet with short vowel cards from a PK-K reading series once used by Broward County Schools. 

Halloween spurred her desire to spell 'boo,' which led to substituting her favorite letter and making a new word. 

 

Bean Letters

I picked up this lesson from my time as a kindergarten teacher. On a piece of construction paper, we "write" a letter in glue and then place dried beans along the lines of glue. It's a great activity that hits some of the most important preschool skills, such as:

• reinforce left to right directionality (pre-writing and pre-reading)
• strengthen the pincer grasp (pre-writing)
• count objects (number sense)
• talk about the letter's sound and list words that begin/contain that sound (phonics)
• reinforce the shape of the letter to promote muscle memory (pre-writing)

M-A-D

File this one under "emotions can be a powerful learning tool."

I was just looking through some old photos and found this fond memory from a few months ago. 

That was the day my child was so angry with me that she marched over to the whiteboard 

and spelled out M-A-D. 

That's what you call a teachable moment.