Spiders on a Web

This a super simple tweezing work that I like to put out around Halloween.  I printed out a spiderweb image on orange paper, cut it out in a circle, and laminated it.  The tiny spiders can be found at any party store around Halloween.

They simply tweeze the spiders on to the web!

Fishing for Salmon

We are doing a lifecycle of the salmon unit this October.  Salmon are native to where we live so there's lots of opportunity to see them in action at this time of year both at the fish hatchery's and in local rivers!  This is one of the works I'll introduce on the first day we talk about salmon. This idea came from my friend who I interned under!

It's just a simple plastic storage container lined with blue felt, rocks from the playground, and I sprinkled some flat marbles all around to represent salmon eggs.

 I tied a piece of hemp string to a wooden dowel (can be bought at craft stores) and hot glued magnets to the end of it.  The fish are printed off on cardstock (from google images) and I punched a hole around their mouths with a tiny hole punch and put metal jump rings (for jewelry) through them.

They can just gently move the fishing pole back and forth and the catch the salmon!  There are 3 different sizes.

Here's a cute song to sing while doing it.

(Sung To: Row, Row, Row your boat)

Submitted byJenni

Catch, catch, catch a fish, 

Hook it on your line. 

Reel it, reel it, reel it, 

This one will be mine.

Sunflower Art

For the first week of October we are doing a short study on the lifecycle of the sunflower to go along with your year long lifecycle theme.  This art project turned out very nice!  

Here is how it's set up on the tray.  In the jar is glue, and instead of tissue paper which is so thin it can be trick to work, especially at the beginning of the year, I used crepe paper (streamers) from the party store!

 I have a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of off white card stock with a small circle drawn on it.  The first step is to fringe cut the small yellow rectangles of crepe paper and glue them around the circle.  You can add as much or as little as you wish.  The older kids add more covering all the gaps.

Next they cut out the circle on the beige paper and glue it over the first circle and on the ends of the crepe paper holding it down.

They paint that circle with glue all over.

 Sprinkle with sunflowers and add a stem and leaves!  Beautiful!

Apples

In addition to Grace and Courtesy in September we do a light study on Apples.  Because they are in abundance in our area there is often a family with apple trees in their yard and have so many they are giving them away!  That happened this year and we made applesauce with an old fashion applesauce sieve that actually use to be my grandmas!

 I boiled the apples for about a half hour and then the kids just squish them!  By the end of work time we had a whole bowl to add to our lunch!  We added just a bit of cinnamon and sugar and it was perfect!

I've spent the last two days setting up the classroom for the upcoming school year!  I was able to spend much more time on the details of things this year because my director set up all the furniture and the basic Montessori materials!  This made it much easier and I was able to really put a lot if time fine tuning everything!  

Here is our practical life area

Lots of big, dry objects to start the year out with.  Many apples and acorn works as well to go along with our light apple theme for September.  This first month will be mostly grace and courtesy, the peace curriculum, and many role modeling activities at circle time but we're adding apples in there just for a light theme and to base art projects around.  Plus, around our area, apples are being harvested at this time so our snack will likely be local apples for the first month!

Here is our geography and science area- My personal favorite!  Many new works are on the shelf that I made over the summer.  That Earth rug is so amazing!  My director picked that up at a friends garage sale!  It is perfect!

This is our math area.  Notice the two trophies- the school has one the grand Marshall and first place in our local parade!

Here is a close up of the early math shelf.  

simple addition operations, teen numbers, and sequencing numbers from 1 - 100

Advance math

This is looking at the art area as well as the metal insets.

Our Circle Garden

Land Water Air Sorting

This is a really simple land, air, water variation!  A former co-worker of mine had something like this years ago with scrapbook paper but I think it was with pictures.  I've discovered over the years that works with objects in them (vs. pictures) are so inviting to the the children and are in constant use.  So once again, I went through all my objects and found 6 for each.  I used all animals but I think I might expand it with other items such as buildings and vehicles.

I was really excited about finding this paper.  I've been keeping my eyes out for it for a few years and wanted  paper with realistic graphics!  Ben Franklin was the place to go as I found all 3 under the Northwest section!
It was 12 x 12 but I cut it to 8 1/2 x 11 so it'd fit in a tray on the shelf.

Vertebrates and In-Vertebrates

I had the opportunity to work at a different Montessori school over the summer co-teaching with an old friend!  It was a great experience to work with someone else and at a different school.  I love seeing new works, getting fresh ideas, and seeing the ins and out's of how they do it!  I met some great teachers, kids, and families over the last 6 weeks.   

This is one of the works in the science area that was in constant use. 

So Jessica was nice enough to give me the master!  

It's a vertebrate and in vertebrate sorting work with objects.

 I went through a bunch of my unit study boxes (sea life, Halloween, insects, animal kingdom etc.)  and was able to find all the objects I needed.  There is also a black lined master to put with the work for the kids to color after the initial lesson.  

I'm excited to put this on the shelf this fall!