Chanukah Inspired Works

Chanukah is in the air and I put a few works into the classroom to start preparing the children.

Here is a dreidel spin plate I purchased and spray painted on e solid color to cut down on visual distraction. The children use this plate to perfect their "spin". On the shelf next to this work is a graph for children who want to record which letter lands "up" on each spin.
















This is a dreidel sorting work with gold and silver miniature dreidels. The children simply place one color on each side of the ceramic bowl. It is a good work for grasping, and the metallic dreidels really draws the children to this work!















This is a neat little wooden dreidel puzzle that the children can take apart and assemble in any order they wish.















This is a wooden Chanukah-themed puzzle that the children enjoy doing. The small pegs encourage a three-finger grasp which is great for preparing little fingers for writing one day.















I like to create two-person games that reflect a theme. In this game, the children take turns rolling the die that have the letters nun, gimmel, hey, and shin which appear on the dreidel. When they roll the die, the letter showing is the letter they need to move their marker to. This game does not require reading or counting, so even the youngest of our students can play it independently!















Lacing activities that reflect our Chanukah theme were a welcome addition to our practical life shelves.















This basket serves as an activity to promote language around the Chanukah theme. The children can receive a lesson in naming the various objects if they aren't already familiar with them.















I placed this bucket of beautiful metallic Chanukah candles next to our spindle boxes for the children to count.
















This is napkin rolling with Chanukah-themed napkin rings! The napkins are festive and enticing and the napkin rings have dreidels hot-glued to them.

Focus on the Prepared Environment

Trish Wymore
11/13/10

I took the following pictures as I sat in four different areas in my current classroom. (Since I am acting as the class guide, the set-up is my own, and reflects my own limited understanding.)

The Shalom Shelf

This shelf features our “vered shalom”, or peace rose, used in our peer conflict resolutions. Above the shelf, I placed an original painting that I created by tracing hands around the words “peace begins with you and me”. There are also calming activities in this area, such as a rock garden. While looking at this shelf from the child's point of view, I felt attracted to the colors and inviting layout. I might like to spend some time looking at the colorful painting.

0-9 Math Shelves

These two shelves contain materials to help the child attain 0-9 competency. When looking at these two shelves, I see that they are fairly organized, and I would like to explore them more. I feel that the shelves are not too crowded, and are easy to keep organized. I can reach everything and carry the baskets easily.

Geography Area

My favorite part of this area is the large framed map of the world hung above the shelf. It calls my attention, but I am too small to see the top!

Hebrew Language Activities

These shelves represent the first stages of our Hebrew language curriculum. Sitting on the floor, I did not feel drawn to these materials. I think it looks too cluttered and I am not sure what to choose first.

Transitional Materials

During the first weeks of school, I place several activities on the shelves that are usually familiar to the children. These activities allow the children to get started on "works" with very little help, freeing me to give lessons with other more involved activities.

Dominoes can be used for matching, and as a one or two person work.

Simple foam puzzle with numbers 0-9.















Fabric matching game for one or two people.















This tracing activity requires the child to grasp the knob and follow the path. There are 3 different boards.














Wedgits are a great building game. The cards take the children through progressively more difficult building combinations.














This peg board can be used in a variety or ways. The children enjoy making patterns, and even building towers.














This texture matching game is most fun when wearing a blindfold!















The children can create various pictures by matching the corresponding wooden shapes onto the correct spots.















This is a similar work, but the shapes are magnetic, and the designs are a bit more complex.














Although this is a simple block sorter, I find that the children get good grasping practice which strengthens their hands.















I generally have some sort of lacing activity available right away. The up and down motion of lacing prepares the children for the "in/out" motion of weaving that will be introduced later in the year.














Most kids have had experience with magna-doodle type toys. This small version is great for drawing and also a good size for practicing letter writing later on!



These activities are just a few examples of what to have on the shelves during the first weeks. Some of these will be very popular and can stay out throughout the year. Others will become less popular and can be phased out as the interest dwindles.

Getting Ready for School!

The first day of school is only a couple of weeks away and I have been busy getting lots of works ready! The holiday schedule this year is very busy and leaves very little time for preparing the kids - but we will try our best! This year I am putting a special emphasis on all things APPLE in honor of Rosh Hashana.





I will use this basket during the first day or two when we start discussing things we use or eat at our Seudah. Later, the children can use the objects for independent matching work at a rug.

I like to start the year with simple lacing activities like this bee hive and apple. Lacing with the stick gives little fingers more control.











Here is a tweezing work that I really like! I made little apples out of fimo clay which are still in great condition after being on the shelf last year. The tweezer is a strawberry huller, which opens wide enough to grab the apples.














It is hard to see in the picture, but the cups for this pouring work are apple-themed! The red jewels make a lovely sound against the ceramic which adds another level of interest to this visually appealing work!














This work is great for little hands to get some practice grasping medium-sized objects. When demonstrating this work I always move very slowly and call special attention to the sorting process. I find when I give the lesson this way, the child are more likely to slow down and gain the most from the grasping action.















To get those wrists warmed up, I have this spooning exercise. I think the miniature apples are very appealing to the children who chose this work often!













In addition to several puzzles in our puzzle box, I like to feature a puzzle in an individual tray. This is a nice puzzle featuring major symbols of Rosh Hashana.














In the beginning of the year I have many works that feature counting objects from one to ten. Here, I traced apple erasers onto white paper (backed onto red) and laminated it. I wrote matching numbers on each eraser. It is a great visual matching work even if a child does not yet know the numbers to ten.













I purchased this game from Apple Seed Montessori a number of years ago, and it is a favorite among the kids. It can be a simple, individual activity or a partner game. The "apples" are really tiny and require those fingers to get a good work out!














This is the first of several "how to draw" books that I out our during the year. The child flips through the book, adding an additional element to her drawing until the final product is achieved. These little books are very popular with many kids.



















Making simple board games for the children is not that hard! Using apple stickers, I created a simple path that the game pieces follow. I used two more fimo apples (see above) for the game markers. For the die, I used a large one that I found at Michael's and put the same apple stickers on each face. I used dots from 1-3 for this initial game to make sure that even the youngest children can play right away!













Last year, I sent a bit of time finding great photos of many different varieties of apples for this matching work. The names of the apples are very interesting and fun to say. The kids enjoyed playing "memory" with this set.













I like to put out "thematic" crayons every once in a while. Here is a bowl of apple crayons I made using a chocolate mold. My kids helped me peel old crayons, melt them down, and then "paint" the molds to get the beautiful effects! They work best as rubbing crayons, but I have not decided what work to combine them with yet.













I made 3-part cards for the simanim! Hopefully we will have time for a lesson with the real foods before this goes on the shelf!



















Here is an individual art project I will put out at a table. I saw the idea at My Montessori Journey blog and I can't wait to try it in my classroom. The kids use a portion of red paper to tear into bits and then glue it to a plate along with a pre-cut stem and leaf.
















I am really getting excited for school to start!

Family Vacation!

Week took the past four weeks off for a family RV road trip! The photos and details will be on our family blog soon!

Kayak School

This past weekend, we had a chance to take out our kayaks. This was Baila's first time in her own kayak. She was a bit nervous, but we reassured her that she could hook on to one of our kayaks if she got tired. For the last year, she had ridden with me in a tandem kayak and practiced paddling with her own paddle. When she got into her own boat, she simply paddled away!

Tye-Dye Project

Last week we had a modified summer school schedule. I completed the last week of my 2 year principal training fellowship in Brooklyn! Unfortunately for the kids, I was out of the house for 12 hours each day (4 hours of commuting to and from Brooklyn - yuk!) Bubbe and Zayde were the best substitutes and kept the kids busy with all sorts of fun things. On Friday, we got back to work writing stories and working on our handwriting. For our craft project we colored white t-shirts.