Sensory Bin: Nest

This week’s sensory bin was all about birds and nests to go along with our MFW Kindergarten science unit about nests and Animal Homes. I actually reinvented a flop of a sensory bin from a few weeks ago that was supposed to go with our Leaf science unit – both kids took one look at it and walked away. This time around it went over much better.

In our bin we had:

• a variety of silk leaves I bought at Michaels
• leaf felt stickers I bought at Michaels
• trees from the Tree Toob (these didn’t get played with at all)
• insects from the Insect Toob (these get played with all the time, whether they are in a sensory bin or not…Olivia’s a bug loving princess!)
• a birdhouse I picked up from Michaels
• gold pom poms
• nests, birds, and miniature eggs also from Michaels
• tongs
• small white paint tray

Here’s Olivia first feeding the birds a caterpillar, and then next she was hiding the birds in the birdhouse from the attack insects. I’m not sure how she got into the attack bugs, but I guess it did go along with one of our themes of God providing different homes for different animals for protection.

 

Even though I try to encourage group play with the sensory bin, they just aren’t always interested at the same time. I could not pull Isaiah away from his Montessori Cylinder Block (I purchased this at Montessori Outlet a while back and is one of his all time favorite toys. This is Part 1, and I’m getting ready to buy another part to give him more challenge as he has mastered this one).

Isaiah was most interested in transferring miniature eggs from the nest into the small paint tray and counting as he went. He did this over and over again. It was a great activity for him, and I was really surprised at how well he did the one-to-one correspondence counting. It was the first time he has done this skill.

I’ve tried having him use large tweezers to work on transferring objects and fine motor skills, but he couldn’t get it at all; so, I bought these miniature tongs, which are much easier to grasp and squeeze. He gave it a try, but after the first try he put them down and didn’t try again (notice his cylinder block right by him…this was a constant companion for him this week).

I thought maybe the eggs were too small for using the tongs, so I switched out the eggs for these gold pom poms. Again, he tried, but then he opted to use his fingers.

Sensory bins are fun and great, but have taken me a lot of time, energy, and money to put together…so, this one is going to stay out for the rest of the month and into November. I have some pumpkins to add into it next week, and then maybe I’ll pick up a few Thanksgiving items to add to it, but for the most part we are going to try to get some more use out of this one and maybe pull back out the apple bin.

For more great ideas on sensory bins visit:

1+1+1=1

Totally Tots – What’s in the Tub

Counting Coconuts 

SpartanGirl Sensory Activities for Kids

Denmark Lapbook

This week we worked on a special project – a lapbook all about Denmark. Why Denmark? Olivia’s daddy is currently deployed, and in his job he gets to work with lots of international people. One of his good friends over yonder is from Denmark. The project started as a special request from JP to show Olivia on the world map where all his co-workers are from and evolved into this lapbook.

I have to admit that this was a huge labor of love on my part. I wanted it to look really good…so I did all of the cutting and most of the gluing. Also, Olivia isn’t ready to write whole sentences on her own yet, so any writing was done by me. We plan to do a few more of these, however, I may change it up a bit so more of the work is done by her…I keep reminding myself it’s about the process!

Work in Progress…

We started out by learning what the Denmark flag looks like. We also included the Polish and German flag because we’ll be learning about those countries next. I printed off the European Flag nomenclature cards and Europe Geography Folder from Montessori Printshop. Then we had a flag Montessori lesson and I showed her pictures of Denmark.

Next we worked on identifying where Denmark is located. First, she found Europe, and then she found Denmark. We used our Leap Frog Tag Reader World Map at first. This works great because as she points to different countries she can instantly hear from her Tag Reader if she has found the correct one…very helpful since I couldn’t see what she was pointing at since she was on top of the map.

After finding it on the big world map, she then had to find it and color it on her miniature map for the lapbook. At first she insisted she couldn’t do it, but after a second look at the big map and some encouraging words she did it all by herself.

Gluing down her Flag Facts I got from Homeschool Share. I already had all the facts written down inside, so we just talked about the different facts before she glued it down.

We also happened to be talking about Hans Christian Andersen from Denmark for our Literature Fairy Tales unit, so we included 2 Famous People pockets (also from the Homeschool Share website). The first famous person was Hans Christian Andersen, and the second was JP’s co-worker. On the inside of the pockets are facts of the famous person and a picture. JP sent a picture of him with his Danish friend. This part actually brought tears to Olivia’s eyes as she kissed the picture of JP. She said, “Every time I open this I’ll think of daddy.” It was a good moment to stop and pray for JP and all those fighting in this war.

Danish numbers 1 – 10. This pocket was also from the Home School Share website. On one side of the flap I had the numeral written. Then I gave her slips of paper with the written Denmark number and she had to glue them on the back of the correct flap.

Here she is gluing down the Denmark alphabet. The pocket is also from Homeschool Share. I printed out a copy of their alphabet and had her identity the 3 additional letters and color them. She then glued the alphabet inside and glued the pocket down in the lapbook.

Did You Know? Also, from Homeschool Share. She glued down pictures of Vikings, Legos, and the first Amusement Park.

What’s Cooking? Again…the blank template is from Homeschool Share, and then in Word I created a Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner menu. I laminated the cards and we played a guessing game. I read what was on the menu and she had to guess which meal I was describing.

Finished Product…

Front Cover with picture of flag and country.

Inside flaps. I ended up adding the flap in the middle that opens upward so we would have enough room for everything. It’s just another file folder cut in half and then taped on.

 

 

Inside flap open.

Menus inside “What’s Cookin”

Olivia’s Favorites…

…the picture of JP with his Danish friend inside the “Famous Person” pocket!!!!

…and “What’s Cookin?” She loved the fact that bread is a big part of their meals!

Note from Olivia: I don’t like these pictures!

Olivia’s Kindergarten: Apples, Toy Story, & Review

This week I decided to take a little break from our norm in order to extend our Apple theme unit, incorporate some Toy Story printables because Olivia is all about Toy Story right now, and to review some skills – especially math skills.

Apple/Fruit Theme

Again, I don’t have pictures of everything we did. But I wanted to extend our Apple unit theme so Olivia could make a Fruit of the Spirit Lapbook. It was a simple Lapbook from HomeSchool Creations. One day she colored the cover page and reviewed the memory verse, the next day she glued down the mini-books while we talked about what each fruit means, and then on the final day we glued down Role Playing cards where she was given a situation and we discussed how the Fruit of the Spirit could be displayed. We also talked a lot about the Fruit being a gift from God and not something we can produce ourselves. We talked a lot about ways to stay connected to Jesus the vine so He can produce the Fruit in us – praying, reading the Bible, praising.

Two of my favorite things this week was our Apple Sensory Bin and baking apple pie. I did get a lot of pictures from baking apple pie! We used the recipe in the back of our book “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.”

Olivia measuring apple pie filling ingredients.

Olivia stirring the ingredients. When we started, we were using these red Gala apples, but ended up changing our minds and using tart Granny Smith apples…turned out to be an excellent and yummy decision.

Olivia did awesome…she peeled/cored/sliced 3 of the 6 apples we used.

We cheated a little on the crust…we bought pre-made. Here’s Olivia unrolling the crust…

…putting crust in pie plate. Again, I was really impressed with Olivia’s skill here…she did great…

…dumping in the apples. I helped her spread them evenly around the crust…

…on goes the top crust. We worked together to pinch the top and bottom together…and then she was done…

…so I put slits in the top, sprinkled with sugar, and baked…

…and then we all ate it topped with vanilla ice cream. Very yummy school project!

To finish up our MFW's Apple unit we taste tested 4 different apples, and she made observations: color, size, feel, smell good/bad, and taste sweet/salty/sour; and we cut in half an apple around the circumference to observe the 5 star pattern and make apple prints on our "If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit" tracing page.

Math Review

For our math review we worked on counting backwards. I created some Buzz Lightyear number cards and had her blast him off to Infinity & Beyond.

We reviewed even and odd numbers. I created inserts for our Education Cubes. In one cube I had dot cards and in the other cube I had number cards. She threw one of the cubes and then had to match it to the other cube. Finally, she had to decide if the number was even or odd. She tracked how many even and odd numbers she threw with tally marks on a piece of paper.

Finally, we reviewed solving equations with the help of the abacus. Again, I created inserts for our Education Cubes…she’s always excited about an activity if it involves throwing these cubes. And I do have pictures of this!

First, throw the 2 cubes…

…one cube had pictures of Jessie from Toy Story, and the other pictures of Bullesye. She wrote in one column how many Jessies she rolled and in the other column how many Bullseyes (this was awesome because I was able to see how much help she still needs on writing numbers…lots more writing practice coming up!) Then she used her abacus to help her solve the addition equations.

Other

We also learned about two poets – Christina Rossetti and Robert Louis Stevenson. We were supposed to do this lesson the week before, but never got around to it. We read some of their poems, talked about when they lived, and found on the world map where they lived. Finally, we talked about rhyming words and ended our activity with a rhyme worksheet where she had to read the poem out loud and then dot paint the rhyming words.

And finally, she reviewed the French alphabet, numbers, and fruits using an awesome iPad ap and finished up a project we had started the first week of school, but never got around to. It was a busy week! Busier than I had anticipated, but it was fun too.

This coming week is Fall Break for Cottage School, but we’ll be moving forward with Home School so we can take two full weeks off at Thanksgiving when JP will be home!!! Olivia is already counting down the days until he gets “to come home and rest.”

Sensory Bin: Apple Pie

I love sensory bins! And if you’re not familiar with sensory bins or why they’re so great, head over here to read the Montessori Minute: Sensory Activities post. Carissa at the 1+1+1 Blog also has a lot of great ideas for sensory bins, and is great about posting links to other sites with great ideas. On her blog go to “Theme Printables” on the top, choose a theme, and then dig in…it’s a treasure trove of ideas!

This school year we’ve had a a few really great sensory bins – Creation, Space, and this week’s Apple Pie theme that I’m highlighting here. And I had one giant of a flop one a couple weeks ago for our Leaf unit (I’m going to try and reinvent this one next week for our Animal Homes unit…we’ll see how it goes). I tell myself to try, try again; and then I scour my favorite blogs and get some great ideas.

This week’s sensory bin came directly from Delightful Learning. I was so excited to find this post because we were also reading the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World from our MFW science unit.

Our bin contained the following:

• Wheat berries as the base.


• 2 red and 2 green apples I picked up from a fruit vase filler pack at Target.


• Apple Pie spices: cinnamon sticks, whole All Spice, Apple Pie Spice, salt shaker filled with salt (and a cotton ball stuffed in the top).


• Salt shaker filled with wheat berries.


• Dried sugar cane reads I picked up at Hobby Lobby.


• Dried wheat I picked up from Hobby Lobby.


• Contents from the Down on the Farm toob (I didn’t get this Melissa & Doug Bundle; but I think it’s pretty cool…they have a whole variety of them).


• Two Thomas & Friends trains.


• Measuring cups.


• Cloth World map.

Most of the time we just set it out and the three of us sit around and play. I follow the kids’ lead a lot to see how it sparks their imagination (our space sensory bin turned into a whole new planet called Opitizi where all the astronauts and aliens ate rice and beans for every meal and said the word “wanga” for everything). And it’s great to just run your hands through the wheat berries, pick them up, and then let them rain down on everything…it’s messy, but I love how the three of us can enjoy it together.

I also try to direct some of the learning. Here’s what I did with each child (sorry for the lack of active pictures, but I find myself a lot of times too in the moment to grab my camera).

Olivia…with Olivia’s imagination, most of the time she just wants to free play and make up stories, but I was able to get in a few other activities too:

• Math: I had her point out the different size measuring cups, and then using the wheat berries, she determined how many scoops of each size it took to fill up the 1 c. measuring scoop.


• Geography: As we read the story “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World” we laid out each ingredient on the specific country on our world map.


• Home Economics: We talked about the different ingredients that go into making apple pie and where they come from. For example, the wheat in the pie crust comes from wheat berries off of wheat stalks which then need to be ground into flour. The butter in the pie comes from milking the cow and then churning the cream. Etc…

Isaiah:

• Colors: discriminating between the red and green apples and naming the colors. He’s awesome at this!


• Counting: lining up and counting the apples. He can already count past 10, but the one to one correspondence hasn’t come yet…but he tries. Often times with our four apples he counted all the way up to 10 apples.


• Patterns: Just beginning to plant the seeds of patterns…red apple, green apple, red apple, green apple. At not even 2 years old, he’s a ways away from mastering this skill.


• Scooping and pouring: I add spoons and various containers for him to practice.


• Animal identification and animal sounds.


• Sound discrimination: we shook the salt shaker of salt, salt shaker of wheat berries, container of whole All-Spice, and the dried wheat stalks to hear the different sounds.

Together we smelled and even tasted the different spices. Olivia said, “Yech!” and Isaiah said, “Mmmm, that’s good!”

So, that was our week’s fun with the sensory bin. It was a big hit with the kids, and Olivia even asked to play with it one night before bed!

Sensory Bin: Space

I wanted to go ahead and share a little bit about our sensory bin from our Space unit a few weeks back. It was such a big hit and inspired so much creativity in Olivia that it is actually still being played with. We currently have two sensory bins out…this one and our most current one Apple Pie.

This sensory bin came directly out of our Creation unit sensory bin. I just added a few space things to it and voila…

• The base is black beans and rice…I discovered the vacuum easily picks up the rice, but leaves all the black beans behind.
• Small gold pom-poms for stars.
• A big yellow pom-pom for the sun.
• A bouncy glitter ball for the moon (I actually had 2…one for each kid).
• Glittery silver and gold star foam stickers.
• Space Toob (I didn’t get this Melissa & Doug bundle, but would have if we hadn’t already had the puzzle).
• Toy Story Lego Planet Pizza set.
• Spoons and various containers for scooping and pouring.
• Giant tweezers for Isaiah to practice fine motor skills. The idea was for him to pick up the pom-poms with the tweezers…long way to go on this skill.
• Magnetic letters s-u-n.

Olivia blasting off! This bin became her imaginary world of the Planet Opitizi.

Olivia claiming her planet…became a good lesson on sharing. 

Read more about sensory activities and the fabulous benefits of sensory bins at this Montessori Minute post.