Winter Work

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. I know I certainly did. Loved having that family time.
I wanted to write about the work I am planning for the month of January, in case anyone wants to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales as I did. Here is the work that I am planning on putting out for January:

Last Snowman Standing Math Game-I am using these snowmen from Oriental Trading. Get the gameboards and directions from mathwire.com.

Snowflake Patterning-I found these stamps on clearance from Oriental.

Penguin and Polar Bear Patterns-Using these stamps, I couldn't pass these up at this price.

Animal Track 3 part cards-My dear friend Danielle from KinderPrintables.com made these for me. I don't know if she will offer them for sale or not, I'm trying to talk her into an instant download.


Snowman Adding and Subtracting-using these cute guys.

Snowball Addition and Subtraction-using these gameboards and these poms. Poms are not on sale but my Wal-mart is so horrible about carrying craft items, I wasn't sure if I would find any. You can use cotton balls, but I like the glitter.

Winter words letter tiles cards made by Stephanie in the LearningCenters@yahoogroups.com

Hope for the Holidays-Hope for American Education

I found out about an unique opportunity to write about an event or experience that gave me hope for the future of American Education so here goes:
I had the opportunity to visit the Ron Clark Academy in November (not Montessori) but please keep reading. This is one of the latest "buzzes" in education right now. I was very hyped up, told I would be amazed and so on. So when I got there and saw it, I was actually a little "let down" and kept thinking "What am I going to take back to my school from this experience?".
Finally, I decided that the one thing that I could take back was the "team work" and "family experience".
Now for the amazing part, I was so impressed to see how each one of the educators who went, whether greatly inspired or not by the experience, put into practice some kind of change in their classroom. This got me thinking to a more global standpoint of how ed bloggers and webringers work together every day to try to help other educators and make things a little better for their kids. I know that I have received advice and resources from many wonderful educators as I have tried to implement a "Montessori approach" in my classroom.
So my hope for the future of American education is the inspiration I get daily from my "web friends" who gain nothing financially but continue to log on, upload, download, share, share, share and help each other like a big cyber family. Teachers who walk into their classroom daily and are willing to make changes to help kids are my hope for the future of American education. So let's continue to inspire one another and be willing to make changes when we find that change could help our kids. A big cyber hug to all my webfriends out there and Merry Christmas!

This post is part of the MAT@USC Hope for the holidays event. Did you have an experience or witness something in 2009 which gave you hope for the future of American education? If so, please see this post for more information on how to share it.

Christmas Tasks

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. I always do a Thanksgiving play in November so it was a crazy month!

Here are a few descriptions of the work I've put out for December. A little late for some of you, but you can file it away for next year, if you like them.

Trim a Tree Subtraction: My kids are always so excited about the Christmas tree and I wanted to make it something that went along with what we are learning. So I created this task. The students choose any number of ornaments they want to work with. They put some on the tree, take some off, and see how many are left. I have slips of paper for them to record their equations on.

Star Equations: I have 4 sets of these out for my kids. I found these cool trays as well as the stars which were garland at Dollar General after Christmas for 90% off so I paid $.10 each. The kids use the I put stars in the bottom 2 points for them to use. They use the top three for addition or subtraction and record their equations on a slip of paper.

Life cycle of a Pumpkin

This is a task that I got from www.Montessoriforeveryone. It is in their cultural files as a free download. I love free and needed some language/thematic things so I put these 3 part cards out in the language center.

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

If you follow Montessori Journey, you will find that this is similar to her leaf post. Purely, coincidental we both added leaf rubbings to our classrooms yesterday!

A few weeks ago at a festival in our area, I found these glass leaf bowls at an antique store for 50 cents each. I bought 4 of them. 2 have dividers and 2 are open. The divided bowl is for sorting the leaves into attributes of their choosing. I read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf to the class yesterday as an enticement for this work. The leaf book is teacher made for identifying the type of leaf. I have a sample leaf rubbing with a label for the type of leaf. In the pumpkin are crayons for the rubbings.

Math Struggles

I have asked my principal for permission to not use the math workbooks and to just try using the Montessori materials and lessons. I was granted permission with the condition that if I saw it wasn't working to go back to the traditional material. So I am giving the chapter tests and trying to use my Montessori materials to teach the material covered in each chapter in addition to the sequence of Montessori lessons and individual work time.
I gave a pre-test of chapter 2 hoping I could move on but many children did not understand the concepts. So I have been doing partner work and lessons on making quanities.
I have one group (maybe half) that "get it". The others I am a little frustrated with as they are still having to count the 3 bead units and don't "see" that 1 bead and 2 beads make 3. Even though we have been writing number sentences with sets, they still don't get that their first number has to be how much is in their first set. Am I just expecting too much? I know they didn't have Montessori preschool or Kindergarten but I really thought that being 6 and 7 this would come much faster for them. Any thoughts?

We are Working!

I finally have work time going for all my class now. I started it slowly by having the ones who finished their traditional classwork choosing work to do from the shelves. I have run out of shelf room (I ordered the teen and tens board set from Sue at Montessori Steps). Really nice sets that came with cards you can use as 3 part cards. I'm going to have to figure out how to rearrange some things to get more room. I am in the process of making my traditional tasks from the past two years more Montesssori-ish by adding control cards. For these items I am using my drawers from last year as I am out of space. It works pretty well. Each child has a colored folder and the folder corresponds to a drawer. In their folder are the response sheets for tasks I want them to do. They match the sheet to a miniature version of it on the manipulative/hands-on material it goes with. For example, for pink series word work I put the pink word work book in the child's folder. They go to their drawer and in it, they will find a pink book attached to a ziplock bag that contain the picture and word cards, a control chart, and photographed instructions for what to do. They take the ziplock bag and word book to their choice of work space and do the activity.
I am using a folder system right now, to ensure that all students are working on something on their level. I have a checklist of their "have to's" that I check off when they complete. I use a 3 "have to's" and then choices system. This also keeps the children from fighting over the most popular choices as they finish at different rates.
I would love to eventually go to an all choice work system, but as this is all new for me, I feel the need to take baby steps.