It is always amazing to me how the spring semester flies by. March is already gone with the wind. We had lots of rain and some minor road flooding. Luckily, we were not blocked in by flooding! In '97 it was so bad, I had to go an hour out of my way to get to work!
Unfortunately, I have not gotten as far in math as I would have liked. Our elementary has had lots of special programs lately that have interrupted our morning schedule. When that happens, I usually skip our independent work time as I'm afraid it would cause too much frustration to get work out, get started and have to stop or not have time to finish.
I do have one group that has gotten to the numeral parts of the golden bead lessons. They were able to create numbers in the thousands easily using all 4 places. I can't wait to move them into operations with the beads! I also have to get out my 100 and 1000 bead chains and show them how to use them.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Work Time Again!
Things always get a little crazy in our public traditional school from the end of October until January. We have Red Ribbon week, Halloweeen parties, rehearsals for a Thanksgiving play, and lots of Christmas/holiday activities so we do not get to an independent work time much during this time. I'm always kind of glad when January comes so we can get back to our regular schedule. However this January/first of February was rather wild. We had a lot of bad weather so we only had about three weeks of school altogether. We are finally back in school in back to work time this week!
I found it interesting that the children chose nothing from the math and language shelves. They went back to some of our first "work choices" and chose pin punching, the insets for design, and other non-traditional choices that I had not put away from the beginning of the year like animal models and puppets. We are no where near a three hour work cycle but I do my best. In math I am still giving the golden bead lessons to small groups. Each group is at a different place in the lessons. Some are still working on naming the beads, others are working on counting the beads. In grammar we are ready for our first key experience with adectives. I do not have the wooden grammar symbol yet, but wish I did! The children are at various levels in language/phonics activities. I have gone back to my traditional reading groups during this time. I just can't get to enough children to feel I am doing an adequate time with reading instruction. As a reading specialist I am VERY comfortable with small group reading.
Some other non-Montessori work we are doing is xtramath. This is a free individualized program. You enroll at http://www.xtramath.org/ and children work on bacsic facts. My groups are also using the Reading First Listening Centers from Lakeshore Learning covering phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, context clues, fluency and comprehension. This are a good reinforcement of my lessons I've taught. My highest readers are also doing a read along of the first Junie B. Jones book with the audio CD. I also have a DVD center with custom made DVD's to reinforce math, language, science and social studies content that has been covered.
I found it interesting that the children chose nothing from the math and language shelves. They went back to some of our first "work choices" and chose pin punching, the insets for design, and other non-traditional choices that I had not put away from the beginning of the year like animal models and puppets. We are no where near a three hour work cycle but I do my best. In math I am still giving the golden bead lessons to small groups. Each group is at a different place in the lessons. Some are still working on naming the beads, others are working on counting the beads. In grammar we are ready for our first key experience with adectives. I do not have the wooden grammar symbol yet, but wish I did! The children are at various levels in language/phonics activities. I have gone back to my traditional reading groups during this time. I just can't get to enough children to feel I am doing an adequate time with reading instruction. As a reading specialist I am VERY comfortable with small group reading.
Some other non-Montessori work we are doing is xtramath. This is a free individualized program. You enroll at http://www.xtramath.org/ and children work on bacsic facts. My groups are also using the Reading First Listening Centers from Lakeshore Learning covering phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, context clues, fluency and comprehension. This are a good reinforcement of my lessons I've taught. My highest readers are also doing a read along of the first Junie B. Jones book with the audio CD. I also have a DVD center with custom made DVD's to reinforce math, language, science and social studies content that has been covered.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Golden Beads!
I have finally ordered enough golden bead material to do the 3-6 lessons for introduction to the decimal system. The items came yesterday and it was like Christmas for me! I'm so excited to complete the lesson series with my kiddos. Last year I did the early lessons, but did not have enough beads to do them all. I also ordered 1 set of large wooden numbers and 1 set of small wooden numbers. I really like the durability of the wooden ones/versus the laminated paper I used last year. Also I did not have a great storage tray for them so it was a struggle to sort them for lessons.
Last night I was looking through sites/blogs for the instructions for the bank game and trying to find the appropriate "when" to use it with regard to lesson sequence. That is when I had an "ah-ha" moment. I discovered that there are 2 bank games. I had only read about the bank game in reference to the golden beads. Last summer when I was ordering new materials for the classroom, I ordered a wooden framed set labeled the bank game. Come to find out this is actually a game for long division (Montessori gurus-please correct me if I am wrong on this.) So now I have the materials for both bank games!
I also discovered something interesting. Su Chen's albums for the decimal system alternate bead and numeral lessons in their sequence. The Montessori World albums (which I really love because they have pictures and I like the way they are written) do all the bead lessons first and then the number lessons. After seeing this (Su Chen's) I had a small "panic" moment wondering if I should have already introduced the number cards to my little ones. So I sent out a desperate email to my internet co-hearts as to which one is correct. The response I received gave me a sigh of relief and made perfect sense-beads before numerals, concrete before abstract. I know it is probably not a big deal but my OCD mind likes order and sequence and I had to know the proper way to do these!
I also wanted to share my research on pricing in case anyone else needs to order some bead material. I comparision shopped 4-5 major online stores for the materials I needed (Adena, Caliber, Montessori Outlet, Ifit) and from what I came up with Caliber had the most bang for the buck. Adena would have come in first but some of the materials were out of stock and would not arrive until February ? and I needed the materials for this week. Ifit was running an close 2nd to Adena until I looked into shipping and Wow! So Caliber had the next best pricing and they said they shipped next day and it took up to 5 days for shipping. I ordered my materials Monday evening and received them on the following Monday afternoon! I spent a little under $100 and ordered Large numbers to 9000, small numbers to 9000, 45 wooden hundred squares, 9 wooden thousand cubes, 45 golden bead tens, 45 bead units, and 1 golden bead hundred chain. I already had the introduction to the decimal system set with the real bead hundred squares and thousand cube so the wooden ones were fine for me for the difference in the price. The only thing I was a little unhappy with and this is a personal thing-not with the company is that the cubes are larger than my bead cube. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. This is my 3rd order with this company and they have not let me down, yet. So if you need materials consider http://www.calibermontessori.com/.
Last night I was looking through sites/blogs for the instructions for the bank game and trying to find the appropriate "when" to use it with regard to lesson sequence. That is when I had an "ah-ha" moment. I discovered that there are 2 bank games. I had only read about the bank game in reference to the golden beads. Last summer when I was ordering new materials for the classroom, I ordered a wooden framed set labeled the bank game. Come to find out this is actually a game for long division (Montessori gurus-please correct me if I am wrong on this.) So now I have the materials for both bank games!
I also discovered something interesting. Su Chen's albums for the decimal system alternate bead and numeral lessons in their sequence. The Montessori World albums (which I really love because they have pictures and I like the way they are written) do all the bead lessons first and then the number lessons. After seeing this (Su Chen's) I had a small "panic" moment wondering if I should have already introduced the number cards to my little ones. So I sent out a desperate email to my internet co-hearts as to which one is correct. The response I received gave me a sigh of relief and made perfect sense-beads before numerals, concrete before abstract. I know it is probably not a big deal but my OCD mind likes order and sequence and I had to know the proper way to do these!
I also wanted to share my research on pricing in case anyone else needs to order some bead material. I comparision shopped 4-5 major online stores for the materials I needed (Adena, Caliber, Montessori Outlet, Ifit) and from what I came up with Caliber had the most bang for the buck. Adena would have come in first but some of the materials were out of stock and would not arrive until February ? and I needed the materials for this week. Ifit was running an close 2nd to Adena until I looked into shipping and Wow! So Caliber had the next best pricing and they said they shipped next day and it took up to 5 days for shipping. I ordered my materials Monday evening and received them on the following Monday afternoon! I spent a little under $100 and ordered Large numbers to 9000, small numbers to 9000, 45 wooden hundred squares, 9 wooden thousand cubes, 45 golden bead tens, 45 bead units, and 1 golden bead hundred chain. I already had the introduction to the decimal system set with the real bead hundred squares and thousand cube so the wooden ones were fine for me for the difference in the price. The only thing I was a little unhappy with and this is a personal thing-not with the company is that the cubes are larger than my bead cube. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. This is my 3rd order with this company and they have not let me down, yet. So if you need materials consider http://www.calibermontessori.com/.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Other $1 Finds
I forgot to post about my other finds the other day. I stopped in at Michaels. I was looking for dollhouse items for my phonetic object boxes but apparently Michaels does not carry these or at least not at my store. So while browsing, I found their $1 aisle. I could have gone crazy but I restrained myself! Anyway they had these little items called CrazErasers. I had not heard of them but apparently they are very popular as Amazon had the same sets listed at $5.99. There are some gross ones like a toilet with "stuff", but they also have some food items so I picked up ones that had a hot dog, a tray, bread and "jam"-the jam comes off so it will go in my pink box, cereal "box", milk. These are not flimsy little erasers like Oriental Trading sells. They are quite thick, 3d, and have some "weight" to them. Should hold up okay.
I ended up with lots of short a items for my pink boxes and a few items for my blue and greeen boxes between these and my order from miniature marketplace. So I bit the bullet and ordered a pink and blue phonetic object box from Montessori 123. Has anyone ordered from this company? Hope they are worth it!
I ended up with lots of short a items for my pink boxes and a few items for my blue and greeen boxes between these and my order from miniature marketplace. So I bit the bullet and ordered a pink and blue phonetic object box from Montessori 123. Has anyone ordered from this company? Hope they are worth it!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
New Finds for Montessori Educators (others may like them too!)
I visited my local Dollar Tree yesterday. I picked up some locker organizers which are perfect for holding/displaying 3 part cards and some of the small locker organizers for holding/displaying smaller card material.
-(Speaking of small card material, please post how you organize your phonetic material. I love the little drawer organizers but the ones I've seen the drawers don't come out so I don't know how the children get them from the drawer to their area without spilling. I found some cool very small containers with pink lids at Hobby Lobby but no blue or green :(
Okay, back to Dollar Tree-in the toy section they have wooden cut out type numbers with math symbols (they are also magnetic-which adds a nice work option). These are perfect for math work. I picked up 4 packs of these.
I have just about finished getting all my materials that I've made printed, laminated, cut-out, and stored for easy finding. I still have to make pink phonetic booklets and blank booklets for phonics work. I have also created my own blue lined papers for writing work .I will be posting these on teacherspayteachers as a digital download pack for $3. These include marker paper for teacher/child writing, single lined strips for letter work or individal word/sentence writing, and story paper. These are based on the papers in the book, Montessori in the Classroom.
I have recently purchased Montessori Today and am reading it. I like it but not nearly as much as Montessori in the Classroom. I wish there was a publication of all Mrs. Polk's diary entries. I think I could learn so much from her writing about the classroom!
-(Speaking of small card material, please post how you organize your phonetic material. I love the little drawer organizers but the ones I've seen the drawers don't come out so I don't know how the children get them from the drawer to their area without spilling. I found some cool very small containers with pink lids at Hobby Lobby but no blue or green :(
Okay, back to Dollar Tree-in the toy section they have wooden cut out type numbers with math symbols (they are also magnetic-which adds a nice work option). These are perfect for math work. I picked up 4 packs of these.
I have just about finished getting all my materials that I've made printed, laminated, cut-out, and stored for easy finding. I still have to make pink phonetic booklets and blank booklets for phonics work. I have also created my own blue lined papers for writing work .I will be posting these on teacherspayteachers as a digital download pack for $3. These include marker paper for teacher/child writing, single lined strips for letter work or individal word/sentence writing, and story paper. These are based on the papers in the book, Montessori in the Classroom.
I have recently purchased Montessori Today and am reading it. I like it but not nearly as much as Montessori in the Classroom. I wish there was a publication of all Mrs. Polk's diary entries. I think I could learn so much from her writing about the classroom!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Calendar Work
As mentioned in previous posts, I fell in love with the book, "Montessori in the Classroom" and
I'm using it to plan for August. One of the ideas I fell in love with was the monthly calendar making. This is great for life skills, number sequence, number formation, and more. I have created 2 sets of calendars for August-December for my class. One set is completely traceable and the other has the number grid blank. The traceable on can be used as a model for advanced students and students having difficulty can trace them each month. These are available at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Becky-Reid/About-Me for $1 for the Aug-Dec. set. When I finish the spring set, I will post those there too. Please note that I am not doing this to "make lots of money". I receive $.30 from each dollar item I sell. My hope to get a little back for the time I have invested to help me with new materials for my class.
I'm using it to plan for August. One of the ideas I fell in love with was the monthly calendar making. This is great for life skills, number sequence, number formation, and more. I have created 2 sets of calendars for August-December for my class. One set is completely traceable and the other has the number grid blank. The traceable on can be used as a model for advanced students and students having difficulty can trace them each month. These are available at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Becky-Reid/About-Me for $1 for the Aug-Dec. set. When I finish the spring set, I will post those there too. Please note that I am not doing this to "make lots of money". I receive $.30 from each dollar item I sell. My hope to get a little back for the time I have invested to help me with new materials for my class.
New Sources for Materials!
I have been a busy beaver-busy at planning for school in August (and my house shows it!). At this time I am rewarding myself with a few minutes at the computer for each household task I complete.
As I mentioned previously, I finally bought and read, "Montessori in the Classroom". If you haven't read it, it is a wonderful source for anyone teaching multiple children in a Montessori way. After reading it I really pondered with the idea of using insets for design with my "firsties".
I wondered if their developmental level would make them useless after a few months, but many people on the Montessori email rings convinced me that they would continue to be used so I took off on a quest to find an inexpensive set. Not as easy as it sounds. Yes, some sights have an inexpensive set or a plastic set but by the time you factor in their shipping costs-they are not that cheap! So I am sharing with you the fruits of my labor...
I discovered that Didax Learning Materials makes a set called, "Montessori shapes". I searched the internet w/0 finding a great price so I went to Amazon.com
One company, Wizard of Math, offers them for $21.96 and factor in the 8.99 shipping=$30.99
Now, I have my insets but I need the tracing tray. Amazon doesn't have them. I checked Adena, Caliber Montessoir, and Ifit. They have them for around $12 but when you factor in their shipping cost, it's not such a great deal. I ended up buying from KidAdvance (I have no previous experience with them, so I'm crossing my fingers!). Their's is $13.99 and shipping for the one item is $8. I went ahead and ordered a few more small items I needed such as replacement smallest cube for pink tower, a clearance priced map of North America, and a few puzzles on clearance. With these additional my shipping only went up to $14 which is not bad for Montessori ordering. (Housework break)
I'm back and will now share another cool find of mine...
I am wanting to build up my phonetic material for the upcoming year. I have toyed for 2 years now with the idea of using the phonetic objects. I know I can use pictures, but those little things are so darn cute! After rereading Paula Polk Lillard this morning, I came across another rationale for them-the small motor skills it builds by the children having to use the pincher grasp (what they need for good penmanship) to pick them up. So that sold me. I had intended to hit Dollar General and Hobby Lobby in my quest for cheap little objects. Then I had the idea to check Amazon.com since I already had an order pending and maybe I could save a little on shipping. While browsing there I came across the goldmine in the sponsered links at the bottom of the page. I found a site, called, Miniature Marketplace and went in search. They have a section called special deals. Here is a copy of what I ordered and the cost for my pink phonetic objects:
IM66250 - WASH TUB1.78
IM65003IM65003 - BEACH TOYS2.10
IM65044IM65044 - FRYING PAN0.85
IM65039 - VANITY SET 1.70
IM65045IM65045 - CLOCK1.05
IM65060IM65060 - COPPER POTS1.45
IM65024IM65024 - BEAGLE1.25
IM65221sIM65221- BROWN CRAFT BAG0.71
B1SANTA HAT - B10.25
SPECKLED BIRD'S EGGS - w250.25
w162 WHITE CUPS - 0.30
KD31BOOK W/ PRINTED COVER - 0.27
DM30OLD-FASHIONED GROCERY CAN - 0.25
DM31OLD-FASHIONED GROCERY BOX - 0.25
PRESENT, ASSORTED - 1.80
G4758LARGE HAY BALE - 0.7510.75
IM65446IM65446 - CAT, GREY TABBY 1.57
RYK4155RYK4155 - MOPS, 2 PCS 1.26
RYN5505RYN5505 - LARGE MUG0.63
Shipping was a mere $5.85 so all these items for a total of $24-most of the sets include more than one item so I also have replacements.
As I mentioned previously, I finally bought and read, "Montessori in the Classroom". If you haven't read it, it is a wonderful source for anyone teaching multiple children in a Montessori way. After reading it I really pondered with the idea of using insets for design with my "firsties".
I wondered if their developmental level would make them useless after a few months, but many people on the Montessori email rings convinced me that they would continue to be used so I took off on a quest to find an inexpensive set. Not as easy as it sounds. Yes, some sights have an inexpensive set or a plastic set but by the time you factor in their shipping costs-they are not that cheap! So I am sharing with you the fruits of my labor...
I discovered that Didax Learning Materials makes a set called, "Montessori shapes". I searched the internet w/0 finding a great price so I went to Amazon.com
One company, Wizard of Math, offers them for $21.96 and factor in the 8.99 shipping=$30.99
Now, I have my insets but I need the tracing tray. Amazon doesn't have them. I checked Adena, Caliber Montessoir, and Ifit. They have them for around $12 but when you factor in their shipping cost, it's not such a great deal. I ended up buying from KidAdvance (I have no previous experience with them, so I'm crossing my fingers!). Their's is $13.99 and shipping for the one item is $8. I went ahead and ordered a few more small items I needed such as replacement smallest cube for pink tower, a clearance priced map of North America, and a few puzzles on clearance. With these additional my shipping only went up to $14 which is not bad for Montessori ordering. (Housework break)
I'm back and will now share another cool find of mine...
I am wanting to build up my phonetic material for the upcoming year. I have toyed for 2 years now with the idea of using the phonetic objects. I know I can use pictures, but those little things are so darn cute! After rereading Paula Polk Lillard this morning, I came across another rationale for them-the small motor skills it builds by the children having to use the pincher grasp (what they need for good penmanship) to pick them up. So that sold me. I had intended to hit Dollar General and Hobby Lobby in my quest for cheap little objects. Then I had the idea to check Amazon.com since I already had an order pending and maybe I could save a little on shipping. While browsing there I came across the goldmine in the sponsered links at the bottom of the page. I found a site, called, Miniature Marketplace and went in search. They have a section called special deals. Here is a copy of what I ordered and the cost for my pink phonetic objects:
IM66250 - WASH TUB1.78
IM65003IM65003 - BEACH TOYS2.10
IM65044IM65044 - FRYING PAN0.85
IM65039 - VANITY SET 1.70
IM65045IM65045 - CLOCK1.05
IM65060IM65060 - COPPER POTS1.45
IM65024IM65024 - BEAGLE1.25
IM65221sIM65221- BROWN CRAFT BAG0.71
B1SANTA HAT - B10.25
SPECKLED BIRD'S EGGS - w250.25
w162 WHITE CUPS - 0.30
KD31BOOK W/ PRINTED COVER - 0.27
DM30OLD-FASHIONED GROCERY CAN - 0.25
DM31OLD-FASHIONED GROCERY BOX - 0.25
PRESENT, ASSORTED - 1.80
G4758LARGE HAY BALE - 0.7510.75
IM65446IM65446 - CAT, GREY TABBY 1.57
RYK4155RYK4155 - MOPS, 2 PCS 1.26
RYN5505RYN5505 - LARGE MUG0.63
Shipping was a mere $5.85 so all these items for a total of $24-most of the sets include more than one item so I also have replacements.
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