Our theme for the month of February is folk and fairy tales. I figured it would be an easy theme to combine with Valentines since so many of these tales are about love. I'm also excited to spend a month reading fairy tales. Husbandie and I are huge fans of fantasy, what I consider to be a longer-length cousin of fairy tales. Many of our early dates involved discussing J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, & J. K. Rowling and we hope to someday share our love for these authors with our children. We will actually will be reading a little of Rowling (The Tales of Beedle the Bard) and MacDonald this month.
Additionally, we will be reading the classic Grimm and Anderson tales as well as tales from African and Asian cultures.
WRITING CENTER ADDITIONS - these items are added to the markers, crayons, and paper that is always available
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| dry erase monster handwriting practice cards, cutting paint strips, stamps, glue, and jewels skills practiced: fine motor, printing, cutting, creativity *shape stamps are foam stickers on milk caps* |
LEARNING "TRAYS" - I rotate these, setting out about four/five a day from which the boy's can choose.
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| sand paper letters and tracing in "magic dust"/colored sand skills practiced: fine motor, printing, letter recognition |
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| upper case lower case letter matching skills practiced: letter recognition *hearts are plaster of paris mixed with red food coloring and poured into a silicone heart mold |
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| folk/fairy tale themed rhyming cards skills practiced: phonetic awareness, comparing, sorting, word recognition *i have made the pdf available here |
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| the storybook game - in this game players flip over one card at a time and must use the picture to make up a story skills practiced: word recognition, vocabulary, expressing thought/ideas, social, memory, creativity *story example: once upon a time a prince set sail on boat - in search of a ring for his princess - but all he found was socks *borrowed from our local library |
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| fairy/folk tale finger puppets - the boys will use them to review/retell tales. skills practiced: reading comprehension, expressing thought, memory, vocabulary *borrowed from our local library |
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| matching teddy bears - this activity can be done two ways: the boys can either match the teddy bears to the ones on the game board or play memory skills practiced: comparing, memory, social |
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| sorting counting bears by size skills practiced: comparing, sorting, vocab *we've also used these bears and our scale to play a "war"- inspired card game, you can check it out here |
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| sorting jewels by shape skills practiced: shapes, comparing, sorting |
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| a-b or a-b-c patterning with jewels skills practiced: patterning, soring *the tray will not contain both sets of jewels at the same time (mini man is working a-b patterns and big buddy on a-b-c patterns) |
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| knight counting with cloths pins skills practiced: rational counting, number recognition, fine motor * i have made the pdf available here |
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| bead bars used for counting "teens" and skip-counting by 10's skills practiced: rational counting, fine motor, numeral recognition, counting by 10 *when set out tray will only contain one bead bar activity at a time * if interested in using bead bars you must check out this post by living montessori now - very informative |
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| pouring and measuring fairy dust/colored sand skills practiced: fine motor, practical life, measurement, fractions |
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| popsicle stick polygons - triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, octagon skills practiced: shape recognition, spatial, fine motor |
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| building a block castle with aid of step-by-step picture cards skills practiced: following directions, spatial and shape awareness, fine motor |
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| scooping water beads skills practiced: fine motor, sensorial |
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| cloud dough with knights, dragon, and castle building tools skills practiced: fine motor, sensorial, creativity *i made this cloud dough using 7 cups of flour and 1 small (6.3 oz) bottle of dollar tree baby oil |
*To see our fairy tale unit crafts as well as our book list click here.
P.S. Check out our homeschool page for more theme units and educational ideas.
Wow there are some really great and unique ideas here, I'm really inspired. I was trying to work it from your posts how old your son would be now (i assume these aren't for little lady!). I think most of these trays would be a stretch for goblin right now but I'm book marking this post for when he's a little bit older
ReplyDeleteMy mom is a Montessori preschool teacher, so I used to help her set up the "jobs" for the kids. They do similar interactive activities; so cute!
ReplyDeleteHave a great Tuesday :)
Love the puppets!
ReplyDeleteSo many great ideas! Visiting from the Valentine's Blog Hop! thanks for linking up. I love that Bear activity. Did you make/print it or is it a matching game?
ReplyDeleteStopping by from Show & Tell! So many awesome ideas - LOVE it!!! I really like the Fairy Dust pouring and the Story Telling Game. You've been pinned!!! New follower of your blog. :)
ReplyDelete~Bekah @SonshineTotSchool.blogspot.com
These are wonderful, as usual! My little boy would love the shape sorting gems (which we do have) and the popsicle stick shapes (we have colored popsicle sticks too!) trays. Pinning away :) I would love for you to come share these at WOTT.
ReplyDeletehttp://his4homeschooling.blogspot.com/2012/02/whats-on-tray-wednesday-6.html
Great ideas! I love how creative you are with your activity trays and developing trays to fit your themes. Thanks so much for linking up with Montessori Monday. I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
ReplyDeleteGreat set of trays! Just pinned so many ideas!
ReplyDeleteLisa
Criss-Cross Applesauce
Great ideas! We're doing fairy tales this term, too. I appreciate the knight number recognition printables - sure to be a big hit around here!
ReplyDeleteI see you , like me, have many trays to choose from. Sometimes I have more ideas than we do time. Thanks for the link to the bead bars. My Princess is working on teens and I was going to do something somewhat similar for her. I am heading over to read that post now. Just stopped by from WOTT linky. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing at WOTT! I love the little homemade hearts. That would be a fun project for next year. We haven't really done fairy tales yet, but you have so many great ideas for when we do!
ReplyDeleteReally great post, Thank you for sharing This knowledge.Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI featured your bear sorting post in a blog post on The Three Bears I have going up on Monday. I used the picture as well, I hope you don't mind. www.chestnutgroveacademy.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete