Sensorial Activities- The Pink Tower
01 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Sensorial Materials Tags: pink tower
As parents, I am sure many of you have heard about the pink tower from your children at home- but what is it? And why is it important in the Montessori classroom?
The pink tower is made up of 10 solid wood pink cubes. The smallest cube is 1 cubic cm, and the largest is 1000 cubic cm. Working with the pink tower helps with fine motor skills, and provides visuals of the linear dimensions of width, height and length. This prepares children for mathematical concepts in geometry, decimal system and volume.
The sensorial materials all fill the childs need to explore with their hands. In their sensory sensitive period, children have a need to touch everything around them.
Bow Habitat Station- Fish Hatchery Field Trip
24 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
I hope everyone had fun at the field trip to the fish hatchery! My students today were talking away about it, how much they liked it, and telling me all about the fish, the fish eggs etc. This was our first time to the Fish Hatchery, I found it interesting and fun- who knew there were 65 types of fish in Alberta? Not me! My only complaint would be that the field trip was too short- next time I will book differently so we have a longer period, particularly downstairs where all the fish were- I’m pretty sure we all could have done an hour just there. 
The craft was great, and all the kids did such a fabulous job- I have lots of photos here in the gallery. Thank you to all the parents who attended and helped out, you are appreciated!
Selena Gomez Concert
18 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Parenting Tags: saddledome, selena gomez
This post is a bit more personal than classroom, but as a mom I wanted to share this experience, so please bear with me- or if you don’t want to, don’t read it.
I took my 2 daughters to see the Selena Gomez concert here in Calgary on Monday night. They are young (7 & 9)- they love music and sing along to many radio tunes…but it isn’t easy to find a concert that would be appropriate for young children- (for example, they love Lady Gaga tunes, but there is NO WAY they would be attending a concert of hers!) (no offense to Lady Gaga, I like her music too!). But Selena Gomez was great- no bad language, no offensive costumes, nada. Just a pretty girl, singing pretty songs. A perfect first concert experience for my two little monkeys. I got them each a t-shirt, and wearing them, we took to our seats and waited for Miss Gomez to take the stage. She did, and did not disappoint the girls- they heard all their favorite songs, and some others that they now love. They loved the dancing, the costume changes, the confetti shooting out over the crowd. All in all, couldn’t have asked for more.
The meat of my story is however, not about how great the concert was. It is about my girls. They were so happy, and so grateful- when we got to the Saddledome they threw their arms around me and hugged me tight saying Thank you so much Mommy! over and over. It was gratifying, I gotta tell you.
As the concert began, my youngest jumped up, and started dancing like nobody was watching. She was singing as loud as she could, arms in the air, and dancing up a storm. My eldest, who was also obviously enjoying herself- sat quietly on the other side of me, singing to herself. She kept looking at her sister, and occasionally said that her sis was “sooooo embarrassing”, but I could tell she wanted to get up and dance too. My two girls could not be more different. T is conservative- quiet and uber-mature for her age. She handles things diplomatically with great tact. She is a natural athlete and every sport she has ever tried has come so easy to her. She is 9 going on 3o. She also is always aware of how she is portraying herself to others, and is worried about embarrassing herself in any way. E is about as opposite of that as you can get. She is a free spirit- she loves the world, and throws open her arms to it every day. She is a clown, and loves to make people laugh. She doesn’t care WHO is watching- if she wants to dance, then by god, she will dance! She prefers her hair messy, her clothes stained with paint or whatever else she has been dabbling in that day, her room messy, and there is nothing the least bit conservative about her.
They are both so beautiful in their own ways, and I love and appreciate their differences. In T I see who I was as a child and a teenager and a young adult- someone who was always worried about looking foolish, and always worried about what other people might think. In E I see myself now- accepting of who I am, flaws and all, and loving myself because of them. And being ok with looking silly, as long as I am happy.
I hope that my children will take some of each others spirit and temper each other with it. I hope that my influence can encourage T to let go and get a little crazy, and to encourage E to (at least sometimes!) look before you leap.
To end my story I will say this- when Miss Gomez came out to do her encore, many people stood up to dance as she sang her last few songs. Taylor was looking around, yearningly, and I knew she wanted to get up and dance, but was hesitant. I asked her, and she hesitated…then said no. So….I ignored the little voice in my head that said “You are a grown woman! You can’t seriously be considering getting up and dancing at a Selena Gomez concert!”- grabbed her hand, and danced the rest of the concert beside my 2 girls- who were both beaming from cheek to cheek. It was fabulous, and not even a little embarrassing. I will carry that moment with me forever.
Butterfield Acres Pumpkin Hunt
18 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Fall Activities Tags: butterfield acres, pumpkin hunt
Last week we spent a morning at Butterfield Acres- riding in a wagon pulled by a tractor, out to a pumpkin patch to find our pumpkins hidden in the grass and leaves- then back in the wagon to go to the little barn to decorate our pumpkins and then explore the farm and meet the animals while the works of art dried. There are some lovely photos in the gallery in this post- thank you so much to Rachel for taking lots of photos and then making me a disk of them- I promise I will get a replacement for my camera soon…although I believe the photos here are better than the ones I take! Thank you to all the families who came out and visited the farm with us- it was a perfect fall day, weather was fantastic, and I had so much fun.
Autumn is here!
28 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Fall Activities Tags: fall, stone soup, thanksgiving
What a beautiful couple of weeks we have had! Unbelievable weather really for Calgary- the average high for the last couple of weeks is usually +16…and we have reached highs of +30! Lovely. My 10K road race went well on Saturday morning in Banff- its the first time I have tried anything like that, and I am glad I did it…and glad it’s over! Already my friends are trying to talk me into another one…I need a few days to recover before I commit to anything again! We had lovely days to take our Autumn Walks & Scavenger Hunt- I have photos of the kids as we went along collecting leaves, twigs, pine cones and fallen leaves in beautiful shades of green, red, yellow, purple. We played at the park, tag and hide & go seek, and everyone was hungry and thirsty and ready for snack! Next week I will post the finished products of the fall pictures they have created.
Next Week is also our Stone Soup Project before Thanksgiving- its wonderfully fun, and if you send a tupperware container in, we will send home a taste of our soup with you! We have different students on different days, so your child may end up making more than one batch with their class- please send in your items for the soup asap.
We had a speech-language pathologist in this week to do some assessments- as a free service- if you didn’t receive a assessment notice- its because your child is too young at this point for assessment (and we will revisit it next year)- and if you did ask for your child to be assessed and you haven’t heard anything back from me, it is because they show age appropriate speech and language skills. So no worries!
Seven Surprising Parenting Solutions That Boost Kids’ School Success
25 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Parenting
Seven Surprising Parenting Solutions That Boost Kids’ School Success.
Getting into routine
21 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Back to School Tags: back to school, Montessori alphabet, routines
We are already getting settled into our regular routines- it takes little ones such a short time to follow the patterns in the classroom. We spend lots of time reviewing what our classroom rules are and this week have discussed our peace agreement. We talk about inside and outside voices, and for the most part we are good at using inside ones! Our first couple of field trips are booked, with information in parent emails and childrens folders. We are doing grace & courtesy lessons in group work, and everyone is quickly working through individual lessons in practical life.
The kids are so full of joy and eager to learn! As we run through our calendar, sign language and circle songs, they are full of enthusiasm- singing, smiling and clapping. It makes for a fun and happy spirit here each day.
If you are interested in working on letters at home with your child, please remember that we introduce only the lower case letters (other than when writing their names), and we teach letter sounds, not names.
a- as in apple b- as in bat c- as in cat d- as in dog e- as in elephant f- as in fish g- as in go
h- as in hat i- as in igloo j- as in jump k- as in kitten l- as in lion m- as in mom n- as in nose
0- as in octopus p- as in pipe q- as in queen (kw) r- as in rain s- as in snake t- as in tiger
u- as in umbrella v- as in van w- as in water x- as in fox (ks) y- as in yo-yo z- as in zipper
First Week
18 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
What a lovely week! The first class, of the first day, one little sweetheart had a bit of separation anxiety that I (thankfully) managed to divert fairly quickly. Other than that, all the classes have gone beautifully- happy, sweet, outgoing and wonderful little ones whom I can’t wait to watch grow! We have done all the housekeeping lessons- where things are, where things go, bathroom etiquette, snack and clean up routines- setting up activities and taking them down again. It has been a very busy week, I have dropped into bed each night this week by about 9 pm- I am hoping for all my parents sake that all their little ones are also worn out by the end of the day!
I have spent the last 4 hours online booking & checking out field trips for the 2011-2012 year- we will have a couple of tried and true ones, as well as some exciting new places to go.
How did your week go? Were the children excited to come to school? And excited to come back next time? Were there things you loved? And things you liked not so much? Remember that the little yellow journals that travel back and forth are for all of us- you, me, and your children. If I haven’t put anything of note in yours for a couple of days- its just because we have been too busy! But I will try my best to write in it weekly and let you know what we have been up to.
Welcome back to all my returning families- I am amazed and thrilled by how grown up everyone has become over the summer- and welcome to all the new families. I hope if you have any questions or concerns or suggestions, you feel free to share them with me.
Have a lovely weekend! Follow @handinhand on Twitter and get updates on fun events for kids and families around Calgary.
