Garden update.

Masha' Allah, its been a little over two weeks since the Professors planted their Sunflowers and flower garden, so I wanted to post a small update. These pictures are already outdated, since we put mulch in yesterday, but were taken Friday afternoon, so they're pretty recent.

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Zinnia's and Bulbs

Masha' Allah, our Zinnia's have grown and blossomed nicely despite a few real cold snaps since they were planted. The red one is really taking off, and we've already been able to make a few cutting from it, Masha' Allah. 

Our bulbs have finally started to poke through the soil, with the exception of one patch near the back of the garden. Insha' Allah with the warm weather forecast for the week, I'm hoping they'll really start taking off. 

Our mystery plants seem to be some form of hostas, which I'm not really a fan of because they attract Voles. They are Masha' Allah, providing a nice green boost to the garden. 

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Sunflower Seeds

The Sunflowers seed are finally sprouting. The Professors had given up on them, and have said as much, but to their surprise there they are: 

I'm hoping insha' Allah that these too will really grow in the warm weather this week, and insha' Allah I'm hoping soon we won't have too many more cold, clammy, grey days. We're still working on planting the leftover seeds in the yard.

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New Theme: Spring

We kicked off our Spring theme this morning on a cold, cloudy, clammy and very unspring like day, by introducing some Bird nomenclature printables from Montessori Printshop. They can be used as cards, or made into a book, we tried our best to combine both options. I chose Birds to kick off our theme because, Masha' Allah, ever since we got our bird feeder up, everyone's interest in birds has really blossomed.

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Bird Book

I just LOVE the Montessori Printshop's nomenclature printables, often referred to as nomenclature cards. It is such a clear way to teach a lesson. I had the bird cards printed out in color, then put them under protective sheets and bound them in a small three ring binder

Each section of the bird is highlighted in color, followed by a short description. Its about six pages long. 

Masha' Allah, when Grammy visited us last week, she brought two bird books for our classroom. 

These books are informative and colorful, especially the one featuring the Cardinal on the cover. The Bird Watchers Digest is more wordy, less pictures, but there are some great links in there I am going to be checking out, insha' Allah. I've already found some local Bird watching trails! 

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Spring Shelf

We have two shelves in our classroom that we change up periodically. I try to keep the stuff Montessori, or Montessori theme based. I changed our top shelf around a little this morning to reflect the start our Spring theme. 

This window overlooks the bird feeder, so I thought it was the perfect place for our nomenclature book, on the far right, and our bird watching books. On the far left I included a plastic magnify glass ( dollar store) for closer inspection of bird pictures. Our bird clock (gift), which plays bird songs on the hour, of the featured bird, rests on the window sill behind the shelf. This gives the Professors a close up view of the featured birds, and has double as a chart for bird watching, Masha' Allah. The last thing on the shelf are Insect picture cards (walmart), which feature full color photos of the insect(s) on the front, with the insect information on the back. 

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The next animal theme for our nomenclature book is going to be Frogs, then Lady Bugs. From there we'll move on to other spring things, like plants, weather, whatever strikes the Professors fancy. I'm basing this heavily around their interests. 

If you'd like to make your own nomenclature book or cards, you can find the printables here: 

http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/searchresults.sc

scroll through the link to find what you want insha' Allah. Some are at cost, and some are free : )

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Guest Post from the Lueker Munchkins: Planting Veggies

Our friends, the Lueker Munchkins, have been busy in the garden this spring as well. Taking a different path than the Professors, the Lueker Munchkins are planting a veggie garden, and have been taking regular trips to a local farm for fresh produce and eggs. Check out all the fun here:

http://luekermunchkins.blogspot.com/2012/04/planting-veggies.html

Happy Gardening : )

New Theme: Practical Life Skills

A few posts ago I mentioned as part of our new schedule, I was going to start Themes or Unit Studies with the Professors. The first one I had in mind was going to be based around the Spring season, however, I found the need to dive into an entirely different subject matter, and one that I didn't really ever consider being a theme, Practical Life Skills. 

One of the things I LOVE about Montessori is the teaching of Practical Life Skills in an instructional form. The Professors have regular daily clean up times of both their classrooms, but they are showing the need for some more guidance and order, especially in the morning, so I modified two lessons from our Maja Pitamic book, into one, then merged in some Islamic Studies to boot, Alhumdullilah. 

In today's post I will give an overview of what we hope to accomplish with this new theme, since I don't plan to take pictures of the Professors doing this work, until they are a little more comfortable with it, and they won't be upset by the camera being present. 

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The theme for this week is Folding. ( I raided Professor #3's book basket for the work). The lesson in the book suggests starting out with an old handkerchief and marking it with hash lines where you would like the child to fold. I found that impractical for us at the moment, so I nixed that, and went for folding their pajama's. This gives them something to work on in the mornings while they wait for me to get Baby Professor ready to begin his day. 

The lesson instructs to fold however you wish, so I made it easy for them, with both shirt and pants requiring only three folds each. I forgot completely to lay out a small carpet for working, so in a pinch, we used their circle time squares, which worked out pretty well. The green line indicated where I wanted them place their knees, so they knew which direction to face to start working. They were free to move around however they chose after that.  Islamically we start most everything from the right side, so we went with that also. I showed them how I wanted the clothes to be folded, and they both folded the pajama shirt and pant three times each, then placed them in the small basket. 

The Folding lesson also suggest making pictograms to hang on the appropriate clothing drawer, but Masha' Allah,  the Professors already know where the pajama's go so we don't need to do that either.

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In addition we started to learn the Islamic supplications for getting dressed, getting undressed, and when wearing new clothes. Last year we color printed off a handful of Islamic supplications from a children's website, and laminated them for classroom use. The three supplications will now be hung on their closet wall, so we can see them every morning and practice them at the appropriate time. 

We will continue folding the pajama's, and practice putting them away for a few more days at circle time, then it will be part of their morning routine to fold and put away their own pajama's. From their we will insha' Allah, move on to other clothing items. The next lesson in the book, is sorting and matching socks, but since its warm more than its not, and all their socks are white, I'm thinking to have them do a quick version of the lesson with Baby Professors socks. 

Our Spring theme will have to wait till next week seems, and this will probably be our only post till the end of this week since, insha' Allah, Grammy is coming for a visit.

 Have a great week everyone. 

Threading.

This activity is again taken from our Maja Pitamic Montessori book. In the book they mention several items to thread with, we chose spools, some include large beads, and large uncooked pasta.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, Professor #3 is now working his way through the book, Masha' Allah, and this was the next activity on the list that we had materials for. On the day we did this activity, I did not set up separate work for the twins, but instead, after Professor #3 had had time to throughly complete the activity, I called the twins to complete it too. I set the bowl out on the school table all week, thinking (hoping) they would be inclined to do more threading, but they didn't, and Professor #2 even called after me once, 'Mommy, you forgot to put this away!'  Looks like this will be something I will have to put in the Montessori rotation for practice, insha' Allah.

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Getting Started

These are old thread spools. When my grandmother moved out of her house a few years ago, she and my mother came across a small box of these in the basement. Not knowing what to do with them, my Mom asked me if I thought I could make use of them.  Alhumdullilah, we did! 

I bought a few packs of shoe laces for the 'thread' from Wal Mart. They are much more sturdy and easier  for the Professors to work with. I knotted the end of each shoe lace twice to hold the string of spools. 

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Threading

Professor #3 was eager to get started with this activity, as he had been hanging around while I set up. I showed him how to thread the spool, and he needed help a few times, but after that he was good to go, Masha' Allah. He also felt the need to stand on his chair for the first few spools. 

Working hard

Threading complete

Well, for him anyways, this is all he wanted to do, which, Masha' Allah, I think was fairly good. 

Twins Threading

Here are a few shots of the twins doing their threading. They enjoyed the activity, and after Professor #2 was done, Professor #1 redid his string to include all the spools, Masha' Allah.

We have some Melissa and Dough threading boards that Grammy gave to the Professors when they were younger. We'll insha' Allah be getting those out very soon,  to include in the Montessori rotation to continue practicing this skill.

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Baby Professor

Baby Professor kept busy with a new book, Masha' Allah that Grammy picked up at the Spring consignment sale.

When he presses the button, it speaks the color name. He was very possessive of this book at first, and would get crazy if anyone tried to touch it, or help him with the colors. He's simmered down about it now, but its still Masha' Allah a favorite.

When he was done with that , he allowed Professor #2 to help him with another book.

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Summer Garden

Continuing with our garden posts, the Professors planted a small flower garden a few weekends back, as well as helped DH and I plant a few other items. Masha' Allah, the experience began with a trip to the Home Depot Garden Center on a brilliant, warm, sunny afternoon. Needless to say it was packed! Upon arrival we split into two groups. DH, Baby Professor and Professor #3, went left and got the essentials, potting soil, mulch, etc. The twins and I headed right and into the heart of the planting section. We already had our bag of 'mixed bouquet' bulbs, so we grabbed our Sunflower seeds, then went up and down the isles, masha' Allah, enjoying all the new flowers and plants. I instructed each of them to pick out one plant to put in the garden. We also chose two hanging flower baskets for the porch. We also wanted to select a decorative item for the garden, but because the Professors could not agree on one item, that's on hold for now.

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Our Summer Garden

I did not not get any pictures of the Professors planting the garden. We had a strong cold snap the morning they planted, and I was indoors with Baby Professor. DH didn't allow the Professors themselves to stay out very long either, so the work got done in spurts over the course of the day. 

Here are the two plants they chose. I am not garden expert, but I believe they are Zinnia's. 

Professor #1's bunch is red, Professor #2's yellow. Professor #3 became so focused on the garden decoration that he could not bring himself to pick a plant. He opted for helping plant the other items. 

Here is a snap of their very empty looking garden. 

The three green plants to the far left were planted by the previous homeowners, and for the life of me I have no idea what they are. In front of the Zinnia's, we planted the bag of mixed bouquet flower bulbs, which are Paeonia, Gladiolus, Lily and Delphinium. Here is a picture of the bag. 

They are said to bloom around mid to late Summer. 

We have a few bags of Sunflower seeds leftover, and are in talks about where to plant them. I think the winning idea is going to be to plant them along the back fence line in the back yard. Supposed to be a little stormy here this weekend, so not sure when that will get done. After that, our planting will be complete. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it is part of the Professors morning routine to water and weed the garden as needed. Getting out and gardening in the early morning has done wonders for their spirit, and their school work! Masha' Allah. We sure encourage everyone to get out do some type of gardening this season. Happy Gardening!

Planting Sunflower Seeds.

Over this past weekend the Professors planted Sunflower seeds, in large pots on our deck.  This is an activity that we've been wanting to accomplish, again from our Maja Pitamic Montessori book.

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Getting Started

The lesson plan and the seeds all ready to go.

These are the pots. 

Professor #1 chose the Purple on the far left. Professor #3 chose the large white in the middle, and Professor #2 chose the blue/green on the right. 

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Ready to plant and water

I wanted the Professors to participate in as much of the work as possible, and Masha' Allah, even though they were at times very distracted by wanting to ride big wheels, they did a great job. 

Shoveling the dirt and planting the seeds

Here are some of the seeds, ready to be covered over with the last layer of dirt

All planted and watered

For sanity reasons I was not able to get shots of the Professors watering, perhaps in the future, insha Allah. 

Masha' Allah, the project went well, and the Professors enjoyed an afternoon of outdoor play, and an evening BBQ on the deck. Watering of their Sunflowers, is now something included in their morning routine several days a week. Insha' Allah, we're looking forward to caring for, and watching our Sunflowers grow through the Summer, and will periodically post updates on their progress.