Dressing Frames

There are a lot of ways you can make your own dressing frames. My favorite ideas are:

1. Buy wooden 8 1/2 x 11 picture frames from the $1 store. Remove glass and the staple on the back of the frame baby clothes. Very easy and there's tons of small baby/toddler clothes at the second hand store if you don't have anymore.

2. To sew baby clothes onto a pillow cover of a small decorative pillow. It's easy to make a pillow case, use those standard instructions and then add the clothes ontop of the front piece before assembling and sew it together. These would make some fun pillows on your child's bed at night.

Lastly, I'm so excited! I got the BEST DEAL EVER on my local craigslist. I got this awesome play cube for only $20.

Here's the site for more information

My kids think it's great. It's 4 sided and has buttons, snaps, buckles, zipper, lacing, bowties, chrome closure, on every side so all three of my kids can work at the same time. It's also super fun and soft to jump on apperantly. It save me a lot of work for making dressing frames!

Vertebrates and Invertebrates Cards for Science

Here are the vertebrates and invertebrates activity cards. I made two control cards and labels with definition as well.

Vertebrate and Invertebrate

Living & Non-living Cards and 5 Kingdom Cards

More cards! I've been busy today. I have two different documents. The first document has the living and non-living labels and about 10 non-living picture cards. The second document has about 17 different living picture cards that have the living organisms name on it. It also has the 5 kingdoms (plants, protists, prokaryotes, fungi, animals) labels, their definitions and the 5 kingdoms label. So that document works as the kingdom cards and the living cards, so you may want to print out two sets of picture cards. The prokaryotes kingdom is made up of two groups the archaebacteria and eubacteria. Some books have 6 kingdoms and some have 5. The children's encylopedia that we have has them in 5 kingdoms with the eubacteria as a subgroup so I divided into 5 kingdoms. Just wanted you to know, as I don't know your preference!

Non-living

Living

Life Cycle Cards for Butterfly, Frog, Ladybug and Ant

I made the life cycle cards! I got these nice plastic life cycle 3d objects that my son absolutely loves and they are pretty big, so they are easy to handle and very durable. These are the ones I bought:
http://www.insectlore.com/dealers/lifecyclestages.html

The store by me, didn't have the other 3. They were $4.75 each and way worth it to me. Anyways, these are the pictures, labels and definition cards I made to go with these, but they can be used just fine on their own as well. I used real pictures I found off googling. I always use real pictures over drawings if I can find them! Let me know how you like them.

Ant
Butterfly
Ladybug
Frog

Montessori Research and Development Curriculumn

I was asked about my Montessori RD Curriculumn I am using, so I thought I'd do a quick post to answer some of those questions. All the manuals I bought from them have been elementary age since my son is doing 1st & 2nd grade work. Some lessons in the Math book start at 4 years of age so it does have lessons for the ten and teen board, etc. Here are the manuals I have:

--Language Arts 1: Grammar
--Geography Manual 1
--History Manual 1
--Mathematics Manual 1
--Zoology Manual 1
--Geometry Manual 1
--Botany Manual 1
--Chemistry Manual 1
--Fractions Manual 1
--Fractions Manual 2

So basically, I bought most of the 1st manuals for all the subjects in the elementary group. LOL. Right now, I am just working with my son in the Language Arts Manual, Geography, History, and Math. In January, I will start adding Zoology and Botany. The Geometry work, the kids need to be a little older than 6....maybe 8 I would start. Chemistry, there are a few lessons for the younger kids, but again I would wait until about 8 for most lessons. So eventually I'll add in some easier geometry and chemistry lessons. I don't know when I'll start fractions. I just saw those two manuals on ebay for a good price so I bought them!

I love these manuals. At the website they have the table of contents in pdf that you can view before you buy it so you'll know what's included. The lessons are really neat and clear more than one presentations for some of the lessons listed, sometimes she lists a book or two to get to compliment the lesson. Then the manual as sheets to photocopy to use for the lesson or they list what you need. For example, they have listed the Farm Cards and she individually listed every animal card that is in the Nienhuis Montessori cards. This is how I was able to make my own cards for everyone else! Instead of just saying you need farm cards, at the end of the lesson is a list so you can make your own cards to use with the lesson. Which, obviously I love. I would not be able teach my son using the montessori methods otherwise, there's just too much costs involved for us right now (with my husband doing a residency in a hospital). So, I love these manuals, I think they are really great.

I also wanted to say, before buying these I emailed the owner back and forth and she was really nice. I just had a few questions and she was really nice. You also have a choice if you want a bound or loose leaf manual. I choose loose leaf so I can put them in protective sheets (what can I say, sometimes I can be messy). The owner included the chemistry manual in their for free. She said it didn't bind right so she thought I could use it. How sweet was that? With my second order she added another for free as well. Same thing, it had binding issues and she couldn't sell it like that and since I wanted loose leaf she just added it free with my order. I used my cool knife and cut the pages out of the binding and put them in protective sheets and you can't even tell they were ever bound.

Lastly, the cost is why I bought these too. They aren't expensive at all and it's really every thing you need. Hope this helps everyone!

www.montessorird.com

Julie

Pink Series Spelling Lists and Beginner and Advanced Sight Word Lists

Here is my last files for a couple of days. The first file is spelling lists for the pink series. There are the spelling cards with 6 words each for each vowel sound and then there is 6 more cards of review. Then there are sight word lists and then advanced sight word lists. I made all my pink series cards and sight words small enough that they fit into these plastic stands that www.montessorird.com has for sale. Check out their language arts section of the curriculumn materials store. Their stands are only $2 or $2.25 each, so it's a good deal and great way to organize the cards you are currently working on at a desk or on a tray.

Pink Spelling Lists

Sight Word Lists

Advanced Sight Word Lists

Pink Series Word Lists, Pictures, and Word labels

I have a lot of cards for you! The first file are some cards that have 6 words listed on them each. Then there are cards with one picture on them each and then the word labels. Have the child pick one of the word lists and then find the six pictures that match the words on the list. Then have them find the correct labels. I like to have the child put the pictures under the word list on the floor and the labels under the picture. Then have them work on the next word list. Their are separate files for the a sounds, e sounds, i sounds, o sounds, and u sounds. Enjoy!

Pink AEIOU Word Lists

Pink Series A Sounds

Pink Series E Sounds

Pink Series I Sounds

Pink Series O Sounds

Pink Series U Sounds

Pink Langauage Series: Alphabe Match-up & Mix-up

I got quite a bit of work done yesterday and a little today on the pink language series. I'm so excited, but at the same time, so sad I'm out of color ink! I need to hurry and get some and some more laminating sheets so my 4 year old can get started on these!

First, I have this alphabet match up. This is for teaching the lowercase letters. My 4 year old knows the uppercase letters, but doesn't know very many lowercase letters. These are strips of 4 letters. The first set is in order so the first strip has "A B C D", then there are the same strips but in lowercase letters. So you can sing the song with your child and lay out the uppercase strips in order and then have her put the lowercase strips underneath to match the correct letters. I did this in strips because that way if the child recognized 1 or 2 of the lowercase letters on that strip they should be able to easily match it to the correct uppercase strip. Doing this exercise will also help them see the ones they aren't familiar with as they match them up.

The second set of strips, the alphabet is all mixed up. I made sure to put b and d on the same strip and q and p on the same strip so that they can learn the differences between the two. Once your child has worked with both of these sets, then I'd move onto matching individual letter cards. I will be making the individual cards soon!

Alphabet Match 1

Alphabet Match 2

Bytheway, I'm using a new service to hold my files called box.net let me know how you like it compared to sribd, which i was using in my past posts. Thanks!

Julie

Oops! Animal Homes...

For some reason, I forgot to add the animal home cards to the the other document (that document just had the animals and the control cards). So sorry! I just went back and added them to the previous post. You can see both documents here:

http://homemademontessori.blogspot.com/2008/10/animal-homes-nouns.html

Next, I will start working on continent cards and pink language series cards (all different kinds). My 4 year old is finally understanding how letter sounds form words and I want some cards for her to work on while schooling my son. So I'll be busy and I'll post them here when I'm done.

Animal Groups--Noun

These cards are for the lesson on page 37. These cards are the animals, their groups and the control cards. I still need to make the animals and their young cards that is also a part of this lesson. I hope to have those made this weekend as well. I finally got the bright idea to put the name of the group of cards on each individual card so if one goes astray and you find it later you will know where it goes! So in the bottom right of these cards it says "animal groups" I haven't printed these out yet, I just got done making them (I'll be printing and laminating them tommorrow), so I hope the "animal groups" is big enough to read, but light and small enough not to distract from the rest of the cards. let me know how you like it.

La 37 Animal Groups - Upload a Document to Scribd

Animal Homes--Nouns

This is for the language arts lesson on page 33 of the montessori research and development elementary manual. I'm so glad to finally be done with them! Thanks so much for those that have been leaving comments. I love reading them and I'm so glad others are using my cards and ideas. It helps keep me motivated to make these cards because I'm not just making them for me, I'm saving so many other people from having to spend the hours making them too! Here is my latest cards...it's a long document, but worth it. Let me know how you like it!

Animal Homes

Animal Homes Document 2

Give Me a Five!

I'm back from vacation! I got sick right after I got, so I was MIA for a while. I wanted to share my experience about teaching my son to tell time, but I remember how confusing it can be and how hard it can be to remember that the 2 stands for 10 minutes, etc. I taught my son (he just turned 6) the o'clocks first and of course that was no problem. Then I put the clocks away and introduced him to the 5 short and long chains and arrows. I had him arrange the short one first and he did that easily. Then we worked on the large one. I wanted him to learn to count by 5's so he could just count by 5's around the clock to tell the minutes until he just 'remembered' on his own after some time. So after we worked on the long chain and arrows, I asked him to find a pattern on the numbers. If you look at the ones digit, I pointed out that there is a pattern of 5, 0, 5, 0, 5, 0, etc. Then when you look at the tens digit you get 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, etc. so I pointed out that there is two of each number in the tens while the ones just repeat the pattern 5, 0, 5, 0, etc. So then, I had him write the numbers to 60 counting by 5's on his own (we never even practiced or learned counting by 5's yet) and using the pattern he was able to figure it out. It took him like 7 minutes to figure it out and write the numbers down, but now when he if he forgets what comes next, he thinks of the pattern.

Okay, so that's all fun and honkey dory, but what does that have to do with givin' me a high five? PRACTICE of course! I needed him to practice counting by 5's and he was already burnt out from the chains and writing numbers, but we needed to practice while it was all still in his head nice 'n fresh (he he). So I told him why we call it give me a five (because we have 5 fingers) so I would say "give me 40" and then he would give me 40 fingers, which meant he had to count to 40 by counting by 5's and give me a "5" each time he counted until he got to 40. He thought it was a great game! We continued practicing while I cooked dinner...stirring with one hand, learning to count by 5's with the other, he he. But now he can count by 5's. It's great because now when we're standing in line I just say "give me 85" and he's entertained and learning! He's getting much faster. After doing this for a while, we brought out the clocks and I said start at the number 1 and count by 5's and told him that was how many minutes. So now he checks the hour, counts by 5 around the clock and will give me the time. He's starting to associate 3 with 15 and 1 or 2 other numbers so he's much quicker now, but ideally, he can tell time already. He'll just keep getting quicker with more practice. What I thought was going to be a long process of trying to teach him to tell time, actually ending up only take a day and half and as excited as I was that he "got it" so quickly, I was kinda said, because now my cute clock cards I bought and my cute teaching clocks are neglected. Ah well! Hope this helps someone else!

Nouns: Common and Proper Nouns

Here are more noun labels! For the lesson on page 31. I have the animal and animal homes cards almost done. Hopefully they'll be this week. It's taking so long because the control cards have pictures of the animals on them and I have to photoshop those pictures first. But I wanted the control cards to be a spiral bound book with pictures so my kids to make it more interesting. I'm excited for them!

La 31 Common and Proper Nouns - Upload a Document to Scribd

Nouns: Person, Place, & Thing

Here are my cards for teaching nouns. I made them to use with the Montessori Research and Development Elementary Language Arts curriculumn (that is great, I highly recommend it!). If you use that, it's for the lesson on page 29

La 29 Person Place Thing - Upload a Document to Scribd