Gratitude Leaves for Thanksgiving

My son and I started writing all the things that we are thankful for in these leaf-shaped cut-outs.  After, we hung them in his window. 

Montessori Wrap-Up

We did these a few weeks ago and because we spend too much outdoors these days... I forgot to write about it.

Learning how to read using the pink series objects and Melissa and Doug’s magnetic letters.  What we did here is that I would make the sound of each letter of the word via segmentation and Mavi has to form that word using the magnetic letters.  I use the our CVC objects as his guide... but here he has to form the correct order of letters on his own according to the sounds I make.

Learning to count from 10 to 20.  Here he has to put the correct number of buttons on the sheet based on the number card I show him. This is just to enhance his counting skills for the ‘teens number.  We did an introductory to the ‘teens number here.

 

A matching game using number cards and beads.  He has to match the number cards to that on the beads on the felt sheet.

 

Using bear counters in practicing counting 11 to 20.

Skip counting by tens.  From here we will practice counting 30 to 50.. then to 100.  I will also start giving him skip counting activities by 2’s, 3’s and 5’s.

  

Guess the letter game.  He has to guess the letter that he is holding through his sense of touch.  It’s similar to mystery bag game.  This one he liked so much but he peeks through the eye mask most of the time... but it was really fun.  We should be doing this more often as it involves the use of his other senses.

 

Then he did lots of cutting and gluing.  Mostly he wants to do things on his own and doesn’t want to be instructed.  He would just ask me for a paper, colored pens, scissor and glue and would do free play.  He would pretend he’s ion Artzooka and doing crafts.  But I insist that I supervise as he is using scissor. 

              

He loves to draw... he loves to create trees, grasses, the sun... then there’s drawing of his family, with houses and cars :)

Gingerbread Man

We’ve been reading the story of the Gingerbread Man these days and did a couple of activities to go along with the book.

Making Gingerbread Men(or women).  I made use of our paper bags and cut the gingerbread man pattern by freehand.  Then I made clothes for them using construction papers. I also decided to add some ornaments in case Mavi gets bored of using papers :)

I made each a face and my son was more than happy to dress them up... each one differently.

 

He worked through all the the gingerbread men.  If you look closely, he even added small dots representing buttons on each clothing, “Just like in the book Mama!” he said.

Then we also worked on the story sequencing.  We did this a couple of times, first using the book as a guide.  Then after working and reading the book over and over again he can sequence the printouts without my assistance.  He would even use our Safari Toobs animals to demonstrate the event that happened in the story.  I downloaded this from Homeschool Share.

 

Size sorting of gingerbread babies, got this from Homeschool Creations.

 

Homemade 100 Boards

We left our 100 boards in SG, so what I did is to make this color coded cards and write the numbers 1to 100.  Today, we used to to practice counting from 1 to 50.   

I am still hoping that we could own our very own 100 Board though, but probably when that time comes, we might not be needing it anymore.

Halloween 2011

Growing up, we never had Halloween celebrations in the Philippines.  And when we moved here, I couldn’t resist not to comply with their traditions.    So to introduce the spirit of Halloween to my son, here’s a few of activities which we did last week.  Promise that I will be more prepared next year.

Making pumpkin faces.  I got the inspiration from here.  Too bad we didn’t have a real pumpkin(out of stock)  it would have been more fun.

         

Numbers and counters and sorting using Halloween foam stickers which I got with a whooping 50% off.

         

Lots of playdoh fun making monsters and this idea comes from Pink and Green Mama.

We also participated in our community’s Haunted Forest Walk which was held  last Sunday (October 30) at MP. It was a family event and the boy was so happy to see lots of kids in costume.  There was a long queue, but the line was moving so after around 15 minutes we entered the haunted forest.

                         

And these are some of the sights my son enjoyed and recognized.

Hansel and Gretel’s bad witch.  Farmers with pumpkin head... when he saw this he shouted “Pumpkin patch!”.

          

The spooky train which he didn’t find spooky at all. In fact he wanted to ride on it.  And the giant eyeball, which he admires!

         

These bird skulls were the only thing that scared him.  Look at how tight he hugged his Daddy!

On the left is a read giant spider with a man’s head.  It crawls down from tree, thus the blurry picture.  On the right is a Snow White’s stepmom mirror.

                        

Then the next day we went Trick or Treat in our neighborhood.  My boy had so much fun! He enjoyed meeting friends and receiving candies from our super nice neighbors. 

                        

We went with these nice girls.  They like Mavi so much.  They kept on laughing at him whenever he says “Happy Halloween” or “Thank You” and telling me that my son is so loud hahaha.

Post ‘trick or treat’ at home. I have to keep most these candies as we’re not allowing him to eat too much sweets.

Indeed a memorable Halloween for my boy.  Till next time!

Moon and Planets

Last week we were rowing Goodnight Moon and ABC Bunny.  We also read Papa Can You Take the Moon for Me and the Stars and Planets book from the Ladybird Read It Yourself Series as follow-on reads (related to moon and stars).

My son got really excited upon knowing that we’ll be doing activities related to space.  You see lately, he’s so obsessed with rocket ships and told me he wanted to go to the Moon riding a rocket ship.  And he loves to memorize the planets! Goodness. 

To feed his enthusiasm, we started with the nomenclature card of the Phases of the Moon.  I got mine for free from ETC.  It  helped that we arranged the phases of the moon on the events that occurred in Papa Can You Take the Moon for Me, for my son didn’t get bored or tired understanding the topic.  (He tends to listen intently when I discuss topics related or based on a book he read).  For him it was just a story telling.  But of course, he picked the concept that the moon can get bigger or smaller.

 

Then we did the matching game: picture cards with the control cards/label with the control cards.  Supposedly he should match the label with the picture card but then he still couldn’t do it so I just made him do the later.

          

And I was inspired by this project from Adventures of Bear that I just got to do it with Mavi too.   I did all the cutting as he can’t cut circles yet... he did all the gluing job including putting the labels.  My son considered it a masterpiece!

After I took his picture he insisted that he should take my photo too... with his work.

The last activity that we did was the planets.  This wasn’t supposed to be part of the unit but then he got the book and started reading it to me.  He kept on asking me the names of all the planets for at that time, he can only memorize the first three.  So I took my nomenclature card (homemade) and discussed each planets.  I did the discussion in a ‘story telling’ manner.

       

Le Louvre

The best museum we’ve been to.  My son enjoyed running around the museum.. of course he couldn’t appreciate it yet.  Hope we can go back so I can discuss to him valuable works of art that made it history.