There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Puppet set with books. Children get turns feeding the animals into her mouth as we sing the song.

Card matching to the puppets that she swallows.

I drew her with an empty belly as a handout for the kids to draw in.

Child like drawings for the kids to follow as they draw

Their finished drawings

Children who are too young to draw make this paper bag puppet with copies of the matching cards

 to feed into her mouth.

Cast Off Treasures

 My Saturday newspaper connects me with estate sales around town. I love them. 

This week I found very unique objects. 

Cultural objects were overflowing at these sales, but I did not need more of those.

I was looking for something I had never seen before and I found them!

Here is what I did bring back to the school!

I found a tiny anvil and metal headed hammer for $5 each. It makes a lovely tinging sound when hit!

I added objects like our horseshoes and flat metal objects to tap and pretend to be a blacksmith!

Then I put the blacksmith work in a farm fence box to corral it.

I also bought this taped together box for $8.  I saw a tiny colander that intrigued me. 

I think many of the contents will be usable.

Immediately I had this toothpick exercise from the box contents.

My goal was to get this tiny stainless steel colander set that I added toothpick sized 

plastic vegetables to for a  miniature washing exercise. I love it!

Lastly, a $2 basket will hold a $5 large sponge for a "Who Am I?" game.

"I am an animal without a face!  Who Am I?"

I always think of and thank the unknown family that these objects came from.

They are treasures to my school and will have a happy new life!

  

Fossil Unit

Yes, I collect everything!

Here is my collection of fossils.

The first two images are of real brachiopods from the Paleozoic Era 500 million years ago.

They are bivalve creatures that lived under the ocean and include clams.

http://www.fossilicious.com/Brachiopods-c-317.html

The two while cards are cepholopods mollusks.

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/FosCephs.php

The next three images are of my favorite of all fossils

 - the trilobite. They are very handsome crab like creatures that lived 500 million years ago. I tell the children they are handling creatures older than the dinosaurs!

http://www.nature-watch.com/trilobite-fossil-p-82.html?cPath=142_157&gclid=CJac8-Hriq4CFeJeTAodeVfNzQ

These are amongst the oldest arthropods. They were abundant during the Paleozoic era, but died out at the end of it. They are easy identified with their three part bodies.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite

Now for the fossil coral.  I lived near Coralville, Iowa

where these fossils were everywhere just laying around 

near stream beds and in gravel since Iowa was the bottom of an ancient ocean.

Now for the plant fossils.

Crinoids lived at the bottom of the ocean and are common fossils.

http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/crinoid_fossils.html

The fern fossils I must have bought at a rock and mineral show.

How could you start a fossil collection?  Well, they have gotten a little expensive now, but never miss those traveling rock and mineral shows that come to town. I paid almost nothing for mine because I am such a scavenger.

This ancient history unit goes:

My rock collection (posted here)

This fossil unit

and then volcanoes. 

Dinosaurs would go next. 

Art Rubbings

A favorite art project is to lay out collected items that have a good texture that can be covered with paper and rubbed with a crayon.  

I draw free hand designs to be rubbed onto to give the project more structure.

This computer created design also adds interest and focal points.

These 6 circles become a study of texture.

Kids will do this over and over with gusto using all the patterns and textures. 

Practical Life on a Budget

My small school, Dundee Montessori, is operated in my parent's original home that I inherited. I have no big board of directors or big school budget. I make every decision on every detail by myself or with the help of Miss Shirley, who has been a teacher with the school for 14 years.

As a creative person, as most Montessori teachers are, my goal has been to present unique and original works for my students to do each day. I often tell them that this school will be the only place they will ever handle cow bones, or hold a horseshoe crab, or do the cool, fun practical life works I cobble together from cast offs.

I love putting practical life works together. We call them "table works" at my school and I continue to put new exercises together even though my store room is filled. I adore estate sales and Goodwill and so I continue to buy very cheap objects and I continue to love finding a way to use them. For me it is like a puzzle I must figure out. I bought these napkins rings but what do I use them for?

Here are the works on my shelf now that have all come from estate sales or Goodwill. 

Every tray, dish or spoon has been a bargain! 

Metal tins fit the star basket to make an attractive spooning work

Fuzzy pipe cleaners poke into this salt shaker.

Q-tips down the hole!

Sparkly pom poms drop into color coordinated napkin rings.

Those goofy ceramic kitchen animals with a spoon for a tail becomes one of our favorite works. 

Many different pieces from all different places comes together perfectly. 

Indian brass incense burners become a lid and top matching work with a pink pom pom to add inside.

What to do with a unique tree shaped bottle and hair bands.

So, all that is old is new again and finds a new and useful life!

The unwanted cast offs are very much needed in my life as a Montessori teacher.

Rock Unit

I rotate science units monthly and this is the start to our rock, fossils, and volcano unit 

which will take a couple months to go through. 

If you have seen my other science units you know I am a huge collector of all things natural.

A tray of crystals with a page from some workbook to sort them by size.

I try to add a paper work to most things because my kids love to do a paper element to take home.

Petrified wood to handle.

Naming different rocks.

I collected the geodes with the red dots and rubber bands to hold them shut in a stream in Iowa - a fossil meca.  When I taught Montessori in Iowa City, fossils were at every stream and mixed in the gravel in neighborhood driveways. I could actually walk down the street and collect fossils in people's drive. 

I will post my fossil unit later on. Watch for it.

http://www.rocksforkids.com/

http://geology.com/rocks/

Liebster Award to Little Ole Me!

http://tothelesson.blogspot.com/2011/12/liebster-blog-award.html?showComment=1326051468236#c1146395679218300699

Sasha,  at tothelesson.blogspot,  has awarded this to blogs of interest. 

She was nice enough to give my blog one of the awards!

Please see her really wonderful blog!

And thank you, Sasha, for the honor!