We have 10 fingers!

I saw this today and decided to make my own version and laminate it to assist some tots in counting their fingers!
Although my tots can count to 30 the concept of all those numbers gets lost if you do not assist them in making a visual connection to those numbers. So this is what we did.

I had the tots place their hands over the hands on the page we created. Then I had them count out loud their fingers on each hand. Some breezed by doing this activity - others did struggle. I will leave this out for the tots to practise whenever they have an urge to do so. 

Do they use that stuff?

There are often times when I get asked if the children actually choose to use the practical life items I place out for the children in the classroom.
Indeed they do! I think it's because they are different. They are not pre-packaged toys - they are something outside of the box. I also present the objects before independant use, so the children have an idea of how they may manipulate the objects. Not because I don't think they would come up with their own solutions - but because some kids simply need a stepping off point. Besides I think it also makes the object more important since they were presented as something special.

Here the children use the I Spy Christmas Tubes and some Christmas icecube trays with glitter pompoms & Christmas erasers. Great for fine motor practice, sorting , matching, sequencing, counting and sensory stimulation etc. The presents our magical elf 'Stanley' brought for the children to count.  The puzzle the one boy is using was very difficult, but he is a really great puzzle expert! He even stumped one of our teachers - he had to show her how it went together! LOL It's really interesting to watch the children use the objects with great interest since most people would simply look at them as just stuff without a purpose.

So - do they use that stuff? YUP!

This week I added magnets with a jar of jingle bells and pipe cleaners bent into candy canes.

 

Fun to play with!

Frutti

http://montessorihomes.blogspot.com/2011/06/free-download.html
It all started with this wonderful free download from At Home With Montessori - as posted by Living Montessori Now http://www.facebook.com/#!/LivingMontessoriNow

We introduced the concept 'inside / outside' - as we used our senses to discover the many qualities of fresh fruit. The best part was making fruit salad for snack! :) We used the wonderful photos to open the discussion about each fruit - then we used the real fruit to expand the concepts introduced.

Checking out the pear!

We tried to get all the fruits in the photos so we had all the wonderful tastes, colours, textures and smells in our salad.

Feeling the texture of the orange, outside.

Feeling the texture inside the orange.

We could smell the orange as soon as we cut it!

The salad tasted awesome!

Even if some of the fruit was sour! :)

It was like a party in our mouth!

We all wish every activity tasted so good!