Tangram Puzzles

Here are some links for making your own
tangram puzzles. I cut mine out of foam
board.

tangram puzzle pieces
small=http://www.abcteach.com/free/t/tangrams_small.pdf
large= http://www.abcteach.com/free/t/tangram_large.pdf

I cut out the tangran puzzles from these webpages and put
them together with a key ring:
animals--http://www.abcteach.com/free/t/tangram_pattern_cards_animal.pdf
abstract designs--http://www.abcteach.com/free/t/tangram_pattern_cards_abstract.pdf
people--http://www.abcteach.com/free/t/tangram_pattern_cards_people_1.pdf

There are also some full page tangram printouts here:
http://www.mathwire.com/literature/7magicshapestemplates.pdf
and the same designs as full shadows (for more advanced students):
http://www.mathwire.com/literature/3pigsblackshapes.pdf

Here is a page with LOTS of puzzles, but the pictures
are very small: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/1335/tanpages.htm

shadows: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/1335/tanpage.htm

Celebrating Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's Birthday

Science Experiments on Colors -- Day One

The kids just love science experiments. I've put together a short
unit of science experiments and activities based on colors.

Our first experiment was to see what colors were in "white
light." We did this in a dark room. We used a flashlight
covered over with black paper with just a slit allowing
light through. We set up a mirror in a bin of water
and shined the light at the mirror through the water. When
the light reflected onto white paper -- they saw rainbow colors.
(From the Usborne Book of Science Experiments)

Then we made our own rainbows with pipe cleaners and
styrofoam.

What colors are used in marker ink? (Day One, cont.)

This experiment was to determine what colors marker ink
is made out of. Chromatography is the process of separating
colors or pigments.

1) The kids colored the end of a coffee filter strip.
2) We placed it into bottles and added a bit of water to the bottom
3) We watched as the colors moved up and separated out

I got this idea from http://www.education.com/activity/article/Color_Science_kindergarten/

Making Pet Rocks

Logan does a drawing, Delenn making a decorated bottle

The kids worked hard on various crafts that
they're entering in "Show Days" (like a county
fair with rides, exhibitions, animals, horseback
riding contests and more).

Beanie Festival

Logan is holding a pom-pom that he made at
the festival.

Such concentration!

Elora is putting beads onto a pipe cleaner. What's
amazing is that she would put the bead down to
make sure the hole was facing up so it would slide
onto the pipe cleaner.

We were SO excited that the science museum is open again!

For months (six or seven months) Strehlow Research Centre
was closed for repair. It finally has reopened and the kids
had a wonderful time looking around. Elora was especially
engaged by it all!

We lingered over the fossil section

We were especially intrigued with the fossil
section since we found fossils a couple of weeks
ago down south of here. (Scroll down for pictures below)

Araluen Arts Centre

We also visited the jet planes and art museum.

They Play Hard!

It's school holidays until the end of July and we're watching
Linda for the next five weeks or so. The kids play really well
together. This scene really tickled me because it had animals,
doll house stuff, jets and star fighters! Everyone was happy
and played for hours together!

We had our friends over for a play one morning

Logan gets his certificate for participating in Tennis Camp

Last week, Logan went to tennis camp from 8:30-11am
Monday through Thursday. He had a wonderful time (in
large part because his buddy was there). Elora was in
my arms when I took this picture and jerked me as I took
the photo (you see the chain length fence through the picture).

Activities While Logan was at Tennis Camp

While Logan was at tennis camp, Delenn, Elora and I did a lot
of painting and activities from the preschool box.

Elora's Right in the Midst of Things!

A Morning at the Clay Pans, June 19th

I took the kids out to the clay pans a couple weeks ago now that
the weather is so gorgeous. A few months ago, we had a lot of rain
and we went out to go "swimming" in the muddy water (water was up
to our knees.) The water has mostly dried up -- leaving a huge
flat area that's perfect for bike riding. We hung out for the morning
and had a great time.

I took a picture of the abandoned van (that was not there a few months
ago). It's pretty common for cars to be stolen here in town just for
the fun of it. Kids/young adults (I assume) drive them around
and smash them or burn them up -- then abandon them outbush.
It's pretty common to see cars like this when you head outbush:

Biking at the Clay Pans

Inspecting the mud at the Clay Pans!

The clay pans are mostly dry now, but there are some places
where the water is still evaporating. The top is hard and
underneath it's all mushy and wet (think of ice when it first
freezes over a pond.) Soon, Logan and Delenn realized they
could "break" the mud with rocks. Needlesstosay, we all
came home with red-dirt polka dot marks (which stains
clothes permanently!)

Where Does it Come From?

In Delenn's workbox today I put a block puzzle of farm
animals and a set of cards I got free from this website:
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/assets/PDF/Where_Things_Come_From.pdf

She found the puzzle challenging, but didn't want much
help from me (she'd start over if I touched a block!)

The cards were really well made. She had to figure out
which three objects went together (sheep, yarn, sweater
--- wood, pulp, paper). Delenn needed quite a bit of help from
me and Logan which surprised me since we have a number of
books that talk about where things come from on the farm. I'll
keep this activity in the workbox drawers for a while; Delenn
will take things out and work on them on her own once I've
worked with her on them initially. She's very self-directed
in that way.

Where does it come from --objects

I also gathered some objects from around the
house to add to the cards. Delenn especially
liked the knitted baby cap!

Addition Strip Board

Here's yet another activity Logan uses for practicing addition...
it's called an addition strip board and I printed it out here:
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/Math/AdditionStripBoard.pdf

School holidays start next week, so many of our weekly
activities will be off (kindergym, dance class, soccer practice
and games). We'll be watching another girl for much of the
break and have plans to get together with a number of
friends while they're off from school. We're looking forward
to that! When school resumes (July 20th) Logan will be in
first grade. (Australian students are only mid-way through
the year, but I decided to follow the American school year
since eventually we'll go back to the U.S.)

Oh--and I've been posting a lot about various activities
we've been doing, but I just wanted to say that this only
gives a snippet of what we do during the day. Many mornings
we have some sort of activity on (kindermusik, kindergym,
dance class, class with another homeschooling family, etc.)
Logan and Delenn spend a lot of time playing together outside
(looking for lizards, playing with Boomer, looking at rocks,
climbing, jumping, painting, and all that) and inside (Logan loves
his legoes and Delenn spends lots of time playing with her "sweet
street" doll house stuff, animals, etc.) They will often
disappear for well over an hour into their rooms (together
or separately) to play quietly on their own. We still
generally have quiet time when Elora is sleeping (so
everyone has time to themselves). We do schoolwork every
day, but it just slides in between all the other playing,
reading, eating and living (chores, changing nappies, etc.)
we do! The kids do watch a bit of TV and/or play on
the computer, but not until the very end of the day just
before Dad comes home.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that because I don't
want anyone to think these activities fill up our entire
day. It's just that they're the new things I can share with
you all.

Looking for Fossils

Last Friday, June 12, Dad took the day off from work and
we drove out south of Alice to a spot where you can find
ocean-life fossils.

We didn't know what we were doing at first and we were
looking in the sandstone. (A friend told us we needed picks
so we assumed you had to break the stones apart.)

Logan found a gecko and wanted his picture taken with it.

After some hard work, the kids wandered off to do more exploring...

While the kids were exploring, Dad looked down and found a fossil!

The fossils you see below are brachiopods. Click on the picture
to enlarge and see more detail.

We took a break for lunch

We took a break for lunch and read a book about fossils aloud
(Let's Read and Learn about Science series). Mom and Dad
found an area that had heaps of fossils and we talked about
how AMAZING that was! This got the kids excited and they
could hardly wait to be finished to find some fossils for themselves.

The kids found fossils too!! COOL -- said Logan!

Logan found a lot of fossil pieces and kept at
it for a while.

Picture at the bottom is at the road house on the way
home. We're looking at an emu.

Making Orange Juice

The oranges are from our orange tree, the juice sure was
sweet!

Geography

We haven't posted for a couple of weeks because the family
came down with a pretty awful gastro bug. Elora had it the
worst (and the longest), with Delenn, Logan and Daddy all
suffering for a couple of days as well. Mom didn't feel well
(after everyone else had it), but somehow escaped the worst
of it.

I had been meaning to talk about our geography work lately, but
obviously didn't get around to it. Logan learned about the
seven continent briefly earlier this year. We've been delving into
geography again lately. These pictures were from back in mid-May.

We got some beautiful 3-part continent cards and have been using
them in conjunction with this map I had from teaching days (it's
from world history, the age of exploration and the kids just love the
fact that people believed in sea monsters (on the map if you look
closely).

Anyway, we've learned the continent song (to the tune of Frere
Jacque):

Europe, Asia, Af-ri-ca...
North America
South America
Then there is Antarctica
Don't forget Australia
Seven continents
Seven continents


We match the continents on the cards with the world map.

Then we've been talking about the animals that live on each
continent.

We started with plastic animals -- and then moved on to photos (in
the next set of pictures).

Reviewing the Seven Continents

Continents and Animals around the world

Here are the large cards we've been using for the continents and small
ones for animals from around the world.


The continents were free at this site (click on the picture

https://edutccom.ipower.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=33&osCsid=42f077d8a67a85fb7edd5b878eec5fa1
Be sure to click on the link in order to see the "FREE DOWNLOAD" option (otherwise things go to a checkout area). Here's another link directly to the continents download
https://edutccom.ipower.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=171&osCsid=42f077d8a67a85fb7edd5b878eec5fa1


Here's where I found the free world animal cards: http://therealshmi.googlepages.com/canadianhistory

Logan, Delenn and I take turns saying, "This is a __buffalo__ it lives in __North America___" and putting it on the correct continent.

I also have some beautiful culture cards that I got from a yahoo
group called Montessori Makers (you have to join the group in
order to access the free files). I'm sure I'll post pictures
later, but the cards are beautiful and show the famous landmarks
and some cultural scenes from each continent. While I have
the cards made, I've only introduced cards from China so far. I
will introduce other Asian culture cards over the course of the
next few weeks.

World Map

I've been doing a lot of reading about Montessori preschool
and early elementary school materials and curriculum. I've
come across some lovely material. Many of the 3-4 year old
preschoolers work with geography materials so I made some
things up for the kids. Delenn has been keen to try out the
materials too. Here she is doing a continent push pin map.
I printed it out from this site:
http://www.polestarmontessori.com/Pin_Map_Continents.pdf

I laminated the map, put down four pieces of foam material and
a heavy piece of cardboard at the bottom. I super-glued the map
to the top foam piece. I put clear contact paper around the bottom
three pieces of foam and cardboard. Then I put another piece of contact
paper around the bottom set and the top map/foam piece. I trimmed
the border so that only 3/4 inches framed the map (in other words
the contact paper does not cover very much of the map). It turned
out pretty well and seems pretty sturdy.

There's a control map on her left with the continent names. She
has to place the names of the continents on the correct place.
She insisted she wanted NO HELP from Mom!

Side view of the world pin map

If you want to make your own map, I hope this picture helps!

Asia Flag Map

After working on the continents again for a week or two, we
settled on a continent again. A couple months ago we looked
at Egypt, now we're looking more closely at Asia (and more
specifically China).

We learned the location of a few countries -- and Logan has
a map/country activity (made out of a box, laminated map
and styrofoam). He's gotten pretty good with the location of
these seven countries even on the map that's on the wall
behind his dining room chair.

I think I got the flags (free) from this site:
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/geo.htm

World Flag Map

Here's Logan work on the new world flag map. The flags
have no country name so he used the Asia map we've
been working with as a control. He only had to place about
6 flags (we'll add them slowly as we cover different places
in the world in the coming months).

China Unit Crafts

Making Chinese Lanterns

The kids are making Chinese lanterns out of a glass bottle,
tissue paper and watered down glue. I love how Elora
tries to be in the thick of things!

Making Chinese Dragons and working on lapbooks

Delenn and Logan also made Chinese handprint dragons.
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/handprint_dragon.htm
Delenn was determined to do everything herself, while
Logan kept insisting he needed my help to cut his hand-
prints out. In the end, he did it mostly himself, but he
gets so frustrated if things don't look "perfect" (by his
definition).

Logan has been working on a China lapbook as well. Delenn
is putting together a lapbook based on "Brown Bear, Brown
Bear." I love all the preschool-tot ideas shared by this Mom
at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/walkingbytheway/
She did some things on Brown Bear, Brown Bear and posted
her ideas on her website if you want to take a peek over
there.

Enjoying our Chinese Lanterns at Dinner

New Math Materials

We've begun using some new math materials lately. This
is a math balance (from Right Start Math). It's really neat
as it helps Logan check his math facts. In the first picture
he's adding 7+2. In the second two pictures he has to figure
out the difference. With 10 on one side and 5 on the other,
what number should he add to make them equal and the
scale balance?

It's a great math tool! Here's the link if you're interested
(it came with our math curriculum, but is $20 if you buy
it separately):

http://www.activitiesforlearning.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=53

Montessori Beads

We also got our Montessori bead manipulatives recently.
Delenn said "they are BEA-UU-TI-FUL!" and has had
a lot of fun with them--not only counting, but making
patterns and carrying them around in her play stroller!

Elora might be all smiles...

Elora is all smiles during the day, but at night she's having
some pretty terrible teething pain (her canines are coming
through).

Elora isn't talking much (16 months), but she is picking up
signs daily. She uses -- good, sit, eat, cheese, more, dog, bird,
cow/horse, please, medicine, all done, light, book, milk, water,
flower, night-night, where? hat, baby, shoes, good, potty/poos,
bath, and more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Elora and Delenn are really enjoying a new Kindermusik
session we started up with a friend (whose two kids are
the same ages as the girls). Logan's Kindermusik class is over for
6 or 8 weeks while we do a different class with his friends, so
we figured it was about time to get in on the music action.
Elora really loves Ring Around the Rosie (and falls at the
appropriate time!) and the Grand Ole Duke of York. She
liked bopping up and down on Mom's knee, but especially
liked it when we became horses and roamed around the
room! Elora has always swayed to music and danced around
so we really wanted to let her experience some music fun.

Little Feet

Living or Non-Living

We've been talking about how scientists classify and organize
things to make sense of the world. We've sorted things into
living and non-living a couple of times. One day they decided
to get their billibos and collect living and non-living things from
the back yard. (It was Logan's idea to do this!).

Here are some great Montessori cards I printed out from this
website: http://homemademontessori.blogspot.com/search/label/non-living

More on Classifying Animals

Delenn had an activity in her workbox [I know I talked
to Grandma and Grandpa and a couple of you about the
workboxes that Dad got me for my birthday--did I ever
post a picture of those new drawers? If not, I'll post a quick
picture of that below this post!] that she's done a
couple of times where she had to sort the animals into
reptiles and birds or mammals. I got that here:
http://filefolderfun.com/SubjectAnimals2.html

She's done this several times and we talked about the
fact that reptiles and birds lay eggs and that mammals
have live babies and nurse their young.

Logan did this as well and we added an activity from
Evan Moor's Take it to your Seat Science. (See the
picture below)

The cards from the post above can be used to sort "living" things
into the five kingdoms. I introduced that topic today.
Because we talked quite a bit about mold, mushrooms,
fungus and yeast back in January and a couple of weeks
ago with the science experiments, Logan and Delenn were
able to correctly place most everything into their proper
categories (except "protists" and "prokaryotes" -- but
honestly, would you know which of those two categories
was the bacteria and which were the amoebas, etc.? FYI
prokaryotes=bacteria).

Anyway, we will have Logan sort the various pictures into their
correct categories on other days. Delenn will sort the pictures
into living and non-living, but I'll still sit down with her to
talk about the five kingdoms. I'll put the cards in their
work box for review.

If you are interested in finding out more about the preschool
and early elementary Montessori intoduction to the animal
kingdoms here is a wonderful resource:

Five Kingdoms: http://www.moteaco.com/albums/biology.html

Animal Kingdom: http://www.moteaco.com/albums/biology2.html
































These are the same
cards from the
living/non-living
activity above.

Delenn wanted
her picture taken
with the cards!

Our Homeschool Area with the Beautiful New Drawers (called workboxes)

This area has been a work in progress for the past couple of
months. I started with the baskets and hard file folders. Each
file folder has a different activity: clocks, Montessori Math,
addition, science/classification, geography (continents), phonics
(for Delenn), reading (Beacon Second Grade Reader --free at
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15659 -- with wonderful
stories like The Shoemaker and the Elves, The Wolf and the
Seven Young Kids and Tom Thumb. Those are the stories
Logan has read to me so far). Anyway, I found a file folder
holder that can hold all of my file bins (last photo below). Dad
got me the colorful drawer set for my birthday. Each evening
I put activities for the kids (Logan is green and blue, Delenn
has purple and pink (sometimes Elora has a pink/purple bin
as well; orange is an activity for everyone).

This area has done WONDERS for life in general. Because all
the materials we need are right there in the drawer, I can say
why don't you go do the workbox drawer and the kids can do
it. We're no "school at home" by any means, but by being
organized the kids have more independence. They often choose
to do things on their own, but also know where to go when I
ask/suggest that they do something. We get much more
schoolwork done simply because things are out, ready and set to go.

Even on Thursday when Elora threw up all day (she's better now
on Friday) Logan and Delenn did most of the activities I had
gotten ready on Wednesday evening.

Here's a great example of what I mean! Elora just brought
me the little plastic shot glass cups and pom poms from one
of the drawers and is busy putting pom poms into the little
cups here next to the computer. Meanwhile, Delenn just
brought me the wagons (a skip counting activity counting
by 3s). She wanted me to help her put the wagon
train together (like Logan had done) so I helped her and we
laid out pom poms by 3s to help her visualize it. While I doubt
she (at age 3) totally understood what we were doing, the
activity was there in the drawer, caught her eye and we sat
down to do it together. (Who knows, maybe she understood
more than I think??)

Elora -- Activity Time

Elora has really been enjoying these little
Montessori activities. She often brings them
to me (especially the spooning activity I
pictured down below a few posts ago with the beans
and the little metal egg cups).

Logan and Boomer

Logan wanted me to take his picure with Boomer.

Dress Up

Delenn often gets dressed up and will ask
us or Logan, "Do I look pretty?" One time
Logan answered, "You look magical." That
made her SO happy!

Delenn in her Dance Class

Delenn struts her stuff at her first open day (for parents) at dance school