Montessori Style Work

My kids love showing off, so when they work hard, they ask me to take photos. Hands-on, child-led learning at it's best! Here are some of those photos.

Look I spelled 3 words!

I love it!

Sweet Son made this number. 3 red hundred squares, two blue tens sticks, and 5 green one beads.

Moveable Alphabet

I've posted about the moveable alphabet before and we still love it. The kids take it out and "play" with it at least once a week. Awesome. Here are the words they have been spelling recently.

Seeing that look of pride never gets old.

A close up of the words he wrote

Another proud child

Her words

Folder Games

When I taught I called these folder games because they fit in a folder. Creative, right? I've also heard these called independent work or centers depending on the classroom.

 Sweet Son is working on beginning sounds. He lays out the larger alphabet cards and matches a picture of something that starts with that sound. Not only does this teach beginning sounds, but it also teaches test taking skills. There is one right answer for each one so if you end up with two pictures on the same letter you know you need to rethink it. If you aren't sure about a picture you can wait and do all of the ones you are confident about and see what is left. I also prefer the kids doing these on the floor instead of the table because being in the position you see him here -  on his knees - helps develop core strength. Working two different systems at the same time - core stability and phonemic awareness - increases blood flow and helps these academic lessons stick in the memory longer.

 Sweet Daughter is working on the planets and other space related things here. First she matches the photos of the planets/space stuff. Then she matches the name. This work spreads out a lot more than the one above. This is great for a wiggly child as she gets to move around to do the work rather than just sitting in one place. Later (a month or so later) she was able to match the name to the picture and use the combined card to check her work.

Writing before Reading

My kids go to a Montessori school and they teach writing before reading. One of the favorite types of work to do is called the moveable alphabet. I found a cheap way to make one for home. Here are some photos of my kids using it.

 Sweet Son had used this at school and immediately got to work with no instruction.

 Here are the 5 words he spelled.

Sweet Daughter watched and still needed some help picking the photos, but she loved getting to do the "big kid" work.

Here are her 5 words. You can clearly see the development of reading skills in her spelling.

This was from a different day. Sweet Son spelled "hat" "eg" (egg) "cup" "nut" and "man". He did turn a couple of the a's upside down which I thought was interesting. Sweet Daughter spelled "sun" "ant" "dog" "pan" and "bat". I love that they can do this completely independently as they practice phonemic awareness.