Taking Over a New Class

This year I have changed classrooms and responsibilities.  I moved from my safe little classroom to take over for some teachers who left our school.  It is my job to make this classroom successful.  I am in the Spanish dual language program classroom now.  It is a mixture of children from several classrooms, but there is a core group of children who were there last year.  These children have really needed retraining this year.  About 80% of them are boys.  I have spent a lot of time during the first 3 weeks of school observing all of the children, becoming emotionally available and a confidant, creating structure in the classroom, following through again and again with ground rules, and setting the stage for correct treatment of the environment and each other.  It is tiring work to be sure, but sticking to the difficult work at the beginning of the year really pays off.

For the first two weeks I pulled out over 25 different manipulative works and had several shelves dedicated to them just to give myself a pulse on the room and where the children were.  They used these works with gusto.  It has really helped to have only manipulatives in retraining the children to become careful with their work, return the work ready for another child to use, walk around and not through rugs, walk in the classroom in the first place, respect when a child has already chosen a work and not to disturb them etc.  This is certainly an ongoing process.  It seems like it can take an entire year for some of the younger children not to walk on their neighbor's rug if something grabs their attention.

During the third week I noticed that the older children were bored with the manipulatives so I began giving lessons.  Some of the record keeping was spotty so I had to test out to see where they really were in the different areas.  On Thursday, this week (being the 4th week of school), we noticed that it was 2 hours into our work time before any child chose a manipulative work.  YIPEE!  I only have one shelf of manipulatives now, and only the ones that the children find the most interesting.

These are some images from our last week of work.

Exploration of Metal Insets by a returning student

Mouse House turned into a Spanish Work.  Es el raton debajo de la casa anaranjado?

Hanging Bead Stair

Writing Words using the Large Moveable Alphabet

Initial Sound Object Sort - This is the Pink Mat
I am so excited to have these new mats.  I handmade the set I
have been using and just got these new ones this week.

Gluing noodles on apples work.  Next week we will paint these works.
This allows the work to be done in more than one step but still follow
the Montessori rule that art should be a shelf work.

Parts of the Plant Nomenclature Cards.  This child completed this work
 beautifully and could even tell me every part of the plant and later the
Fruit.  He then made the booklets for each work.

Rainbow Rings.  My children LOVE this work.  It is actually
Wine Glass Markers that I found at a kitchen store in Park City.

Using Clay Lesson.  You can see how the little one is using
his "watching arms" during this presentation.

Parts of the Snail Puzzle.  We wouldn't usually have this work
out right now, but this child found a snail in the school
garden and was really interested so I pulled it out.

Weaving with ribbons

Parts of the Flower Puzzle

Parts of the Fruit Nomenclature Cards and Magnetic Parts Puzzle 

Baby Spooning Stars.  This work is pretty challenging for this child.
She has been with me since last year and has needed this long to
be ready for this work.

Sandpaper Letters with Initial Sound Booklets.
This child was successful at all the letters in the first
set and was subsequently hiding them in the
classroom to then find them again.

Hand Transferring.  I just have to say how much I love the
elliptical shape of these wooden bowls.  There are mung beans
inside.  They sound just like rain when they hit the
wood.  Many times the child will remark about this when
they first have this lesson.

Object to Object Sorting with two Space Toobs.  Because I
have so many boys I have geared some of the Pre-reading
works to pull them in.  We are also beginning the year by
learning about our place in the universe.

The Farm Mat - a grammar work.  I made this mat as well.

Geometric Solids Nomenclature Cards

These nomenclature cards are for use with the Geometric Solids.  I have included both print and D'nealian fonts.

Geometric Solids Nomenclature Cards
click on picture to link to file

Geometric Solids Nomenclature Cards D'nealian
click on picture to link to file

Shape Matching Cards

Wow!  the beginning of the school year has really had me so busy.   I have also taken on more responsibilities in my neighborhood and church congregation.  I have had almost not time to write or create.  I found this set of cards that I was working on a while ago but never did get finished with.  I want to use them in my classroom and to share them with you as well.

Shape Matching Cards

These cards include the following shapes:

• circle
• ellipse
• oval
• quatrefoil
• curvilinear triangle
• square
• rectangle
• triangle
• trapezoid
• pentagon
• octagon
• heart
• star

I will get a control chart together and put it up here as soon as it is finished.

Broad Stair Pasting Activity

This pasting activity is the same size as the Broad Stair.  This free download has one of each size of rectangle and can either be cut out by the child or the teacher.

I suggest beginning this work after the child can successfully build the stair and can do several extensions.

As in the Pink Tower Pasting Activity, I suggest a dry placement first to create what they would like first.  Then the child can use a glue stick to paste them to an extra large sheet of white paper.  I like to use white butcher paper.

Broad Stair Pasting Activity
click on picture to link to file

 

Pink Tower Pasting Activity

This pasting activity is the same size as the Pink Tower.  The first file has ten of each size of square from 1cm to 10 cm and is for teachers to cut out for children.  The second file has one of each size of square and is for children to cut out their own work.

I suggest beginning this work after the child can successfully create the tower and several extensions.

I suggest that they do a dry placement to get the squares where they would like them first, and then use glue sticks to paste them to an extra large sheet of white paper.  I like to use white butcher paper.  Children love something to take home to share with their families.  When I present this activity I will say that they may choose to keep this at the school for display, or they could choose to take it home.  They frequently may choose to display it at school for a day and then at the end of the day they are excited to take it home.

Pink Tower Pasting Activity
click on picture to link to file

Pink Tower Pasting Activity - Student
click on picture link to file

 

Broad Stair Cards

With this free download, the child will place the matching broad stair in the middle of the card.
This file includes:

• 10 colors matching cards
• 10 outlined matching cards

Broad Stair Cards
click on picture to link to file

 

Pink Tower Cards

Using this free download, the cubes will be placed in the center of these cards.  This work includes:

• 10 color cards to match the cubes
• 10 outline cards to match the cubes

Pink Tower Cards
click on picture to download cards

  

Montessori Constructive Blue Triangles Activity Set

This free activity set for the Constructive Blue Triangles is a great springboard for exploration with the Constructive Blue Triangles.  After initial presentations to the set, you can introduce the child to this activity set.  I would only place a few easily produced cards in a basket to begin with.  For children at multiple levels I would recommend that more advanced work be kept separate from beginning work.

This is by no means a comprehensive set.  There are hundreds of possibilities.  This set can help to whet the appetite especially for children who are a little less sure of their own ideas.

Constructive Blue Triangles Activity Set
click on picture to link to file

I totally recommend Montessori Outlet if you want a great quality and inexpensive set of the triangles.  You could also opt for a printed set (this set does not give quite the same effect as the thicker sets).  You can find a great link to several free sensorial files here.

I have found that by the time I printed them out - using my ink - and laminated them for my own durability, I had almost spent as much as to purchase them.

This is a great link on the presentation of the Constructive Blue Triangles Set.

This is a file to make a Constructive Blue Triangles Pasting Activity that can be used along with the manipulative set and this activity set.  Several copies of this file need to be printed on blue paper and cut out.  No laminating is necessary.  You can set them out for children to cut by themselves or they can be set out already cut.  Let the children dry set them first and then paste them in place on white pieces of paper.

Constructive Blue Triangles Pasting Activity
click on picture to link to file

 

Dado Cubes

I picked up this new set of cubes as an extension exercise to the pink tower.  I've had my eye on them for about 4 months now.  Just as soon as I introduced them to a few children, they immediately began building and exploring (my first introduction was to lay them on their side and to build a tower with them).  They really love them.  I keep hearing giggles of glee whenever they discover something new that they can do with them.  Its like they have been reintroduced to a wonderful friend, that can do all sorts of great things now.

There are 10 cubes just like the tower.  I completely recommend the original dado cubes.

Original Dado Cubes
clicking on picture will take you to an ordering site

Color Nomenclature Cards

Because the color field on these cards is so large, children are naturally drawn to them.  They are probably the best three part cards for basic colors that I have ever used.  These colors correspond to those found in the Second Box of Colors. 

Click on the picture to go to the file.

Color Nomenclature Cards
click on picture to link to file

 

Color Matching Mats & Cards

This set is very engaging, and the children love to work with it.  They will return to it for weeks, and when it resurfaces later it becomes a favorite again.

After printing, cutting and laminating, it would be wise to house all the smaller loose pieces in separate bags.  I used nicer clear zippered vinyl pouches attached with hook and loop fasteners to the back of each mat.  This way more than one child can use this work at one time.  A further extension exercise could be to give one child several colors of mats and the corresponding cards in a basket to sort.

Click on the picture to go to the file.