Montessori Apps

I wanted to compose a list of some Apple apps (iPad/iPod/iPhone) that are based on the Montessori approach. The true Montessorians will argue that technology shouldn't replace the kids using actual manipulatives... and I have to agree. There is something about holding the shapes in your hands, touching the different sides of a geometric figure, or feeling the scratchy sandpaper when tracing letters. With that said, I am in love with most of these Montessori apps. They make learning mobile and more activities are available for those of us with limited space. My daughter loves most of the apps we have played with and to me that is SO important. I want her to learn, but I don't want her to hate the learning process!
I divided the apps into Montessori categories. Some of these apps we have, others we have only played with the lite versions. If you have any Montessori apps that you would love to add to this list, please let me know!

Sensorial:

Pink towers: This is the one app on the list we don't have. It seems pretty cute, but at this time it isn't something I am interested in purchasing.

Pink towers and brown stairs lite: My daughter has enjoyed playing with the lite version of this app. Like with all these apps, there is a hands-on experience that is missing. However, it is a good app for teaching sorting small to large and following pictorial instructions. I am happy with the lite version.

Math:
Intro to numbers: This app has gotten great reviews. It also has a wonderful look and feel about it, but it doesn't provide that all important tactile experience. I am sure that actually handling the Montessori manipulatives would be much more engaging and educational! With that said, it is an app that I would recommend to anyone teaching their child number recognition.

Math cabinet (free with ads): We have played with the lite version. If you can handle the ads, it's a pretty good app for teaching number recognition. I would definitely check this app out!

Geometry cabinet: This app is great at teaching a variety of shapes with a Montessori-like approach. Not quite Montessori because it is without the tactile experience (which is the case with all these apps).I love that this app doesn't dummy down the shape names... My biggest complaint is that the puzzle is put together in the same order every time, which means my daughter has the order of shapes memorized instead of the shape names.

100s board lite: This app is a little above my daughter's head. I like the concept of this app, especially that your little one can see visual patterns in our numbers (such as counting by 10s starting at 1: 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, etc.). We have played with the lite version and will definitely be purchasing this app in the future!

Reading:

Intro to letters: This app has stellar reviews. It is a good app for teaching letters and sounds. However, I am not 100% impressed. The digital sandpaper letters just don't give you that hands on experience. I might like it more if my daughter didn't know her letters and sounds already. However, I do love that it teaches phonograms.

Alphawriter: This is my favorite reading app because the child can explore the sound of letters and some vowel and conosonant digraphs. Not my daughters favorite, but from one educator to another I love it! A great app for making words, sorting words and sounds, and writing sentences.

Montessori Crosswords: This is a strong spelling based app. I love that there are different levels that will provide my daughter with a longer experience spelling and reading words. Although my little one is great at spelling three letter words (and this app provides practice with them) her attention span is a little short for this app. I am sure we will get many hours of spelling practice with this app in the future!

Culture:

Geography Puzzle: I have to say this is one of my daughter's favorite apps. She is very curious about states and this is a simple yet educational puzzle. This app doesn't randomize the order of adding pieces to the puzzle. I also wish you could just explore the puzzle by clicking and removing a few pieces at a time. The eastern states are very hard to see as well. But taking all that into consideration,my daughter has learned from and loves this app!

As I have said many times throughout this post, none of these apps will give you the real hands on Montessori experience. But for those with limited space or like learning on the go- these apps are great!

Happy Teaching!

I didn't receive any compensation for reviewing these posts other than the happy feeling of seeing my daughter learn and grow!

Spelling Songs

I wanted to title this post "Songs to Teach Your Child How to Spell Their Name" but besides the fact that it is pretty wordy, I realized you can use these songs to spell anything!How many of you know the words to the theme song of your child's favorite TV show? Or all those catchy advertisement jingles? Music helps concepts to stick in our memory. Most of you are familiar with the effectiveness of using music to teach. The most well-known example of this is the alphabet song- a catchy way to teach our kids the ABCs (is it the most effective? well that's another topic for another day!) I love the SchoolHouse Rock videos with tons of creative music for everything from adjectives to Wall Street and everything in between!
So of course it makes sense to use music to help us spell. Whether your child is needing some help with a spelling list or if your little one is learning to spell her name, these songs will hopefully help! Just replace the lyrics with the spelling of a word and you are good to go!

Three Letter Word Songs:

• This Old Man
• Jingle Bells
• Three Blind Mice
  

Four Letter Word Songs:

• Are You Sleeping
• YMCA
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  

Five Letter Word Songs:

• Row, Row, Row Your Boat
• You are My Sunshine
• BINGO
• Do as I'm Doing
  

Six Letter Word Songs:

• This Old Man
• Jingle Bells
• Happy Birthday

Seven Letter Word Songs:

• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Skip to my Lou
• Mary had a Little Lamb
• If you Chance to Meet a Frown
• 10 Little Indians
  

Eight Letter Word Songs:

• For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
• We wish you a Merry Christmas
• Fun to Do
  

Nine Letter Word Songs:

• If You're Happy and You Know It
• She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain
• I'm a Little Teapot
  

Happy Spelling :)

For more information on this topic check out the following websites:
Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs
Spelling Fun (Word Doc Created By A Teacher in Illinois)
The Teacher Terrace

Learning About Seasons

My little gal and I recently learned a little bit about weather and the seasons. We didn't spend a lot of time on this unit since there were some glorious days that were SO nice that we opted to go play outside instead!

Here is what we actually did accomplish:

• Number recognition game using weather and numbered dice. (read more about it here)
• Learned about a thermometer and watched the mercury change in different temperatures.
• Sorted seasonal items in our exploration journals and talked about different holidays during each season.
• Dressed weather people according to the season.
• Read books about seasons and clouds

This unit was at the perfect time- This week we have had rain, snow, hail, wind, and sunshiny days!

More Mini Science Explorations

My daughter and I have had more fun with science experiments! I posted earlier about science explorations, and here are more ideas. Some of these went with little units we were studying and the rest were just for fun!

Using a thermometer and watching the mercury change in different temperatures

Dropping objects on a tray and sorting if they made a loud or soft noise on impact

Exploring with nesting items such as blocks, cookie cutters, bowls, colored cups, and measuring cups

We did a sensory bag experience...my daughter closed her eyes, reached in a bag, and described the object she felt using just the sense of touch. This is a pic of all the stuff that was in the bag!

Science and exploring can be so much fun! Happy teaching!

Scripture Stories Book: Jacob

The Jacob pages for the scripture stories book are on the wiki! Enjoy!

Number Recognition Activities

We recently played some number recognition games with our Education Cube inserts and had a blast! We have had SO much fun and are a definite must-have for any parent with an active (or easily distractible) learner. Why? They keep learning FUN and there is always an element of mystery when you roll that dice...

Anyway, here are some ideas you can use with numbered dice or your education cubes to learn those stinkin' numbers:

• Roll 4 dice. Which number is biggest? Smallest?
• Roll 4 dice. Put numbers in order from least to greatest and/or greatest to least.
• Roll one die (that just sounds so weird!) Divide the number in half.
• Roll one die. Double that number.
• Roll one die. What number is before/after the number you rolled?
• Roll one die. Run around the table that many times (this activity is inspired and created for my little runner... remember to center your learning activities around your child's interests!)
• Integrate the numbers with your learning units. We recently learned about the weather. I used the number education cube inserts and I created my own weather inserts. First, we rolled the dice. We did different movements that corresponded with the type of weather we rolled. And we counted these movements to the number we rolled. For example, if we got the wind and a 20, we would run around the living room (like we were blowing away in the wind) twenty times. We do a lot of running around here. :)

Hope these are helpful! Happy Teaching!

Montessori Book Review and GIVEAWAY!

I have been given the great opportunity to review an incredible book based on Montessori: Montessori at Home! The Complete Parents Guide to Doing Montessori Learning Activities at Home by John Bowman. As a mommy/teacher who has learned all I know about Montessori from a book I checked out from the library (and of course some amazing websites out there!) I appreciate having a curriculum that explains the Montessori's goals, key points, key aspects, and benefits (for all those who might be a doubting Thomas). There is a helpful section on Montessori materials you can make and a wonderfully laid out and detailed section on the Three Step Lesson.

The Montessori at Home! curriculum not only contains the blueprint and outline for teaching the Montessori approach, but gives SO many great activities! They are organized into the following sections: Everyday Life Activities, Sensory Activities, Science Activities, The Mathematics Sequence, and the Reading Sequence. I read the book, putting post-it notes whenever I saw an idea I wanted to try out with my daughter and can I just say my book is plastered with yellow notes!! And these activities are labeled with an average age range, goals to accomplish during the activity, how you will know your child is ready for the activity, materials required, presentation and use, and parental involvement. Oh, and pictures for all us visual learners out there! :) There are also some extension ideas, which I always appreciate in case I need to reinforce the learning goals or my daughter is completely captivated and wants to learn more!

I really could go on and on about the wonderful aspects of this curriculum guide. But rather than hearing me blab, let me show you some of the great ideas found in this book:

1. How to teach numbers! I am starting to work on this more and more with my daughter, and I love the activities presented in this book. The sequence of teaching number recognition is perfect. I love presentations described in the book using a variety of materials including pennies, straws, grid boards, bead bars, and more!
2. Addition and subtraction ideas- brilliant! I LOVE the idea of using clear cups to show the operation (a better detailed explanation is found in the book!).
3. Fabric folding... I thought, how cute would it be if my daughter could fold the napkins for dinner (when we actually use them- ha!) This activity made it so simple! We tried it yesterday and I knew it sunk in when I later saw her trying to fold paper using the patterns mentioned in this book. And the book does recommend using light-colored wash clothes but all I had to spare was a dark blue towel that was on its way out... it still worked well for my kiddo!

One thing I didn't mention about this book that is a great feature are all the free cut-outs and templates at the back of the book. I also received a CD that includes the entire book in pdf form (for all you e-readers out there that like to read on the go!) and a pdf of the templates and cut-outs. Great organization and phenomenal activities. For me, this book has been the foundation of most of our Montessori activities.

And guess what!?! I was fortunate to receive this book free of charge and one of you lucky U.S. readers can, too!

How to enter: Leave a comment telling me one of your favorite Montessori activity! And yes, you can enter more than once...up to three comments per person! Contest ends April 15 (thats an easy day to remember for those filing for taxes!)

Good luck and as always, happy teaching!

Update: Congrats to Megan for her winning comment! Your book is on it's way!

General Conference Folders

With just minutes to spare before LDS conference begins, I got our conference folders ready. The folders have writing pages for me, so I can take copious notes and write the things that speak to my heart. I found the cutest pages at Prepared Not Scared.... And can i just say that sight is amazing!My daughter's folder has some cute activity pages I found at SugarDoodle.

For all those that are watching conference today and tomorrow- I know we will find the inspiration and spirit to guide us through the next 6 months!