Montessori Jar: Cleaning Pennies

Boo and I have been a slacking in doing our Montessori Jar since we moved in December (OK, truth be told we had been slacking WAY before our move, and most of the activities that were in her jar mysteriously disappeared only to be found smushed in her plastic vanity drawer where they are at this very moment). Needless to say, I am excited to be back in the Montessori activity game!
I found the cleaning penny idea at The Science Explorer. We set to work gathering the materials- 20 dull and dirty pennies, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, clear shallow bowl, and 2 paper towels labeled "Rinsed" and "Not Rinsed" (the website suggests doing activities with nails and bolts- we just stuck to the pennies).

Gather your materials. I just love the little Rudolph face in the background! She was our little cheerleader during the activity:)

Stir salt in the vinegar until its dissolved. This was a great time to discuss with Boo what "dissolves" means.

Take a penny and dip it halfway into the vinegar and salt mixture. Count to 10 and...

Half of your penny is clean! So cool!!

After doing this a couple times (since it was super exciting for both of us), dump all your pennies into the vinegar/salt mixture.

After 5 minutes, take half your pennies and put them on the "Not Rinsed" paper towel.

 Take the other half of your pennies and rinse them well. Place these on the "Rinsed" paper towel. And now it's time to wait.

After one hour, the "Not Rinsed" pennies will have a nice blue tint to them! The reason is that the copper atoms are joining with oxygen atoms and chlorine atoms from the salt.

This was a super easy science experiment that Boo and I both enjoyed. We just love science around here!!:)
Happy Teaching!

Human Body: Eye

We had so much fun today learning about our eyes! If you don't know, my daughter and I are doing a learning unit on the human body. Initially I wasn't even going to do anything with the eyes, other than paint them on the skin. However, my daughter had some cool eye ball chocolates left over from Halloween, and I thought they would go perfectly for a little eye unit... and after a few minutes of google searching we had some activities planned!

First, we talked about vocabulary. The sclera (white part of your eye), the pupil (black part which my daughter pronounces pwEEple- its so cute!), the iris (colored part), and the cornea (clear outer protective layer). We talked about how the eye is shaped like a ball or sphere. We looked at the blood vessels in our scleras. To learn more about the pupil, we did a short and easy science experiment. We got a mirror, dimmed the lights, and watched our pupils get bigger to let more light into our eyes. Then we turned on the lights and watched how quickly the size of our pupils was reduced. My daughter was AMAZED by this- we probably did it at least 15 times.  After watching our pupils dilate, we talked about our iris. I asked her questions like "What color are daddy's irises?" Then we talked about how the cornea is clear and it protects our eye. When we touch the inside of our eyes, we are touching the cornea. Later, when we were finishing up our eye unit Boo told me that we should never touch our corneas and then proceeded to have her human body chart guy touch her cornea. I guess we can tag this guy as a stinker!
After munching on eye ball Halloween candy and watching a short video on the human eye, we grabbed paper and started cutting out the different pieces to our eyes. Looking back- I would have made the iris with a whole in the middle and the pupil underneath, but we did it the easy way by just gluing the black circle on top of the iris. So not scientifically accurate, I know!! And we cut out circles from an old sheet protector to use as the corneas. My favorite part of the eye model, I must say.
Once the eyes were made, we started working on the skin. So far it looks SO CUTE! I am excited to post about it tomorrow!
For more ideas on the human body, check out my human body board on Pinterest!

Happy Teaching!

Human Body~ The Muscular System

Today we briefly talked about the muscular system in the human body. We talked about how muscles cover pretty much our entire body (that is why our illustration below is entirely covered with red paper), that eating healthy and exercising builds muscles, and that just because you are a grown up does not mean you have big muscles :).

We also stretched rubber bands and talked about the elastic nature of muscle tissue. We ripped scraps of red paper and talked about how muscles can rip and tear. This would have been a great time to talk about how the body can heal itself after this type of injury with proper rest and nutrition.

Since muscles cover a large portion of our body, I decided to cover our entire body in red. I was rummaging through my craft drawers looking for red tissue paper when I came across this old red plastic tablecloth from the Dollar Tree. It was PERFECT. Translucent, semi-durable, red, big size... perfect. I traced our body chart on the red tablecloth, cut it out, and stapled it to the body chart at the top. I love how I can still see the inside of the body.  It is kinda sad to be nearing the end of our human body unit. Tomorrow we work on the eyes and maybe the skin... this has been a long but very educational learning journey for us!

To learn more about the human body, check out my human body board on Pinterest!

Happy Teaching!

DIY Montessori Number Beads

A couple of days ago, my daughter dumped an entire bag of plastic pony beads all over the craft room floor. Normally I would have been eager to clean them up quickly and put them away, but I was in a good teachery mood and turned this mess into a learning experience! Boo wanted to know how many beads we had. A lesson objective was planned- organize beads in groups of 10 and then count by 10s to see how many beads we had all together.

After my daughter used tongs to place beads on a picture frame we had lying around, we started making number bead sticks. I grabbed some pipe cleaners, cut them in half, and added 10 beads to each pipe cleaner. SO EASY! To tie of the end, just twist the wire until the beads can't come off. We had a great time adding beads and tried our hand at simple patterns. This was also a great fine motor skills activity.

There were a couple things I would have done differently during this activity. First- instead of just doing 10 sticks, I would have made 1-9 sticks as well.
And just like the Montessori number beads, I would have color coded each number stick. For example, all the 10 sticks would be blue beads, all the 9 sticks would be brown beads, etc.
Lucky for you, I quickly whipped up an example!

Happy Teaching!

I am linking up this post to Every Day Math Play at TeachPreschool

Don't Be An Angry Bird: Free Printables

I have been working on some printables to go with our angry bird/ anger management lesson (read more about it here) and thought I would share them with you all! I am SO thankful for all those that have left comments, sent me emails, and pinned this idea. It means so much to me. I just love it when I can share something that inspires and helps others. In a silly way I feel like a teacher again, with the world as my classroom.... cheesy, I know. But that's just who I am! ;)

Clicking on the printable book picture will take you to our site's wiki, where you can download each of the four pages. This is not designed to be a worksheet for a child to fill out on their own. Read the book with your child, and discuss the questions on each of the page. The goal of this book is to help your child UNDERSTAND their anger and learn some appropriate strategies to DEAL with it.

To download the posters, just click on the picture. For a black and white version, or the download isn't working, check out our Angry Bird page on our site's wiki. And make sure you read our original Angry Bird post to learn more about each of the angry birds and their role in helping kids understand and deal with their anger.

I hope these help you deal with your little angry birds at home! Don't forget to comment and let me know how this is working out for you!
Happy Teaching!

Human Body: The Urinary System

Our newest learning adventure on the human body was studying the urinary system. For some reason- learning about bones, blood, and the brain were exciting- even the digestive system was fun to teach....but when it came time to talk about urine- well, lets just say I procrastinated the topic for awhile. It doesn't seem right to talk about this on a blog- I feel like I am pushing the envelope here!

We started our little learning exploration by explaining the scientific terminology (kidney, bladder, & just briefly mentioned the ureter and urethra). This is actually something we have discussed for a couple months. It's kinda funny to hear a four year old tell you that she doesn't need to go potty because there is nothing in her bladder. ;)

Tonight we worked on actually creating the urinary system. I taught my daughter how to draw a bean shape and she did a pretty good job of drawing one I might add! And then she cut it out...it looks completely different but I love it even more because she made it all by herself!

My daughter then drew the bladder. I told her to draw a circle- she grabbed the marker and said "I know Mom"... I guess she already knew the shape! The FUNNY thing is that she then drew the urethra. No prompting from me, in fact I had pipe cleaners that we were going to glue on. I much prefer her artwork. I just am so proud of her for knowing to add it!!

After seeing Boo's cute drawing of the urethra, we cut out paper ureters to match. We then glued on all the pieces (lucky for me I didn't glue the digestive system completely down!). 

After adding the urinary system to our paper body, we did a fun little science experiment. These are my daughter's favorite activities in our human body learning. We made blood and used a strainer to filter the urine- just like a kidney. This is a very rudimentary example but it got the point across!

To make the blood, we used the following recipe:
red beads- red blood cells
white beads- white blood cells
yellow beads- platelets
corn syrup- plasma
water- water!

 Boo was so excited that we repeated the experiment 4 times! And she couldn't believe that we actually made urine. She then proceeded to make her own science experiment- which tells me that she is learning to love creating and exploring on her own. Love it!

For more ideas on the human body, check out my human body board on pinterest!

Happy Teaching!

Pinterest~ Our New Collaborative Technology Board

In this technology crazed world, sometimes we feel like we need a road map to navigate through the jumble of websites, computer games, and apps. I can't offer you a map, but I can let you know about a new technology pinterest board. There are some amazing contributors that will be adding some of their favorite websites, apps, and more! Come check it out!

Look who's collaborating with us!
Living Montessori Now
Creative Connections for Kids
Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents
Classified Mom
Wise Owl Factory
Carrots are Orange

Happy Teaching!

Mardi Gras 2012

I have to honestly admit that a week ago I had no idea the purpose or history of Mardi Gras! I knew I wanted to celebrate it with my daughter this year, so I went straight to work doing some research. The best explanation that I found was a kid friendly video from National Geographic Kids.

I made plans to do some Mardi Gras activities and games with my daughter. But as luck would have it, 3 days ago our entire family came down with a nasty chest cold. So although we had to modify our plans a bit due to illness, I wouldn't let that stinky virus stop us from having fun!

We started our day with festive colored pancakes! Really easy to do- just separate your batter into 3 bowls and add food coloring.

After some needed rest we made some handprint masks. They turned out really cute! I am thinking I will read her bedtime stories tomorrow with my mask- just to spice things up a bit.

I made green,yellow, and purple cupcakes (for the super easy recipe check out Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas blog). I thought it would be fun to use our doughnut pan. They were our own little spin on kingcakes- and instead of adding a little plastic trinket inside the cake, we added strawberries in the center. I think I am going to pull out this doughnut pan more often! Doughnut shaped cookies, brownies, ginormous ice cubes, muffin-tin lunches, strawberry shortcake.. I have officially made myself hungry!

The last Mardi Gras-ish thing we did was had our own mini parade in our basement. Boo decorated her pink little tikes car and scooter with streamers, and we paraded around and made up a Mardi Gras song. It was the highlight of my day! And of course my daughter draws in her journal that the highlight of her day was taking a bath... go figure!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mardi Gras day with your family.
Happy Teaching!

Don't Be An ANGRY BIRD: Lessons on Anger Management for Kids

There are two major things that are prominent in our home right now: the Angry Birds game and a 4 year old learning to deal with her frustrations. Maybe it's all the hours we have spent shooting birds at stinky little pigs, but I started to see a lot of connections between the Angry Bird game and my own little angry "chick".  The angry faces, the lashing out at others, etc. Her anger was a big emotion for such a small child to control.

So the idea was "hatched"(pun totally intended): use the Angry Birds as a way for teaching anger management to my daughter!

And so far, I LOVE it. My daughter understands the inappropriate ways of expressing anger as well as strategies to help calm her down. 

The background of this technique is simple: like most kiddos, my daughter was struggling with a few different inappropriate ways of expressing her anger. To help her understand this better, I assigned a bird to each inappropriate behavior.  Side note: It is important to explain to our kids that feeling angry is completely normal. Don't discipline your child because they feel angry...just teach them the appropriate ways of dealing with frustration, and clearly define those behaviors that are unacceptable.

Perfect demonstration of those angry eyes!!

Let me give you a more detailed explanation of each bird:

The eyebrows say it all... this bird has the meanest glare in town! It is the perfect bird to model inappropriate facial expressions. Although this may seem like such a minor side effect of anger, most parents will understand when I say unruly behavior started with a certain look in a child's eyes. And if looks could kill, well...let's just say my sweet, SWEET Boo would be a lethal weapon! :)

Just like this bird cuts through wood in the game, our mean words can cut through people's hearts. The old saying "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is thrown out the window (in my opinion). We should speak to others the way we would want to be spoken to... tone of voice included. Yelling and screaming might not cut through my heart, but it definitely cuts through my ears! :)







Keep objects to yourself...throwing toys (or in the bird's case- bombs) is not an appropriate way of expressing your anger! Not only can your hurt somebody else physically- you are not showing respect to your property.









Sometimes anger can build and build inside of us until we just EXPLODE...just like the bomb bird. It is also known as the kicking, pounding on the floor, wailing, gnashing of teeth behavior that we refer to as a tantrum. Our kids need to learn that when they are angry, it is inappropriate to let their body explode.

Once I had created these birds, I explained their angry behaviors to my daughter. We talked about better ways to deal with our frustrations (We don't want to be like an angry bird!) When she gets upset now, she can tell me which angry bird(s) she was acting like- which I like because she can recognize the inappropriate behavior.

Boo learning about the angry birds

Here are some of the APPROPRIATE strategies I taught my daughter to help her deal with anger. Teach your child the different strategies, and let them decide which work best for her.

• Go to the BIRDS NEST (aka bedroom or quiet place) until our body feels calm.

• Breathe, breathe, breathe!  Deep breathing will deliver oxygen to our heart, brain, and the rest of our body. It will relax our bodies so we in turn can relax our mood. To illustrate this techinique- have your child take long, deep breaths to fill their lungs up like the orange balloon bird. Then slowly breath our the air, and repeat as needed. We call this the BALLOON BIRD BREATHING.

• STOP and THINK. Think about the other person's feelings and the consequences of inappropriately expressing your anger. OK, what 4 year old is going to understand that jargon, right? Have them think of the boomerang bird. Teach your kiddo that their choices will come back and affect them- just like that bird comes back. For example, if your child chooses to say mean things when she is angry, her friend might not want to play with her again. Her choice is coming back to her. Is that what she really wants? Another phrase I hear parents say to an angry child "How would you feel if someone said or did mean things to you?" Children need to understand that there are consequences for their behavior.  I know this is still a difficult concept for little ones to grasp, but teach and model as best as you can. You may choose to focus on the BIRDS NEST and BALLOON BIRD BREATHING techniques at first.

What do you do if your little angry bird just isn't cooling down on their own?


It's times like this that the mighty Mommy Eagle swoops down, picks up the little angry bird, and puts her in piggy tower for a time out (which is currently against the wall).

Here is a short video of Boo learning about the inappropriate behavior of the angry birds via stuffed animals (baby ibex, baby triceratops, and a baby golden eagle- my kiddo loves her unusual animals!)

So there you have it: anger management for kids, angry bird style.

Just because we love the angry birds game, doesn't mean we love the angry bird behavior in our little ones!


Happy Teaching!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day!
Here is a photo recap of most of our Valentine preparations and activities:

I forgot to take pics of the geeky Valentines I wrote for my husband and our snack this afternoon in a heart shaped muffin tin!
Happy Teaching!

Valentine Traditions: New and Old

Happy Valentines Day! I wanted to jot down a few of our traditions (maybe I will inspire someone out there... but, truth be told, it's mostly for me to remember what I am supposed to do tomorrow!) Oh, and the pictures are all from last year. In case you were wondering :)

• The night before Valentines, secretly heart attack hubby's laptop bag and Boo's room. I like to write geeky math/science valentines for the hubs like " I am COMPLEX, but our love is REAL" (based on complex and real numbers) and "Forget hydrogen! You're my #1 element!". 
• Pink heart shaped pancakes
• Snacks in a heart shaped muffin tin.
• Valentine Tea (this is a new tradition) with heart shaped hotdogs, sandwiches, valentine cookies and punch, and chocolate covered strawberries
• My made up story called "Heartsie the Fairy and the Grumpy Old Troll". It went something to the effect that Heartsie wanted to deliver hearts to everyone but the troll didn't want her to. So Heartsie came up with a day that EVERYONE could deliver hearts. That day is known as Valentines day. A bit cheezy, but Boo loves it! Heartsie comes and delivers hearts to our family (aka a room full of paper hearts). I have my paper hearts cut and ready to spread around the front room!
• Charlie Brown Valentine movie
• Valentine baskets with little treats
• Treats like heart shaped pretzels and cheesecake

Making family traditions is one of my favorite things to do as a mom!
Happy Valentines Day!

Last Minute Valentine Card Ideas

My daughter and I spent the evening making some easy Valentines for family and friends. I thought I would share the ideas with you!

 A fun way to showcase your child's artistic abilities! Trace your child on large butcher paper. I saved all my packing paper from online Christmas shopping- it works perfectly. After cutting out the body shape, have your child draw themselves! It was fun enough for my anti-arts-and-crafts daughter to do. After she was done coloring, I folded up the body and wrote this message:

"From the top of my head all the way to my toes I ♥ you!"

Found this on Pinterest from Brown Paper Packages: Simply have your child make thumbprints (I used a pink stamp pad). Turn the thumbprints into little people and write "Thumb-body loves you".

I loved this idea I saw on Pinterest and now for the life of me I can't find where I pinned it.... that's what happens when you have 2000+ pins! It's a handprint hug card. Trace your child's hands and cut. Cut construction paper (or a bright green party streamer- you use what you have on hand!) the length of your child's arm span. Tape hands and streamer together and you have an instant paper hug. On the top hand I wrote "I love you..." and on the streamer "this much!"This is a perfect card for grandparents that live far away!

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Teaching!

Quiet Kits: Digraphs Sort

Awhile ago I posted about our Sunday Sorts (sorting folder activity- perfect for quiet kits or just plain educational fun!). These sorts are simple, and only require the cards and a folder. We like these parent/teacher communication folders because of the clear inside and outside pockets!

I created this sort on the computer awhile ago- haven't printed it yet due to low ink - and for that reason I have been putting off this post. So I apologize that there are no darling pictures of my girl playing with these cards.... maybe when I get around to buying ink (it's so dang expensive!) I will have to update this post!

To download the free sort, click here: Digraph Sorting Folder Cards and Instructions

These cards took a long time and I am hoping that many of you out there in the blogosphere are able to use them!!

Happy Teaching!

M&M Patterns

My daughter and I made some simple patterns today with our Valentine M&Ms. I was worried about them rolling all over the place when the idea came to me to put them in our corn on the cob dishes (from the Dollar Tree- I am addicted to that store and might need some intervention!) It's a simple solution that I thought I would share!

And when the pattern is finished, the candy is already in a dish that holds just the right amount of chocolate that my little ball of energy should be eating.
Happy Teaching!

Date Night Kits

Let's face it-my life revolves around my daughter and I love it. Poor hubby has been left in the shadows!  I made him some date night kits for Christmas to help build our relationship.♥
Each themed date night is organized in a manilla envelope with a card of instructions and some of the materials needed. There is also an extra envelope that holds additional ideas for dates on strips of paper.

Here is a list of our themes and a brief summary. Click on the theme to download the date night card. Each date night card has a list of materials needed, the plan for the evening, and an "additional ideas" section to further extend your date.  I created these just for our little family, so you will see some references to my daughter.

Prehistoric Date: Completely inspired from my dinosaur loving daughter- this date takes place at the dinosaur park while afterwards eating a spaghetti dinner sans utensils. And no computers/cell phones/ anything electronic during the date. Can we do it?
Service Date: Service brings people closer together, so why not incorporate it into the date night experience? This date centers around donating our talents, material items, and time to others. FYI: one of the additional items is to do the Kmart layaway challenge. This is inspired from this story, where anonymous donors are paying other people's layaway accounts- especially toys and clothes purchased for impoverished parents. Incredible, right?
Play Date: Unsure of what this date is about? Pretending to be a kid again! Playing games like tic tac toe, MASH, jump rope, hopscotch, and hide and seek.  The menu for this date: peanut butter sandwiches or macaroni and cheese.
Random Date: This date is driven by chance. (hmmm- does that make sense? I shouldn't be posting after midnight! Geez!) Flipping a coin, rolling a dice, and using a colored spinner will decide the outfits/restaurant/dessert for the evening.
Blind Date: No, this is not a date with someone you don't know... it's a date in the dark! Choosing an outfit, eating dinner, and decorating cookies needs to be done while blindfolded.
80s Date: Inspired from our childhood... blizzards, pizza, and a good 80s movie.
Digital Date: This is the date I am most excited about- not because it will be the most fun, but it is TOTALLY something my geeky hubby will enjoy. And I do blog, so therefore I myself am somewhat geeky :).  This date is a nerdy movie/pizza/video game night with a twist. No talking. Only texting. Unlimited texting may be a requirement for this date- especially if you decide to play go fish or another game!
Night Under the Stars: Great time to learn about the phases of the moon and constellations! This will be a spring/summer date spending the night under the stars roasting marshmallows and gazing at the sky. And maybe even pitch the tent out in the backyard.
Musical Date: Oh, the sweet sounds of music! The plan is to play Name that Tune with the iPad AND live performances using kazoos. This is a perfect time to watch a musical and sing along. :)
Game Night: Not your typical game night.... take a variety of board games, mix them all together, and create new games. I thought it might be fun to watch old game show clips on Youtube, too :) The avid gamers might enjoy this challenge: try and play at least one game from these categories: card game, board game, dice game, word game, children's game, and brain game.
Color Date: This would be the artistic date. We plan on playing the skittles game (similar to the M&M game) because of all the colors (hence the theme name) and creating works of art for each other.
Class Act: The teacher in me just HAD to do a scholastic date! Sharpen your pencils, because a written exam is involved...as well as making carmel apples. Yummers!
Mission Impossible: This theme is centered around things we love about our church missions. We both served in Toronto, so it is pretty much a Canadian date with doughnuts, hockey, and reading through our old mission journals. I didn't include the date night card here because everyone's missions are different, and not everyone has served a mission... but if you are interested in seeing a copy of this date night card email me and I will gladly send a copy your way!

Have a fun Valentines Day! Enjoy!

Paper Bag Bird Nest

It recently came to my attention that Rachelle over at TinkerLab was hosting a special kid-directed linky party/contest using paper bags. Well I just happen to have a gazillion paper bags lying around, so I was super excited to get on board with this challenge!

We chose to make a nest because, well, that is what Boo wanted to make! She has a baby golden eagle stuffed animal (doesn't every 4 year old? The things our kids love!) who has been in need of a nest for awhile now. Keep in mind that this girl is smart as a whip but arts and crafts are just not her thing. I was extremely elated that she actually chose to make something! And she did the ENTIRE project all by her little old self!! Granted, it isn't anything eloborate or difficult...but to me this challenge was a success because it got Boo CREATING. And I just adore her glammed up birds nest.

 Boo painting and glitzing up her birds nest. Yes, we craft on the floor :).  She also cut raffia for branches, stuck in some feathers, and added plastic easter eggs. On a side note, one of the golden eagle's eggs contained a small plastic elephant. Love the creativity!

Finished product next to Boo's baby golden eagle. See the angry birds on the upper right? They are getting ready for a special blog post!

Happy Teaching!

Bubbling Math Review

If you are looking for a good math facts app, this might just be the one for you!

Bubbling Math is an app designed to help kids practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. It is great math practice, designed well, and there are lots of levels to unlock as the child wins trophies (cool, right?) But the thing I love most about this app is the parent section.

The cute answer bubbles change with each challenge- making it more motivating to complete just to see the changes!

Screenshot showing one of three levels. Each level has three challenges.

I LOVE that I can see how my daughter is doing with her math facts on this app. I can see the problems she missed- what a great way for me to see which facts I need to work on with her. As a former elementary school teacher, it is important for me to have my daughter not only playing educational games but to help me as her mom know how I can best help her.

My favorite feature: the parent section! Nice way to see the problems your child missed!

I also love that I can also decide the game speed. This was critical for me, since I still have to aid my daughter with manipulatives to answer the problems.

You also have the ability to decide on the operations (add/subtract/mulitply/divide) and difficulty level (easy/medium/hard/expert) you want your child to complete. There is a wide range of children (and even adults!) that can use this app.

It's nice to be able to choose operations based on my daughter's ability. Great feature!

I would rate this app 4 1/2 stars- I would love to see the ability to add multiple kids... for all those that want to use this app for your whole family. I just have one child now, so it works perfectly for us, but sometime down the road we might have another little one. I would also love to see the answers that my daughter got RIGHT. We could celebrate the accomplishments of her milestones as she masters specific math problems.

Boo really enjoyed playing this game! I thought it would be more of a struggle to get her to play a math game, but she was hooked right away. The feature that sold her was the fun answer bubbles. Small detail that garnished big results!

Overall, I am very impressed with the layout, design, and structure of this app. Although I received this app for free in order for me to write this review, I would spend the money to buy it!
Happy Teaching!