Our North American Continent Box.
Our Europe shelf - some trinkets here that wouldn’t fix inside the box!
A goodie from Italy.
A view of some of the contents of the Europe box.
We have been so fortunate to collect so many things from South America. Here you see flags, handmade items and the South American Continent Box.
Contents of the North America Continent Box.
Build the Capitol Building.
The finished product!
Land and water form mapping activity.
Flag making is always a popular activity!
Each continent has matching animal tracing.
Continent puzzle map and the very important control mat!
A handmade continents fabric mat with landmark cards and objects.
Skin color crayons - a lovely and simple way to reflect our wonderfully diverse classroom.
Using this as the first activity to encourage diversity in children’s artwork.
Some happy faces decorate our classroom window.
Illustrating Vincent Van Gogh’s house while studying Europe.
Continent fabric mat and corresponding cards about Maria Montessori and how she effected children all over the world.
Solar system necklace.
Children used air dry clay to form sphere’s properly sized for template.
A couple finished products!
A hand sewn orbit mat with planets and labels.
A child painting their necklace beads.
Small, medium and large sorting.
I have made pattern cards for our Color Boxes. The children love to duplicate the images.
I have made pattern cards for our Color Boxes. The children love to duplicate the images.
Working up to mixing all the Cylinder Blocks is a wonderful challenge for younger students.
I allow mixing Sensorial materials when appropriate. The children are very respectful when diving into activities like this - if they are not, they put it away.
So much team work and collaboration!
A quick little handmade color sorting mat.
The Knobless Cylinders can be such a magical material.
Some of our older children yearn for Sensorial extensions. Here, children trace the Pink Tower, cut it out and glue it to make a poster.
This is the culmination of a big sewing semester. Children sewed bunnies, their carrots, pillows and a little blanket. The bed is a teacher made rope basket.
The makings of little sewn carrots.
Finished carrots.
I always put two of everything in sewing baskets. It is such a good way to work with a friend, socialize and help one another. Here are two boys sewing buttons.
Two friends embroidering hearts onto felt.
Some materials for fabric dying, weaving and felting.
Each month we study a new continent, on the geography shelf we have sewing too! Continent pillows.
South America pillow sewing.
North America pillow sewing.
A child weaves paper strips as a beginning step to weaving on our standing loom.
I’ve labeled the strips with arrows so they know which way to begin.
A knitted loom bag with braided cross body strap. This student took her button sewing fabric and sewed it onto her bag!
A small knitted bag, whip stitched bottom, two small braided straps.
A student knitting on the loom to make a hat.
Winding the loom.
Boys who knit!
Finished hat topped with a pom pom.
This student worked all day knitting his first hat.
Hooking the loom.
Art inspired by my college alum, Kristin Texeira.
Modeling abstract landscapes after those of Georgia O’Keefe.
A pretty little Valentine’s Day bag.
Art inspired by Wayne Thiebaud.
Color mixing wheel.
Painting New Year gifts.
Some in progress New Year gifts.
Frida Kahlo inspired self-portraits.
Frida Kahlo inspired self-portraits.
Still-life paintings on canvas.
Still-life paintings on canvas.
Still-life paintings on canvas.
A “tie” made from our art bin.
Abstract story telling collage.
Abstract story telling collage.
Art inspired by my college alum, Kristin Texeira.
Art inspired by my college alum, Kristin Texeira.
Art inspired by my college alum, Kristin Texeira.
A self-portrait.
Snowflake cutting.
Snowman pin punching.
Adding cloves to oranges for the holiday season.
The always popular flashlight assembly.
Rainbow ordering pegs!
Slipping mini elastics onto our Brontosaurus.
Salt stirring. Children take two spoonfuls of salt and stir it with sidewalk chalk until it turns a different color. They then add it to a vase to make layered salt art. One of our community art projects.
The salt jar.
Folding our laundry.
Each fall we love picking corn kernels off the cobs. We send the kernels back to our local farmer for seed saving.
Very careful, knuckle curled chopping!
Hot cocoa in the crock pot.
Apple hand pies.
Sparkling apple cider.
Peeling apples for apple sauce.
Putting flour down to roll our dough.
Filling in a recipe sheet to take home with hand pies.
Banana and chocolate chip muffins.
A big mound of sugar cookie dough!
Cleaning the leaves of a plant.
Wiping an orchids leaves clean.
Some of our plant collection!
A beautiful Parts of a Pumpkin painting.
Flower puzzle and control mat.
A handmade soft parts of a flower puzzle I made as part of a teacher’s materials swap. I sent this to six teachers around the country!
It all assembled.
Bird cards with matching hand painted eggs.
I offer the opportunity to trace and paint all of our zoology and botany puzzles. The results are so beautiful!
Children drawing turtles after a teacher demonstration.
An amazing drawing!
Putting the finishing touches on.
Skeletal images to match with animal silhouettes.
A third year’s animal research on zebras.
Parts of a horse diagram.
Diurnal or Nocturnal sorting.
Beginning, middle and ending sounds.
My homemade language drawers.
Some of the contents! All pictures and words drawn/written by me.
We already read a chapter book at the end of the day. The third year students get to bring home the stuffed animal and journal to record their activities over the weekend.
I ordered these books from Dash into Reading and they are a great addition to our classroom!
Language “command cards” with corresponding objects.
Each morning, third year students write a journal entry. We started the year with a prompt written by me, and by mid year, children are using the Movable Alphabet to write their own entry, they then copy it onto paper.
Another child’s thoughts for their journal entries.
I love making number sets based on what we are studying. My goal is to have a new one each month! Here are lily pads with little frogs for when we study amphibians.
This teens board I purchased on Etsy From Jennifer. She makes beautiful things that really complement the Montessori classroom.
Here is a hand sewn mat to mimic the idea of “Cards and Counters.”
The 100 Board pattern cards.
I love when children bring their sense of order to all the materials!
The always popular 45 Layout.
An older student labeling quantities.
A pair of Kindergarteners tidying the Bead Cabinet.
The bead chains are just so lovely.
A first year student so proud of his first chain.
A Kindergartener working on his 1000 roll.
This was a huge hit this year. Children make “bead stair” necklaces with color coordinated beads.
A child recording his 100 Board.
A sets basket to accompany our Africa unit.
Number Tower packet.
A child cutting the squares out after he finishes writing all his numbers.
A child cutting the coordinating colored paper to paste behind his numbers.
A child looking at a model while she works on her own Number Tower.
A student and his finished work.
My little doggy, Poppy, often comes for a visit. We teach animal safety, the children take turns giving her treats and then we play on the playground! Here she is next to our 5 pound weighted “Poppy 2.”
Our class pet slug, Sluggo, in his habitat.
He is truly fascinating to watch.
A little coloring page about Sluggo.
We made sculpy slugs.
The children set the tables in preparation for their guests arrival.
We all decorate together.
Olive kebabs are a surprising hit!
Table setting, flower arranging.
Some lovely, child-made muffins.
A child making a plate for their guest.
The beautiful spread!
Fruit kabobs, sunbutter and strawberry tea sandwiches, chips and guac!
A child meditates during Rest and Read.
We have a little reading corner (the library) where a child can sit independently and look at books. We also have a five pound weighted blanket to get extra cozy, and silence headphones.
There are HELP signs available for the children to use. If they use the last of something, or if something is missing from an activity, they place a HELP sign on it so that after hours, teachers can replenish the supply.
Attendance name stones. Each morning, the children move their stone from one tray to another to mark that they are present.
Our snack shelf on the top and our water glass shelf below.
This year, I wrote a book called “The Magnolia Class” about the ground rules, rituals and routines of our classroom. We read it during group time frequently.
Felted wool bead stair mobile. I have made these for many people - this is a shot of it in a friend’s school.
Thinking Thought and Feeling Feelings. Your thoughts in your brain have partners in your heart. “Blank is in my thought bubble and my heart is feeling blank.”
Showing her thought bubble and her emotion.
The Group Plan. We have made a group plan together and it is not the time to do your OWN plan.
Our group plan was to make a paper chain.
Expected and unexpected behavior. I made a game similar to CandyLand. Pick a card - expected behavior moves you ahead two spots, unexpected, back one.
Expected behavior cards all have names of children in our class - unexpected, we don’t know them!