How About Doing P.E. and Science at the Park?

Well, we had a great day of school...back to a much more relaxed, wear what you want to wear kind of day.

We started our morning out at home and then, wrapped up our school day at the park.

For morning work, Little Bro wanted to "make his own work" by adding some puzzle pieces to the color tiles work. He was so proud of himself for coming up with the idea!
He took out the Montessori color tiles (Box 2) and matched them up with some colored puzzles that we have.
Of course, I had laid out the work a little differently, but he was very enthusiastic about trying it his way, so I decided to let him.
Although I fully acknowledge the importance of using materials (especially Montessori materials) properly, when using Montessori materials in the home, I feel that the environment lends itself to a little more open ended work.
As long as my children can demonstrate that they are capable of doing the work correctly, and as long as they use the materials respectfully, if they want to create their own work, I am fine with that.
The enthusiasm, creativity, and concentration they demonstrate outweighs the fact that they are doing something a little differently than the original work.

Big Bro chose to do some work with Bamboo tiles. He placed then in ascending and then, descending order, then, he made various patterns, and then, he used them to make masks and designs.

For Big Bro's second work, he and Little Bro both wanted to listen to some music and do some movement activities with it, so we played Breakfast with Mozart, one of the kids' favorites. Little Bro has so far chosen to get Beethoven's Moonlight, Breakfast with Mozart, and Pachebel.
Little Bro loves classical music! Big Bro prefers "Oldies but Goodies", which in his case means anything from when I was in high school:)
We play this game when we go to Target called "Find the Composer"...I give the boys the name of the composer and they select the corresponding CD. We stand and listen to the music selection.
It is a very fun game and they really seem to have learned a great deal from it...am thinking of making my own version of this for home, like a listening lotto game with different genres of music.
So, the boys danced and moved to the music, enjoying every second of it...then, Big Bro did his reading work while Little Bro had me read to him.
Little Bro was on a roll...he selected four picture books for me to read...
Big Bro also chose to work on a puzzle by Melissa and Doug that helps children to learn to tie their shoes. Big Bro got a kick out of it because when you remove the puzzle pieces, you can see the old socks in the shoes. Big Bro tried very hard to tie the shoelaces and did a pretty decent job with it. The puzzle is a little more challenging than the tying frame.

We then decided to head to the park for a combo. P.E. and science lesson...
Nothing better than nature studies in nature!
Now, originally, I had planned that we would go and collect various items around the park with different textures and make some prints with these...leaves, bark, acorns, twigs, even maybe some Spanish moss.

I want to make texture and color scavenger hunts something we do on a pretty regular basis.

Well, when we got to the park, plans changed, as there was a boy there who was with a summer camp program, as his school has not started yet... this 8 year old boy was absolutely amazing in his vast knowledge of lizards! He knew all about them, and better yet, he knew how to catch them! He must have caught at least sixteen lizards in the short time we were there at the park!!!
This kid worked at warp speed!
I have never seen anything like it...he then took Big Bro under his wing and showed him all that he knew about lizards...how to catch them, which ones bite the hardest, and as he said "how to tell a guy what kind of lizard it is."
He assisted Big Bro with catching four lizards. What a glorious day!
So, after dunking both of my kids with Purell and then, still rewashing hands in the bathroom, we left, as it started to thunder. We did grab some leaves, twigs, and bark and will do some rubbings soon though...