Reggio Emilia Wednesday: Pipe Cleaner Fun and a Giveaway, Too!!!

We Play: With Pipe Cleaners!

For Reggio Emilia Wednesday (which we actually completed here yesterday on Tuesday), we have something that is really more of a craft versus an actual fine arts project...but since it was completely conceived by my sons to do this project, it actually falls somewhere in the middle.
 They were not given any direct instructions of what their project should look like or how to weave the pipe cleaners back and forth.
They have done many Montessori style weaving projects as handwork in our home and for those sorts of works, the technique of actually weaving by going in and out in some sort of orderly fashion is important (process), in order to end up with an actual woven piece of cloth (product).
But for this, as is true with many Reggio Emilia projects, the main focus was on the process...namely, the process of using and experimenting with pipe cleaners on a new medium, the piece of bath mats. The boys were able to not only decide freely how they were going to integrate the bath mat pieces and the pipe cleaners but also as to the size and shape and orientation of the pipe cleaners and the bath mat pieces.

They were not given instructions insofar as "here is a work for you to try to replicate a particular animal"...
Instead, it was left totally open ended with them in the lead trying different techniques with the pipe cleaners as they saw fit.
There was not a control of error for this, as there normally would be if it was a Montessori work...they were just allowed to play and enjoy the freedom of doing whatever it was that they felt like making with the pipe cleaners...
Both ways of using pipe cleaners provide a child with the opportunity to develop skills...
Both ways offer a child a way to practice fine motor skills and practical life skills (handwork)...
But, keeping it open ended allowed them to work on visual-spatial skills, higher order thinking, creative expression, and metacognition.
When we started the day, both seemed to show an interest in the large quantity of pipe cleaners that we happened to have in our home...we have an ample supply of pipe cleaners, as the boys had recently picked out packs of them in the Target Dollar section recently...
We also happened to have some scraps from a bath tub mat that had big enough holes in it to poke the pipe cleaners through the holes.
Big Bro got the idea to make "a coral reef as well as a sea monster and sea monster hair"

Little Bro decided it would be fun to make "some fish, a stripy tiger, a snail and a snake"...

They really enjoyed bending the pipe cleaners, trying out different configurations, and seeing how the pipe cleaners worked with the bath mat pieces. 
All in all, they had a great time making their creations.

They have done more organized crafty projects using pipe cleaners, such as making actual pipe cleaner animals. We have purchased several of the Martha Stewart pipe cleaner animal kits in the past and used them to not only make pipe cleaner animals but also to be the base for wet felted animals, too...
The pipe cleaner kits from Martha Stewart make wonderful shelf work for our Montessori mornings, as the kits have a built in control of error in that you can only make something based on the pieces that you have and instructions are provided that a child can use to compare and contrast how they made their work versus how the kit suggests it to be made.
There are loads of neat pipe cleaner projects that might be of interest to your family if your child enjoys using pipe cleaners like my boys do here...

Here is a list of links to some great pipe cleaner projects:
Martha Stewart Pipe Cleaner Creatures
Squidoo Pipe Cleaner Crafts  - Fun Activities for Kids
Pipe Cleaner Fun as Part of Playdough Playtime by Not Just Cute
Dr. Seuss Pipe Cleaner Fun by Wendy Piersall

Now, for Today's Whole Lotta Love Giveaway - Giveaway #2: Pipe Cleaner Fun Prize Pack

Giveaway ran from 1/19/11 thru 2/2/11. this giveaway has now ended and the winner has been contacted.

Disclaimer: 

I was not asked by anyone to do a pipe cleaner giveaway. This is just something that I thought would be fun, as it  is something that my boys have enjoyed doing so I thought that your family would like it too. 

This giveaway has ended and comments for this post are now closed.

On Our Shelves: December Activities

We have been busy here, cheerfully decorating and putting out materials for the Christmas season.
So far, we have put up our tree and have started to decorate it...

We also have put some Christmas themed works on our shelves in our homeschool room, and have laid out our two town scenes...the little Town of Bethlehem and our Old Fashioned Christmas Town.

Here are some photos of some of what we have been up to so far for the holidays...

Estimation, counting, sorting, patterning, more and less work for math using chocolates. Both boys loved doing a variety of math work using these chocolate filled containers...

Little Bro attempting to estimate how long he is "in jingle bells"...he was trying to show how big he is by comparing the length of the jungle bell strand with his length...he eventually realized that it would be helpful to lay down next to the jingle bells, instead of having the jingle bells on top of him. He had a great time using the jingle bells.

Little Bro working with a strand of jingle bells. He counted the number of bells attached to the strand and then, used the beads and the wooden numbers to show the total (21). He then measured the length of the jingle bell strand. He loved doing both of these math works...when he wrapped up the math, he then had a blast playing with the strand of jingle bells.
For more cool jingle bell ideas, please be sure to pop over and read Jackie's post at Ready, Set, Read! about Jingle Bells and then, check out the jungle bell shakers that she made and then, pop on over to see Little Wonder's Days neat post about Jingle Bells creations. Little Bro will wanna make some shakers for sure when he sees how nice they look on these two blogs!!!

Big Bro doing gift wrap work. This is actually such a nice work extension, as he had to measure the boxes to determine which pre-cut piece of paper would best match the size of the box (for control of error, only one piece of paper fit per box).He then had to wrap the boxes, tape them closed, and then, had work at stacking the boxes.

As an added challenge to this work, he had to tie a bow that was attached to an elastic band and then, had to figure a way to carefully stack the boxes so that they would all fit together only using one bow. This was very challenging for him but he loved doing this work. 12/15 Update to this post: Big Bro's friend from Raccoon School tried this work and loved it too.

Big Bro and Little Bro both enjoyed doing this Hershey's Kisses Addition Book. How fun to get to use chocolate candy kisses as they did their math work. Big Bro did the more complex addition problems near the end of the book. Big Bro also helped at showing Little Bro how to do the various addition problems throughout the book. Both boys enjoy doing math and eating chocolate, so this was a fun math activity...seemed to fit in nicely, as we had lots of chocolate on hand for our cookie baking and gingerbread house decorating...we also got to watch a biography about Milton S. Hershey and how the candy got its name, as Big Bro has been learning and reading biographies. Did you know how the kisses got their name? According to both this book and the biography we watched about Milton S. Hershey, the machine that these candies were manufactured on made a sound that sounded like "smooch" , "smooch", "smooch", so Milton Hershey thought of the name kisses. Here is a link to all things Hershey for you...yummy!!!

Little Bro doing pouring work, using a Christmas themed pitcher.

Big Bro doing World Stamps sorting work. As an extension, this time, he needs to find a stamp that corresponds to whatever countries we have studied up to that point as part of our Around the World in December activities. He has a good time checking out all of the different stamps.

Little Bro doing some hammering, pretending to be one of Santa's elves.

Counting work for Little Bro using bows and a number line.

Part of our Little Town of Bethlehem scene.

A photo of our Old Fashioned Christmas Town scene...

Knit finger puppets for the holidays. Both boys like to act out the stories we read together using these finger puppets. They also like to write and put on their own shows...

Both boys have also had fun over the weekend using our sensory table we have on our lanai, although the are hoping that the temps warm up, as it has been a little on the chilly side for us here in the Sunshine State the last few days. A huge thanks to Mari-Ann from Counting Coconuts, as she always has awesome ideas for sensory bins.  She is the real inspiration for me to have ever even tried to include sensory bins in our day-to-day, as when I was reading her blog one day, the boys saw the cool sensory bins she had for that month and asked if we could please have something like that for their work. Since Big Bro and Little Bro are a bit older than her son, in addition to our table being a themed sensory area, we are also using our table as a fun way to practice spelling. So, for this month, Big Bro has to sort through the sensory table and find the black and white tile letters to spell Christmas themed words from a word list. Little Bro has to find the beginning sounds for various words.

Little Bro selected this ornament as his special ornament for this year. He got to select it at the store and got to place it on the tree. Before Christmas comes, Dear Hubby and I will relocate his ornament, along with a funny glass pickle ornament and the boys will have to find their special ornament, along with the glass pickle, on Christmas Eve for a special Christmas Eve present. This is a little twist on the German tradition of the Christmas Pickle ornament hunt. Dear Hubby's family had a Christmas pickle on their tree, so part of our new tradition is from Dear Hubby's family tradition...

Big Bro selected this ornament as his special ornament for this year. He will look for this ornament and the Christmas pickle ornament on Christmas Eve.

Little Bro has been enjoying his new Little People Nativity set. In addition to these figures, the set features the Three Kings / Three Wise Men, the animals, and a shepherd. I made three part cards for him to use with this set. Will take some photos of Little Bro using these cards and doing this work sometime this week.

Transfer work for Little Bro. He selects the items to transfer, along with the plate and the tweezers he wishes to use for his work...

We have also been doing some of the neat Christmas Around the World activities suggested in the  
Expedition Earth materials made by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.
If you have not seen Erica's awesome Expedition Earth material, please be sure to take a look.
I ordered it as a pdf and have been very happy with it.
Big Bro and Little Bro are enjoying doing the various activities that she suggests as part of Christmas Around the World.  She suggests using Children Like Me and Christmas Around the World, so we are doing just that.

This is a neat collection of Advent stories. We are reading one per night.

Well, that is what we are up to here in the Sunshine State.
Hope that all of you are enjoying your days in December.

Here is a link to My Montessori Journey's post about her December classroom activities. There are many neat ones that you may want to try in your classroom or homeschool.


Please be sure to visit Deb over at Living Montessori Now to see her post about turning Christmas crafts into Montessori activities.

In her post, Deb gives links to cool Advent and Christmas craft inspirations from some other neat blogs...so a big shout out not only to Deb at Living Montessori Now, but also, to all of these other crafty ladies who have shared some neat holiday themed fun on their respective blogs:


let's go fly a kite

Oopsey Daisy

Blissfully Domestic

A Little Learning for Two

Play and Learn with Dana

Playful Craft Creations


My post is linked up with the Montessori Monday posts at One Hook Wonder. Please be sure to pop over to One Hook Wonder to check out her nice Montessori inspired blog post, along with a great giveaway she is doing for Advent.

It is a cool wooden spiral Advent ring...here is what she is giving away:
"the spiral ring, 1 brass candle holder for the last spot, and 23 pegs on which you can glue stars, hearts, or whatever you desire"...