Did You Know That October 4th is World Animal Day?

Yes, it is true! 

October 4th has been designated as World Animal Day.

According to the World Animal Day website, the mission of World Animal Day is as follows:

MISSION STATEMENT - WORLD ANIMAL DAY

• To celebrate animal life in all its forms

• To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom

• To acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives – from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives 

• To acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives

So what can you do with children to promote World Animal Day?

Well, that is really up to you...but there are loads of possibilities...here are a few:
Visit an animal shelter.
Send financial support to your choice of a non-profit that works to help animals.
Build a bird feeder or put out bits of materials that birds might want to use to make a nest.
Adopt a shelter animal.
Help care for family pets or class pets by helping to feed and care for the pet.
Make an animal enrichment for a pet, such as a new animal-safe toy or else make homemade animal- specific treats, such as homemade doggy biscuits, etc.
Learn about endangered and threatened animals and see what you can do to help them.
Read several books about animals and their habitats.
Our personal favorites for animal books include:
Maurice Pledger books, Leap Frog Nature Books by Jennifer Boudart and Sarah Toast, and One Small Square books by Donald Silver.

There are also some neat projects from around the world listed on the World Animal Day website, including:
Worldwide WAD - sharing experiences

Malta - Animals and Art

Nigeria - Cultivating Kindness

Romania - a School Visit

Singapore – Safari@PL: a Celebration of World Animal Day

United Kingdom - an Early Years Perspective

USA - Classroom Management and the Teacher's Pet

USA - Super-Humane Kids

United Kingdom - Minny's Dream - the nightmare world of the battery hen house

Big Bro loved reading about what was done in the USA by a school about Class Pets. Little Bro loved reading about what was done in Malta about animals and art.
 

How does this tie in with Montessori inspired learning?
Dr. Maria Montessori felt strongly about caring for animals and highly encouraged middle school aged children to work on caring for animals, such as those on a farm.
Caring for a family pet falls under the realm of practical life.
Learning to be gentle, compassionate, and peaceful towards animals in general and in particular, towards family pets, is a great life lesson.

How does this relate to discovery based, Reggio Emilia style, Malaguzzi inspired learning?
Well, in a Reggio Emilia environment, projects arise from the interests and the environment of the child and his or her community as a whole. The environment is considered to be the third teacher. How this relates to learning about animals is learning about animals that are indigenous to your area and how to protect native species from being overtaken by non-native ones. Examples of that here in Florida are snakes, fish, and pigs that are not native to Florida that have wrecked havoc on native animals. Florida Fish and Wild Life does different programs throughout the year to educate families about the problem with releasing animals into the wild that do not belong to them. People who have not been educated about the harm of introducing non-native animals to ponds when they are tired of having them as pets need to learn how that harms the environment.
Taking a young child out to see and learn about the animal habitats near their home is a good way to have a child develop an appreciation for the circle of life and native species in their region.

What are we doing as a homeschool family here in Florida?
We have been reading many animal books and learning how people can impact the habitats in which animals live. We try to do things that are eco-friendly and animal safe.
We have done several art and science projects related to animals and protecting their environments.
We have visited animal shelters, animal sanctuaries, nature centers, organic farms, and zoos.
We have had our sons take nature classes through various co-ops to learn about wildlife native to Florida.
We encourage our sons to actively help out with our family pets here in our home, consisting of three frogs, one fish, and a pup. The boys love their doggy and their doggy loves the boys!
Our dog likes to have the boys play with him, take him for walks, and keep him out of harm's way.
One problem that we face here in Florida is that there are several little creatures that can make a dog quite sick if they come in contact with them, from frogs to toads to snakes, so one of the things we do here is to always make sure that we walk our pup in a well lit area.
We have worked at educating how important it is to keep a watchful eye not only on our dog and what he does manage to get into while walking but just the general area around where we walk our dog.
The boys know what a Marine Toad looks like, as well as Cotton Mouths and Coral Snakes, and they do their best to stay away from any of these creatures in our neighborhood.
they also have learned as to where the armadillos nest near our home and try to keep our dog away from their den, as they would not want our dog to scare the armadillos or for the armadillos to scare our dog.
Also timely is the release of the wonderful movie based on the true story called A Dolphin Tale. Pulls at the heartstrings on many levels because the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where Winter, the dolphin,  was rehabilitated and where the movie was filmed is in Clearwater, Florida...a short hop, skip, and jump away from our home. We have been to that aquarium, we have seen the dolphin, and we knew about the subject of the movie long before it was in the theaters.  Also special is that the boy who helped the dolphin is a homeschooled student!
Yay for homeschooling!!! He was able to be so devoted to his beloved Winter, the Dolphin, because he had the time to devote to his passion of caring for the dolphin! How cool is that?!?

Well, hope that you and your children had a Happy World Animal Day Today!

Here are some photos of some of the books that our family enjoys, as well as some World Animal Day posters and some photos of our pets:

Little Bro showing some of his favorite pets!

Big Bro working on some posters for World Animal Day!

Some of Big Bro's pet pictures for his poster...

One of the neat animal books that we have read...very timely, as with the release of the movie, A Dolphin Tale. The movie was filmed at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium nearby our home.

Checking out pets for adoption with a family friend. This is something that we do once in a while, to go visit animals that are up for adoption. We did not go today to visit animals, but it is something that we do pretty regularly to think about helping animals in need.

Visiting a show about animals at G-Wiz Science Museum in Sarasota, Florida.

All About Pets Lapbook...Big Bro made a Pets lapbook when he was five so now, it is Little Bro's turn to make one!

Pockets for Little Bro's work about pets...

Pet cards for Little Bro. He can copy these cards using his movable alphabet.

Bendaroos Pets that Big Bro made. Bendaroos work well to make tiny, colorful animals.Both boys love using Bendaroos for animal themed art projects.

Holding a little lizard on our lanai...this is a daily occurrence. The boys love to catch and release the various lizards they find by our home. They are very gentle and know to wash their hands thoroughly before and after handling them.

Pets artwork created by the boys. Boy, how they love animals!

Doggy love!

Walking our doggy!

In addition to lots of lizards, snakes, toads, frogs, and alligators, we also have all kinds of turtles living nearby our home.

Did you do anything for World Animal Day? 

We would love it if you would link up your post in the comments section.

Have you done a neat Pets theme or Animal Conservation theme with your children?

Would love to see and read about what you did about animals in your homeschool or classroom!

Have you gone to see the movie, A Dolphin Tale?

What did you think about the movie?

Did you know that there was a homeschool connection to the movie?

Please feel free to share a link to your animal themed posts in the comments section of this post.

Learning All About Pets

Theme: Pets
One topic that has continued to develop as a theme for what the boys want to learn about is pets.
Both Big Bro and Little Bro just adore pets of all kinds so we did a pets study of sorts,  primarily focused on pets that our family already has, including dogs, frogs, and fish, but then, we also added pets that the boys would like to have, including turtles and hamsters.
Since we had some resources to go with cats, birds, and rabbits, we touched upon these animals as pets too...

Using themes based upon their current interests gives us a way to bring the activities together for both boys but in new ways. This way, Little Bro gets to learn these concepts without it having to be a total repeat of how Big Bro learned these.
Big Bro had already learned about the parts of a fish and the life cycle of a frog, but now, we were able to revisit these concepts through doing a pets unit, keeping it interesting for both boys.

Montessori Inspired Work:
We have a set of three part cards about pets that Big Bro had already used as language work with the movable alphabet,  but then, this time, as we discussed pets, I made additional copies of the cards and the corresponding picture story starter and encouraged Big Bro to use them in new ways.
Both boys ended up cutting out a set of their own cards and made their own activities to go along with the cards. Little Bro was still able to choose to do the pets work as a language work with the movable alphabet, but it opened up new options for Big Bro...

Little Bro had some shelf work about pets where he was able to match the pet shapes to their correct homes. He enjoyed doing this work... 
For language work, Big Bro read his appropriately leveled books about pets, both independently and with me, Little Bro read his beginning reader books with me, and then, I read books to both boys, including nonfiction themed books, picture books, and longer chapter books about pets.
Little Bro also designed his own Find the Puppy book to go with our pup.
To make this book, as a fun extension after you have read Find the Puppy, have your child to make their own Find Your Pet book...
To do this, take shots of your rooms and then, have your child draw your pet. then, make copies of your child's drawing and glue each one onto its own book page. Cut flaps on your photos so that they can be lifted and your pet will be revealed underneath. Then glue the photos over the book pages and voila! Your own personal version of Find the _______(Your pet).
Little Bro had a blast making one of these!
We used the dogs that we normally have as part of our continents box for Europe as part of maps work but also as part of math work.
The boys worked together and found each dog's country of origin.
Then, from that point on, they used the dogs for different works...Little Bro used the dogs for math work, doing ordinal counting of the dogs, one to one correspondence of the dogs to little balls that he made for them out of Play Doh, and ordering them in size from biggest to smallest, etc. 
Big Bro has been working on the concept of sets and subsets, as well as greater than / less than so for his work, he used the dogs  by putting them into groups / sets such as: farm dogs, search and rescue dogs, military / police dogs, service dogs, and those considered to be toy dogs.  He made subsets that included separating out the service dogs into different types of work that they do, etc.
Then, he made sets based upon characteristics, such as those holding a toy, those showing their tongues, those showing their teeth, dogs with similar types of fur, etc. and then, he compared and contrasted the size of each set.
For a cooking project, we plan to make two kinds of homemade biscuits, one for our pup to eat and one that is meant for people to eat. Decided to wait until this weekend to make these, as I know that two kids plus a cooking  project involving flour will be a little messy but fun! Plan to let the boys use pet shaped cookie cutters for these...will have to post some photos when we do this...

Reggio Emilia Inspired Activities and Community Events, including Special Co-op Days & Field Trips
For art, we will convert the space on our lanai over to be a studio to make and create pets art projects all next week. Have been trying to get back into the groove of using the book, The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings, by Ann Pelo, as both inspiration and guidance for setting up and doing Reggio Emilia studio art with the boys. But have found that what works best for us is to do one week on, one week off, with respect to setting up the studio space itself. This is because initially, we had a dedicated space to do art projects on our lanai but the boys like being out there so much to do both schoolwork and to just hand out and play out there that every other week is the best compromise for the space...
We will have materials out on the lanai for the boys to try out making watercolor and chalk pastel pets pictures, as well as clay pets. Should prove to be fun.

We have been visiting some area pet stores to learn more first hand about pets.
We had a special day with some of our co-op friends and did a "Pizza & Pets" Day.

First, we met at a pizza shop and did a little class about pets and then, we had some great pizza. Thanks to Marchello's for being good sports about letting us do a homeschool project before we had our pizza party. Worked out so perfectly though, as we had everything wrapped up by the time our pizzas were ready. We talked about how to care for a pet and then, each child drew a picture of their idea for a perfect pet and then, we went around the table and everyone shared their art and what they had learned about taking care of pets.
After we finished our yummy pizza, we walked to the nearby pet store.
The children had a fun time for the most part, although Big Bro and Little Bro learned a life's lesson: sometimes, pets bite.
Big Bro was bitten twice on his hand by Robo  / Dwarf Hamsters. He said that it only felt like a pinch, but was quite devastated to have been bitten, because he knew that this would probably put the idea of getting pet hamsters as pets to rest...and he is right, as he had not provoked them when they bit him. He was being very gentle and kind like he is naturally with all animals.
Little Bro also learned this painful lesson, only his bite and the subsequent aftermath of the bite was a bit more scary...
Since Little Bro has Von Willebrand's, when the turtle bit him on his hand, it bled and bled and bled, even though it was a rather tiny bite. Then, to make matters worse, Little Bro immediately stuck his hand into his hand into his mouth...and turtles carry salmonella, so that made us a bit nervous. Little Bro ended up vomiting around 12 hours later, so that made us worry...but it turned out that his sickness was a virus, not from the turtle bite. We took him in to be checked and they said it was not salmonella, but it made us also decide to rule out adding a pet turtle to our pet collection.
We are sticking with the pets we have and are having fun with them for now. The boys both ended up drawing pictures of their bites and we talked about what we had learned from this.

Just as we were starting to study pets, we visited the Miami Children's Museum.
Both boys enjoyed their Pet Central exhibit they had there.
Also, went to the Glazer Children's Museum, both before this unit and during this unit, to check out the Vet Clinic exhibit there, as it deals with pets as well...

We still have a few more pets related field trips in the works for next week: we are going to visit an animal hospital and a local pet shelter. Loads of real life experiences here related to pets!

For additional in-home practical life, the boys have been helping to care for our pets by feeding them and by helping to take our pup for a walk.  They helped to choose new fish tanks and new stones for our fish, as well as prepping sticks and moss for our frog. 

My awesome and very artistic cousin gave us a hand painted a vintage children's suitcase with a painting of her dog on the side. Inside the suitcase are all of Little Bro's pet stuffed animals.
He likes to take these animals out and then, with his veterinarian's kit, he pretends to be a vet and cares for the pets. Sometimes Big Bro will join in to play vet clinic with Little Bro, but most of the time, Little Bro enjoys playing this by himself.

One other material I plan to get to go along with our pets unit is made by Laughing Star Montessori called Pets Story Writing Masters.
Students trace, copy, compose and illustrate stories about pets and practice writing on lines...
Students trace or copy or compose the story. (Then) They draw a picture!

It is a neat little book of black line masters all about pets. Am in the process of reviewing some excellent Laughing Star products.
While reviewing their products, I saw that they have this neat booklet and plan to order it from them.
The products they have sent as pdf's for me to review are excellent.
Am going to run the reviews next week for all of you to read.
Please be sure to check out their website. They have some very nice free downloads  and you can also sign up to receive their newsletter. Their newsletters are great and sometimes offer some savings to their readers.
Everything I have seen about Laughing Star Montessori has been impressive, so if you are looking for some nice products, please come back next week to read my reviews and please visit their website to check their products out for yourselves.

The American Veterinary Medical Association developed a series of twelve lesson plans for National Pet Week, which is in May, but you can really use these any time of year...
These nice lesson plans, appropriate for approximately ages 4-10, can be downloaded for free and with a little tweaking, they are perfect for a Montessori inspired homeschool or classroom.

Would have uploaded more photos but got an error message that I am out of space, so will have to figure that out before I can upload any more photos or blog posts...oops!

Well, hope all of you are having a happy weekend.
We are having a good one here in the Sunshine State.

Making Memories and Malaguzzi Monday: Gramma Mickey's Chair Pockets

This week, my post is about some wonderful memories of my grandmother and some handmade items she helped me to design and make for my classroom way back when I was a first year teacher.
Sorry, no true Montessori tie-ins for this week, although if you use Montessori in your homeschools or small in-home programs and you are looking for an idea to help you to store materials in a small space, hopefully, you will enjoy this post.
There is a Malaguzzi tie-in, though, so if you are wondering more about Reggio Emilia and Malaguzzi, please continue reading...
If you like to sew, then this could be the perfect project for you, as I never got a patent for these...but if you would ever make some like what I made with my grandmother, I would love to see how yours turn out and if you would be so kind as to give a nice shout out to Gramma Mickey and to me, that would be all that I would want.


My maternal grandmother, affectionately referred to by all of her grandchildren as "Gramma Mickey", was a wonderful knitter, seamstress (way, way back before those who like to sew became known as sewists...since she was old school, I will say seamstress), and all around artsy-crafts-y sort of grandma.
Over the years, she made many wonderful things...from mittens attached with strings so we wouldn't lose them in the snow to purses that converted into doll beds made out of Ivory dish soap bottles...from cool ceramic roosters to water color paintings of the different seasons.
She was a very versatile artisan and generally, a fun grandma.

Am pretty sure that if Gramma Mickey and Loris Malaguzzi would have ever been in the same room, they would have had many ideas to discuss and share, as two of the metaphors commonly associated with Malaguzzi and his philosophy of early childhood would have resonated to a degree with my grandmother, namely:
 ...the educative process as the tossing of a ball back and forth between child and teacher, an exchange in which both players are equal and in which they cooperate equally in the play and development of ideas. *
and
...teacher and child embarking together on a journey downriver, rather than standing on opposite banks watching the river flow.*
 * To read more about Loris Malaguzzi, please visit this link where I found these Malaguzzi metaphors...


During my first school year, I came home for Christmas from where I was teaching in Virginia to my family's home in Pennsylvania. 
My grandmother lived in the same hometown as my family, so we spent much of our time together over my break.
Told my grandmother how I wanted to have some pockets to go over the backs of my classroom chairs like the teacher next to me had, only instead of just having cute pockets that would be for decorative purposes to make the room look more neat with matching colored seats, I wanted mine to be functional.
Wanted to somehow integrate the idea of a pencil pouch into the chair pocket.
So, Gramma Mickey asked me what sorts of materials I was envisioning that could go in these pockets and said that ideally, would like a space for glue, child sized scissors, markers, colored pencils, crayons, and a journal. 

Also said that it would be nice to be able to have a little space to place a tiny mouse, as I used little mice as gentle reminders to the children that they needed to work quietly "like a little mouse".

Some of Our "Work Quietly as a Little Mouse" Mice

So, we began to come up with a design for my chair pockets. 
Mind you, we did not have much time, as I was only home for a couple of weeks over break...
Plus, my grandmother was in her eighties, had advanced rheumatoid arthritis, and had cataracts...
In addition, I wasn't 100% certain as to the measurements of the child sized chairs in my classroom...It was all by what I could tell my grandmother by comparison...
Went something like "Well, the chairs are wide enough for a small child, but not wide enough for an adult to sit on them comfortably, maybe as wide as a book bag, as I have seen kids rest their book bags on the chairs."
Despite these challenges, we plodded through and within a few days, I had some fabulous chair pockets to take back to Virginia with me at the end of my break.
First, she asked me about the material that the teacher next to me had used for her chair pockets. Jenny, the teacher next to me, had used lightweight, bright cotton and although they really made her room look cute and inviting, they were not holding up all that well and she had to make replacements often. 
My grandmother suggested that we use something that would be both durable and stain resistant, plus that would feel soft against a child's hands and backs, as they were to make the seats more comfortable for the children, too.
We came up with the idea of using heavy denim. 
Together, we went out and got the heaviest, most durable bolts of denim we could find.
Then, my grandmother asked me to get the approximate dimensions of each type of box that would need to fit in the chair pockets. She did not need the actual measurement in inches, but rather, we went and got the actual boxes and then, just eyeballed each one to make sure that everything would fit.
Gramma Mickey whipped up a paper template for the chair pockets using pages of her Sunday newspaper. 
Then, we got right to work. 
Her design was awesome and efficient, as part of the beauty of the chair pocket design was its simplicity...
We folded out big pieces of denim, then, flipped part of the denim piece back on itself.
The piece that flipped back on itself created a nice, big pocket that was perfect to hold a folder and journal. There was even ample room in this pocket to hold a show and tell item, which was a bonus...
Onto the one pocket piece, she then affixed the pouch piece that held the smaller supplies on the outside. 
And voila! 
Nice looking, but also very practical and durable chair pockets!

How long have these lasted? 
Well, let's just say a very long time...nearly twenty years and counting!!!
They have been used by a countless number of my students, as well as my sons and their friends when they come to our home. 
The little "please work quietly" mice have also held up equally as well...


This week, I am starting to do a Reggio Emilia inspired book study where we will read a lovely book called The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings by Ann Pelo. 

Here is a link to this wonderful book.
This is such a cool book. It goes over how to set up a studio, as well as how to explore texture, color, and 3D media with children. It also highlights how to do representational drawing and painting with children. Having a child do a self portrait is a powerful learning tool, as it gets them to examine themselves and to share how they view themselves.
The book also discusses how a "Culture of Inquiry" grows through art, as well as how to use art media to "grow long-term investigations."
Just love when art is used as a tool for higher order thinking in young children, so this book and its concepts are right up my alley, as it is something we already strive for here at Sunrise Learning Lab.



Different people from our book study group have been toying with the idea of how to set up a studio in a small space and that is what made me reflect upon my chair pockets. 
Ideally, in a very large space where you have ample space to store art materials or school supplies communally, it could work well to store them together in bins or baskets like you do either in a traditional art class or a Montessori classroom. 
In an art room, typically you would have the room to have big bins filled with paint brushes, watercolors, pastels, crayons, and glue.  
In a Montessori 3-6 room, typically you would have a shelf dedicated to nice little pencil holders for all of your colored pencils, as well as your metal insets and paper.
However, when you are in a smaller setting where you only have a few students and maybe your work space has to also double for your dinner table, or your play room seating, then these chair pockets can really be a wonderful solution for you and your family. If you have a small in-home educational program of some sort, or if you do art camps or Scouts out of your home, these would be great for you as well...

This week, we are going to do a Lego Summer Camp.

Little Bro's Lego Doggie, Made with a Little Help from Dear Daddy

Big Bro's Lego Star Wars Ship

Little Bro's Lego Ostrich and Trainer

The chair pockets are once again proving to be invaluable, as all of their little Lego creations fit nicely into the chair pockets, too. The pockets have proven to be versatile over the years, as I have used them when doing writers' workshops, art camps, as well as for their originally intended use in the classroom.
Although the rest of our neighbors who attend public school started back to school today, we are not officially starting until after Labor Day weekend. 
We are having a much later start because of a few different reasons, namely:

• Want to have more time to get into The Language of Art and really have time to reflect upon how doing more of a studio approach this year is going to impact our day-to-day...

• Want to have time to have Big Bro and Little Bro transition from our current routine into our new one...we are still going to do the Montessori inspired work period in the morning, but this year, the day will extend much longer into the afternoon. Our afternoons will be more of a mix than last year, as we are doing co-op classes with a couple different co-ops, plus, we are adding in studio days and lab days, so it is more varied and longer in length than last year's schedule. 

• Want to have time so that if we feel like adding an end of summer road trip into the mix, we will be able to do that as well, whether it ends up being a day trip or a few days...

So, not much to share related to Montessori this week, as it is more of a summer camp week.
But, if your family likes all things Lego, please pop by later in the week, as I will have some nice Lego pdfs to share.
Happy Monday!
 This post is linked to Making Memories Monday Links at Adventures in McQuill-land.

 

Making Memories, Montessori (& Malaguzzi) Monday: No Butcher, Just the Baker & the Candlestick Maker!

Peanut Butter Cup Time: Memories in the making and Montessori and Malaguzzi tie-ins

Memories in the Making:

This morning, we had to do some errands and register for fall homeschool co-op classes.

As we were trying to purchase some science items for our upcoming fall homeschool co-op class, Little Bro happened to spot a child's deep dish pizza set for sale.

The set comes complete with a pizza, a spatula, a pizza cutter, a deep dish pizza pie pan, some pretend cheese and red pepper shakers.

He saw this neat set and then, he saw a poster called Pizza Fractions so we ended up buying the pizza set and the chart.

The chart is appropriate as the boys have been working with fractions.

Big Bro is doing more complex fractions work while Little Bro has started to do fraction skittles as a Montessori work. 

We are still in summer camp mode, so the pizza set is perfect in that it is both educational and fun, and brings in both pretend play and real world learning. 

It also meets the boys' need for Delight Directed / Delight Driven Learning. 

The boys love to help in the kitchen, especially when it comes to baking.

Whether it's brownies or pizza, pretzels or cheese bread, helping to bake is something they both enjoy.

They both love to add the ingredients, stir, and put the food into the baking pans or cookie sheets.

Generally, we try to "keep it real" and actually make  / bake the real food items, but sometimes, using play food sets that are well made and also double as math activities work well for us, too.

As Little Bro was diving into his deep dish fun, Big Bro was eying our brand new,  very cool, hands on chemistry set that we purchased. He would have just loved to have been able to get right to it and do every single experiment and investigation in the kit...but alas, he has to wait, as the kit is going to be used in conjunction with their Wednesday science classes this fall...

At first, Big Bro felt bad, as there was Little Bro having a blast with his new pizza work, and there sat Big Bro, who had to be told, "Sorry, but we have to wait and hold off on doing your chemistry set until class starts."

Then, lo and behold, right in with our mail was something that caught his eye...

The Yankee Candle Catalog!!!

This is one piece of mail that is well used in our home!

We first got on their mailing list as our next door neighbors from when we lived in Virginia just love the Home Sweet Home scented collection. We ordered some nice candles for our dear neighbor friends a while back and ever since, we have been getting a catalog from Yankee Candle every few weeks.

Not sure if any of you get this catalog, but it is a hit with both boys, as every issue of their catalog contains several scratch and sniff candle fragrance pages.


Scratch and Sniff Pages make such a great sensorial exercise, plus it is a good way to reduce / reuse / recycle...and it is delivered free to you every few weeks. 


Today, he just scratched and sniffed the pages, but on other occasions, the boys  have cut up the pages as two projects:


Scented Match-Up Cards and Scented Writing Paper
For Scented Match-Up Cards, the boys clip out the scratch and sniff circles and cut each circle in half.Then, they have to match up the scents. This is self correcting, as when they open their eyes, they can see if the candle photo halves make into a whole circle...
For the Scented Writing Paper, they cut out the scented circles, then, scratch them, and then, layer them between sheets of plain paper...kind of gives you a mixed up scent, but smells good for the most part...
Very fun and free to boot!
 
Just have to check about allergies if you do either of these with children...

When Big Bro wrapped up sniffing all of the fall fragrances, I told him about how some bloggy friends had made their own gel candles...we looked at the post over at One Hook Wonder and Big Bro was impressed with the gel candles that Bean made...

Now, Big Bro can't wait to make some candles of his own! 

Then, while Big Bro checked out the cool blog post about making gel candles, Little Bro took a turn scratching and sniffing the scented pages. 

So, we had the baker and the candle stick maker, but no butcher today!

Montessori and Malaguzzi tie-ins:

Both the Montessori philosophy and the Reggio Emilia approach propelled illustrate the importance of real world learning, the preparation of the environment, creativity, and the adult role as being more of an observer. 

Please be sure to check out the following:
 Jody at Mommy Moment and her Montessori Monday links...

Thanks to Jody for writing about her family's time here in Florida and for mentioning Sunrise Learning Lab in her post. Jody is a wonderful friend and it was so fun to have her and her family visit us!

Nicole at One Hook Wonder and her Montessori Monday links...

Thanks to Nicole and Bean for their inspiring post about making gel candles. 
Big Bro was impressed with the handiwork. We are going to try to make these when the temps cool down this fall so that we can make them on our lanai. The temps are too hot for making them right now, but when we do, we will be sure to again give a shout out to you and your idea.

Jennifer at Adventures in McQuill-Land and her Making Memories links...

Thanks to Jen for sharing her awesome family photos of their vacation in Vermont. What a treasure to get to spend quality time with the ones you love in a cabin setting like you did...awesome...makes me wanna go to Vermont for some getaway fun! 

Amanda at Not Just Cute has two neat pizza posts:
Her newest post, Book Activity: Pete's A Pizza, highlights William Steig's imaginative book, Pete's A Pizza. She also gives a great recipe for pizza that would be yummy and fun to make with children.
Then, she has another post called Welcome to the Pizza Shop! Prop ideas for Preschool Dramatic Play.
Amanda's posts will really add to what all you can do with the theme of pizza if this is something that you would want to explore as a theme. 
Thanks to Amanda for sharing these posts, as her posts will really add to what you can do if pizza is something that you would want to explore as a theme.

Happy Monday, Everyone!