Re-purposing for Purposeful Play!

If your family is like ours, you might have lots of little random containers that came when you purchased another product.
We have tried to make a concerted effort to re-purpose some of these containers for other uses.
We had some neat little plastic containers with lids that came with a craft kit.
The containers can be used for a variety of other crafty projects, but for now, the boys thought that they would be neat to fill with Crayola Model Magic modeling dough.
Both Big Bro and Little Bro had a good time filling the containers and tried doing some color mixing as well.
They used some cookie cutters and some very young child sized flatware as tools to play with the modeling dough.
For quite some time, they squished and squeezed, stretched and mixed, created and re-created...shared their ideas for what could be made with the modeling dough and discussed whether they wanted to let their creations to air dry or whether they would rather re-use the dough on another day and therefore, store the dough. Both opted to be able to re-use the dough so they chose to store the dough in the containers they had already re-purposed for color mixing.
It was such a happy, laid back, unplugged play time.
This made for a wonderful sensory activity, but also a good lesson in re-purposing items for new uses.
Fun!!!

Photo Recap: Some of Our Days

We have been busy here doing a variety of works, both old and new.

Here is a recap in photos of some of what we have been doing lately...working hard at having fun and learning at the same time...

Big Bro doing some math and logic work with Cuisenaire rods.
Not exactly Montessori, but ties in nicely with Montessori math work...

Little Bro doing some sensorial and math work with Snap Cubes.

Little Bro doing math and logic work with Cuisenaire rods.

Little Bro working with Montessori wooden math counters, comparing sets.

Big Bro taught Little Bro how to use some acorn counters to do a math work on Greater than / Less Than...

Big Bro and Little Bro holding their glow-in-the-dark balloons.  They had an absolute blast playing with these balloons! We took some awesome special effects photos with Dear Hubby's photos that I will post in the future... Got this idea from a great blog...if it is your idea from your blog post or if you have read about this idea and know the name of the blog, please let me know...the mommy blogger had said that her hubby had loads of glow sticks and balloons from a work party so she got the idea to add them into the balloons. I tried to go back to search where this was from and cannot find it and want to give a huge shout out to you! We did this twice after I had read about this...the boys loved it, so if this was your idea, please let me know...

Caz and her family did some cool activities with "moon balloons" and other glow projects. Here is a link to her nice post on her cool blog, A Little Learning for Two.

Little Bro lining up picture sound cards to upper case fabric alphabet.

Big Bro doing some farm themed writing practice from an awesome product that I will be sharing a review about this week by Laughing Star Montessori.

Little Bro doing farm themed writing practice. Both boys love this work. Will share a full review of the great pdfs from Laughing Star Montessori that this work goes with this week.

Little Bro having fun doing bathroom pipe construction at the Glazer Children's Museum.

Both boys love this exhibit...so fun to connect the plumbing pipes.

Big Bro proud of his building job.

Big Bro balancing to get the pieces to fit...

Little Bro putting on a hard hat at the construction exhibit at the Glazer Children's Museum.

Little Bro's building construction made with foam blocks...

Driving the fire truck...

Little Bro taking care of a pet at the Vet Clinic exhibit...

Big Bro making felt pizzas at the pizza exhibit...

Both boys cutting pieces of our palm tree with saws on our lanai.

Big Bro's building a contraption at G Wiz Science Museum.

Big Bro is connecting wires and learning about circuits at G Wiz...

Little Bro is having fun hiding in the park...what fun!

Big Bro having fun with a fallen frond.

Big Bro trying to blend in with the plants.

Big Bro resting after climbing a tree. He just loves to climb trees!

This post is linked up to We Play at Childhood 101.

This post is also linked up with One Hook Wonder's Montessori Monday links.

Also, please be sure to check out Adventures in McQuill-land and Mommy Moment.

I usually link up to these two blogs on Mondays, but they are both doing different things for this week...

Jennifer has done some great book reviews and Jody has given an update on her home renovation project. She also has a great Christmas Gifts Galore thing going on over at her blog, so please be sure to pop by and see what she is giving away during this holiday season.

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!

Making Memories & Montessori Monday: Buttons, Buttons, Who's Gotta Button?

Peanut butter cup time...a memory and a Montessori tie - in!

Memories of Playing with Buttons:
When I was a little girl, we used to go to my grandparents' home and would get to play with the big jar of buttons she kept in her dining room hutch, which she referred to as "the buffet."
My grandmother, known affectionately as "Gramma Mickey" by her grandchildren, had a rather huge stash of buttons. It was a massive jar with a screw top lid.
She kept her buttons in one of the lower drawers of her buffet. Not something you would normally expect to find in a dining room hutch, but that is where they were kept.
Well, it was always like a treasure trove...truly one of my very favorite things to play with, as I would open up the buffet, carefully carry the over sized jar to the floor, unscrew the lid, and then, would put my hand into the jar and carefully and neatly start scooping out the buttons.
Would count them, sort them, think about where they had been prior to ending up in my Gramma Mickey's button jar, and then, would think of what the buttons would look neat if they were sewn onto, such as on a skirt, a shirt, or a sweater.
It was such a simple thing that kept us grandchildren entertained, but yet, was so fun for us...and not just for me, but for my cousins, who were a bit older.
My cousins had lived in Germany, as my uncle was in the US military...
They would spend time with my grandmother, a.k.a. Gramma Mickey, on and off, in between times spent overseas.
The one big difference though was that they did not seem to know the unwritten, unspoken rules about playing with these buttons, such as:
You have to ask if you may open the buffet to get them out...
You need to treat them with great care...
You may play with them on the floor...
You may take out handfuls at a time, but under no circumstances are you to just pour out the entire jar at one time.
You need to treat each and every button as if it were made of gold...
Then, when you are done, you are to put all of the buttons carefully back into the jar and very neatly place the jar back in the exact spot where you found it.
Under no circumstances are you to pocket the buttons for yourself, as they are for others to enjoy and for Gramma Mickey to use to sew onto clothes.
If Gramma Mickey has a button that you may have, she will give it to you...you don't ask for a button...
You just wait, play nicely, and she will come over and offer you one to take home...
Or she will let you pick out a few to go on something she is making for you...
I was maybe four or five but I knew these rules...
They were never expressly spoken to me, just demonstrated to me by Gramma Mickey.
My older cousins had bopped all over the globe, mostly in Germany, but then, they would pop back to Pennsylvania and stay there while my Uncle was in Vietnam.
His first tour was before I was born, and my one older cousin was actually born while he was over there...so he did not get to know his dad or bond with him until he was a toddler.
My uncle's second tour in Vietnam was when I was little.
I do not remember anything about it, except from what I have been told, but it impacted his children immensely, as when he went over for the second time, they were a bit older and the reality set in that they would not see him for years.

Having a dad off at war does not make for happy children...or confident children...
Well, back to playing with Gramma Mickey's buttons...
When my cousins would come over, they did not play by her unwritten rules...
They would spill the buttons all over the floor, throw them, pocket some, not put them back to where they were supposed to go in the buffet and so forth.
They were having fun, at least on the surface, but just made a huge mess.  And then, inevitably, they would get caught...caught making a mess, caught stuffing buttons into their pockets, caught not putting the jar back in its proper place or all of the above...
It really frustrated my grandmother.
She would generally mutter something half under her breath like "That is what happens when your dad is out of the picture...no discipline...no rules...no respect."
Sometimes, she would try to be a little more direct in trying to show them how to take care of the buttons, but sometimes, she would lose her patience and all of the buttons would be confiscated and the fun would be over...for a few days at least...
Flash forward to becoming a teacher...over the years, there were children who did not seem to know the underling rules of how something is supposed to be treated, whether it was how to treat a friend, how to use a material, or how to do a particular work. There were also children who acted act as they were frustrated about something tied in with their lives outside of the school day.

Photo used with permission.  Thank you, Lori. 
Copyrighted by  Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Reflections and how it relates to Montessori:
In the Montessori environment, there are more opportunities for children to learn from each other, but that does not always mean that a child will get it and do as they are supposed to...
As frustrating as it is, it is up to the adults in the situation to try to be patient and kind, as well as to redirect a child who is struggling with using a materials or treating a friend nicely.
My grandmother tried to be patient and tried to redirect them as she knew how, but it just seemed like an uphill battle with them. She had every right to be frustrated (it frustrated me and I was a preschooler!)
What did seem to work in the classroom with children who did not get it is when they were asked to demonstrate how to correctly do something, was to model and then, maybe have someone else model it yet again and again until they got it...maybe for several attempts at doing the work, a particular child might need to see the work done again and again, with different people demonstrating the work.
Also seems to help to have a child who is floundering to be encouraged to choose a work that they love and are proficient at doing so that they are made to feel more confident...
Kind of gently guided free choice...
Maybe if my grandmother would have been able to be more consistently patient or would have been able to sit with us and model step by step for them to follow...maybe that would have worked...not totally sure, but the thought has crossed my mind over the years when I have had students with difficult situations, including students living in a shelter, students with incarcerated parents, students with parents who travel overseas all or most of the time, students whose parents lived in different countries, as well as students with parents deployed in the theater in the US Military.
What is so nice about the Montessori environment is that it encourages older ones in the room to take on the role of being the model for the little ones...but it also works out that sometimes, little ones who get it can actually be helpful by working with an older one who does not seem to get it as well...
Montessori tie in:
Inspired works and work extensions using buttons

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Lori.  
Copyrighted by Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Practical Life:
Demonstrate how to button.
Introduce the button dressing frame to a young child.
Demonstrate how to sew a button on to a piece of cloth.
How to Sew a Button
To make it into a Montessori work, be sure to have all necessary items to sew a button onto cloth on a tray...A few pieces of cloth, thread, needle, scissors, tiny basket filled with buttons
Have a child string buttons onto a piece of yarn.
Have a child do a dry transfer work with buttons.
Try the work with a scoop, tongs, chopsticks, spoon, etc.
Have a work set up for a child to wash and dry plastic buttons. 
Sensorial:
Have a child sort the buttons to go with the color tablet boxes...

Use different sized buttons to make homemade sound cylinders.

Do as a work by making two of the exact same sound cylinder and have them match the two containers.
Math: 
Have works set up where a child can use the buttons to count, do patterns, etc.
Sorting, Counting Classifying Lesson 

Here, the buttons are being used with the Montessori wooden numbers.
Here are some lesson plans that correlate with the book, The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid. These lessons could be easily tweaked to work within a Montessori inspired home or a Montessori classroom...

Statistics Lesson
This lesson is by PBS.
Attributes
This lesson is from NCTM.  

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Lori. 

Copyrighted by Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Science:
Classify the buttons:
Magnetic  / nonmagnetic
Natural vs. man made materials
Culture:
Identify the region or the history of a particular button.

Classify buttons for particular holidays, such as pictured above, Christmas buttons. 
Language: 

Read The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid.

Use buttons as an extension with the grammar boxes
Use buttons with command cards
(Place the button in the basket...place the button behind the basket, etc. )
Art: 
Make a mobile with buttons hanging down from the mobile.

Make button imprints by pressing buttons into PlayDoh or clay.
Set up an art area to make a button multi-media collage or sculpture.
Have a variety of materials for a child to choose from to make a multi-media collage or sculpture.
Creative Writing:
Have a child select a button and then, write a story about where that button has been.
Perhaps it is a button that was on a uniform, or was part of a costume, or was on someone special's outfit. 

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Beau!
Photo copyrighted by Beau Bergman of  Down Under Antiques. 

All in all, buttons can be quite fun...just be sure to demonstrate for a child how to use the buttons properly and if for some reason, they are off task, very gently redirect them and model and have others model how to use them correctly.


Please be sure to check out:
Jennifer's Making Memories Monday link-ups,
Jody's Montessori Monday at Mommy Moment link-ups,
and Nicole's Montessori Monday link-ups.








Happy Monday, everyone!