Montessori Monday~ Christmas Season Fun!

Well everyone, I am finally on top of the holiday! I have Christmas trays out now! Plus I have a few more that I will change out as we go through the month! I hope that this will work. My thought is that we are going to be so busy doing so many other amazing things this month, that we may not get as much work time in with the trays. So this will allow me to change a few, but leave them out long enough for the girls to really work with them! So here is what I have out this week!

Sorting Buttons by Size

(This one was so fun because Bunny had no idea what it was for since all the buttons were together. :)

Sorting Buttons

(Bunny has been really into sorting!)

Spooning Beads into a vase with a Funnel

(yes this is still out! It is amazing how excited they are when I change the beads)

Polishing a Mirror

(I found a new mirror, so the kids are all excited about this too)

PomPom Tweezing

(This is really for Tadpole since he cant hurt it! We are still fighting the throwing works)

Tonging Ornaments into Box

(This was a big hit too! Another one for Tadpole. He is loving tongs, so I am giving him some options)

A Sensory Bin!

(Its been a while, but I found something that Tadpole cant choke on, that my dog cant eat,

and I dont need to sweep up every few minutes! Hooray!)

Here is what is in it:

Gift Bows

Tongs

Star Box (there is a button inside)

Giant Jingle Bell

Pinecone

Snowman

Snowflake

 Prophecy tray for the First Week of Advent 

(This tray had papers with the prophecy printed on in the lightest gray scale possible in Monotype Cursive. All the kids need to do is trace the words with a marker and then glue it on the purple paper.)



So needless to say there was a great deal of excitement over all the new trays! They really jumped right in when they got down to the school room. Bunny and Bug got right to work. Tadpole dug into the sensory bin right away! And Pup wanted to figure out what how she could do more then one at a time. :) They worked so hard for quite a while, but it just didnt last as long as I wanted them to. I will be honest, we only worked for about 45 min. Oh well, it was one of those days! But they did do some good work while it lasted! Here is what we did!

Bug had a hard time with the chopsticks, but she tried it.

Tadpole loved this for about 2 minutes! ;)

Bunny really liked using the new mirror work!

As I predicted, Tadpole loved the tonging! He is still trying to figure out the open close, but he's getting it!

Here are the girls working so well! I love that they look busy together!

If you noticed, after they finished, they switched trays! :)

Pup wanted to try this, so I helped her out a bit. This was really beyond her. She did well once I sorted out the sets and then asked her for the "next biggest".

She moved on to the ornament work. She liked this one, but said that I put too many in the basket because they couldn't fit in the box with the lid closed! So I guess my control was off! Montessori Kids are great! ;)

Bunny really liked this! She did a great job and wanted me to take a picture of her tray when she finished!

Here is Bunny tracing over the Prophecy card for the week! I loved that she Illuminated it with her own art work! She did a wonderful job! I hope that this work will, not only allow her to connect with the prophecy, but also her her handwriting as well!

She really concentrated on this!

Bug did this whole puzzle! I was proud of her since last time she tried it she couldn't quite get it!

Tadpole really wanted to do a cylinder block! This was something that he actually sat and concentrated on for a bit! Yeah! I am seeing some growing in his work ability and that makes me happy!

There was also a ton of art work that got done, and some inset practice as well!

Bug was really proud of her work and carried it around the rest of the day with her!

Pup is really been working on her coloring! She is getting a hang of that three finger grip! :)

Tadpole even tried listening to a few sound containers. It didnt last too long, but he had fun.

Here is Bunny's Advent wreath with the oval Inset!

Pup pulled the Binomial Cube out and tried it, but she couldn't get it. So Bug took it over! With a little of my help representing it, she was able to do it and was really proud!

This of course inspired Bunny to pull out the trinomial cube. This lead her to realize that she forgot how to put it together! It took a bit, but she got it! I guess we will have to do it again!

Here is her word list for today. She is doing really well writing. I am trying to keep her interested. I hope that since she has been writing words with ease that reading is coming soon!

And, yes there is alot of hoping for snow here! :) Bunny made this with the insets!

So that is our day today. Now in the spirit of honesty, this was the best few minutes of the day. I think that my girls were in time out almost as much as they were working. And even though it all looks so peaceful, I spent quite a bit of time yelling at my kids to stop yelling and to just listen to me. Sigh....it was a rough day. I love having a blog to stop and look at all the good moments. It helps me to see past the negative and to get the strength to go forward tomorrow. It lets me see the amazing progress and learning that my kids did while I was trying to get my head together.Do you have days like this?

Now, aside from my harder day, there are a ton of great moms out there with really wonderful weeks that are sharing ideas over at Living Montessori Now and  One Hook Wonder! I am linking up there!

On a another side note I was wondering what you all think of my blog. Is there something that could make it better or easier to use? Is there a certain type of post that you would like to see more of? Are the pictures helpful or too much? I just wanted to get your input since I write as much for me as for you! :) You are all the best readers ever and I cant tell you how amazingly blessed I m to know you all! Thanks for stopping by and reading! Happy Schooling! :)