Wonderful Wednesday #2 - North America

Today we studied our home continent, North America and our own country, the United States of America. We started the day singing the continent song again (see previous post for lyrics and tune) and looking at Ms. Claire's geography folders. Geography folders are a Montessori material  each Guide makes in training. We make one folder for each continent, with sub-folders for people, food, animals, plants, homes, etc. Along with each picture is a story which we call 'cultural stories.'

We talked about several cultural stories today - ask your child about making a flag, the chicken, iguanas, and houses. It is fascinating what they remember, even if they didn't seem to be paying attention at the time. 

Today was C's first day at COLCM. After many days of seeing her big brother and sister come to school here, she was so excited to join them!

 For our snack we made 'American Flag' bagels, with cream cheese and strawberries and blueberries.

 Our game was a good old egg race. Amazingly only one egg broke.

 For our art project we make 'fireworks' by watering down paint and putting it in spray bottles. For the finishing touch, we added glitter. They all turned out very festive, but soaked in paint. So they will be a late Fourth of July decoration :)

Of course, we also had water play. For some reason the water pressure was a little low today, but the children quickly figured out they could increase the pressure by standing on various parts of the tube that sprays out water.

Today was also a special day because we celebrated Ms. Claire and her baby (due in about 2 months). Many of the moms, and 2 of our older girls, got together for games, cake, snacks and presents! A great time was had by all, thank you to all our volunteers who made this possible. We can't wait to meet 'Baby Paglia'!

Wonderful Wednesday - Down Under

Each Wonderful Wednesday we will be visiting a different country. This week we 'visited' Australia.
We started the day by singing a song I remember singing in Montessori school when I was a child:

"Continents, continents, do you know your continents?
Continents, continents all around the world.
There's Asia, Africa, North and South America
Australia, Antarctica, and Europe too!"

To hear the tune and see two of our students singing, click on the video below. (That is marker all over her face)

We looked at some pictures and listened to cultural stories from Australia, then we played some traditional Australian games: 'What Time is it, Mr. Wolf' and 'Stuck in the Mud' 'What time is it, Mr Wolf' is very similar to 'What time is it, Mr Fox' a favorite of our students. Stuck in the Mud is like Freeze Tag but a friend has to crawl between your legs to unfreeze you.

Then it was time for our traditional Australian snack - Banana Toast. We spread sunbutter on whole wheat bread and topped with bananas. Very popular with all the kids! We took the liberty of substituting sunbutter for vegemite - didn't think that would be as popular :)

Our art projects were Aboriginal 'dot art' and petroglyph cave drawings on sandpaper.

 Of course, no camp at COLCM would be complete without some good old fashioned playtime!

making mudpies

'This feels weird'

'Do we look funny?'

We closed the day by listening to some music featuring the didgeridoo, a traditional Australian instrument. The kids loved it and were dancing up a storm! We look forward to seeing everyone next week, when we explore our home continent, North America!

Did you know?

Metal Insects - Language curriculum

Did you know that right here in Atlanta, an AMI Primary Montessori training course is starting in September? Joen Bettman, world-renowned speaker and AMI Trainer, has just a few spaces left in her life changing course. Taking the training will give you the certification to teach Montessori for ages 3-6 anywhere in the world. AMI teachers continue to be in high demand and the AMI training is recognized around the world as the highest standard of training. The course also offers a Master's option through Loyola University. Interested in learning more? Please visit the International Montessori Training Institute website

Give a child the world - become a Montessori teacher!

(I love school, I love Ms. Claire)

Back to Nature - Day 5

For our final day of camp we studied animal camouflage. First we read The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. Then we talked about how camouflage helps protect animals in the wild. We also learned about another way animals can hide - by staying very still, like rabbits when they are scared. We played a special game of hide and seek where the children hid and stayed very, very still and quiet. Do you see them?

After that we played another type of hide and seek. Ms. Claire took out some special animals

 Then she hid them so they would be camouflaged

 The children really loved this game! They played it over and over, each time finding and hiding the animals in different places.

 It was very hot and muggy outside so we cooled off with popsicles. Yum!

 Between the downpour a few nights ago and all the water play, our garden was more like a mud pit today. The children didn't mind though!

 More tomatoes and peppers were also discovered!

 Our first art project was making rabbits like the ones we frequently see around school. I think one might even have a home under the Japanese maple in the courtyard.

 Did you know baby rabbits are called kittens?

 Our other art project was mosaic rainbows. The children were very interested in this and some of them spent quite a long time arranging their tiles.

Thanks everyone for a great week at camp! We look forward to seeing you on Wonderful Wednesdays - we'll study a different country each time!

Camp Day 4 - Animals!

D. is waving his arms like a monkey

 For day four of nature camp we focused on mammals. Did you know that squirrels can use their tails as an umbrella or a blanket? We played a game where the kids took turns acting out different animals. It was interesting to think about the different ways animals moved. We had a very accurate representation of a bee!

L. turning her head like an owl

J. is soaring like a hawk

 For our snack we had apple rings with sunbutter and raisins.Then we made a 'squirrel snack bar' by spreading sunbutter on pinecones.....

rolling the sticky pinecones in birdseed, and tying on a string to hang the snack from a tree.

 We played with shaving cream and food coloring to experiment with color mixing. I got this idea from the Play at Home Mom Blog which has lots of creative, fun and inexpensive ideas for children.

 All the children, from the oldest to youngest, enjoyed this activity

 Of course, we had water play too.

E. made a 'shaving cream pirate' nose and kept it on for a long time. We all thought this was pretty funny!


The week has gone by so fast - it is hard to believe tomorrow is our last day. We'll be talking about camoflauge and celebrating with a popsicle party!