Learning at Home Montessori Week 20

Practical Life

I'm a Little Teapot

This week, the fascination with water continues. Summer is a great time to practice pouring water, as it can be done either outside or inside. Pouring exercises are some of the foundational exercises in the Practical Life area. Mastering pouring helps a child to become incredibly independent- they can help pour juice for classmates, they can independently serve themselves when thirsty and they can help at home during mealtimes. For this activity, you’ll need a small jug and some drinking glasses. First, fill the jug with some water. Then, slowly and carefully show your child how to pour water from the jug into one of the glasses. While pouring, make sure to hold the handle on one side, and the ‘belly’ of the jug on the other. Keep your movements slow and deliberate. It’s easier for your child to concentrate on your actions when they are done this way. After demonstrating how to pour, empty the water back into the jug and let your child have a turn. For more interest, add food colouring to the water. You can also challenge your child to pour an even amount of water into more than one glass. A small teapot can also provide lots of opportunities to pour. You could even plan a tea party. Your child, of course, will serve!

Math Activity

Measuring and Pouring, Pouring and Measuring

Children love to work with water. This week, water will help them learn how to measure liquids. For this activity, you’ll need a jug of water (that your child can handle), a liquid measuring cup that holds 2 cups or 5ooml (glass works best) and various containers. You’ll be measuring different amounts of water using the markings on the side of your measuring cup. First, show your child how to pour water into the measuring cup so that it measures 100ml of water. Have your child decide which container to pour the 100ml into. Watch as your child pours the 100ml into the container. Then, have your child measure out 200ml of water into the measuring cup and have them decide which of your containers will hold the 200ml. This is great practice in estimation, a necessary mathematical skill to develop. Continue as long as you’d like. This activity will help your child develop fine motor skills, learn how to measure liquids and learn how to estimate the volume of a liquid. And . . . it’s lots of fun!

Language Activity

The Life of Water

By helping your child build their oral vocabulary, you not only give them a hand up in expressing themselves clearly and accurately, you also give them a knowledge base to draw upon when learning how to read. Knowing the correct names of things, and the parts of things is an important step in developing a rich vocabulary. This week, we’d encourage you to explore the Life Cycle of Water. Together with your child, you can learn the names of the different states that water transforms into in its endless journey. Older children will be amazed to find out that the water we use today is the same water that dinosaurs drank in the past. What a mind-blowing concept!

Read Aloud- Water Dance- https://youtu.be/pIS6tGb9GxM

Read Aloud- Hey, Water!: https://youtu.be/u7XN3k6kcEg

Read Aloud- All the Water in the World- https://youtu.be/0iMqloLtf0E

Read Aloud- In the Small, Small Pond- https://youtu.be/QRgds5x53ZI

The Water Cycle Song: https://youtu.be/TWb4KlM2vts

Video about the Water Cycle: https://youtu.be/y5gFI3pMvoI

Sensorial

Can You Hear the Ocean 

Last week, you made a Rain Stick with your child. This week, you’re going to explore water’s ‘musical’ ability! For this activity, you’ll need: several small glass pop bottles, or drinking glasses of the same size, water, a wooden/metal spoon and food colouring if you’d like. You’ll fill each bottle, to varying degrees, with water. Add food colouring so that you can see the level of water in each bottle. Then, blow gently over the lip of each bottle to create a musical note. You can fill the bottles by systematically increasing the amount of water, or randomly. Now, listen to the sound each bottle makes as you tap it with the spoon. Each bottle has two distinct sounds! After you’re done making music, water your inside plants and let them sing!

Using glass bottles to make music: https://youtu.be/nsKJHjVzcxs

How to make music with glasses: https://youtu.be/3JpqfGvloLo

Making a Xylophone with drinking glasses: https://youtu.be/P_MNc92tT_o

Inspiring video about making music with wine glasses and water! https://youtu.be/HUjWRYKIYeI

Creative Activity

In keeping with our focus on water, we encourage you to continue exploring the different kinds of art that you can make using water coloured with either food colouring or tempera paint. You can use eyedroppers and a thicker paper (watercolour is best) to create dropper paintings. Or, you can use an eyedropper to make a rainbow with coloured drops of water. Or, ‘paint’ coffee filters with eyedroppers, let them dry, and turn them into a butterfly!

Making Eyedropper Art: https://buggyandbuddy.com/art-kids-painting-watercolors-droppers/

Eyedropper Art Video: https://youtu.be/WRW0tMgWlvo

Making an Eyedropper Rainbow: http://www.paper-and-glue.com/2017/02/eye-dropper-rainbow-craft.html

Instructions to make a Coffee Filter Butterfly: https://www.messylittlemonster.com/2015/04/coffee-filter-butterfly-craft-for-kids_11.html

Coffee Filter Butterflies for the little ones: https://mom.com/toddler/11619-toddler-talk-coffee-filter-butterflies

Additional resources:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ – This website is a source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families on movies, books, apps and games and websites.

https://www.funbrain.com/ – A collection of educational games, books and videos for Pre-K through Grade 8 children.