Summer Enrichment 4: Let's Visit South America!

What would it be like to visit South America? 

In our Monday video, we:
-  review our continent (North America) and the biome we live in (temperate forest) 
- sing the continents song and find South America on the globe
- discuss our options for getting there
- look at the biome map to find out what biomes we might see in South America
Language game: Rainforest rhyming & segmenting (5 min)

Video: a virtual tour of South America (5 min)

Read Aloud: Biblio Burro (read by Ms. Kristin!)

Tuesday: People and Cultures of South America

What clothing would you wear if you lived in the tropical rainforest? What if you lived high in the Andes Mountains? 

Along with many other languages, Spanish is spoken in many parts of South America. 

Want to learn some Spanish?

Try learning some new words in Spanish with Spanish school bus

Read Aloud books: 

Maria had a little Llama (variation on Mary had a little lamb)

Pele, King of Soccer

Wednesday: The Amazon Rainforest 

Let's visit the Amazon rain forest! What does it look like in the rain forest? What are some of the unique and amazing animals that live there? 

If you want to take a quick video tour to see the rain forest and some of its animals, here are two videos to watch:

National Geographic Amazon video (4 min)
Virtual Field Trip - Amazon Rainforest (9 min)

Read Aloud Book - The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Art activity -  Make a paper chain snake! 

Thursday: The Andes Mountains

This video focuses on the Andes mountains of South America. (and revisits the song "los pollitos" / all the little chicks. 

Video tour of the Andes Mountains

Read aloud book: Up and down the Andes 

Skill challenge: Mountain climbers (Pretend you’re climbing the Andes mountains!)

Friday: Singing in Spanish

We finish up our week on South America learning one more song in Spanish - La aran~a pequinita (The Itsy Bitsy Spider), and introduce the "What's missing" game to try at home

Summer Enrichment 3: Our Amazing Earth

This week we will explore some introductory geography ideas with songs & experiments. Have fun and encourage exploration!

Experiments with water

1. The shape of water 

• Demo video (experiment starts half way through

• Concept: Liquids take the shape of their container 
• Supplies: containers of different sizes and shapes, water

2. Where does rain go? (Demo video)

• Concept: Water flows downhill 
• Supplies: watering can, pitcher or container of water

3. Evaporation (Demo video)

• Concept: Liquid water evaporates into the air (yes, 4-6 year olds can understand this concept!)
• Supplies: 2 identical containers, measuring dish, lid or plastic bag & rubber band (to cover one of the containers) 
• Learning about Earth

Land & Water - on the sandpaper globe 

The earth is made up of land and water, and more of it is water than land. Here's a song (tune: My bonnie)

The Earth is covered with oceans;

The Earth is covered with seas;

The Earth is covered with oceans;

More water than land, you can see

Water, water, there's water all over the world, the world

Water, water, there's water all over the world.

What are Natural Resoures? 

(connection video)

• What are things that all people need?
• Where do they come from? Everything can be traced back to Natural Resources that come from the earth!
• Try going on a gratitude walk today - what do you notice in our amazing world that you feel grateful for?

How can we care for the Earth? (Earth Day everyday!)

This video also introduces cone, cube, sphere, cylinder, and rectangular prism

• What are things your family ALREADY does to care for the earth?
• What are some ideas of other things you could do?

Where does rain come from?

Where does the rain come from? And how does it get there? A kid-friendly introduction to the water cycle.

Learning with songs and rhythm 

(This video includes the watercycle chant, 7 continents song, and a counting song - 5 green & speckled frogs)

We do many songs and rhythms to help children remember vocab and concepts. You'll be amazed what young children are capable of!

Our water cycle chant (video): 

Liquid to gas is evaporation;

Gas to liquid is condensation;

When it falls down, it's precipitation!

Seven Continents Song 

There are 7 continents;

Asia, Europe, Africa

Australia, North America,

South America, Antarctica

Five Oceans

(Once your child has mastered the 7 continents, add the oceans!)

There are 5 oceans;

At-lantic ocean

Pacific and Indian oceans,

Arctic and Southern oceans

Think like a scientist:

Kids often have lots of questions! Encourage your child to ask questions about the world around them,. Try not to just give them an answer, but ask them questions back to help them think about it and come up with some of their own "hypothesis" first. Is there a way to test their idea or research to find the answer? 

Your curious kid might enjoy the "But Why?" podcast

Math Games and Activities - teaching 0-10

You can help your child build basic math skills at home without any special materials

Note: this page is a work in progress that we will continue to add to. Last update: July 12, 2020

1) Learning quantities

We start with 1-5. then work on 6-10

• Learn the song "Yellow is the Sun"  to teach quantities 1-10 (start with just singing 1-5 until your child is confident with those)
• Tips for parents: Teaching 1-10 with fingers (sorry the lighting is so poor!)
• Tips for parents: Subitizing 1-5 with color tiles (can use other objects instead!)
• Movement Game: Ordering Finger Cards
• Movement Game: Distance Matching

What's "subitizing"

Subitizing (SOO-bi-tighz-ing) is seeing at a glance how many objects are in a group. (example: if I hold up 4 fingers, you know it is 4 without needing to count each finger) Subitizing gives a better understnading of numbers than just counting.
Math should be mostly UNDERSTANDING concepts, NOT memorization of facts. Subitizing gives this essential foundation for building understanding!

2) Learning numerals

Numerals are the written symbols we use to represent numbers ("5" is the numeral for five, etc.). At this stage, they are learning the NAMES of the numerals; connecting those to the amounts they represent is a separate concept, and comes after they know that the symbol "4" is 'four', etc.

• Tips for caregivers: Teaching Numerals at home 
• Game: What's Missing?

3) Connecting quantity and numeral 1-10

Once your child is confident with identifying both quantities and the numerals, we can put them together - the numeral "3" represents the quantity 

• In the classroom, we first connect quantity and symbol with number rods and number cards. At home, you can use cards/papers that have 1-10 dots on them (grouped in 5s!) for your child to match with cards/papers that have numerals 1-10

Other 1-10 Activities:

• The Zero Game
• Montessori Odds & Evens activity - have numbers 1-10 on papers/cardboard ready & 55 small objects (beans, stones, cheerios, etc.) before starting Note: this is a classic Montessori activity. I have slightly adapted it to incorporate subitizing skills
• Montesori Memory Game of Numbers
• Quantity matching game - with number cards or tally, finger, or dot cards

Summer Enrichment 2: Let's Explore Outdoors!

The Outdoors have limitless opportunities for learning and exploring!

Morning Connection Videos:

Monday - This week we're introducing learning activities to take outdoors - sorting & classifying skills, sink or float experiment, a twist on an active vocab game, and a poem - A house is a house for me

Tuesday - For the months of the year song, ignore my motions and raise your arms for this month! A house is a house for me poem, A beginning sounds game (can also be done with rhyming words, ending, or middle vowel sounds), and making patterns.

Wednesday - Today we introduce "3 words" rhyming game, review finger spelling, and sing the number writing song. Remember that these kinds of language games are one of the best ways you can prepare your child succeed with writing and reading skills.

Thursday - Today we'll sing the seasons song (make sure your child knows it's summer now!!), compare two flowers - dandelion and daffodil, and introduce some sequencing activities. 

What flowers can you find outside now that it is summertime?

Friday - Happy Friday! Today we're singing "Days of the Week" in English and Spanish, and a tossing game with socks that also practices position words ("inside" and "outside") and partitioning 5.

A few outdoor activity ideas:

Sweeping a porch, patio, or sidewalk is fun and great exercise

Sink or Float - Find 6-10 objects outside, make a hypothesis on if they will sink or float, use a bowl of water to find out!

Fun with rocks - collect a few rocks outside, scrub them clean. Draw or paint on one! How many can you stack?

Flowers - How many different kinds of flowers do you see outside? Learn the names of 3. How do they smell?

Paint with Water - Have an old paintbrush? Dip it in a container of water and "paint" outdoors!

Patterns with Nature - collect objects outside (rocks, leaves, sticks, petals, etc) and use them to practice making patterns (how-to video), or try making more elaborate designs (examples)

Outdoor writing - Write with a stick in the dirt, or use sidewalk chalk (or a brick or rock!)

Other math and language resources and ideas on our Montessori at Home page

Summer Enrichment 1: Let's explore the kitchen!

Here are some ideas for learning and exploration in the kitchen

Morning connection videos:

Monday: Introduction to our kitchen theme for the week
Tuesday: We are In the kitchen this morning with our days of the week song, vocab "bring me" game, and a rhyming game
Wednesday: Happy Wednesday! Today we're reviewing days of the week in English and Spanish and months of the year with songs (along with our dynamics of "piano" and "forte"). Poem is "1, 2, Buckle my shoe" and today's language game is "I spy" for beginning sounds, adding in sound segmenting / finger spelling for our older students.
Thursday: Planning what utensils are needed for different foods, "Yellow is the Sun" number song,  the "zero game," and our version of "Jesus loves me"
Friday: We have two activity ideas to try this weekend.
Cooking with Kids - making pancakes!

Practical Life & Sensorial activities in the kitchen:

Smelling spices - introduce the names of a few herbs & spices you have - then see if you can tell what they are with eyes closed!

Cook or bake together! Teach skills of measuring, pouring, mixing, etc

Folding towels and washcloths

Whisking - add a few drops of dish soap to a bowl of water and let your child use  a whisk to stir them up (if you don’t have a whisk, fingers work well too!)

Washing Dishes

Language Skills: Phonemic Awareness, Writing, and Reading

• For language games (vocab or phonemic awareness), use themes of foods, fruits, vegetables, or kitchen tools
• Make a cornmeal or flour tray
• Writing (K/rising 1st graders) - make lists! grocery shopping lists, meal ideas, favorite foods, ingredients for a recipe....

Math in the kitchen

• Cooking or baking together is a great way to practice math skills - measuring, counting, adding, introducing fractions, etc.
• Setting the table - ask your child how many plates, spoons, etc. are needed for your family. If possible, let them set the table independently for a meal

More Montessori ideas for at home in the kitchen from Trillium Montessori 

Other Independent activity ideas

• Art: Coloring, cutting paper & gluing
• Building: with blocks, legos, cereal boxes, anything!
• Movement: toss and catch a sock ball, make an indoor obstacle course