Float or Sink

This Rubbermaid 2.5 quart food prep container is the perfect size for this tabletop work.

 Science lessons can be so simple!  "Float or Sink," for example, is a simple work that "Alleluia" loves.  All that you need is:

• Clear, deep plastic tub (at Sam's you can buy these in the food prep aisle)
• Basket to hold items to be tested (mine was less than a buck at Target's on clearance)
• Towel to put under your work area
• Index cards labeled "FLOAT" and "SINK"
• (Optional)  Child-sized apron
• Random objects to test, such as:

Pine cone, buckeye, maple tree seeds (aka "helicopter seeds")
Tops to the milk or OJ containers
Cork (mine is a coaster but you can use a good old wine cork)
Chalk
Rock
Wax candle
Styrofoam (salvage from a box)
Ping-pong ball, other balls
Various floating toys (such as a fish taken from our toy fishing set)
Painted wooden block
Soap (both Ivory and another kind of bar soap)
Coin (beware of choking hazards, though!)
Jingle bell, paper clip

We've added things to our "Float or Sink" basket over time.

You can lay the index cards out on the towel to separate two columns, one for items that float and one for items that sink.  Talk about what kind of things float first, such as things that hold air, things made of wood, etc.  Then ask the child to predict whether the item will float or sink.  Sometimes you'll be surprised yourself!  You can introduce the term "buoyant" and "gravity" and "surface."  Older children may be interested to note that while a bar of Ivory soap floats, most others will sink.  Why?

Do you have any other ideas for items to put in our basket?

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Using Hands Lots and Lots

HANDS!

At this time of year there are plenty of apples to peel!

Playing the violin, clarinet, French horn, piano or guitar are all a good workout for the hands.

I'm not the only one who has to keep remembering to give the kids work to do with their hands, every day.  This post is just a collection of photos of MORE things your children could be doing every day in the classroom and at home (see this post for the first such discussion).

Good old soap carving.  Even the older kids love it.

You can use the shavings for creating bubbles or just for washing, either cloths or the dishes from snack.  This piece, however, seemed too special!  Alas, it fell down the drain immediately after this photo was taken :(

As they help with dinner, they can snip things with the kitchen shears (herbs or, in this case, bacon).

Toddlers can put ping-pong balls into this empty Trader Joe's frozen tartlet pan (or  any muffin tin).

Pounding golf tees into clay, sorting silverware, learning letter sounds from plastic letter magnets .....Happy toddlers, happy parents!

These are edible gummy bugs that are sold with light-up tweezers!

Here, friends at Montessori Mornings help clean up a spill of the lentil transfer work. 

It takes strength to open cans!

Speaking of opening things, most kids like the Open/Close Basket.  Mom likes it because it's free to make (just save your empty containers, the weirder the better).

Those little knobs on this puzzle of the frog are great for using the pincer grasp.

Picking all kinds of bizarre berries for a nature center (or just for the bottom of Mom's purse!).

A bolt board is pretty tricky.

A "Float/Sink" work can be free to put together:  just a basket of random stuff and a bowl full of water.

When using the Sandpaper Letters, children first sensitize their fingertips by dipping them into a small bowl of water and drying them.  The strokes they use to feel the letter's shape mimic the shape and direction of the strokes they will use to eventually write.

Using the garlic press to help with dinner can be hard work!  (Duck costume optional.)

Here mixed ages enjoy matching fabric squares of different textures.

"Alleluia" dresses her dolly, who needs snapping, tying, zipping, etc.

There are tons of kids' mosaic kits out there.  This one has magnetic foam squares.  Below, "Alleluia" tries to improvise mosaics by using Blokus and her Duplos to make patterns with colored blocks.

Dioramas that require paper cutting or tearing, ripping tape, painting and clay squishing are great projects for elementary-aged students.  Here, "Peel" is making a coral reef.

Do YOU have any good ideas to share?  Please post some in my comments!

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Practical Life/Care of the Person: Washing Hands

Get thee to a Target--these nail brushes were in the cheapo bins right at the front of the store!

A nailbrush is one of the essential tools for Montessori Hand Washing.  Cuteness is for extra credit.

If you have toddlers yourself or take care of one on a regular basis, you know that using the potty and hand washing happen ALL DAY LONG.  Make sure you have things set up so that your little one can wash his or her hands thoroughly, with very little help from you.

Last summer, when Alleluia was learning to use the potty, I wanted her to be able to wash her hands without me hoisting her up each time.  In my Montessori training we were shown how to teach hand washing at a station with a low table, a bowl, a pitcher with water, soap, etc.  I wanted to adapt the lesson to use our bathroom sink, so I made sure she had a heavy, tall step stool in front of our sink, some soap, a towel nearby and--of course--a cute nailbrush.

We fill up the sink with water (about two-thirds full) and try to make as many bubbles as possible, rubbing our soap-laden hands together under the running water.  (I think early on Alleluia convinced herself that Mr. Sink liked to eat bubbles--the more, the better.)  This is a great opportunity to have your toddler practice singing either the "A, B, C" song or the Montessori version, which replaces the letter names with letter sounds.  It's exciting when we drain the sink, because sometimes Mr. Sink makes a loud growling noise that's slightly scary!

When we remember that practical exercises such as washing hands are an important Montessori work, they don't seem like such a chore, do they?  Most children actually enjoy playing with bubbles and with water, so making more of an event out of something they must do regularly makes sense!

Here are two extra links I found in case you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDzH3Bl_jU0
http://www.infomontessori.com/practical-life/care-of-the-person-washing-hands.htm

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Introducing a Second Language

Here "Madame" teaches the toddlers about the rooster, frog, and goat using lots of songs in French.

When I was a small child, my parents paid an international graduate student to come to the house each Saturday morning and teach us kids some Chinese.  The theory was that if we could learn to recognize tones early on we could recognize them later, when our brains weren't so "plastic."  I grew up with a facility for languages and even took a year of Chinese in high school.  Studies now show that learning a second language improves our brains' executive function and makes them more efficient.

Hands on with the bell....

Whatever language you introduce to your young children, they will soak up the sounds like a sponge!  Here my friend "Madame" has been coming for the last 15 minutes of each class, singing songs and speaking in French to the children.  She is great with children (she's a mom of five girls herself) and very playful.

....and the ladybug.

She doesn't use any books or CDs or flashcards or worksheets--and yet the children are learning to say "au revoir" or repeat after her the words for colors or animals.  One mommy reported that her daughter was singing "the froggy song" at home after class (the frog has been a returning character in Madame's short lessons), and when I saw another toddler yesterday while on a walk she was able to say, "Bonjour!"

Madame is on the floor, on their level.....

...and highly engaging.

Since we mommies are in on the classes we are learning along, too.  After just four sessions I have finally overcome my confusion at French pronunciation and can see that there are many, many cognates--making the language much less intimidating!  Since the French written words may not seem to go with the spoken sounds we hear, maybe it's a big advantage that these children are learning the language before they are reading and writing.

Because she is playful herself, the lessons are fun!

Learning the names of colors...

....and introducing the horse!

There's a song about a ladybug.

I certainly wouldn't compare this to a systematic language lesson, but it is a wonderful introduction for toddlers.  I also wanted to try some more "one on one" language instruction for Alleluia, so Madame has given her a couple of individual lessons.  Here they were trying out a new work which is better used with slightly older children (but it's so adorable I wanted to see them try it!).  They are available in English and Spanish, too.

Here Alleluia learns some of the words for things at the zoo from the "Labeling the Cloth" work.  This is the company that makes these.

The black sheep is from the Nursery Rhyme cloth.

How do you say "adorable!" in French?!?

Here's a short article about the benefits of being bilingual.  It turns out to be good for our brains--even if we are learning later in life--and the benefits extend into old age.

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Simple Science: The 3 States of Matter for Toddlers (It's FREE!)

I still remember the simple demonstration I saw 40 years ago:  My teacher put an ice cube on a metal spoon, held it over a flame, and the ice melted.  I was mesmerized!

The three states of matter:  liquid, solid, gas.

It's THAT EASY to give your small children a simple science lesson, and it's free to boot.  Start by showing them water (liquid), ice (solid) and an empty jar (gas).  Explain that these are all the same substance, but they are all present in a different form.

For this demonstration we put a small cookie sheet in the freezer for about 5 minutes.  Then we boiled water, showed the children the steam, and "Gandalf" held the cold metal sheet above the pot.  Right away the steam condensed into water on the cookie sheet, and some even froze!

Finally, I held a metal spoon containing an ice cube over the lit candle you see above.  The ice melted, the water dripped down (causing an exciting "sizzle"), and the water eventually put the candle out!

This took less than 10 minutes, but the 5 toddlers present (ranging in age from almost 20 months old to 3 years old) were all captivated!

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Toddlers Love this DIY Work!

Made of PVC pipe and wooden dowels, this portable box can be hung on the wall or set on the floor.

My friend has twin toddlers, a boy and a girl aged 16 months, who LOVE this box Grandpa built!  I'm not sure what to call it!?  Please send me YOUR ideas for a name :)

She saw a larger version of this box at a children's museum, and luckily her dad is handy with the saw. She spent all of $17 at a home improvement store to buy 10 feet of PVC pipe (1 1/4 inches diameter) and 3 wooden dowels (1 inch diameter, 3 feet each). 

First her dad cut the PVC into 2" pieces and glued them to each other and to a foam core backing. Then he cut the wooden dowels into 2 1/4 inch pieces.  (His circular saw was broken, so he just used a regular old hand saw.)

Next my friend sanded all of the PVC edges and dowel pieces.  Her dad finished off the box by giving it sides, a rope handle, and taping it all together with duct tape.  Viola!

You'd be surprised how captivating it can be for a toddler to empty and fill this box!  See a similar idea that uses ping pong balls in this earlier post.

We agreed that the dowels look like cork and that corks would make a fine substitute for the wood.

If you were feeling particularly feisty, I suppose you could polyurethane these puppies.

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