Montessori Inspired Safety Day

I'm not a big 'theme day' kinda person, but today we had one.  Our theme was safety-mostly traffic safety.  We had a lot of fun!

Here's a quick look at some of our activities.

We practiced our skip counting using printables from City Teacher Goes Country.  Thank you Deb @ Living Montessori now for the printable tip!  Charger's Lego Policeman helped us as we counted by jumping from number to number :).

The kids also made up their own game.

I got these great printables for free from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. The idea was to cut them out and paste them on the right shape...but I had other ideas.  :)

These are the pages that were supposed to be glued, we just read them and sorted shapes instead.

I found this address printable on Homeschool Share.  We did a *little* copy work.  Mustang and Charger did this, the little girls did not.

This handy printable from I Can Teach My Child {thank you again for the link Deb}, was just perfect for practicing dialing 911.

The inspiration for our unit actually came from this adorable little book that we are currently reviewing!  Look Left, Look Right, Look Left Again by Ginger Pate fit in perfectly with our safety lesson.  Check back for the review soon!

Signs in Our World was a great book for learning what the signs mean!  Even I found a few that I had never seen!

We did not read these as a group, but the kids have been reading them to themselves.  Even Charger found out last week that he could read them all by himself.  He was so pleased!

So here is what we did with the little signs :).  We paired them our play rug.

Lots of sign reading and practicing of 'look left, look right, look left again.'  They played together for over an hour :).

Then Charger read some of the safety books to Mini Cooper.  LOVE!!

Tomorrow Mustang and I get to take a field trip all by ourselves!  I can't wait!!  I hope you are having a great school week!

God Bless,
Lisa

Learning Through Literature: Martin Luther King Jr Day Books

While we were 'off' school in December, I made it a point to curl up on the couch with the kids and a book every day or two.  I found out that I absolutely LOVE doing that!!  So, I have made it a point to use good books instead of worksheets and projects to talk about something we are learning.  

Don't get me wrong, worksheets and projects are fun, they just take (for me) so much prep work that we often never got to them.  I've changed over to just a book and discussion and saved my prep work for math, science, reading and writing.  Seems to be going pretty well.

Since Monday is Martin Luther King Jr Day (and I felt the need to tell you as if you didn't have a calendar), we have been reading books on Martin Luther King Jr.  

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King was the first book we read.  Great book!  It gives just enough information to encourage questions from my young children.  Not so much information that it bored or confused them.  Probably the best of the bunch.

Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington was our read for Tuesday.  This was also a good book.  Little harder read then the others, but still a nice amount of information.  The pictures were drawings mixed with real photos from the actual march.  I appreciated that the photos contained people of all races, which allowed me to explain that civil rights were something that people from different backgrounds wanted not just African Americans.

A Picture Book of Rosa Parks Very well written, told the entire story of not just Ms. Parks' ride on the bus, but also the bus boycott.  I do have to add that this started a tough discussion afterwards, as Ms. Parks' decision was to disobey the law.  I'm still working through how to address that question.  Any thoughts??  Yes, I agree it was a terrible law, but I think that of some laws currently effect in our country-and think we should still obey them.

Sit-In How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down  I really liked this one.  The story was well written and I appreciated this show of changing a law without breaking it.  The kids, however, did not like it.  It was written with some imagination in addition to fact, just a bit of rhyme, and the pictures were very hard to follow.  I think we will stick to books written more with just straight facts and photos.  There was a photo of the 4 friends in the back of the book and that saved it for my children.  

Speeches that Changed the World  We won't be reading this one :).  It was a gift a few years ago that included a disk to listen to speeches, including Mr. King's.  

Remember: The Journey to School Integration is on the list for Tuesday.  My children, who don't actually attend school, are still having a hard time understanding why they wouldn't be able to go to school with their own cousin if they lived in the same town.  Really, how does anyone understand that??

And that's it.  Might seem a little simple, but it seems to be working and I like it that way :).

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!

God Bless,

Montessori Unit Lessons: Sunflowers

For our unit on sunflowers, I set up a little art station.  It included a tablet of watercolor paper, green and yellow paint, stencil sponges, a stencil, and a smock.  (and lots of paper towels and baby wipes)

I found these cute little sponges at Hobby Lobby next to the stencils.  They are perfect for little fingers!

The stencil is also from Hobby Lobby.

I demonstrated how to use the sponges and stencils to paint the tops yellow and the stems green.  

My finished product.

They each had a try.

Love this photo of one painting and the others working together in the sensory bin :).

Charger had his own way of holding the sponge.

They had a lot of fun, and it wasn't terribly messy.  

Other things we used in our sunflower unit. 

Two great books {both found at yard sale the week before).

We worked on sunflower books and three part cards that are a free download available from Just Montessori.

And then we discussed the life cycle of a sunflower using the printables found on Making Learning Fun.  It's supposed to be a game, but I just used them to help with my lesson.  

Plus, there was the Garden Sensory Tub to explore.  

It was a fun little unit!  

We will be linking up 

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

Weekly Wrap Up: The Dentist!

We are back after a few weeks off for vacation and heat! It was so nice to spend a solid 4 days in the classroom this week! I noticed a HUGE change in Charger, especially. It's like someone turned his 'learning motivation' button on and I am LOVING it!! I also noticed that Mini Cooper is asking more and more where HER work is, so I'm going to have to start coming up with more plans, but that's okay! And, somewhere in that time-when I wasnt looking-Mustang became a full fledged reader. Like, I can read anything if you help me with a few big words reading. Like, I'm going stand behind you and watch you type so I can read what you are saying reading. Good and bad!! The best part was when she told a stranger the other day that her mommy taught her to read. Love :).

Okay, on to our unit. We started our 'Healthy People' unit the week before our break and got to finish it this week. It took us 2 weeks to complete it. This unit included the Dentist, the Doctor, and the Food Pyramid. I'm just going to post about the Dentist this week, because otherwise this post will be a mile long!

We used two Bible verses for this unit. The first was Psalms 30:2, 'Lord

my God, I called to you for help, and You healed me.' 2 Teaching Mommies made a nice printable poster for this verse, which I laminated. The second verse was Proverbs 17:22, 'A cheerful heart is good medicine.' Homeschool Creations made up cute little verse strips for this one. I made a strip for each of my children, and they seemed to enjoy having their verse in their pocket to pull out and 'read' whenever they wanted.

We read The Tooth Book by Theo. LeSieg by Dr. Suess. This is a really great book!

We discussed our different types of teeth using this chart. I printed it from Homeschool Share. This is the 'Tooth chart and number line sample' I only printed the first page because I thought the rest of the lesson was too advanced for us.

I found this wonderful brushing chart and many other resources from Colgate. We talked about how to brush our teeth, and then started a chart that I am supposed to initial every day...I'm really not so good at remembering to initial. Oops!!

I found some great printables in the Dental Health pack from Musings of Me. Unfortunatly, it seems that she has taken the pack down for now, hopefully she will bring it back!

The following things were from her pack:

Tooth fairy magnet page. I found some other nice dental magnet pages at Making Learning Fun.

Three part cards. Mustang did well with this, but got a little thrown off with all the words that started with tooth. It was a great exercise for her to have to look closer. Mini Cooper loved matching the pictures.

Tooth size sorting. Mini Cooper really liked this one!

I also found this really fun animal teeth matching worksheet from Homeschool Share. They have a really nice set of printables for a unit on teeth. I laminated the worksheet and set it out with our new Crayola white board crayons!

This was a fun little unit and I think the kids really enjoyed it!!

To see what other's did in their rooms this week (or 3 weeks ago and just now blogged about it) check out:

Download N Go: Summer Sensations Review and GIVEAWAY!

Summer Sensations from Download N Go is the perfect unit to ease out of Summer and into the school year. The subject is fun and entertaining. You might even forget it's school :). This is our third Download N Go and by FAR my favorite! I wasnt expecting much more then a simple study of the season and was so surprised at the unbelievable content in this unit! We didnt just learn about hot weather and the fact that the first day of Summer is June 21st {though that is very important since its my birthday ha ha!}, we learned lots of extra cool things-like who invented the snow cone machine-there should be a holiday for this guy!

What is Download N Go? Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse have teamed up to bring you the best of unit learning lessons. 5 days of fun, engaging learning that covers history, geography, reading, science, spelling, vocabulary, writing, art, and more all in one. You and your child choose the subject you would like to explore, download, print the packet and GO! At the end of the lessons you will not only have newly learned knowledge, but also a lapbook, and notebook for your reference {great for a portfolio}. The best part is that it is reusable. So, if you are like me and have multiple children, you only have to buy the unit once!

The Summer Sensations Download N Go is all about...you guessed it...Summer!



Turn school into . . . cool!
Make a splash to start the new school year --

Your child will investigate how seasons change,
what summer is all about, how shadows work,
why trees are important in the summertime,
and yummy--discover some history about
snow cones and ice cream!

And it's a great time to seize many of those cool summery interests that your kids are intrigued with.

Day 1: What is Summer?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Summer
Day 3: People and Places of Summer
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Summer
Day 5: Goodies and Surprises of Summer

Exciting changes abound for kids of all ages to experience, so why not take all of their pent-up excitement and enthusiasm and put it to good use
as they dive right into learning about summer
and all that it holds?

It's time to watch the trees grow and enjoy their shade,
feel the hot temperatures, take a plunge in the water,
and enjoy a slower pace of life as summer spreads
through the neighborhood.

To learn more about Summer Sensations and to order your unit check out DownloadNGo.com.

But if the thought of snow cones isnt cool enough, I'm so excited to announce that Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse have graciously offered to give one of you the Summer Sensations Unit!!!

Here's how to Win:
Visit Download N Go and tell me your favorite unit.

For extra entries:
1. Follow or subscribe to Our Country Road. {2 entries}
2. Grab my button and put it somewhere on your blog. Let me know where to find it {2entries}.
3. Visit the Download N Go Facebook page and like it {2 entries}.
4. Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link {3 entries}.
5. One extra entry for anyone who is offering items in the Curriculum Cleanout.

This giveaway is closes Wednesday, September 1st. It is open to ALL readers because it is a download. Good Luck & God Bless!


**This is also linked up at the Curriculum Cleanout at Homeschool Creations. It's not used, but I think it would be useful to many of you! Thanks for stopping by!**

This is a Litfuse Publicity Group Review. Thank you to Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse for providing me with a copy of Summer Sensations for my review. All opinions expressed are my own.