Stamp Game

A shipment I had been waiting on for a few weeks arrived yesterday at school! It contained the Stamp Game! It had been on back order so I was so happy to see it arrive.

The Stamp Game is a multifunctional Montessori material. It can be used to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The Stamp Game (which does not have stamps and is not a game) contains wooden tiles with numbers, skittles, and place holders.

Once static addition with the Golden Beads is mastered, the child learns static addition with the Stamp Game. Each material is taking the child in steps to abstraction until they can work a problem with pencil and paper with 100% understanding of why they are doing what they are doing. P.S. Static addition is simply addition without the carrying.

I can't wait to start introducing it next week. I have some friends who are so ready for it!

If you would like to practice this at home, a great website called Montessori Print Shop has a free downloadable version. Simply save it, print it, and practice at home with your child. Please refrain from at home practice until your child informs you they have had the lesson in class. 

For more on how to use the Stamp Game, please view the video below. There weren't many good ones on you tube so if you would like a demonstration, please feel free to schedule an appointment for a demonstration. 

My Classroom

Some of you in internetland (especially fellow Montessorians) may be interested in my room. Here it is!

Back of room to front

Science and Social Studies

Language

Math

Front of the room looking back.

Moral Development

Why do we make good choices? Is it because we'll get in trouble if we don't or is it because it is the right thing to do? Here is a neat video my professor showed us tonight of educator Rafe Esquith (read more about him here) and the stages of moral development.

If you'd like to check it out for yourselves..

Here is a link to the Dooley Planetarium website. They do free public shows every other Sunday at 3pm.

Lander University

Good Friday Evening! How was everyone's week? I am writing this post from Greenwood, SC, home of Lander University! I am here as part of my Montessori degree. I had to leave after lunch today. I told the kids I was going to my college so I could learn to be a better Montessori teacher. They said "But Mrs. Kirk! You're already the BEST Montessori teacher!" That's sweet, I told them, but we can always learn to be better at something!

Dooley Planetarium

Here are some pictures from the planetarium today! We had lots of fun and learned tons about the stars and our solar system.

The bus ride to Dooley Planetarium.

These seats are awesome! Waiting on the show to start.

The star projector. Cool!

The cans had different weights in them to simulate how heavy a can of soda would be on other planets.

The exhibits were awesome.

Our class in front of the star projector.

Buddies waiting for the bus to take us back.

Best friends forever.

We love FMU!

So proud of her!

Writing about our trip.

Recess

Here are a few pictures from recess today!

Proud

Here's a few I was proud of today.

So very proud of this.

Making and writing a sentence.

Compound words matching.

Reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Mother Earth

Now that we have talked about the vastness that is our Universe, it's time to start talking a little more close to home. We are beginning to talk about the history of Earth, the composition of the Earth, the its land and water forms, and its moon. Here are a few things we are doing in studying the Earth.

She is doing three part cards of the interior of the Earth. Notice how she's checking her work by using the model.

One of our art lessons right now is to make a clay model of the earth. Yellow in the middle, then a layer of orange, then red, then blue, then a little bit of green to represent the continents. After it dries we cut it in half!

This is an excellent book about our Earth. Of course we have plenty around the classroom!