The Mirror of Erised

As many of you know, we've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for quite some time now. Today we read about Harry finding a mirror called the Mirror of Erised. If you look in the mirror, you see the deepest desires of your heart.

When Harry looks in the Mirror of Erised, he sees his family.

 Of course Professor Dumbledore reminds Harry it's not good to dwell on these things but rather to live our lives. Still it got us thinking... what would we all see in the mirror? A few years ago I would have said I would have seen myself as a Montessori teacher with an awesome class. Of course I have that now. :) So I told the class I would probably see my kids H and E grown up and happy. We went around the circle and shared what we saw. Some people said their pets would be alive, some said their little siblings would be grown up, some said they'd be married, and one person said they'd have a bowl of cookies. What was neat was that no one said anything about having lots of money or possessions. That shows that their hearts (and priorities) are in the right place. Yet another reason why I love them! So what would all of you see in the Mirror of Erised?

Stepping Back

Today I stepped back and observed the room like any good Montessori teacher should. This is what I saw.

Amazing, right? Everyone was working so hard. They were taking everything so seriously and loving every minute of it.

A few other lessons...

Addition Snake Game (multiple addends)

Magic E Lesson

Addition Strip Board

Biome Readers (Sequencing)

Labeling the countries of Asia

Research 101

For a few weeks we've all been researching a planet of our choosing. Yesterday we took the information we had been collecting and turned it into a rough draft. Today we all began to publish our research! At one point today, half the class was working on this. It was so neat to see everyone working so seriously and intently!

Stamp Game In Progress

Here are a few pictures of some friends using the Stamp Game!