Perfect 10 Snake Game

We are doing a lot of snake game for the past few days.  My son is now loving it unlike the first time he encountered it wherein he kept on complaining how tiring it is to count.  This time, he loves transforming his "jungle colorful snake" to "tiger snake".  For those new to Montessori,

Materials we used here are:

• Decanomial beads
• Black and white beads
• A mat
• Melissa and Doug Magnetic Alphabet box

So here Mavi made his own.  I made sure that the beads will make a perfect 10 just to demonstrate that the two numbers when combined will make 10. 

So here, we are replacing the colored beads (beads that makes a 10) to the golden beads.  The picture on the right is for the control of error. I am showing Mavi that the bead combinations form ten.  In this case: 6 (violet) and 4(yellow), 1(red) and 9(dark blue), 2(green) and 8(brown), 5(light blue) and 5(light blue),  and 7(white) and 3(pink) all makes a 10 (golden bead).

         

As I mentioned earlier, we've been doing this multiple times this week.  Here, I focused on two combinations only:  8(brown) and 2(green),  and 7(white) and 3(pink).  Because the snake is composed of repetitive combination of those beads he immediately memorized that those combinations make a 10.  In the middle of the snake, he did not bother counting... he just replaced the designated combination with the golden beads.

       

Same goes when we tried 9 and 1, 4 and 6 and, 5 and 5.  At the end of each activity, I showed him the equations that we can form out of those combination.  But of course, we will explore more of this "addition snake game" as we progress.

      

We are now starting our random snake game, and that's where the black and white beads will be useful.  They are basically used as a placeholder for the remaining beads after you have counted 10 beads (see the picture below). So here, we replace the colored bead into a ten bar (remove the blue and yellow beads) and add the 3 black beads to represent the remaining yellow beads (unaccounted).

 

This is just an overview of how we play the game. There's more into it actually with the snake game and we'll explore it one step at time.  I am not really good with words, so if my post is not enough, and if you need demonstration or an album, there are lots of it in the web.

All in all it was very effective, effective in a way that you will get the child to come sit with you and play and at the same time learning without getting bored.

Now, who says math is boring??  Happy Friday to all!

Linking to:

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I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Homework (A Montessori Approach)

We're using Montessori method to Mavi's homework. He loves it!

They were to practice reading and to spell the words written on the paper strips.

We used our moveable alphabet to form the words and at the same time write the words on a paper. 

  Oh how we love Montessori!

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Home + School = Afterschool!

Our Printable Materials for February

Hello everyone! I would like to announce 3 new materials that we will be using for the month of February.  If you are interested, just click on the images for the link and detailed description of each file.

Parts of the Human Body (new!) in English, Spanish, French and Deutsch

- contains 16 parts of the human body in FOUR different languages! 

 

 

 

Basic Human Body Systems (new!)

- this file contains 6 basic systems:  circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, digestive,muscular and nervous system.

 

The Internal Organs of the Human Body  (new!)

- the file includes 9 internal organs of the body: brain, pancreas, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, stomach, small and large intestines.

 

The Skeletal System

- the file has 16 parts of the skeletal system.

Hope you get a copy! Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Intro to Number Bonds

Here's another bead work we did the other day.  The aim of the activity is to identify the two beads that would form the number in the number cards (2 parts and a whole).

First we laid out the number cards from 1 to 10.

Then we placed the bead correspondence of each number cards.  After which, we started 2 and identify smaller numbers that would make 2.  It was difficult for Mavi at first to grasp the concept.  We went on slowly and I did most of the presentation. 

In between, I would take 1 part of the bond and ask him for the other part. Say for 5, I put number 3 (part) and asked him the other missing part that would complete the number 5.

 

As you can see he is using his fingers to calculate the missing part.

I also encouraged him to count the beads instead of using his fingers.

 

I love how this activity ended.  This will familiarize the child that bigger numbers can be formed by putting small numbers together (in different ways). This is also a good introduction to fractions, addition and subtraction.

We will be doing this again and again though as enjoys the mystery and the challenging of finding out the other part :)

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
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Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Starting Montessori Grammar

We're about to finish our Green Series in Language Arts soon and we will be moving to grammar after.  I like the Montessori Grammar Symbols and Reading Analysis materials, and knowing my son, he would love it too (he loves using symbols and objects).  So after much research here are my thoughts on the preparation of materials.

Language Arts Album.  I  will be using Montessori Research and Development Language Arts Vol 1.

Grammar Symbols.  I am still contemplating whether to purchase this or not.  I really wanted to make my own using foam crafts but I still have to check our local craft store if they have the available colors used in the grammar symbols.  Also, I have to look for the perfect storage to keep the symbols.  If these fails, I might need to purchase from here.  Purchasing will save me a lot of time, but it's a little bit pricey.

Grammar cards, sentences and materials.  Will be looking for this around the net, or if I will have the luxury of time will create our own materials to use.

As of the moment, these are the materials I need to prepare. I just need to write it down to get it off my mind. We won't be starting until March.  If I miss something, please do leave a comment.

Montessori Teens and Tens

We've done a lot of Montessori-Inspired Math activities before and this is my first attempt to apply Montessori method in our lesson at home using KHT Montessori Math Album.

Last year, I purchased a few Montessori materials and one of which was the Decanomial beads which despite its price was worth it.

 

I started the lesson with the "teens" first. I am using my homemade large number cards.  I followed the procedure in the KHT Math album and after the presentation and 3 lesson period, I asked Mavi questions like"

• 10 and 9 makes?
• 10 and 2 is?
• To make 18, you need?

Of course, he has to answer these questions.  If not, I would go back to the cards and beads, and show to him the answer and why.  I find this lesson very effective as it is a hands on activity and visual.  Children would immediately associate the number symbol to the quantity it represents.  This is also a good start of showing the difference between units of tens and ones.

The second time we did this, I asked Mavi to do all the presentation by himself of which he obliged happily.

Then we moved to the "tens" lesson. Same procedure of presentation and same flow of asking questions like "How many tens are there in 70?"  Again, this is a perfect way of associating number symbols to the quantity.

Then our little game began.  I formed 10 random numbers using the cards, and Mavi has to give me the correct quantity using the beads.  This was something that he really really like doing :)  We'll be having more exercises on this. 

 

For advance exercise I plan to do the said activity on the other way around, that is present him the quantity using the beads and he has to give me the correct number using the cards.... hmmm that sounds challenging! We might try it later :)

And we also did a little "100 - 1000 Bead Chain" activity.  Will give you an update on this soon! As of now he just finishes up to 590, but I'm happy that he now gets the pattern of counting from 100-500.

 

 

Aside from counting we also practice writing the words of the number "tens" and associate number symbol to the words.

And that's all for our Math activity last week. Tune in for more updates this week!

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Afterschool Activities for January

When it comes to planning for our home schooling, I make it a point that I don't put too much on the amount of activities we need to achieve in a week. 

So what I do is to allot one goal per subject in a month and if we finish early and still have some spare time, we would just revisit our past lessons or start the next month's lesson.

We only have a few more weeks left and I wish to finish these all up.

LANGUAGE 

• Reading analysis using a workbook which I bought locally.
• Blue Series

We are wrapping up our Blue Series review using moveable object and our tracing and spelling worksheets.

MATH

• Montessori Tens and Teens

We will work on this for the entire month including word association and more.  Will talk about it on my next post. 

 

SCIENCE/THEME

We are currently doing an Arctic and Antarctic theme.

 

ART

I have to admit I have no idea on what to do next on this subject.  Right now, we're just reading the Katie series book which my son and I love.  These are wonderful books for introducing artists and their works for little children.

Because I am still contemplating on what to do, I will be using these books for planning our monthly Artist Study.

 

FAITH FORMATION

We are using this book which I read at night.  Homeschool Creations has a fabulous printable packs that is in line with the book. I have to find time to download and print those!

My son attends a Catholic school so I'm happy that what we're teaching him at home is in line with the learnings he receives in school.

 

And these are the things we're doing as of the moment.  Will be sharing my plans (and online resources) for the month of February next week. Stay tuned!

How My Oldest Child Learned How to Read

Caught my son reading the Polar Express early today before he went to school.  I am amazed on how far he has taken off from the the time he was able to decode the blends.

New Beginnings for 2014!

Happy New Year to all my readers! How were the holidays like for you?

As for me, my December vacation was all about fulfilling my duties as a mother and wife.  Everyone in the family got sick and the baby and I were the only ones spared by the flu, which left me taking good care of everyone else.  It was so tiring but nevertheless we were still able to the New Year bug-free. 

But my blogging hiatus gave me the chance to contemplate and plan for my activities for 2014.  Oh I am so excited to be back in the blogging world and back on our daily routine of doing interesting stuff at home! I just couldn't figure out yet how we could have afterschool activities now that we have a new baby to care for as well :)  I guess, Mavi and I will eventually adapt and discover a routine that best suits us. (So expect some rants of handling two kids in my future post LOL)

To each and everyone, I thank you for a wonderful 2013! Thank you so much for participating in my blog, leaving comments, appreciating what I do and sharing some of your ideas as well.  Thank you for those who support my little shop and I promise to come up with more affordable learning materials this year.  And to show my appreciation, I will also be sharing a lot of freebies!

So cheers to new beginnings! And I am wishing you all a fabulous and productive New Year!