springtime activities part 2
DESCRIPTION
http://www.fridayschildmontessori.com/blog/springtime-activities/ he changing seasons are nature’s way of marking the passing of time, and it’s fun for children to do special activities for each one. And for parents, it’s a way of savouring the time you have with your children – it goes by so fast!TRANSCRIPT
Springtime activities(part 2)
www.fridayschildmontessori.com
Make paper daffodils
Make a cheerful piece of springtime
artwork with 3-D daffodils. Find
yellow cupcake frills and glue these onto
a circle or star shape of brighter
yellow.
You might need to cut this out for your
child if he or she isn’t able to do this solo – or it could be a good moment for teaching your child how to use scissors to cut things out.
Don’t forget to use the proper
Montessori teaching technique of
demonstrating slowly with a full
explanation, followed by the child having a go under supervision.
This flower head can be used in a larger picture to make a
floral scene, or you can glue/staple the flower head onto a
stem of green paper.
Or attach them to strings and hang them at different
lengths from an old coat hanger to make a mobile.
Plant a garden
Even on the Gold Coast, things slow down a bit in the
garden over winter, and fire up again
during spring.
This is the best time of year to get
your children planting vegetables
and flowers.
Children are much more likely to eat a
vegetable that they’ve planted and tended themselves.
Things that get really big are a lot
of fun to grow – sunflowers are
popular, but so are pumpkins and
melons.
Start the pumpkins and melons off indoors
in cardboard containers (you can plant them directly without any risk of
small fingers harming the roots) and move
them outdoors in about mid-September.
Spring cleaning
One of the things that Montessori
education aims to do is to teach
children how to be good citizens and members of the
community.
And knowing how tidy up is part of
this learning strand. It’s also a
means of self care, which is another
Montessori principle
.
Go through those cupboards with your
children and sort through things –
you’ll be surprised at what you find and what your children have grown out of.
Involve your children in as much
as you can – kids are great at chores
like dusting and vacuum cleaners are a lot of fun.
Who needs a pretend toy vacuum
cleaner when you can use the real
one?
If you have the sort of vacuum cleaner
that has a long hose and a head rather
than an upright one, you can have fun with it and try to
catch each other with the sucky hose…
And if you do any cleaning that involves warm
soapy water, wear rubber gloves to protect your skin
and make sure that lots of bubbles are
involved.
Observe a tree
If you have a deciduous tree
nearby that loses its leaves in winter, watch it come out
in leaf again.
Check the tree daily, every two
days or weekly to watch it changing
from bare branches to full leaves. If the tree has blossoms, so much the better!