Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Celebration in the Classroom

The students wore Pilgrim and Indian Hats to reenact the Thanksgiving feast in class. We didn't have turkey and corn but students had their favorite snacks and a cookie (treat).

 Thanksgiving Feast in the classroom

 The bulletin board shows what each studentsis thankful for

This bulletin board shows what the class is thankful for and all the students and teachers in

Pilgrim and Indian Hats

I am thankful for:

My family

My class

My friends

My home

My computer

time - off to rejuvenate and do homework for training

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May the spirit of gratitude and cooperation be with us.

my first month of training

First day of Pedagogy I got overwhelmed with the syllabus and books to read. So far I've spent  more than $400 just for books. I bought new and used books from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. We were given a planner to help us get organized. That night I plugged in all the homework and projects for each month. That took almost 2 hours but I was glad I did all that prep.
I've finished reading Rita Kramer's autobiography of Maria Montessori and found it very interesting reading. Easy and light. I liked it that our Saturday class talked about her life and I felt I understand her more.
At the same time I am also taking practicum. Every Tuesday is pedagogy and Thursdays practicum. For practicum I have three students to observe and I'll be making a student portfolio about them. At the same time I'll be putting together an intern portfolio. This will be more on classroom and school routine and documents.
My first month has just ended and I'm am getting the hang of the classes. There will be more things to do but I'll be sharing my bag of tricks which is one of my first projects in class. The bag has day care/rainy activities which we can just grab anytime we need it.

Time to organize my bathroom drawer

My drawer had too much in it and I was having a hard time finding what I needed and jewelry got tangled with my other messes. It was time to organize my bathroom drawer. I also need to organize my head bands and I'm trying to think how to do it.

I took out all the junk in the drawer and arranged like with like. Once I've done this I looked around the house for containers and anything I can use to "contain" those.

I purchased these small bins from our local Lowe's.

I bought this cute floral organizer way back knowing I'd be able to use it (or maybe I just found it cute).

This toilet paper roll will be my head band organizer.  No need for any prep.

Once everything was sorted out I started putting the items in each container/organizer.

I've arranged my things by color and by kind. This organizer is back to back but for now I am only using the front .

I plan to cover the toilet paper roll with a scarf to make it blend with the decor of the bathroom. I can also keep it under one of the sinks. After all the more clutter-free the better.

I've seen different kinds of ways to organize head bands (google blog)  but this is by far the simplest...dontcha think.

I like how these turned out.

I can't believe I have so much space in the drawer. I can easily get my things without any fuss. Plus I didn't spend anything since I already had everything on hand. Tired but I'm glad i did it.

I am officially enrolled in my first montessori class for 3-6 year olds

I have enrolled this morning in the UC Irvine Extension Montessori Philosophy and Pedagogy class for fall semester. I'm so excited and scared. I know it'll be a lot of work but I am looking forward to learning Montessori. Have been itching to say that. :>

I still have a lot of preparing to do... I need to order all the books for class...Amazon here I come.

dinosaur week

I'm way behind my posting. This is the 2nd week of summer school. All about dinosaurs. We talked about dinos and did some amazing crafts some of which I was able to find on the net.

This lovely dino silhoutte template and painting design was inspired by That Artist Woman.

We also used salt to make the effect of falling comets. Each one came out different than the other...came out really prehistoric-like.

The school had some dino templates that we traced and cut. WE used wiggly eyes, markers, various colored construction paper for each type of dino plus colorful sand to add texture to the craft. We like using construction as backdrop for bulletin board. Very easy to do and readily available.

Another dino craft that the students did was foil rubbings. We had available different dino patterns. Each child chose a pattern and foil was lain on top of the pattern. By gently pressing the foil with their fingers the pattern surfaced which they colored in using colored markers.

Coloring the background a solid color made the dino stand out more. Each rubbing had 2 dinos one smaller like a mommy and baby dino according to my students.

We also did fossils using clay which unfortunately I was not able to take pictures of. We gave the clay a day to dry. the kindergarten class painted theirs, turned out really nice. Our class (preschool) kept it as is. We used small plastic dinos, plastic leaves/flowers/stems/grass (we used the class flower arrangements) to press on the clay to make the fossil impressions.  My go to for this fossil craft is from That Artist Woman.

4th of July crafts and parade

Our summer school started this week. Each week we have a different theme, for this week we had Fourth of July. I'd like to share our crafts and our class parade.

Happy 4th of July!

Using tone and voice level to communicate

It’s not so much what you say
As the manner in which you say it;
It’s not so much the language you use
As the tone in which you convey it;
“Come here!” I sharply said,
And the child cowered and wept.
“Come here”, I said -
He looked and smiled
And straight to my lap he crept.
Words may be mild and fair
And the tone may pierce like a dart;
Words may be soft as the summer air
But the tone may break my heart;
For words come from the mind
Grow by study and art –
But tone leaps from the inner self
Revealing the state of the heart.
Whether you know it or not,
Whether you mean or care,
Gentleness, kindness, love and hate,
Envy, anger, are there.
Then, would you quarrels avoid
And peace and love rejoice?
Keep anger not only out of your words –
Keep it out of your voice.
~Author Unknown

I read this poem from the NAMC website and I wanted to share this as a reminder to us educators and parents children respond/react to our tone. Our voice level, our tone can make or break our relationships.