Collection of Easter Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Thursday 10 March 2016
How do you observe the Lenten season? I was raised in a Catholic family and growing up, I participated in a lot of church and community activities tied to the observance of Lent. The activties has helped me understand the meaning of Lent and the celebration of life on Easter.
Last year we observed the Lenten season with some religion study, identifying their traditions and practices to understand their faith. I find it important that we must introduce our kids to the different religions of the world not just ours, to be able to appreciate and respect everyone’s belief.
![DSC_0381_thumb[4]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V21VaikjpO4/VuF0DXe7BCI/AAAAAAAAUxY/TLF1DUvwpbA/DSC_0381_thumb%25255B4%25255D%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "DSC_0381_thumb[4]")
Now in celebration of Easter, I compiled the a number of amazing Easter Themed activities for all of you! Hope you these!
Featured posts:
Waldorf Inspired Nature Spring Table and Springtime Sensory Basket from Natural Beach Living
Easter Activities, Easter Tot Activities and Easter Themed Activities for Kids from Every Star Is Different
Christian Hands-on Easter Activities for Kids from Christian Montessori Network
Montessori Inspired Christian Easter Shelves from Mama’s Happy Hive
10 Easter Tot Trays from Smarte Parte
Teaching Kids the Real Meaning of Easter from Mama of Many Blessings
Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!
Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.
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Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest
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The Rainbow Clouds Craft
Wednesday 9 March 2016
I saw this beautiful rainbow craft a few weeks ago in Pinterest and I totally forgot the main site, so please if you own this craft leave a message and I’ll include the credits.
I’ve been introducing Vito to the spring season using our Spring Season Picture Cards, books and outdoor activities. Today, I’m sharing the rainbow clouds the boys made last week. The weather was terrible at that time and we couldn’t explore our yard so I made use of their free time doing crafts at home. So I tried to scan through Pinterest in search of simple crafts that BOTH of my kids could work on, and this is one of them!
Crafts projects allow children to exercise their fine motor skills, improve manual dexterity and understanding of visual-spatial relationships. They provide opportunities to use their imagination as well. Just be vigilant when using small items and sharp objects like scissors.
Materials:
- strips of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple cardstocks
- white cardstock for the clouds
- cotton
- glue
Procedure:
1. Pre-cut the white cardstock into a cloud shape. I made one for each of the boys. Apply glue on the clouds, and I suggest you provide each kid a glue as they tend to fight over one object when working. In our case, I just instructed them of what to do, and they’re the ones who executed it. Mostly, Vito follows what his brother is doing 
2. Place a generous amount of cotton. The fluffiness of the cotton bothers Vito though and he tried to avoid touching the glue as well.
3. Apply glue at the bottom side of the cloud for your rainbow. Place accordingly the strips of coloured cardstock to form a rainbow. You can demonstrate this to the kids or instruct them of the order of colours if they are not yet familiar with rainbow.
4. Strike a pose when they are dry! See how Vito refuses to strike a pose in the camera LOL. See what happens when your toddler is camera shy.
5. And don’t forget to put them on display. They look adorable as wall decors and kids love looking at their masterpieces! The cherry blossom was another project that we made earlier last month and will post the details soon.
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Pin this for later!
Montessori Books for Older Children: The Universe Story Trilogy
Tuesday 8 March 2016
It’s time for another 12 Months of Montessori Series and today I am sharing Mavi’s favourite book series. We have been using these books for years now. The books are all about the cosmic history to the evolution of man. The stories are accompanied by stunning images and time-line to follow. Everything in these books are just too magical and enlightening for him!
About the books:
There are three books in the series and each tells a certain period in time. Here are the details of the books which you can purchase from Amazon:
- BORN WITH A BANG. Story of the universe from the Big Bang to the formation of the sun and solar system.
- FROM LAVA TO LIFE. Story of Earth from the appearance of the first life forms to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
- MAMMALS WHO MORPH. The story of the first mammals to the story of humans.
When I asked Mavi how we’re going to showcase his books in today’s post, he suggested that we should make some kind of “interpretation”, similar to a museum but only in a series of activities. So I scanned and laminated his favourite parts in each book so we can do our “interpretation” of the story.
BORN WITH A BANG: how the universe was formed. Seen here, we replicated the bursting of lights in the universe forming into galaxies, stars and planets via the milk/soap/food coloring science activity. This was performed by Mavi and Vito. The mixing and contrast of colours looked like the big bang!
BORN WITH A BANG: the sun was formed. We painted the sun using yellow and orange paints. To make the flares as described in the book, we used plastic fork to create a dramatic effect on the sun.
FROM LAVA TO LIFE: the first life forms. We used the Safari Toob Cambrian Life to learn about the early life forms of mother Earth. We explored this before so it was another round of learning for Mavi and something new for Vito LOL.
FROM LAVA TO LIFE: the age of the dinosaurs. This was the kids favourite part of the history. Mavi relived the era of dinosaurs by setting up his Playmobil Dinosaur collections, which includes a gigantic volcano, some plants and dinosaurs. We’ve been using our dinosaur Playmobils for months now, they’re worth-it! I stopped buying LEGOs and started investing in Playmobils for more imaginative play (for both boys). Who couldn’t resist dinosaurs? Even Vito loves them to pieces!
MAMMALS WHO MORPH: the first humans. Next we moved on to the life of the first humans. This Playmobil Caveman set (a gift) is another favourite! It has a fire that glows (battery operated), a mammoth, sabertooth and humans. Mavi and I discussed what has changed after the dinosaurs left the planet. We talked about the difference of the dinosaurs and the (new set) animals of the stoneage era, how the first humans survived, how they produced food, clothings and homes. 
MAMMALS WHO MORPH: the age of technology. This is the part of the book wherein it mentions about the human inventions and discoveries, of how it helped the lives of many people but at the same time how advancement destroys mother Earth. This is timely because Mavi’s school is currently educating them about biodiversity, of what is “going green”, building insect hotels and recycling old materials.
For this part of the book, we explored the house and identified machines and other technologies that have helped humans all throughout history. The oven for cooking, washing machine for the clothes, toilet and bathroom for grooming, electricity, water system, networks and world wide web… etc. We then discuss the ways humans destroy the planet and how we can help to rebuild it.
With just three books, were were able to learn history, science, math and all others in between! Hope you are inspired by this post and hopefully, grab a copy of the books as well! Happy reading and learning!
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This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool. Let’s check what my fave Montessori Mom bloggers are featuring this month!”"
The Best Montessori Friendly Books: Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Elementary | Natural Beach Living
Montessori-Friendly Living Books Library | The Natural Homeschool
Favorite Montessori-Friendly Books for a 2 Year Old | Living Montessori Now
10 Ways To Make Your Kids Crazy About Reading | Planting Peas
Montessori Friendly Books -- Birth to Six | The Kavanaugh Report
Engaging Books for Preschoolers | Mama’s Happy Hive
Montessori & Fiction: Balancing the Bookshelf | Sugar, Spice & Glitter
Montessori Books for Older Children: The Universe Story Trilogy | The Pinay Homeschooler
Children’s Books About Birds | Every Star is Different
Favorite Montessori Resources | Grace and Green Pastures
Our Favorite Montessori Inspired Books for Babies to Preschoolers | Christian Montessori Network
Our Spring Season Picture Cards
Monday 7 March 2016
Spring is just around the corner and I’ve been thinking about the activities that the boys and I can do. I was very much inspired by Deb’s post on Spring Season Cards, so I borrowed the idea of printing pictures that relates to spring and we will be using them for the follwing:
- introducing the season of spring to Vito
- creating stories using the picture cards
- inspiration for crafts
- inspiration for outdoor activities
- St. Patrick and Easter activities
- farm animals and their babies
- animal life cycles
Like for example, we’ll be doing cherry blossoms crafts and paint eggs during Easter. We’ve got dandelions in the backyard and we’ll disect them too! St. Patrick’s Day is next week, and we’re still contemplating how are we going to celebrate it with the rest of the locals.
We’ll be planting seeds in the coming weeks as well. I already prepared some pots for the boys. We can’t go out in the rain yet because honestly, it’s still freezing here. And hopefully, once the weather gets warmer we’ll take a short trip to the farm to see and feed some real live farm animals and explore the forest to observe insects!
So as you see, these cards will be our guide… and as Mavi would say it, it’s the ultimate checklist!
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