Letter ‘t’ Sound Activities

 

Vito’s activities last week revolves around the letter ‘t’.  As you all know, we’re working with letter sounds for a while and funny how he’s able to name alphabets using their sounds these days instead of their names LOL.    The unit is not just actually a week’s work, but it took us 2 weeks TO get over with the materials and activities, because Vito kept using them! Let me share with you activities we did to explore and learn objects with the letter ‘t’ sound.

Lettet T Object Basket.  Let’s start with our object basket.  I filled it with 3-4 objects starting with letter t that Vito uses a  lot at home like torch, telescope/binoculars, teeth and Titanic LEGO made by Mavi.  Then added a few letters like this foam letter from Munchkins (Vito used to bite these!) and the all time favourite letters from Hape.

Train Shape Cards.  I made these! I’m so happy on how it turned out.  The train plus the DIY air dry clay shapes are currently Vito’s favourite activity. He loves matching the shapes to that in the train! 

That’s his brother’s sleep mask (from Emirates), which is his favorite accessory as of the moment.

Color Sorting using Transport Counters.  The counters are from Learning Resources and this is one of our favourites!  The train cards are DIY: using a train coloring image, I printed it in different colors of cardstock and laminated it. 

He worked on them but doesn’t stay long. As I previously said, color sorting is NOT his favourite thing as of the moment.  But even so, I still would introduce different kinds of color activities just in case he might find his interest.

Counting.  Vito loves to count, it’s like effortless in my part to make him count and identify numbers.  He counts on his own and is always giddy whenever he sees numbers.  So this turtle activity is his favourite.  We just don’t have enough turtle figures to count up to 10 LOL.  The turtle counters are from Safari Toob.  We previously worked on trees as well for our letter t unit. Check it out here

Brushing of Teeth Teeth.  Our model of mouth/teeth is just so awesome! Vito is fascinated with this and loves brushing it with his toothbrush LOL.  This is a wonderful practical life activity, especially to those little ones who are hesitant to brush their teeth   Know where you can get these teeth model here.

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Simple Experiments: Making CRATERS

Such a lovely activity for my kids! We had fun dropping balls of all sizes here and there  

Objective:

1.  To identify the type of surface where craters are formed.

 

Materials Needed:

an aluminum foil, the bigger the better

soft material like a newspaper, a rug or towel

balls or rocks

Procedure:

1.  Lay the soft material in the ground like a newspaper a rug or a towel.

2.  On top of it, lay the foil.

3.  Stand at the edge of the foil and drop the ball or rock at the center of the foil.  Note be decided to use the mini basketball because we realized that golf balls made a small impact.

4.  Repeat this process on a hard floor.  This time it was Vito’s turn to drop the ball.

5.  Examine both pieces of the foil.

Findings:

The ball that was dropped in the foil on a soft surface (first image below) made a larger impression compared to the foil lying on a hard floor (second image).  You can immediately see the impression when the ball is dropped in a soft surface!  Look at them, they look like craters!

You can barely see an impression here, but Vito did dropped the ball a few times.

What happened?

The ball that was dropped in the softer surface sank, allowing more of the ball to be pressed against the foil.  In effect, this created those “holes” in the foil.  This is similar to the case of a meteorite (stone or metal in space) when striking a soft surface, it creates a larger imprint that are shaped like holes called craters.  Craters are best formed when meteorites strikes soft, powdery surfaces like that in the moon!  Why not check out the surface of the moon to see a real crater!

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You might also want to check our previous experiments:

Why do stars twinkle?

Testing of different substances that dissolves in water.m

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Learning the Timeline of European History

I am so excited to share with you our approach on learning the timeline of the European history.  As I mentioned earlier, my son is obsessed with world history, especially with the events in Europe and Asia (his home continents!) so while he is at it, I grabbed the opportunity to discuss the great history of Europe.  To achieve this, I created these beautiful  timeline cards which contains bold pictures (because kids are attracted to pictures) and included a brief description for each of the event.  I thoroughly researched this, and handpicked the major events to be included in the cards. We were always reading the books of the Story of the World series, but most of the events in the cards were not included in the book.

Our timeline cards covers the 4 periods in history:  ancient times, medieval times, early modern times and modern times. 

Goals

• In each period, we will identify the fundamental needs of man:  Spiritual (love, religion, culture/community) and Material (shelter, transportation, food and clothing)
• Identify the locations in the map where the event occurred
• Historical figures that played a major role in that historical period
• Be able to arrange the timeline cards
• Compare the impact of each period to Mavi

Ancient Times (up to 500AD)

My Ancient Time Cards starts from the event occurred in Mycenae to the end of Byzantine Empire.  We talked about how Greece played a major role in the beginning of the European history, great conquerors like Alexander the Great, the rise and fall of Rome. It was obvious that aside from the material things, religion played a major role in the development of the European culture.  

Modern Times (500AD to 1500)

Major events include the wars in Europe after the fall of Rome, the Black Death, the crusades, the significance of the Vikings in forming what is now known as the Great Britain, Constantine and Charlemagne, the separation of Orthodox and Roman Christians.  

Early Modern Times (1500-1900)

The Early Modern Times is all about Renaissance, and because of Industrial Revolution, people started to explore places. Inventions of steam train, and ships.  But there were also civil wars like in France and between England and Scotland.  Mavi and I identified the causes of these wars and yes it’s all because of the fundamental human needs.

Modern Times (1900 – present)

Modern Times was quite challenging because Mavi asked a lot of questions in this period.  Most especially in the events of World War I and II, and the wars in the Baltic.  There are just certain things that you can’t explain to a 7 year old.   So I just told him stories of what I know (I have yet to purchase the Vol 4 of the Story of the World) and what I read in the web.

Using the Cards

Our aim is to arrange the cards according to the time of events.  We set up a few craft strings in our shelf where we can pin the cards.  This is an amazing technique for visualization of the entire events!

Seen below, Mavi is reviewing his work, making sure he’s arranging the time in order.  I previously taught him how the BC and AD works, so this is a perfect opportunity to put that knowledge into action!

He loves the cards and enjoys reading the description.   I wanted the cards to be as attractive and engaging to Mavi so I made sure that I don’t put too much facts into the description.     Because of this, I created another set of cards for the “longer” description .

He was proud of his work and asked to take a photo of him with his work LOL.

So this is how I explained and presented the history of Europe to my 7 year old boy . 

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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.

Learning about the Presidents with Montessori Activities (Free Printables) by Natural Beach Living

Montessori-Inspired History: Sense of Time {Free Printables} by The Natural Homeschool

How to Prepare Montessori 3-Part Family Cards and Family Tree Activity by Living Montessori Now

Linear Calendar for Kids by Planting Peas

Timeline of our Family -- Intro to Montessori History by The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Calendar for Kids by Mama’s Happy Hive

How to Introduce Time to Kids by Study at Home Mama

5 Ways to Learn Asian History by Child Led Life

Learning the Timeline of European History by The Pinay Homeschooler

Our Montessori-inspired Timeline of Life by Every Star is Different

Exploring History Through the Great Lessons by Grace and Green Pastures

Now for the AMAZING GIVEAWAY!!

My friends and I in the 12 Months of Montessori Series are having a giveaway!  Join and have the chance to win $150 gift certificate to Montessori Services plus Montessori by Mom Art Toolbox!  This giveaway is open to all  US and Canadian readers only. 

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Europe Unit Study (Elementary)

We are revisiting our Europe study, this time I’ve decided to take it by regions.  But before we delve into that, we reviewed some of the things we’ve learned in the past years.

European Regions.  Here’s a new study for this year, learning Europe through each regions.  Here I was showing Mavi the divisions and the boundaries in the map.  I bought this map years ago at Montessori Print Shop.  So we’re doing a color code here based on our map in Europe in a Nutshell.  Blue for northern Europe, red for western Europe, green for eastern Europe and orange for southern Europe.

Flags. The same goes to the flags. To be able to remember the countries easily, we just limit to 3-4 countries per region. You can get these mini-flags from my Flags of Europe printable.

We always worked the pin flags because Mavi enjoys this activity.  The pin flags are included in my Flags of Europe file.  My pin flags are really old and has been used so many times.  I shall make a new set for Xavi when he needs it.

Animals of Europe.  Mavi is sometimes confused of the animal list between North America and Europe so we always review this.  The fact cards seen here are from my Animals of Europe printable (includes 3-part cards as well).

New activity this year is examining and matching European animals with their covers.  This was a hit!  My animal figures matches the printable. How cool is that?  The animal covers are part of my Europe in a Nutshell and the animal figures are from Schleich.

Here’s a closer look.

Landmarks.  Beautiful and historical landmarks in Europe are too many to mention, so in this study we’re only picking a few based on the regions.  My aunt who visited us early this year brought me a few Safari Toobs and one of which is the landmark toob that includes the Stonehenge in UK and the Colosseo in Rome. You can get the World Landmarks and Around the World Toob from Amazon and the cards are from Europe Landmarks file.

Now to put into action, Mavi worked sorting maps and flags according to regions using our Europe Puzzle Map. More about it here.

 

For our past Europe studies and materials, click the links below:

Europe Study Part I

Europe Study Part II

Continent Study: Europe Part I (Kindergarten)

Continent Study:  Europe Part II (Kindergarten)

Materials for Europe Study

Europe in a Nutshell

Learning About the European Regions

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FREE Safari Toob Tree Matching Cards

Download here or click the image.

Vito uses these cards a lot in TREE ACTIVITIES and even in random days, he would pick this up from shelf and work it.    

B4FIAR: Jesse Bear and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I am starting Before Five in a Row with Vito.  I am a fan of FIAR and I’ve been doing it with Mavi for years. 

Last week, we did Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?  Vito loved it instantly!  He can relate to the daily activities of Jesse Bear and how amazing he recognizes most of it as part of his routines.  Like changing his shirt, high chair and mealtime, bath time and when running towards Daddy when my husband arrives from work. 

Now here are the activities we did to go along with Jesse Bear:

Morning

We played in the yard, put on his jacket and red pants  

Then try to play sand just like Jesse Bear. That is Kinetic Sand and we are loving it!

Noon Time

Lunch time, he ate some steamed veggies, then apple and drank milk.  He insisted that we place the book in his table to make sure he’s doing what Jesse Bear is doing.

 

Afternoon Time

To kill time we played with colored rice and scooping because Jesse Bear was playing with his rice! 

We also played matching shoes game!    When your child is about 1.5yrs old, they’re able to discriminate objects. Try matching games as simple as matching their shoes! Vito is such an expert!

Bedtime

Vito’s bedtime routine includes brushing his teeth (like Jesse Bear), washing his face and putting on his PJs.  I say this out loud as I do it so he’ll understand what we are doing.  And just like what I did with Mavi, I would read him books while I put him to bed.  This actually calms him down…. and make us both sleepy LOL. 

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Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Here are the featured literature-based activities for this week!

 

 

Harry Potter Sorcerer’s Stone Unit from Every Star Is Different

Fall Book Basket for Preschoolers from Homeschool Preschool

Peter Pumpkin Eater Printables from Embark on the Journey

Madeline Sensory Tray Writing from Growing Book By Book

 

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.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
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• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
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