Nevermore

Here's another easy geography game to make. I bought a pack of party flags in a strip from Hobby Lobby on clearance for 2 dollars, cut them apart and made cards with a small picture of the flag on one side and the name of the country on the other.







We are also going to concentrate more on spelling this year, with the help of Spelling Power. If you are looking for a fun, hands on spelling program check it out.









Here are the rest of our spelling games, activities, and manipulatives.






The whole reason we went to Hobby Lobby yestarday was to buy some decent construction paper for our push-pinning, since the cheap stuff tears unevenly and fades super-quickly.

While I was there I noticed they had all their summer craft stuff and most of their furniture on clearance, the small tables, chests and shelves were only five dollars marked down from 35! So I ended up filling my cart with three small pieces of furniture, and tons of craft supplies, all for only 40 dollars.

Among all my treasures I bought a pack of long black feathers which the kids went nuts for.

"Are they raven feathers?"
"Ooh, Are they from The Raven?"

"Well, they've probably been dyed..."

Faces fall.

"Yes, they look real to me, right off the bird."

They were so excited they each took a feather and began chasing eachother all over the house, tickling eachother.

When they tired of that they began sneaking up on me at the computer and leaving their feathers.

Then they would hide and giggle maniacally to eachother, "We left our black plume as a token!"

So what could I do but scream, "Leave no black plume as a token, of that lie thy soul has spoken, leave my lonlieness unbroken/quit that bust above my door!"

And their absolute favorite part, "Take thy beaks from out my heart and take thy forms from off my door!"

You can guess what they told me...

"Nevermore".

Hands On Ideas

I just finished making all the cards for our rocks and minerals activities, which will be freely available in the afternoons after the first time I present the materials and explain how to use them.

We just finished the Hadean and are ready to start the Archaean, so we will be drenched in geology for the next few weeks.

The sorting and classification activities I made using the cards are for independant use and are all self-checking. Maria Montessori called that 'control of error'.






Here is one of our montessori puzzle maps.

The activities for these are limitless, but here is a picture showing some I've just finished preparing.










Invertebrate madness is yet to come!

Like the geology stuff above, this basket will join our shelves and be freely available once we reach the appropriate geologic era. It isn't that clear from this picture, but that basket is full of assorted shells for the classification/sorting activities.









Learning about landforms with sculpey, cards, and blue water. I've always thought that Montessori hit on a brilliant way of teaching landforms by showing their opposites, like lake/island, strait/isthmus etc.







Here's yet another use for the puzzle maps.
Push-pinning the countries/continents so they pop out and pasting them on a big blue sheet to make and label your own maps. The kids already tried this out, it was a big hit.

A new blogthing

You Are 24% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at high risk for having a social phobia. It is very likely that you feel most comfortable in your basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

The S-word

Wondering about socialization or just plain tired of being asked?

Please read this.