DIY continent map

When Sonshine was just 2 years old, he worked on the Montessori continent map. He loved it and it rocketed his interest for world maps, flags and the countries till this very day. (He's quite the expert now!) I cannot wait for Doll to work on it; she's not quite ready yet though. Before that happens, I decided to make a new continent map for her.

 

 

 

The version Sonshine worked on was made of paper wrapped in clear plastic (at that time I did not have a laminator). Blessed Doll, gets a prettier version!

 

 

Her map is purely made from felt which I painstakingly hand-stiched bit by bit. Sonshine, the professional, was watching me like a hawk, making sure I sewed the continents correctly. He was the one who quickly reminded me that I had left Tasmania out!

 

I am not that clever, I did not come up with the pattern (wish I did). The free pattern is from the good lady at Imagine our Life; you can get it here. The felt materials can be found in Daiso or even Popular bookstore.

 

I think I may have butchered her pattern. My scissors cutting skill is horrendous. Plus, I left out quite a bit of smaller islands because I was just too lazy to do it!

But to be honest, the sudden wavy curves every now and then makes it terribly tough to cut! And don't get me started on cutting the small islands! Glad that that's all over now!

 

 

I made two sets of it. One, as shown earlier, I stiched the continents onto the map. I cut out loose pieces of the continents but I deliberately did not attached them.

 

It is meant for the child to arrange the continent map as what Sonshine is doing in the above picture.

 

Viola!

 

So what else can we do with this map? Plenty!

 

Learn the continents of course! I printed the free 3-part cards also from the same blog page. Using the cards, the child can label them accordingly.

 

 

Match the cards by its shape (ok, and color).

 

And it starts to get more interesting.

 

 

We can sort the animals by the continent where they are commonly found.

 

 

Or sort famous world structures by the continent they are at. (I had Sonshine sort it out for fun & photo-taking, easy peasy for him!)

 

 

The minitures are Safari Toobs which I bought it from Mothercare.

 

We could even sort country flags on the map too! You can see how Sonshine did here.

 

 

I am so proud of my felt map and excited! Can't wait for Doll to get her hands on it!

In the meantime, I'll just take it out every now and then and admire it. :D

 

 

Come and Frog with me *croak*

I am very grateful to Doll's kindergarten teachers. They are doing a fantastic job teaching her how to read, write and study thematic topics. She's having a lot of fun learning at school too. That explains why I have been pretty laid back with the home teaching.

 

But recently I was suddenly inspired to make some frog theme activities for her.

 Bouts of inspirations like these does wonders!

 

 

Doll's teacher will go through the day of the week with her class everyday. To the point where, she can read almost all the days in words. I made this matching 'Days of the week' cards to help her reinforce her reading.

 

 

To make it interesting, I threw in the 'lily pads' into our sensory box. Doll makes the frog jump according to the day of the week from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday etc.

 

 

I bought this Safari Toob a long time back. So I took it out and have Doll find the matching poison dart frogs to the card.

 

 

I printed these free Frog Nomenclature cards from here. First I have her match the picture cards.

 

Later, she matches the word cards to the pictures. She can't recognise the words on the cards so she's expected to compare the spelling of each card and determine if they are the same. I would also read aloud each word card as she picks.

 

Learning parts of a frog. 

 

I managed to borrow two very interesting reads on frogs from the library.

 

As we flip through the pages, we try to spot some familiar looking frogs :).

 

 

Doll was taught writing alphabets and numbers in school. She's learning them very well and can write most letters and numbers independently. Still, I created these cards for her to practise her writing and hopefully, remember the spelling of the words :D.

 

 

Learning a simplified frog cycle. Matching the correct figurine to the right cards.

 

 

Since our last math learning, she now understands that 10+3= 13. I whipped this up just for her to practise and reinforce what she learnt. This time no visual aids, all done mentally and from recalling what she learnt the last time. 

 

 

If you need more ideas, there are lots more ideas on this theme over at Living Montessori Now here. Lots of free printable too!

 

Have a croaking good time!

 

 

 

Simply Animals

I took out a tub of our animal toys and conducted some simple activities with Doll.

 

 

I made a place mat depicting the sea, land and sky.

 

 

We randomly picked out some animal toys and sorted them according to where they can be found i.e. sea, land or sky.   

 

I printed out some animal prints and Doll matched the animal toys to the cards.

We sorted some animals according to the number of legs they had.

 

As always, making her read is my priority. This week she is learning sight words 'i' and 'am'. I made sure all the cards repeated these two sight words so that it gets drilled into her head. She read aloud the cards and matched it to respective animal toys.

 

I've been neglecting the mandarin bit. Just a little phrase for her to retain words that she has learnt. Also, to help her make sense the words that she learnt.

 

Another way of AB patterning. Instead of pictures, this time I used words. She had to read and find the corresponding colored animal.

Who's that?

I made another set of learning material for our recent trip! Learning about occupations! This is to help her make sense of who's who. She knows what a doctor is but not the rest. The goal is for her to match the smaller cards to the master cards. At first, I'll say aloud the occupation of each card she chooses. Soon after, she would say it herself. It's an easy activity, something kids will pick up very easily. Still, it's entertaining for the preschoolers!

Flowery stuff

I have been out of sorts for the last weeks hence I have also been out of action (in terms of home learning). We have lost the momentum :(.

Still I did put in some effort few weeks back. I even lost the drive to switch on the computer to blog about it! (I am typing this on my phone- which also explains all the wrong fonts and misalignments.)

I made some home learning based on the theme 'flowers' and here's what we did:

I made these cards to help Doll understand that flowers come in a variety and each type has a name to it. I told myself this would be my objective and it won't matter if she doesn't remember the names. She simply had to match the flower cards to the correct master card. Each time she picks a card, I would say out the names of each flower. Doll actually recognized each of the flowers and even their names! I was curious if she would also recognize the 'real/live' flowers. So Whenever we pass by any florists, I would single out these flowers and she would confidently name them! I am so pleased! It confirms to me once again, Doll learns very well through matching activities like this! 

I made these counting cards and bought these pretty rose studs from Daiso. She had to place the correct number of roses onto the card. I love how pretty the end product looks! 

And not related to the 'flower' theme, I have been slowly expanding her reading. I made sentence cards and have her read aloud to me. Again, I'm so pleased that she's progressing in her reading and can now read simple sentences like these! Yahoo!!!

So there.. That's what we did many weeks back. I've recently prepared some more learning aid for her and we are slowly working on them. I hope I have the  motivation to blog about it. :)