Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Inaugural Summer Camp!

The school year went ahead and ended on me!  Where did the year go?  Now, it's time to post about our first-ever summer camp, spearheaded by our energetic, creative, and dedicated classroom assistant.  She has single handedly put together this enriching, Montessori inspired outdoor experience for our campers.  What a refreshing sight to see these lessons in the beautiful light of the summer sun, among the grass so green, and the breeze through our hair:

Transferring water beads with a large spoon.

Fine motor development using outlines from the Metal Inset shapes and small wood pieces.

Outdoor shelves!

An invitation to create and design.

Outdoor water source for Practical Life activities.

Water-dropper transferring.  

Making bubbles.

Thanks to the talents of one of our parents who built this with wood pallets, the children now have this adorable place to make music.

Another side of  the 'Music Wall' which  is actually three-sided.  The last side includes a chalkboard.

Outdoor mats for workspaces.  Don't you just love the burlap with grass…?!  

Birdwatcher's materials.

Visual discrimination of size with tree cookies!

Cornmeal/sand tray for writing practice.

I wanted to stay - it was hard to leave this little piece of Montessori summer camp fun! :-)
I will be back to share more pictures - I couldn't get to everything this time around, so I hope you will check back again! 

Sewing Together on the Tapestry Table

Some readers may recall our group sewing project several years ago which was highlighted in THIS post.  Since so many of our children have enjoyed the series of sewing lessons over the past couple of years, one of our assistants decided to put together the following culminating sewing activity using our beloved tapestry table to coincide with the Short Bead Stair:

Working back from the golden ten bar, these circles were placed in a row... 

…and embellished with golden beads, buttons, etc.

The same for number nine...

…all the way...

…to number one!  
We will certainly will find a special place to display the piece in our classroom - I am thinking on the wall above the Bead Cabinet.  Stay tuned!