Once again, Mary amazed us! Tuesday evening was Go-to-School night for Mary's class. Mary spent an hour showing us some of her favorite lessons. (And she even let David help!) Of course I brought my camera.
(Please excuse the giant puff ball that is Mary's head. We're having a stand-off about growing her hair out "super super long." She is welcome to have long hair, as long as I can pull it back everyday. But somehow I lose the battle every morning. I see a bob in Mary's future. And you will see unruly hair in this post.)
Mary chose to show us the lengthy, multi-step clock lesson first. (According to Mary's teacher, Mary's enthusiasm for this lesson has made it all the rage in the classroom. Now everyone wants some clock action!)
First, she rolls out a rug. Then she carefully carries all the materials to the rug. The first step in the lesson is to put the numbers on the clock.
Then she lines up all the clock tiles, in order from 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock. Afterwards, she matches the small tiles (that read "1 o'clock," "2 o'clock," and so forth) with the correct clock face tile.
Then she sets about making a little booklet of the hours on a clock. She moves the big hand on the big clock to each hour, stopping to make a page of the booklet each time.
She draws the clock hands in red pencil and writes the time with a regular pencil.
She agrees to let David help her.
It takes a long time to go all the way around the clock.
But she does it! (Everyday--because it's so much fun! Who knew? Well, besides Maria Montessori.)
Mary's ready to staple her booklet.
And then she and David set about cleaning up the material.
Soon Mary will learn half-hour, quarter hours, and all the minutes in between.
At David's request, Mary did a map next.
See that little purple country sitting up there on the rug? Do you know what it is?
When she pulled it off the map, she said, "Oh, Daddy, here's Honduras," and handed it to him. (What the!!??! Does your four-year-old know where Honduras is? Do YOU know where Honduras is? Heck, my husband lived there for a year--and I quite like geography--and I still can't pick it out on a map.)
Mary manged to show us a few other lessons as well.
She even taught David a few lessons that he did independently.
Mary finished off the evening with the number beads. (And she let David check her work.)
It was a marvelous evening!
***
You can see pictures of last year's Go-to-School Nights here and here. Also, here are some observations I made upon observing Mary's class in action. (In that post, I mention that my verdict was still out on Montessori. The verdict is in: And it's good.)
(Please excuse the giant puff ball that is Mary's head. We're having a stand-off about growing her hair out "super super long." She is welcome to have long hair, as long as I can pull it back everyday. But somehow I lose the battle every morning. I see a bob in Mary's future. And you will see unruly hair in this post.)
Mary chose to show us the lengthy, multi-step clock lesson first. (According to Mary's teacher, Mary's enthusiasm for this lesson has made it all the rage in the classroom. Now everyone wants some clock action!)
First, she rolls out a rug. Then she carefully carries all the materials to the rug. The first step in the lesson is to put the numbers on the clock.
Then she sets about making a little booklet of the hours on a clock. She moves the big hand on the big clock to each hour, stopping to make a page of the booklet each time.
She draws the clock hands in red pencil and writes the time with a regular pencil.
She agrees to let David help her.
It takes a long time to go all the way around the clock.
But she does it! (Everyday--because it's so much fun! Who knew? Well, besides Maria Montessori.)
Mary's ready to staple her booklet.
And then she and David set about cleaning up the material.
Soon Mary will learn half-hour, quarter hours, and all the minutes in between.
At David's request, Mary did a map next.
See that little purple country sitting up there on the rug? Do you know what it is?
When she pulled it off the map, she said, "Oh, Daddy, here's Honduras," and handed it to him. (What the!!??! Does your four-year-old know where Honduras is? Do YOU know where Honduras is? Heck, my husband lived there for a year--and I quite like geography--and I still can't pick it out on a map.)
Mary manged to show us a few other lessons as well.
She even taught David a few lessons that he did independently.
Mary finished off the evening with the number beads. (And she let David check her work.)
It was a marvelous evening!
***
You can see pictures of last year's Go-to-School Nights here and here. Also, here are some observations I made upon observing Mary's class in action. (In that post, I mention that my verdict was still out on Montessori. The verdict is in: And it's good.)
