Makeshift Monday (Okay, Sunday): Stringing CVC Words

A few weeks ago, our friends handed an almost-like-new Melissa and Doug Deluxe Wooden Stringing Bead Kit down to us.  What a fabulous Montessori-friendly resource/tool/toy it is!

I have dreams of making photo cards of beads in specific patterns to use for Math work, of getting small objects together for some spelling-object-match Language work, of putting together a simple bead stringing tray...  Ideas abound.

But reality seems to be keeping those ideas from becoming concrete activities.  Life's little hurdles, such as a broken toe for Mommy, pneumonia for Luke and an infection for Nina, keep tripping us up, mandating that time Mommy might have for preparing activities be reallocated for hours spent in medical office waiting rooms.  Nevertheless, learning continues, often with makeshift activites.  For example:

One day, as I was nursing Jack, Luke and Nina began asking me how to spell different things they wanted to try to string the letters for.  Some words I simply told them the letters for.  Others, I had them sound out.  They happily searched for the appropriate letters in the bead box tray and worked their pincer grasps and eye-hand coordination to string them.

Then, once I finished nursing Jack, in order to add a reading element to the activity for Luke and a lower case-upper case matching element for Nina, I got a small white board, on which I wrote a number of words easy CVC (consonant,-vowel-consonant) , VCC (vowel-consonant-consonant) and family name sight words.  For fun, and to help Luke recognize when he read each word correctly, I added some quick sketches next to each word.

To my amusement, Luke felt the need to connect each word to its accompanying picture by drawing a line.  At first, this seemed a bit ridiculous to me, since the sketches were so close to the words and since I hadn't mixed them up as a puzzle for him to match word to pictures with.  But, then, I realized, "Hey!  It's good left-to-write writing practice and it's what he wants to do."  So, the beading activity paused while the writing lines one took over.

Then, it was back to the beading: eye hand coordination, concentration, control, ability to follow through from left to right, preparation for writing, and some spelling and reading, too.  Not bad for a makeshift activity!

What Montessori-friendly tools and toys have you been using in your home?  Any successful makeshift ideas?  Do share in a comment.  And, also be sure to stop by One Hook Wonder's Montessori Mondays where this post is being shared.

Makeshift Monday: Going Vertical with Easel Writing

I began Makeshift Monday potss last week and thought I would keep them up.

Today: Easel Writing!

Before Christmas, when the house was in an advanced state of disarray due to the usual clutter as well as rearranging things to make room for a Christmas tree and seasonal decor, I recognized that the kids had been doing too much at-the-table "work" during learning times.  Well, being a big believer in moving to learn, I immediately suggested some hallway games, but Luke wanted to write.  So, I decided the least we could was capitalize on the benefits of doing vertical work.  (When young children work on a flat or horizontal surface, they tend to straighten or flex their wrists, which interferes with proper use of the small muscles of the hand. By using vertical surfaces, proper positioning of the shoulder and arm is encouraged.)

So, the kids took turns doing Mommy-made challenges, using the chalkboard and whiteboard sides of an easel.  (Using chalk gives their fingers and hands more resistance and, thus more sensory "feedback" than using whiteboard markers.  This can help with pre-writing and writing, but it can also provide "too much" sensory input/challenge at times.  Thus, my conscious effort to keep Luke and Nina trading sides.)


Nina enjoyed making downward strokes to elongate the letters of her name on the chalkboard side of our easel, as well as trying to draw lines to match the letters "m", "a" and "t" with sketches of objects starting with those letters on the whiteboard side

Meanwhile Luke sped through CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) and VCC word-to-sketch matching on both sides of the easel, before choosing to make a challenge for me to do --albeit with mixed upper and lower-case letters) on his preferred side - the whiteboard.  (He doesn't like the dustiness of chalk.)

And so we all focused on vertical time on learning -- even if it was makeshift and in the middle of our kitchen floor -- giving our shoulder, arm and hand muscles a good workout while making some headway with basic reading and writing.

What makeshift lessons have you been doing lately?

Makeshift Monday - Letter Tracing at the Fridge

As much as I want to consistently plan and carry through on well-thought out and creative lessons and projects for my children, it never fails that "life happens".  Consequently, spontaneous, semi-structured lessons become the order of the day at times.  So, I thought I would begin documenting these through occasional Makeshift Monday posts -- brief explanations which evidence impromptu ways to keep the kids engaged (or not) with varying degrees of success.

First up?

During some rather important and lengthy (due to holds) phone calls I had to make one morning, Luke and Nina got a bit antsy.  Likewise, I felt guilty that I was on hold on the phone instead of engaged in quality learning and play time with them.  That was when I spotted a poster that had fallen out of a pile of clutter I had been going through earlier in the day.  It reminded me of some recent yahoogroup conversations on interactive posters with workboxing and- BINGO!  Guilt assuaged.  Focus on writing engaged in.  A makeshift Letter Tracing at the Fridge activity commenced!

I attached the poster to one side of the fridge with magnets and gave Luke a dry-erase marker and a page protector to trace away with.  He quickly became involved.  Success!  (Even if he did get some marker on the actual poster when the page protector slipped.)

And Nina?  She, of course, wanted to join in, but (a)  there was not enough room on the side of the fridge for them both to work on the poster at once and (b) the letters to be traced on the poster were a bit too small for Nina's stage of pre-writing skill.  So, I wrote her name -- which she is still learning to recognize the letters for -- largely on the back of a piece of recycled paper, slipped it into another page protector and - viola! - a tracer for her was soon attached to the front of the fridge. 

Who cares if she went at it right to left instead of left to right without my guiding her to do otherwise?  She felt "big" and proud and I was able to attend to the service person that had just come back onto the phone line...

So, deep, thoughtful and hugely effective lesson?  No!  Fun and engaging for the kids while abating my guilt and helping to keep the house a bit quieter during an important call?  You bet!

What makeshift lessons have you been doing recently?  Leave a comment or link to share!