Building on the Fundamental Need of Shelter
Today was cold. Somehow the idea of building huts and doing work on them came about and I ran with it. The hut morphed into a huge blanket fort and turned into a couple of hours of imaginery play. I...
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How I teach the Fundamental Need of Culture
Recently we continued our study of fundamental needs. We introduced a 5th need today - culture. We discussed what culture was, it is a bit of a tricky one as it is a little more abstract. We used the culture...
How I Teach the Fundamental Need of Defence in a holistic way
Today in our continuing discussion of Fundamental Needs we looked at Human Rights. I got out the Fundamental Needs Defence cards and showed the Human Rights Cards (we used my fundamental needs card set) My child was particularly interested in...
Skip counting in 2
Skip counting with 2 is a really important skill. I'm sure you can probably recall times you have used it recently. >>scroll down for a freebie to help teach this skill Once children learn this skill they can apply it...
Skip counting in five
When teaching skip counting traditionally in Montessori students would use bead chains and then move onto the multiplication bead board. Here is how I take those traditional Montessori ideas and show how they can be adapted and extended to work...
The big picture road map
As a Montessori teacher and current homeschooler, I have a tendency to get stuck with the nitty-gritty behind the day too. From organising resources to behaviour management. However, it's pointless to move at rocket speed if you're moving in the...
Let's move past the traditional Montessori puzzle maps
We need to decolonise our curriculum. If I decide to teach using the traditional series of Montessori maps including the 'Australia' map here are some questions I ask myself. Am I critically examining why I am teaching this? What is the...
Diary of the First Great Story Part 2
Read Part 1 here Each year I have a different focus for the Great Story. The focus is really for my benefit so that I can weave in key ideas so that the students get curriculum coverage. This means that...
Laws of the Universe and The Story of Creation
The Laws of the Universe (LOU) experiments are a series of experiments that are designed to be appealing to children and introduce ideas about the "nature of things" to students. In a "traditional" presentation the order might be: -First Great...