Sunday, October 15, 2017

Library Workshop: Montessori Second Great Lesson

I'm leading a workshop series at my local public library on progressive education. The sessions will take place on Tuesday evenings from October 3 to December 12 (not including Halloween).

Some of the sessions are on Montessori and some are on Waldorf. Here I will put a corresponding series of blog posts listing what materials I took with me, both to help out other people who may be leading similar workshops and to help me out if I do another set of workshops like these in the future!


Montessori Second Great Lesson

Five Great Lessons binder from NAMC teacher training course

materials for demonstrations:

    photo of Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park

    Montessori Services Timeline of Life Fossil Collection

    Montessori Services Geologic Periods Book Set

    collection of Micoene fossil shark teeth from Calvert Cliffs, Maryland

    small plastic animals (centipede, spider, bee)

    large deep bin of water & plastic newspaper sleeve

    Titanosaur 35 meter long ball of finger knitted yarn and fact card

    6 foot long canopy silk in blues and purples


supplies for algae mono printing activity, including art tray, 8 inch Gelli Printing Plate, green acrylic paint, 4.5 inch wide hard rubber brayer, cotton swabs, 12 x 12 inch patterned scrapbook paper in blues, and baby wipes


supplies for Timeline of Life Calendar activity, including blank 12 x 12 inch scrapbook calendar and assorted stencils (fern and ginkgo)


Pangea puzzle activity (PDF) from the American Museum of Natural History and the amazing paper map of This Dynamic Planet: World Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Impact Craters, and Plate Tectonics from the USGS


bracelet classification activity, including sample classification question cards, pipe cleaners, and a wide variety of different colors of pony beads


recent newspaper article on new fossil species being discovered
(it is also nice to bring some golden Stockmar modeling beeswax and have people make models of your state fossil; ours in Illinois is the Tully monster)


the absolutely irresistible Tree of Life from Waseca Biomes and a small white blanket to serve as the background



Early Humans
(for Timeline of Life Calendar scale & where to place events)
by Michelle Breyer



From Lava to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story

by Jennifer Morgan



Life Story

by Virginia Lee Burton



Life: A Journey through Time

by Frans Lanting (this is really nice as a follow-up to his TED talk)



The Pebble in My Pocket: A History of Our Earth

by Meredith Hooper



The Drop in my Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet

by Meredith Hooper


Why Frogs are Wet by Judy Hawes, illustrated by Don Madden



The Wonderful Egg

by Dahlov Ipcar


time travel story by geologist Dr. Peter Vogt, The Monster Shark's Tooth: Canoeing from the Chesapeake Bay Into the Ancient Miocene Sea


homeschool organization: Becca's plan book, my plan book, box of Lyra Waldorf Selection colored pencils, Prismacolor gold and silver pencils

business materials: business cards, book group flyers, attendance sheet, "From Lava to Life" 2017 summer camp Expo / Museum Walk flyer, Waseca Biomes catalogue, session topic handout


This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!

1 comment:

Renee said...

I bought this but it didn't arrive in time for the workshop... the Cosmic Story Beadline from Clocca Concepts would also be perfect!