Monday, April 30, 2018

Math Workshop Effingham

On Saturday I presented a Montessori Math workshop in Effingham IL.

It takes a lot of work to get this kind of thing organized and I don't want to lose my notes, so I'm putting them here. I purchased some wonderful sturdy new bins (Really Useful Boxes, available at Staples and Office Depot) and placed a packing slip in each box as I packed it Friday evening, which was very helpful when packing the bins back up when the workshop was done!

Here are my packing lists:

Box 1


Box 2


Box 3


Box 4


Plus a few things I had to carry on their own:

  • a tote bag with my two Math training binders from NAMC,
  • a large whiteboard,
  • the Checker Board, and
  • the Decanomial paper (one empty and one colored in)
  • box of Golden Bead Material



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

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Sunday, April 29, 2018

A Dozen Days of Houses

We just finished up Number Shapes & Patterns -- I'll do another post with pictures from that block, but all of the notes are already on the website -- and it is time for Wonderful Houses Around the World!

I am so excited about this block. It's hard to choose from among all of the house options. I already know that I'm saving Native American houses (and Bonnie Shemie's wonderful book series on Native Dwellings) for 5th grade U.S. Geography, so that does help make things simpler, but I do want to include some Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Reading Farmer Boy is classic in Waldorf third grade, but I'm choosing excerpts from two others.)

I also know that we are going to have at least one special guest... plus be able to take a field trip to visit a straw bale house and talk with one of the people who built it. The kids are also doing Shelter Building as one the topics in their Survival Skills unit at Farm Day. What could be more perfect?

Finally, this is going to be one of my Summer Camp topics this year, so there's another 5 days built in to cover all the cool things we cannot get to.

Here is my current planning and I'll write more as we go along, detailing what we actually did! I've got a variety of great books for this block. If a type of house is included in more than one book, I've listed all of them here.

Pogo's House: The Story of Lumber by Jo and Ernest Norling

The Story of a Nail by Irving Adler

How Do People Live? by Philip Steele






Wonderful Houses Around the World - my choices

Europe

"Sculpted House," Trojan Horse, Asia Minor

Floating House, the Netherlands

"Houses that Breathe Through Chimneys," Spain
(cave dwellings are found in other places around the world as well)


Asia

special guest visitors!

Bedouin Tent, Arabia

"A White House in the Grasslands," Mongolian Yurt


Australia

Aboriginal Bark Hut


Africa

Baobab Tree House, Sudan

"Earthen Castles," Togo

"Warrior's Corral," Zulu People, South Africa


South America

Huts Made of Branches, Brazil

"Houses Shaped Like Acorns," Chipaya People, Bolivia

Palafito, Chiloe Island, Chile
(houses on stilts are found in other places around the world as well)

"Southern Explorations" and "Functional Dwellings," Kon-Tiki raft


North America

Covered Wagon

Log Cabin

Sod House

Dugout

Straw Bale House

    activity: visit a straw bale house and talk with one of the builders

Cob House

Brick House

Geodesic Dome


It would be nice when we add these to the MLB to do a colored crayon border around each two page spread to represent which continent the house type is found on. In Montessori, there's a colored globe of the continents and these colors are used throughout the curriculum. North America is orange. South America is pink. Europe is red. Asia is yellow. Africa is green. Australia & Oceania is brown. Antarctica is white (but won't be included in this MLB).


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

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