Is "Underwater" a Noun?

In Montessori, words are color coded as to their parts of speech. See below

How Montessori Teaches Grammar

The Chalk Game

We have a lot of Science materials from Waseca Biomes, and some of them include Grammar work as well.

• Water Cycle Mat
• Rock Cycle Mat
• Coral Reef Habitat Mat
• Everglades Habitat Mat

This particular card in question is from the Coral Reef Habitat Mat:

After children make sentences with the cards, they can write and symbolize them with the stencil. Last school year, a child was doing this work and he symbolized "underwater" as a noun in a sentence where it clearly was an adjective! So I pulled this card out to think about it some more. I can see sentences where "underwater" is an adjective and an adverb (of location), but I can't think of a single example where "underwater" is actually a noun. I don't think this card should be black!

I swam underwater to the sunken treasure chest. (adv)

The underwater robot got lost during its exploration of the Titanic. (adj)

Can anybody think of one?

Literature Circle: Mr. George Baker

Mr. George Baker
by Amy Hest

Because literature circles and literary analysis are new to my group, we began together with a picture book. The students here are 9-13 years old.

Tue Sep 8

read the story

discuss author's craft, making predictions, using the text to support your arguments, topic vs. theme

independent activity to practice finding text support
Finding Theme with Concentric Circles - FREE at TpT

Wed Sep 9

whole group: truisms activities from Gretchen Bernabei's excellent
Reviving the Essay: How To Teach Structure Without Formula

Lesson 1: Truisms

Step 1: Get familiar with truisms with photo

Step 2: Write truisms from photo

Step 3: Write truisms from prompts

Debriefing Questions

Mon Sep 14

continue with Gretchen Bernabei book

Lesson 1: Truisms

Spin-offs #4

After having read a piece of literature, let students write a truism and find a graphic to go with it and with the literature. Then ask them to write what that truism and graphic have to do with the piece of literature, or why they chose it. This is a wonderful kid-friendly way to teach literary analysis.

Gretchen Bernabei's website, trailofbreadcrumbs.net

visual prompts for teaching truisms

"it doesn't matter what age you are, to have a friend"

"love is worth the wait"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story worked extremely well as our introduction to literary analysis for the older children and a review of place value for the younger children.

see my Books for 100 post for more details!

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Books for 100

In Montessori, we use green for units place, blue for tens place, and red for hundreds place. I like to use this color coding in a Waldorf classroom as well, beginning with grade 2 when we study Column Algorithms / Place Value.

An excerpt from the Column Algorithms / Place Value page on my website:

Activity One - Gems / Pouches / Basket

Many years ago I was at a homeschool training at Barbara Dewey's and a woman named Misty shared with me what she had done to introduce place value. A group of families worked together to set this up for the children in their homeschool group. They laid out 100 individual gems in a long line on the ground. The children counted as they picked them up: 1, 2, 3, etc. When they got to gem 9 their hands were beginning to get full. Right beside the tenth gem was a small pouch. They made a group of ten gems in a pouch, then picked up the eleventh gem, etc. After nine pouches (each of ten) and nine individual gems, they finally reached gem 100! For this they were provided the tenth pouch and a basket to put all ten pouches in.

It was a lovely idea and she said they always understood it thereafter.

To do this in a way that is compatible with the Montessori color coding for the digits, use green glass gems, small blue pouches for the 10, and a large red basket for the 100.




for small blue pouches of 10:

Etsy white linen favor gift bag
beautifully made 100% white linen and so easy to dye blue

LinenForest sells these as a set of 10 (and it would be fun to dye these with your child first and keep a mystery what you were going to use them for...)

If you prefer to purchase blue pouches, I suggest these





small sheer organza pouches



red willow basket with folding handles


A red box, bin, pie plate, platter, Christmas cookie tin, etc. would work just as well. The color is what's most important. To introduce this place value activity with a Waldorf story you could use The White Snake from Grimm's (organizing the grains of millet into sacks)




The Hundred-Year Barn

You could also use The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia MacLachlan. This story does a wonderful job of showing the passing of time. It is a really lovely way to talk about the number 100 and, as a bonus, the barn is red which is the color we use for the 100s place.






The Firehouse Light

Just found another possibility for the number 100, particularly for the idea of skip counting by tens. It also highlights the color red AND is a true story! The Firehouse Light by Janet Nolan.






Mr. George Baker

*NEW* A new idea for introducing 100! Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest. This book highlights the importance of school and of learning to read, and the two of them each have a red backpack. So you could use a red backback or satchel to hold your ten baggies of ten gems!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Local Industry - Coal

Our fourth Local Industry for Southern Illinois!

timing:

1810 - present day

resource list:

Old King Coal Festival - West Frankfort IL
held each May



Tales & Trails of Illinois
by Stu Fliege

chapter 9
"Black Diamonds" Along the Big Muddy: Illinois's First Coal Mine

chapter 28
Illinois's Worst Coal Mine Disaster: The Cherry Mine Fire



Southern Illinois Coal: A Portfolio
photographs by C. William Horrell






Tell Me a Story: Memories of Early Life Around the Coal Fields of Illinois
Coal Research Center, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

"This booklet contains essays written by senior citizens about their experiences with coal mining in southern Illinois from the late 1800s through the 1950s. The essays were finalists in a writing competition held during Coal Awareness Week in October 1990. Coal Awareness Week was held by the Office of Coal Development and Marketing, of the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, and by the Coal Research Center at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale."

we read the following essays:

Part I: About the Mines and the Miners

p.16 - "A Day in the Mine with My Father, Thomas Morton, in the Years 1900 to 1929"

p.22 - "Tate's Block Coal Mine"

p.28 - "Illinois Mining: A First Person Account"

p.32 - "Hauling Coal with a Team and a Wagon"

p.36 - "A Lifetime of Coal Mining: The Change of Dayton McReaken"


Part II: About Home Life and the Woman's Role

p.41 - "A Nostalgic Look at Coal Mining in the Depression Years"

p.54 - "Coal and Coal Mining in the State of Illinois:

p.56 - "Buckets to Bliss"



Growing Up in Coal Country
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti


"Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford

"Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn



Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth
by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm


Buried Sunlight: The Story of Coal
by Raymond Janssen


"Coal - Black Diamonds" chapter
in It's Fun to Know Why, pp.21-30


handouts from SIU Climate Action Plan presentation given by the
Senior Engineer, Facilities & Energy Management, SIU Physical Plant
(how is the university going to eliminate its use of coal by 2050?)


we have learned about Coal in the past in

Stories of Household Items - Jun 2024

Art History: Friedensreich Hundertwasser - Apr 2025

Timeline of Life Resources: Carboniferous Period - Feb 2026

artifacts:

lump of coal (it's a rock... but not a mineral!)
found at a student's 1930s-era house that had a coal chute

coal chute illustration in Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

special guest:

coal miner

Pyrite Suns

Pyrite Suns (PDF)

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Introduction to Fractions week 4

We are going to continue to study Fractions in Morning Math throughout April (while we do a Personal Narratives block in our Main Lesson time).

The Introduction to Fractions needs to be done very slowly and carefully to ensure there aren't enduring misunderstandings that show up later on!

Themes Covered in Week 1

Mon - K/W/L Chart

Tue - 1/2, 1/4, 1/8

Wed - Making Thirds & Halving Thirds

Thu - Fractions of a Group, Equivalent Fractions (Houses on a Street)

Themes Covered in Week 2

Mon - Fractions of a Number

Tue - Puddle Question

Wed - Reading a Ruler, Fractions in Lowest Terms

Thu - Build-an-Animal

Themes Covered in Week 3

Mon - Restaurant Simulation

Tue - Coins as Fractions & Decimals

Wed - Basic Operations with Fractions

Thu - Converting Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers

Here are some Notes & Photos from week 4:

Mon - Converting Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions

Fractions Group 1 -
Fractions of Shapes (quick review), Around the Room practice



Fractions Group 2 -
Mixed Numbers (quick review), show how to write them as Improper Fractions, Converting Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions practice

Tue - Elapsed Time

read The King, the Dragon, and the Witch by Jerome Corsi

review reading an analog clock and look at a clock as a fraction
(half hour, quarter hour, 3/4 hour past = 1/4 hour till) and note that one minute is 1/60 of an hour and five minutes is 1/12 of an hour



do Elapsed Time practice or finish up yesterday's work as needed

Wed - Making Arrays

add new observations and new questions about fractions to the MLB

lay the foundation for tomorrow's lesson with Around the Room x, ÷

Thu - Using Arrays to Simplify Fractions

read Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant
(for Monday's special guest... but it also ties in so well with arrays!)

have students review fractions by doing Fraction of a Group and Colorful Fraction Circles independently



use small stickers (check your office supply stash!) to create an array



revisit arrays using the example on my poster:



explain that 8 dots out of 32 dots is the same as saying 1 row out of 4 rows... and, mathematically, we would write this as 8/32 = 1/4

is there a way to figure out equivalent fractions without having to make a visual each time? yes!

show students how you can multiply or divide your fraction using a "special form of 1" (ie. a fraction which has the same numerator and denominator) to get a new -- and equivalent -- fraction!



have students make arrays of their own using tiny stickers and then write equivalent fractions



show them how to "double check it mathematically"
4/12 is the same as 1/3
because 4 divided by 4 is 1, and 12 divided by 4 is 3

I got the idea of the sticker arrays from this TpT lesson using Emoji Arrays. It is SUCH an easy way for children to create their own arrays. Plus, once you have actually made them yourself, you start to see arrays everywhere!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Introduction to Fractions week 3

Work with Fractions continued! (Here are notes from week 1 and week 2.)

Mon - Restaurant Simulation

do Restaurant Simulation (FREE on TpT)
we used pretend bills but real restaurant menus and real coins

Tue - Coins as Fractions & Decimals

play Race to a Dollar / Race to a Hundred Dollars
FREE download from Aimee Salazar's blog post (scroll to bottom)

again we used the pretend bills, real coins, and my 10-sided dice

add Coins as Fractions & Decimals to MLB



bonus question #1: how would we add a dollar coin to this chart?
bonus question #2: how would we add a half cent to this chart?

Wed - Basic Operations with Fractions

introduce operations with fractions: +/- (with same denominators) and x/÷ (a fraction by a whole number) using Nienhuis Montessori Fraction Activity Set 1 and the Cut-Out Labeled Fraction Circles

Thu - Converting Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers

Fractions Group 1 -
Penguin Trek (review fractions of a group) and Create Your Own Fraction Problems (adding fractions with common denominators)

Fractions Group 2 -
do Crack the Code! (multiplying fractions by a whole number, simplifying "top heavy" improper fractions to mixed numbers)

note: all three of these activities are FREE on TpT




write about what we did today in the MLB along with new wonderings

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!