By the Pond for Preschoolers - Part 3

Concluding our Pond Unit was bittersweet. I think Adrian and I both really liked the topic and could easily have gone on...but just like a fun game, it's probably best to leave things be when they are still at peak! :) The theme can always be further explored next year after all.

Math - Lily pad addition

I really need to start pinning. For the past few weeks, I have seen lily pad math everywhere. Of course when came the time to look them up, I had the hardest time remembering who had created them and where to find them! Ugh. I usually write it all down (yes...I'm a bit old-fashioned...) but I guess I thought I'd find at least one! Thankfully, 123 Homeschool 4 Me had a very nice free printable all ready for Adrian. Adding is still something we are working on so we still use objects to make it tangible as you can see. Here, we used glass gems (Tedi, our bargain store had an entire jar for 1 euro!). The frog had a 4 + 4 addition so Adrian put 4 pebbles on one side and 4 on the other side. He added them all and picked lily pad number 8 for his frog to reside on (good job!). Then, everything was "swept" aside for another addition.

Math - Counting River Rocks - Explaining Odd and Even Numbers

Adrian has been counting for years now but I never really took the time to explain the difference between and odd and even numbers (how "odd" is that?). I guess that escaped me. Last week, I took the time to add these words to his growing vocabulary by taking the time to show him the alignment of his river rocks. He liked it so much he actually made me "create" bigger numbers so I could "quiz" him whether that number was odd or even... :)

Language & Science: Water and Land Forms

The pond is a water form but there are so many out there. What a nice way to introduce other water forms I thought! Thanks to Tiffany (she donated her cards to Montessori Materials), I printed my own brown and blue nomenclature cards and we began learning all about these land and water forms. Later that week, I got a copy of these same forms but this time, I got a copy of what they might look like in real life (visit The Helpful Garden for these). Adrian now had to match "bay" with "bay" and "cape" with "cape. Not an easy task for all the cards I'm afraid but it was a good start...

Felt Fishing Game

This was really more of a just for fun game. It does take some coordination to catch the fish but still, Adrian is quite good at it now. We've used these before. I made them myself and you can read all about them in my previous post about Pets.

Artist of the Month: Claude Monet

Every month, I try to remember to introduce a new artist. For April, I chose to go with Monet who, like us this week, was a big fan of the pond apparently! :) We talked about the artist himself, mostly thanks to Making Art Fun. At such a young age, basic information is really all Adrian will absorb and even then. He yawned and fidgeted throughout "the lecture". We quickly moved on to the art part where we looked at the work of Monet, paying attention to the colors used and the subject of the art. As much as possible, I try to have Adrian come up with the observations (such as: Monet love to paint landscapes it seems!) but sometimes, I almost have to give him choices of answers. :) After looking at several art pieces, we got to work choosing to "reproduce" a pond filled with water lilies. See the results below! :)

Water Lilies by Mommy

Adrian's Rendition of the Monet Masterpiece!
It was Adrian's first time using oil pastels and he liked it very much.
He pressed as hard as if they were crayons so the colors are not as muted.

* * *

If saying good bye to the pond unit is bittersweet for you to, I invite you to make some flower pot and dragonfly cupcakes like we did! :) I actually volunteered to bake these for the bake sale at my son's German school. The Germans having no cupcakes (unless you visit "american bakeries in huge metropolis I've been told), they were a very big hit! :)

Flower Pot Cupcakes 

Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Sprinkles, Sugar Leaves and Lollipops!

Original idea seen on Once Upon a Cookie.

Dragonfly Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Licorice Antennae, Pretzel Wings and Smarties Head (skittles/M&M would work too! I just love Smarties!)

Original idea seen on The Daily Cupcake.

* * *

Your comments make my day ! 

* * *

Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Artsy Play Wednesday, Serenity Saturday, Virtual Montessori Sharing Fair, Discover and Explore, and We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!