Thursday, February 2, 2012

Geometric solids : Montessori and more

We love our Life of Fred books around here. Credit (once again :) has to go to Tracey for all of her wisdom! To supplement, & ensure we are covering the full state syllabus for Maths, L is using the Targeting Maths workbooks. And then, when appropriate, my original love - Montessori - will also come into play.




The pages he completed from the TM book today were about 3D Shapes or as we know them in the world of Montessori - Geometric Solids.

Oooooh! We have some of them *insert excited Montessori Mama face*



So I pulled out my homemade Geometric Solids - I made them with clay & painted them to match the traditional Montessori ones - and set L to work; first matching the solids to their name cards & then collecting items from around the house to match them. He has done this work before but it's been a while.



I had to smile, at lunchtime, when he told his dad that he had been learning about Triangular Prisms :)

* On a side note, I'm pleased with the difference 2 months can make - I've been having much more success with going over the directions and then asking him to complete a page of a workbook independently than I did last year. Yay! Dishes done. Floor swept ;)

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14 Comments
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Comments :

14 comments :

  1. Thanks for this post, and your handmade solids are beautiful!

    I ordered some generic ones in Dec that we haven't yet used. I think I'll follow your lead by making matching cards with the names, then playing the game you did. Thanks so much!

    Oh, and way to go on the clean house ... you're a step ahead of me :)

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  2. Thanks for the mention and link!
    Those solids are SO beautiful : )
    Gotta love those telling Dad moments - our big girl told Mike about Prometheus today after finding the Ancient Greek myths book in the reading room. Makes up for the crazy messy house ;-D surely?

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  3. Hi there,
    Care to share where you got the matching cards from? They look great.

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  4. Ooooh they do look good! Never seen them before !

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  5. would you like to participate in a giveaway festival this month? pop up over my blog, here is the link to my first giveaway.

    http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/2012/02/love-paper-dolls-giveaway.html
    Patty

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  6. So inspired by your blog! Thank you!! ~ Marnie

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  7. How do you make sure that you cover everything using Life of Fred.
    I have a daughter using the elementary books and a son using Fractions. We are supplementing with Khan Academy.
    Any ideas?

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  8. Thank you for all of the lovely comments here!

    aly in va - I made the matching cards. I downloaded the shapes from the web, added the name & printed them. Easy peasy. I could have a look if I can find the file on my Mac if you are interested! :)

    alhsjej - I don't think I'd feel comfortable using the Life of Fred books without some supplementary materials. I think they'd be wonderful alongside a complete set of Montessori Maths materials (which i don't have).

    What we do here now is a combination of Maths Methods:

    * Life of Fred books
    * Hands-on Maths Manipulatives - "Montessori inspired"
    * EPGY - an online gifted program through Stanford University
    * "Targeting Maths" Workbooks - which meet the state syllubus
    * and we have also started using this book "Nature Math" http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Math-Alive-Penny-Dowdy/dp/0761432140 which seems great ( and there are more in the series).

    Basically, I think that there are a lot of ways to learn about Maths and that feeling out a number of approaches while your kids are young is perfect. A Classical "Living Books" approach, with lots of hands on materials and some structured, progressive resources will give you a good idea about their strengths and learning styles.

    Maybe I'll write a post about this in more depth (!) but I hope this helps you a little bit.

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  9. Ingenious. Lovely! Of course, make your own solids. :) What kind of clay did you use? I'm thinking about homemade air dry clay (baking soda, corn starch, water). Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Hi Sally :)
    Making your own is fun! & very satisfying.

    I used a packet of air-drying clay but if you know how to make your own totally give that a try! My only thought is to be aware that there will be a little shrinkage as it dries. As perfect as I *attempted* to make mine, they changed a little (for the wonkier ;) in the end.

    Good luck! Maybe post back here when you are done? :) x

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  11. What kind of air drying clay did you use? I have never *slap in the forehead* thought to make my own solids, and buying is just out of the question right now. But I would love to have some, because we have lacked in the geometry area very seriously and I'd like to make up for lost time!

    -Amy W

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  12. Hi Anonymous ;)

    I'm not sure what kind of clay i used. Sorry! I'm sure any type would work - good luck!

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  13. ooohh nice. i have trouble making ovals, ellipses. u have any idea?

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  14. ooohh nice. i have trouble making ovals, ellipses. u have any idea?

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