Busy at work

caution, picture heavy post. Lots of pictures from school. My class ranges in age from 2 years, 10 months to 4 years, 7 months. We are not quite the traditional Montessori "3-6" class because this is a new class of children new to the school, or they have moved up from the toddler class. There is a wide range of interests and abilities, but there is always a lot going on and they stay very busy working.






working with the color tablets - box#2



painting





using little tongs to pick up marbles



painting with cue tips

























counting glass beads





a creative variation


pouring work - in the big clear bowl (it's a heavy plastic) Inside there is colored (white) sand and colored (orange) rice. They love this activity!



animals from different continents, I downloaded 2 copies from here

language work





science - sink and float



practical life - "bubble making" using a whisk




building with the knobless cylinders




the slightly leaning pink tower (built by one of our 2 year olds)



sorting objects - what belongs in Air, Land and Water. I made these cards from download at this website
another activity from the practical life area - "nesting owls"
play doh - always a favorite























counting shells



working with sandpaper letters and matching objects (we introduce the sounds in groups of 3)

playing the wooden xylophone (my 99c goodwill find I wrote about here )










working with color box 1















drawing on the chalk board








To see more ideas for anyone wanting to plan Montessori activities, 2 of the blogs I visit often:

Montessori Free fall

My Montessori Journey

I will take some pictures of the classroom layout and how the work is arranged on the shelves soon. I cropped all these pictures to protect the privacy of the little ones in my class

If you're reading please leave a comment and if you have any questions about the activities let me know :)

San Antonio

Some pictures from our few days away in San Antonio, post hurricane.

At the Guenther house

















riding the train by the zoo
































boat ride on the river

the hurricane again......

Just some pictures to share.........



making biscuits with Dad Friday morning

playing with toys, getting ready to "hunker down" for the hurricane




Kate styled her dolls' hair




more play time












Thomas already asleep on the couch by 7










Mommy, why are you taking pictures??!!




Kate asleep too














we had mattresses against the windows




early morning, fence down in the back, swing set did not blow away




our big oak tree, luckily it fell between the house and fence and did not damage either




the rain filled the ditches




the frame of a new house collapsed in my in-laws neighborhood




the hummingbirds enjoying their early morning sugar water

Galveston

A friend of Chris has a blog about her experience as an evacuee from Galveston.

One of the most surreal pictures I have seen is this one:

On the Galveston seawall, which kept back the worst parts of the storm surge, Ike sheared in half the plaque on the statue of victims of the 1900 storm who are raising their arms in mourning. The 17-foot seawall was built after 6,000 people died in that turn of the century hurricane, the deadliest storm in U.S. history, the newspaper reported.

the same location on a beautiful May day

the usually calm waves........

We go to Galveston several times a year, we live less than an hours drive away, and I hope that they will be able to restore and rebuild. There are so many beautiful houses and historic buildings, it is so much more than just a popular tourist destination.

Hurricane Ike

Made it through my first big hurricane since I've been living in Texas. We lost power about 11pm Friday night and we had at least 12 hours of strong winds and rain, except for about 2 hours in the early morning when it was calm and the eye of the storm was right over us. It was scary but we were very lucky compared to some people and did not have any damage to our house, and just 2 trees down in our backyard and some damage to the fences. We had our dog in the utility room and our cat in our bedroom, and we all slept in the den and Chris had the twin matresses propped up against the windows. The kids slept through most of it and Chris and I were mostly awake listening to the wind and the pines cones dropping on our carport roof.

Saturday when the wind calmed down Chris repaired the fence some and we worked on cleaning up some of the debris in the front, and we drove around a little to see some of the damage in our area, and to see Chris' parents. They live in a new neighborhood and one of the houses under construction in the framing stage had just collapsed.
Saturday night was so hot in the house with no power so today we decided to come out to San Antonio and find a hotel for a couple of days. The kids will be out of school until at least Wednesday, but maybe longer depending on how long it takes for power to come on. Chris works in a chemical plant and it is shut down at the moment. I don't know how the area around my school fared in the storm - there are a lot more trees out there than near my house, so I can only assume it was very bad. Before we left Thursday we moved all the furniture away from the windows, so we have a lot of things to put back in place when we get back.

But for now it was nice to have a hot shower and be in AC and have my wireless internet connection :) If we hear home still does not have power in a couple of days we are going to try and find a generator somewhere out here to take back home.
I'll post some pictures later in the week when we are back home and things are getting back to normal.

Damage is very bad to Kemah and Galveston and some of our favorite places, so some things will never be the same out there.

new school year

We survived our first week of school. Thomas' favorite thing about kindergarten is riding the bus after school to his grandparents' house.

Excited the night before, sleeping with his favorite 'guys'.















All ready to go!




















Kate was still eating breakfast before I had to leave for my school. She is doing pretty well with 2nd grade and we're all adjusting to more homework!















I have a great class this year, we only have 14 kids right now, and as it is a new class in the school they are all 3 and 4 year olds - some have moved from the toddler classes, and some are new to Montessori.

This weekend we're busy cleaning and organizing the house - we are about to put our house up for sale (and are looking to move closer to where I work). Hopefully we can keep the house clean most of the time now we're all out of the house during the week.