Elementary Geometry - Seven Triangles of Reality

Early this week, my little one worked on seven types of triangles that exist.  We started with the three types of triangles based on sides – equilateral, isosceles, and scalene.  She constructed the triangles using geometry sticks. (Geometry stick material is really expensive and I cut these strips from foam).

She learned about angles and degrees a few weeks ago.  We reviewed it, made some triangles and identified the angles in the triangles- obtuse, right and acute angles.

 Then I told her to try all the possible combinations of equilateral, isosceles, and scalene and obtuse, right and acute angles. She tried on her own, found the possible combinations and labeled them.

She labeled these blue triangles as a practice.

Electrical Conductivity of Materials

This week we did a simple experiment to check few materials whether they are conductors or insulators.  We used the following circuit and a number of different materials like Copper string, Aluminium foil, graphite(Pencil lead), Popsicle stick, paper, plastic pen, and a piece of cloth.

Instead of using wires, we constructed a simple paper circuit using aluminium tape. You can even use aluminium foil. It is really simple and your child can construct their own circuit next time, if they experience it once. I showed her how to form a hypothesis and test it. 

My daughter placed different materials in the gap to make it a closed circuit and see whether the LED light up. She also noted her observation in the worksheet.

This experiment piqued my child’s curiosity. So, we are going to do a lot of paper circuits in the coming week and I will post it.

Teaching Sentence Writing

I would like to share some of our activities that I did initially to encourage my little one to write sentences.

Silly sentences

        Being an ESL, we started with simple sentences.  I kept three bowls for noun, verb, and adverbs. Initially, I used only the adverbs of time to check whether she can make sentences in all tenses.  She has to take cards from each bowl and make sentences accordingly.  This activity is really funny and my daughter loves it.

Picture cards

                   I keep picture cards in a bowl and my daughter has to take picture cards from the bowl and constructs sentences. She used to write at least five sentences per day in her writing notebook.

Punctuation

  For practicing punctuation, I used ‘Edit a sentence’ – a daily activity suggested by Montessori for everyone. I write sentences without punctuation and incorrect capitalization, my daughter has to correct it.  Sometimes I write dialogues from her favorite books. She loves to find which book it is from.

Geometry Fun : Angles

We learnt about angles the other day and I wanted to share those activities we did.

I hope nomenclature cards are the easy way to introduce any concepts and names of new things. I made these cards and my little one created the angles using Geometry sticks. You can download the nomenclature cards here.

I wanted to find a way to practice angles. I made this game and kids played it both as indoor game and outdoor game. They enjoyed it a lot. You won’t believe my little one is good at angles now. You can download the template here.

Here is another activity to practice angles. I found this activity here . My little one wrote the names in grid paper, mark all the acute angles red, obtuse angles green and right angles violet. Then, she learnt to use the protractor to find the values.

Bird Adaptations

This week, we explored all about birds - feathers, beaks and claws adaptation of birds. I explained how adaptations help an organism to survive. 

We started with feathers. We identified down feathers and flight feathers from our feather collections.

To explain how birds have different types of beaks and the kind of food they eat, I used

1.     Straw to represent the beak of humming bird

2.     Scissor to represent the beak of eagle

3.     Pliers to represent the beak of parrot

4.     Tooth pick to represent the beak of kingfisher

5.     Spoon to represent the beak of a duck ( I don’t have a slotted spoon)

6.     Coffee filter to represent the beak of pelican

I made these cards to go with it. You can download it here.

We also talked about the shapes of claws and how birds have different foot according to their habitat and food habits.

Note: Please let me know, if there are any mistakes in the nomenclature cards.

Human Body: The Internal Organs

Children love to learn anything when they have a realistic model. This week, I want to share our activities on Human Anatomy.

I wanted to make a four part Nomenclature cards to go with the ‘squishy human body model’.  I downloaded the three part cards from here, and make the definition cards separately. My little one matched the picture and name, placed the corresponding organ, and read the information card.

The model is really good.  My little one enjoyed taking the organs out and reassembling it.

If you want, you can download my definition cards here.

Observational Drawing for Children

My daughter is good at drawing cartoon images.  But, realistic drawing is her recent obsession.  We watched several videos on realistic drawing. It didn’t help her much. I read the article of Dr.Marvin Bartel – ‘Teaching Observation Drawing to Young Children’ recently.  He has written the importance of observation art, how to teach kids to practice drawing effectively, and to help them draw more realistically. 

In observational drawing, children observe the color, shapes, pattern and shadows of the object, and draw what they see.  They notice the details and practice drawing.  This observation skill will surely help them improving concentration and seeing things in different perspectives.

Here are some art works of my little one.