Celebrate the Seasons the Montessori Way

My daughter loves it when the seasons start to change, particularly winter into spring (me, too). She loves to look for signs of spring and wants to notice every little change, from the first blooming flowers to the greening of the grass, the return of the butterflies to the water getting warmer in the creek at the park.

It’s good to mark, and to notice, the passing of time with our kids, and not just in the “I can’t believe you’re growing up so fast” kind of way.

Montessori education gives lots of opportunities for marking and celebrating time, which Mama’s Happy Hive explores in this fun post.

I love the floor mat for the seasons, and making a calendar with beads to count the days. These are products from Playhood on etsy if you want to get your own. The sorting activity looks like a lot of fun, too, whether you use pictures of activities done in different seasons or pull of winter gloves, bathing suits and other gear to sort for each season.

Do you do anything special to talk about or celebrate the seasons at home or in school? I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo: Mama’s Happy Hive.]

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Fun Activities to Learn about Butterflies

Every year at my daughter’s school I think it’s the second or third graders do an activity where they have to disguise a turkey to keep it from being eaten at Thanksgiving. The kids draw the disguise and write a little bit about why they thing that would be an effective way for the turkey to hide. There were some really creative ideas, including one year one was dressed as an eraser for some reason?

If this is an activity you’d like to try with kids in the classroom or at home, check out these turkey in disguise printables to get you started.

If you want to keep it totally basic you can just print out a turkey in disguise coloring sheet like these from The Best Ideas for Kids. There are a few different options kids can use to decorate and they write in what their turkey is disguised as.

My Bored Toddler has a similar printable that just asks what the child will cover the turkey with to hide it. This one would be fun to use in a plastic sleeve or laminated, then you can use it with playdough, cover it with leaves or glass gems or draw on it and use it again.

Easy Peasy and Fun has a paper doll-inspired take on turkey disguises, with printable costumes you can take on and off to hide your turkey quickly. The disguise is attached to the regular turkey with a tab so you can flip it up and down to have a regular turkey or one disguised as a peacock, football player, astronaut and more. This one includes a writing activity so students can explain why they picked the disguise they did and why they think it will work.

Red Ted Art has a set of 12 disguises you can buy (or you can get six random costumes for free) that come in both color and black and white. Kids can just assemble the turkeys or they can color them and then put them together. The set includes a basketball player, pirate, chef, unicorn, mermaid, robot and more. It doesn’t include a writing activity but you could also have kids write about which character they picked and why.

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