Geology 6-9, Chemistry 9-12 The Stellar Nucleosynthesis lesson has been one of the most significant lessons the children have had in chemistry. After studying about atoms, the elements, and the sol…

Geology 6-9, Chemistry 9-12 The Stellar Nucleosynthesis lesson has been one of the most significant lessons the children have had in chemistry. After studying about atoms, the elements, and the sol…

Geology 6-9, Chemistry 9-12 The Stellar Nucleosynthesis lesson has been one of the most significant lessons the children have had in chemistry. After studying about atoms, the elements, and the sol…

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Natural History, 6-12 Clock of Eons – Geological Time Scale The Clock of Eons is an impressionistic and factual material developed to provide the child with a global understanding the immense…

Learn the basics of Montessori's cosmic curriculum. Presented in the elementary years, the cosmic curriculum will impress you & your kids!

The Second Great Story has so much that could be presented after it. It is important to think about curriculum coverage. If you are really interested in dinosaurs you might be naturally inclined to push the study of dinosaurs or make more presentations on it however we need to ensure that during a three-year cycle in o

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This summer break I have been busy with making the ‘missing’ timelines for the elementary environment. Having already oriented themselves to their immediate environment in their first p…

It feels like there is a lot of information about the child in the first plane of development the period of the absorbent mind - birth to six, but how about the child in the second plane - six to twelve? Caspar is entering the second plane so it's something I've been thinking about. What are the characteristics of the child in the second plane? What she (Maria Montessori) noted is the elementary children between the ages of six and twelve years become interested in their peers, not from a self centered viewpoint of younger children, but from a genuine...

The sky exploded, littering the astral sea with crumbling cosmic isles! The extraplanar battles here are destined to be legendary.

The First Great Lesson is the first experience into the Montessori Cosmic Curriculum. This awe-inspiring lesson leads into many different cultural subjects.

It feels like there is a lot of information about the child in the first plane of development the period of the absorbent mind - birth to six, but how about the child in the second plane - six to twelve? Caspar is entering the second plane so it's something I've been thinking about. What are the characteristics of the child in the second plane? What she (Maria Montessori) noted is the elementary children between the ages of six and twelve years become interested in their peers, not from a self centered viewpoint of younger children, but from a genuine...

Montessori Upper Elementary students are in the second plane of development- the plane of childhood. This list talks about common characteristics teachers will see.

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The Montessori method works around the waves a child learns and grows in. Learn about the second plane of development and how it relates to your child's growth.

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Montessori Lower Elementary students are in the second plane of development- the plane of childhood. This list talks about common characteristics teachers will see.

My setup before I covered all this up to start the lesson . This week, I finally went for it and presented Great Lesson 1. For those that don’t know, Montessori typically presents 5 “G…

Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.

Last week, I gave the Second Great Lesson to T. This was the first time we did this lesson. Last year, I got stuck on the Timeline of Li...

Here are the charts we used for our great lesson story. I made these using Google Images for the first two and hand drew the rest using o...

Setting the Scene; Do you remember that we said that a very, very long time ago there was absolutely nothing at all, just immense chaos and darkness, and then, into this measureless void of …

Making Montessori Ours is a collection of our passions and experiences with Montessori and Homeschooling.

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The Clock of eras is a graphic aid to help us visualize geologic time.

In 1995, astronomer/scientist Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz found the first discovered exoplanet. An exoplanet is a planet that is orbiting or is located outside our Solar system and could potentially pitch its own life. Today we’ll check out some of NASA’s top hits with Earth-like habitable exoplanets and see how they could hold life.

Fundamental Needs is one of my favourite topics of all in Montessori. This topic usually comes after the presentation of the Third Great Story however if you are teaching in a Public Montessori where you are required to teach a particular Social Studies topic it can easily be linked into that. When I taught Years 1-4

After telling the great lesson, I try to present the Laws of the Universe experiments daily. I only set up a few experiments on my shel...

One of the problems I have run into time and again while teaching my kids is the inability to understand a concept that was not easy to reproduce right in […]

I've been prepping for the Great Lessons for a while. The Great Lessons are five stories told over the year ( and repeated yearly) meant to inspire the child to take on their academic work -- to inspire a purpose for it all. To me these lessons mark the transition from primary to lower elementary work. All in all, I've been intimidated to get it right. The first Great Lesson is called the Creation Story or God with No Hands. It is absolutely beautiful. You can read it in full here. The conclusion of the story goes like this: Today, as it was yesterday and millions of years ago God’s laws are obeyed in the same way. The world spins 'round and 'round itself and 'round and 'round the sun. And today, as it was millions of years ago, the Earth and the elements and the compounds it is made of whisper with one voice, “I joyfully obey.” The first Great Lesson presents the world of science, namely chemistry and physics, earth science, geography, astronomy, geology, and meteorology. So much to tackle, so many choices of study in just one Great Lesson (with four more lessons to follow in the year -- oh my). For a good overview of what the lessons tackle overall, check out this post. To prepare for the first Great Lesson, we've set out on our Cultural shelves a series of experiments. These experiments give a concrete, hands-on demonstration of a law of chemistry or a physics truth. I found the command cards from this post. There are 20 experiments but I've decided to set out 4 at a time. I also added a green envelop that holds the science fact, so when the work is completed they get to reveal how it relates to the story. I present the experiments to the kids; then they are free to choose them to work independently during their work period. Science work has been very popular this week, let me tell you. Not going to lie -- prep looked something like this over the weekend: The Oreos were needed. On the shelf the experiments look like so: And in action they looked like this: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07of3QmooGk[/embed] The volcano is made with plasticine modeling clay. This allows for the kids to make and remake (and remake, remake, remake, remake) volcanoes. The clay doesn't absorb the liquid or dry out. They've experimented with tall, narrow volcanoes and short, fat volcanoes, ones that have holes along the top or at the bottom. That work has been much enjoyed! Practically speaking, I keep the vinegar and refill the little blue pitcher when the volcano is ready. They spoon one scoop of baking soda in and then pour the vinegar themselves. They also learned the proper way to clean up and restore their work. They bring the volcano clay to the sink to rinse it (with paper towel underneath). They carry and dump the tray over to the sink then wipe it dry. They rinse out the little blue jug and return it, the clay, the bag of baking soda, spoon, funnel and command card to the tray. The tray is then returned to the shelf. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQsCoQtWSXc[/embed] Learning that there are temperatures colder than frozen ice. My Florida kids are very impressed with this one. States of matter work Doing a 3 period lesson on solid, liquid, gas This experiment we deviated a bit since the command card calls for using metal filings. I didn't want to risk those getting scattered everywhere, so we opted for Crazy Aaron's magnetic putty. I'll share 4 more experiments Monday when we rotate our work out. Can't wait!