Montessori Maths Activity: Fishing 123s with Jar Lids

This was prepared for J on 16 August 2011, but I didn't manage to take more pictures.

 8 years later, this was prepared for C, and I managed to take pictures, which I documented :-)

Age: From 2 years old (Level 2)

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s hand-eye coordination skill

Materials:
1. 1 toy fishing rod
2. Jar lids written with 1, 2, 3...
3. 1 bowl to contain the fished jar lids and some toy fishes
4. 1 basin containing water
5. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Call out a number and demonstrate to your child by fishing the number on the lid with the fishing rod.

2. Ask  your child to use the fishing rod to fish out the same number of fishes based on the number called.

2. Call out another number and let your child try to fish for the number.

Cost:
Plastic fish rod: 20 DKK (4.80 SGD or 3.80 USD) at Chao Chao at Lyngby Station

Additional Information:
I got this idea from seeing a toddler playing with the toy sold in Amazon. Baby FECS tried this on 12 November 2019 (3Y5M26D). I taught her how to carry the Montessori tray containing this activity from the shelf upstairs to the bath room. She did it all on her own, making it all the way upstairs and into the bathroom without any accident :-)

She enjoyed the activity a lot. She couldn't really recognize the number yet, but it will take practice and repetition to learn the numbers. But she enjoyed fishing the fishes out of the basin of water and into a bowl. Towards the end, she poured back all the fishes she "caught" back into the "pond" - the basin of water.

12 November 2019 (3Y5M26D): Carrying the Montessori tray from the playroom...

and up the stairs she went... :-)

We place the lids with Chinese numbers and the fishes into the basin and then poured in water... 

I asked her to fish for the number "1* in Chinese.

I asked her to fish for one fish, corresponding to the number "1" lid.

I called a number and asked her for fish for that number that appeared on the lid. She needed to bit of help to identify the correct lid and then fished it.

Then I asked her to fish the corresponding number of fishes again.

This was repeated until all the number lids and fishes were fished out :-) 

She then chose to pour back all the fishes and number lids back to the "pond" i.e. basin of water and start another round of the game :-)

Friluftsbadet Badesøen in Albertslund - Open-Air Swimming-Pool

The summer is over, and I am just archiving this information for my family for next year. 

If you only have a couple of hours to spare, and your kids want to go somewhere that they can have fun playing with water, but you don't want to spend a bomb driving a few hours to a faraway water theme park for only a couple of hours (for some reason, water theme parks in Denmark are far away, although there is plan to build one in Copenhagen), then Friluftsbadet Badesøen in Albertslund is a good choice that is fun for the kids. It is a relatively quick drive for us (less than 30 minutes from our place).

Currently, it costs 50 DKK for adult and 35 DKK for child 0-14 years old. There is BBQ evenings on Wednesdays where you can bring your own meat to grill for free. The water is always capped at 25 degree celsius. It is open only in the summer and last day was end of August. This year ,it was August 26 2018.

Here is the details:

Skallerne 14

2620 Albertslund

Tel: +45 43687288

Email: idraet@albertslund.dk

Website: https://xn--badesen-u1a.albertslund.dk/

 There is a Sauna, which is the wooden house behind, for you to warm up, should you get too cold after getting out of the water in the open.

 Here is a kiosk selling sandwiches and ice-cream.

 There are some slides for the fun factor.

 Here is the simple Baby pool that Baby FECS was very pleased with :-)

 There is also a playground for kids with slides, see-saw and swings

Here is the jumping float and some trampolines (not pictured)

Edible Homemade Playdough

Ingredients:

1. Wholemeal flour

2. Water

Directions:

Mix and knead some amount of flour and water. Adjust with more flour or water until the dough is soft, but does not stick to your fingers.

Additional Information:

I have found many play dough recipes on the internet, but they all look rather inconvenient, requiring salt and cream of tartar. I supposed salt is added in order to extend the shelf life of the play dough. But I am not sure why cream of tartar is required. Most recipes don't realy explain why. 

I wanted simply to make some dough for Baby FECS to touch and play with - sensory experience. I wanted something that would be edible, as she loves to taste everything she plays with. I don't want her to taste play dough that contains so much salt as it would be too salty and unhealthy and at the same time, I don't want her to develop a taste for salty food. I wanted to be able to make some dough for her to play without having to struggle to use time to measure and follow a recipe, as when she is awake, it is very difficult to do anything that requires me to read instructions.

I don't want a play dough that is actually tasty and would encourage her to put it into the mouth, so just plain flour and water is perfect. But if she does put it into her mouth, I want it to be edible and healthy, so I decided to choose wholemeal flour, I know that it is safe and at the same time, would actually add to her nutrition.

I don't need a playdough that has a long shelf-life, as with her span of attention and interest, at most, we would be able to recycle it twice. So I can just put the dough in the fridge and lasting for another play the following day would be good enough for me.

So I decided to just use flour and water to make a dough for her to play with. So very simple, just two ingredients and mix until it forms a dough. It works quite well.

But even for this very simple "recipe," I only managed to try it now, as I have been bringing the kids out on most days, since it is school holidays now in Denmark. On days when we are home, time passed just so fast that it is challenging for me even to find the time and energy to mix some flour and water to form dough. Finally, our Little FECS is away this week to a camp, leaving me with Baby FECS home alone. So I finally managed to do this activity with Baby FECS today. After a few minutes, Baby FECS found it fun to make small dough and throw them on the floor.... aaarrrggghhh...

Okay, all these are just excuses... the main reason for the delay is that I dreaded the mess playing with flour would cause. I finally pluck up sufficient courage and energy today to allow Baby FECS to play with flour and dough and true enough, it was quite messy!!! I had to clean it up, but having all the nice feeling that I had given Baby FECS the sensory experience beneficial for her development, while I slogged to clean it up. Daddy FECS came home and while helping me to clean, he decided to give the high chair she sat on while playing with the dough and good hose down... what a sweetie hubby :-)

Adjust the amount of flour and water until the dough is soft, but doesn't stick to your fingers.

26 July 2017 (1Y2M10D): Baby FECS playing with homemade playdough for the first time

Montessori Activity: Ladling

Age: From 1 year old

Activity Duration: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s): 

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 2 buckets, one filled with water
2. 1 ladle
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your toddler by ladling the water from the big buket to the small bucket.

2. Encourage and let your child try it.

Additional Information:

I noticed that C likes to ladle with her spoon from one bowl to another during meal time. Thus, I decided to let her try this activity. C (1Y1M21D) tried this activity for the first time today. She enjoyed it very much.

Let Your Baby "Paint" the Wall

Age: From 1 year old

Materials:

1. 1 paint brush

2. 1 jar of water

Directions:

Let your baby/toddler paint the wall with water and a brush, or simply splashing the water and inspecting the paint brush.

25 May 2017 (1Y10D)

Float or Sink - Orange Buoyancy Science Experiment

Age: From 4 years old

Materials:
1. 1 orange
2. 1 jug of water
3. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Ask your child to guess what will happen to the orange if he drops it into the jug of water, will it float or sink?

2. Ask your child to try dropping the orange into the water and find out for himself.

3. Peel off the orange skin.

4. Ask your child now to guess again what will happen to the orange if he drops it into the jug of water, will it float or sink?

5. Ask your child to drop the peeled orange and find out for himself.

6. Explain that there are many thick air pockets in the orange peel, that makes it less dense than the water. Thus, the orange "dressed" in its skin float on water.

7. Explain that the peeled orange is denser than the water, thus it sink.

8. Explain that the orange with its skin on is like a child wearing a float, when he goes swimming. He will float on water.

9. Explain that the orange without its skin is like a child going into the swimming pool without a float, he will sink, unless he knows how to swim.

Additional Information:

Our Little FECS wanted to do more Science Experiments. I came across this idea from the blog, and saving it to do it with J. Today, we had a play date with M, and we did this activity.

We tried this activity last Sunday 10 April 2016 (7Y1M5D) during a playdate. Both the boys guessed it correctly.

References:

http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/orange-buoyancy-science-experiment/

Fireworks in a Jar

This Science experiment idea is from I Can Teach My Child

Age: From 4 years old

Materials:

1. 1 large mason jar 3/4 filled with warm water

2. 1 saucer 4 TBS cooking oil

3. 4 drops of red, green, yellow and blue food coloring each

4. 1 fork to stir the color

5. 1 spoon

6. 4 droppers (optional)

Directions:

1. Fill 1 large mason jar 3/4 with warm water.

2. Add 4 TBS of oil into a saucer.

3. Add 4 drops of food coloring red, blue, green and yellow each into the saucer with oil.

4. Stir gently if necessary to mix the oil and color.

5. Pour gently into the jar of water.

Additional Information:

J (6Y0M28D) wanted very much to make some Science experiments with me and have been pestering me for it. He wanted to do something with water and color. But I am too lazy to prepare the materials. Today, we finally sit down to do it. Ours doesn't look as good as the one from I Can Teach My Child. We repeated our experiment 3 times, but J still found it fun. Oh well, it is the process that counts :-)

References:

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/fireworks-in-a-jar

0. Prepare your materials

1. Fill 1 large mason jar 3/4 with warm water.

Close-up

2. Add 4 TBS of oil into a saucer.

 3. Add 4 drops of food coloring red, blue, green and yellow each into the saucer with oil.

4. Stir gently if necessary to mix the oil and color.

5. Pour gently into the jar of water.