Montessori Videos ~ Adding Angles ~ Lit Extension

Montessori Videos:

This site was posted in one of the groups and has wonderful videos. As of the starting of this post I've only watched the binomial cube but it was so awesome that I wanted to go ahead and share the link. Don't expect anything snazzy - it is Margaret Homfray talking and demonstrating during training presentations. On the other hand, if you are a montessori enthusiast, it doesn't get much snazzier than this!

http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/Course1/VideoCourse1/The_Course.html

Geometry - Adding Angles:

I blatantly took this idea from Sarah Sellers. Below is her blog link.

I put some colored paper squares, a protractor, and a whole fraction circle in a little tray. They trace the circle, cut randomly out from the center (I would probably recommend no more than 3 cuts and to use a ruler to draw the lines before cutting). Then they measure the angles using the protractor and add them together. Thus they discover that it's always 360. Cool, eh? As I find my whole circle protractor and compass I'll put those in there also.

http://www.sarahsellers.co.uk/blog/ (look for Angles and Addition)



Literature Extension:

We just finished reading Joseph: 1861 - A Rumble of War (by B. Pryor) for our Civil War unit. This is just a little extension I made to relate it to what we've been reading about character in our writing workshop mini-lessons using Live Writing that I've posted about earlier. The second page is for them to use independently for Shades of Gray (another CW historical fiction book). I'm currently previewing Across Five Aprils for them. It seems like it will be more intense, but I'm only on the first chapter.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzY-sfWD2RgpMTYzYmRkYzUtMWZiMC00NGY2LWEwZjktOTI0YmU5ZDExZWU1&hl=en

http://tinyurl.com/24odjpp

When I handed them the paper middle dd said with an I-know-the-answer gleam in her eye, "Hey, didn't you ask us about this last night?" She's right. I casually discussed his changes regarding slavery with them after we finished reading to help get their brain warmed up for this activity.

Enjoy!