Montessori Pick of the Day

Sign of the Beaver

One of our favorite books is the Sign of the Beaver. Both boys and girls enjoy this adventure.
Check out Sign of the Beaver Cyber Guide by Bonnie Elias. It has great links and ideas for an in depth study. Best of all, the guide is free.

Some More Free Resources

Sign of the Beaver Activitis by Harriet

Sign of the Beaver Lesson Plan

Sign of the Beaver Literature Lessons

Beavers and Other Rodents

Beavers and Other Rodents is another great book to check out at your library. It has beautiful detailed pictures of beavers, flying squirrels, porcupines, mice, lemmings, voles, and capybaras.

The text is easy to read and understand. It explains a rodent as "an animal with long front teeth called incisors. These teeth are very sharp, and they keep growing for almost the entire life of the rodent. There are more than 2,000 species, or kinds, of rodents."

The Squirrel

The Squirrel by James V Bradley is an interesting book by the Nature Walk series. It's perfect for older elementary to middle school students. I found out that squirrels may be left-handed or right-handed. Also, squirrels lick their nuts  before burying them so they can find them by smell later on. I always wondered how squirrels knew where they buried their nuts!

This book is worth checking out at your local library!

Squirrels and Their Nests

I just checked out Squirrels and Their Nests at my local library.  It's amazing how squirrels build their dens.

The real life photos are wonderful and the text is perfect for early elementary school level of reading. There is also a glossary, resources and internet sites to help found out more about squirrels.

Where in the World

This book has complete lessons, vocabulary and resources about maps, grids, longitude and latitude for older elementary children..

Advanced Skywatching

Finding a good backyard guide to skywatching can be found on the internet or at the library. I own Advanced Skywatcing, the backyard astronomer's guide to starhopping and exploring the universe. It has lots of ideas that you can do just using a journal and binoculars.

Favorite Constellation Book

It's a classic, Find the Constellations, by H.A. Rey. It is still a favorite of mine.  My children loved this book from the time they were preschoolers. I'm sure you can even find it at you local library. Also, Rey's series about Curious Gorge are precious and funny.

Babar

I love Babar stories. Here are some free Babar printouts.

Reading Disabilities & Color

Montessori classrooms are color coded according to subject, reading level, and so on. I never realized how much this helps children compensate for  reading problems. When I would tutor in special education classes, children with dyslexia were given their lessons in color codes.

Montessori cleverly presents the alphabet letters on pink for consonants and blue for vowels. Newest research shows that children can read better if paper is colored. The glare of white paper affects children with reading problems the most.

Reading by the Colors is an enlightening book that will help children overcome reading disabilities.

Learning Latin & Greek the Easy Way

My daughter loved learning Latin and Greek by studying English words based on these languages. It was an exciting and easy way to learn Latin and Greek.

Here is a great book and workbook for this lesson:

This Greek-Latin Cross Reference is a helpful and free online dictionary.