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marianne Forum Pro
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Posted: July 13 2007 at 10:20pm | IP Logged
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I was at the HL tonight (that's homeschool moms' slang for Hobby Lobby) and I saw some wooden clothes pins. I was thinking that those might be pretty good fine motor skill items. Do y'all know of any prescribed M activities that involve clothes pins? I don't have a problem inventing my own activity, but just didn't want to re-invent the wheel.
I was thinking of just having him (my 4yo) clip them onto a fabric square or something.
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AndreaG Forum Pro
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Posted: July 13 2007 at 10:32pm | IP Logged
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Oh yes, clothes pins are full of montessori possibilities, much like sparkly pom poms!
Here's a presentation:
http://eiu.edu/~cfsjy/mts/life/a2-3.htm
__________________ Andrea
GrayFamilyCircus
Read Through the Catechism in a Year- For Moms!
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SuzanneG Forum Moderator
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Posted: July 13 2007 at 10:40pm | IP Logged
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Oh boy, do we love clothespins at our house!
There is actually an activity in the "I can do it! I can do it!" book by La Britta Gilbert on page 83.
She uses a yardstick, clothespins, clip.
Write the numbers from 1 to 36 on the clothespins. clip the one by one by one in place, matching the numbers. the exercise can be simplified by suing one color in sequence for example, yellow clothespins for number 1-10, green for 11-20, etc.
This is also a car game for us....a heavy piece of cardstock with clothespins numbered 1-10, and they place them in order on the card. Sometimes several pieces of fabric so they can practice keeping things together. Or heavy denim....to see that it's "bulkier" to hang denim cuz it's thicker.
You could do groupings for shapes, colors, etc. by writing on them. A square of paper with diffferent colors around it, they put the greeen clothespins on the green side of the paper, etc.
We also have a "clothesline tray"....a long string that they tie up between chairs and hang clothes on it, (in the winter.) In the summer, of course, they can do the real thing.
I have also had my girls attach two differnet pieces of fabric together....you know....the cut out skirts that never make it to the sewing machine. They lay it out so it matches and then clothespin it together. (when they are too young to use the pins correctly.
Sheez....didn't mean to go crazy with the clothespin idea!
__________________ Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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Eleanor Forum Pro
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 12:16am | IP Logged
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The traditional Montessori "real life" clothespin practice comes via the cloth-washing activity, which is apparently a big favorite in classrooms. I keep meaning to set that up on our patio! For now, we just have a small child-height clothesline outside the back door, so the children can hang up their wet clothes and towels from water play in the yard. (The back door leads into the laundry room, so they can change in there if modesty is an issue.) They're still very little, so they need lots of help with the process, but I'm hoping they'll catch on eventually... and also learn to sort wet clothes (to go on the line) from muddy clothes (to go in the hamper). These are "practical life exercises" that will have very practical benefits, from my perspective.
Our arts & crafts area also has a low string with clothespins, so they can hang up their artwork at child height. As an alternative, you could attach strong magnets to a few clothespins, so they could take a clothespin, clip it to a picture, and hang it on the fridge. (For some reason, my daughter is obsessed with hanging things on the fridge!)
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montessorisbev Forum Newbie
Joined: June 22 2007
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 1:22am | IP Logged
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Hi,
This is my first post. I have been usually, just reading all the great ideas that all of you have been sharing. However for clothes pins, I have a couple of ideas - some i have already used and some i have yet to make javascript:AddSmileyIcon('')
1) Math counters - I cut out circles about 4 -5 inches in diameter and wrote numbers from 1- 10 with a thick marker and place them in a tray along witht he clothespin. My son (he will be 3 in Sept) picks up the card, identifies the number and attaches the approriate number of clothespin to the card
2) For my older son, same cards cut into rectangles ( insides of cereal boxes or other such bozes) and addition/ subtraction equations written on them and he works out the problem by attaching and removing or adding clothes pins appropriately
3)I have not yet done this but plan on doing it.... I will buy from Michael's the unfinished square shapes ithink they are .25$ each and paint them in the shades of color as the third color box activity and do a matching set of clothespin as well. Then my kids have to match it to the squares based on the shade of color ( there is a matching activity in one of themontessori suppliers catalog - that's where i got the idea).
4)Again, I have not done this as yet ( plan on doing this next week as I have just bought everyting i need) YOu could paint the clothespin and then glues small items to the top, and kids could sort them. I have bought 3 sets of small erasers from the dollar store. Each of them have 2 -3 varieties, and that should make for plenty for sorting. For the sorting mats, I plan to print out coloring pages of replicas of the erasers ( e.g. one of the erasers is a flower, the other is a sail boat and 1 is a fish - so just print out these coloring pages onto card stock, laminate and have the kids attach closthespin to appropriate sorting mat.- Does this make sense) You can also just paint the clothespin, and then mark dots, stripes, wavy lines, checks and make corresponding sorting mats.
5) To extend the sorting mats theme, javascript:AddSmileyIcon('')
I have made two mats - one circle of stripes and 1 circle of spots and made cards of striped and spotted animals and my kids attach then with clothespin to appropriate mats ( sometimes they just thrown the cards on the appropriate mats javascript:AddSmileyIcon('')
6) I also plan to make printouts of vegetables that grow above and below the surface of the soil. Stick these copies to the clothes pin. Now take a plastic ruler or a strip of card board and paint 3/4 of it brown and 1.4 of it blue. The idea is that the ruler represents the soil and the blue portion indicates where the soil line meets ground level. Then have the kids attach the vegetable on the clothespin either above or below the soil, based on where they grow.
7) Cut small outlines of clothes and pin them up to a mini clothes line
8) Hot glue a piece of rope, or elastic to two clothespins and make a couple of these " sets" Then you basically can make several cards that go together - eg. compound words, animals and their habitat, an alphabet and a corresponding image, 2 images of various categories - land animal, sea animals, beach objects, fall items, etc and have children attach the corresponding images to the clothespin. This way the child can take a pair and sort based on various criteria. You could also hot glue the two clothespins tot he two ends of a popsicle stick and that woudl give the same effect.
Sorry this got way long! Hope this is what you were looking for and the ideas don't seem to " way out "
Bev
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AndreaG Forum Pro
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 6:34am | IP Logged
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Wow- what great ideas Ladies! I just knew these clothespins had potential!
I've also done an activity where I wrote letters of the alphabet on clothespins and had the kids hang pictures that started with that letter on a clothesline with the appropriate pin.
__________________ Andrea
GrayFamilyCircus
Read Through the Catechism in a Year- For Moms!
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marianne Forum Pro
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 7:14am | IP Logged
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Wow, thanks ladies! I don't think the 12 pack of clothespins that I bought is going to cut it. I might have to go back and get more to take advantage of all of these great ideas.
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Meredith Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 08 2005 Location: N/A
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 10:31am | IP Logged
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Eleanor wrote:
The traditional Montessori "real life" clothespin practice comes via the cloth-washing activity, which is apparently a big favorite in classrooms. I keep meaning to set that up on our patio! |
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This is my dd's (11) favorite way to spend a warm and breezy afternoon, washing and hanging dry all of her American Girl clothes on her line She is the ultimate laundress, in fact I've enlisted her as the house laundry person, and you know, it's always done
Lots of wonderful ideas here ladies, bravo!! Clothes pins, who knew
__________________ Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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Meredith Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 10:35am | IP Logged
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Welcom Bev, so glad to have you here with us!! Please have fun enjoying all our Montessori and More topics, there are SO many, as well as the rest of the Forums here! I know everyone would love to welcome you at Fireside Chat as well and there's an "Introduce Yourself" thread that is ongoing just for that reason
Your ideas are wonderful, thank you so much for sharing them here and welcome again!!
Blessings!
__________________ Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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Mackfam Board Moderator
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 10:49am | IP Logged
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Meredith wrote:
This is my dd's (11) favorite way to spend a warm and breezy afternoon, washing and hanging dry all of her American Girl clothes on her line She is the ultimate laundress, in fact I've enlisted her as the house laundry person, and you know, it's always done
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This is exactly my Sarah's favorite thing to do as well! I wish we weren't so far apart - wouldn't the girls love an afternoon together with the American Girls, a tea party, a little dolly laundry, and then a walk through the woods! Of course I wouldn't mind the mommy time either Meredith.
__________________ Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Meredith Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 11:09am | IP Logged
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What a blast we'd all have. Just need to find somewhere's for those little boys to run around!!
She just pulled a Sour cream Coffee Cake out of the oven for our late breakfast, YUM!!! Sending cyber smells to everyone
__________________ Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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saintanneshs Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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Meredith wrote:
She just pulled a Sour cream Coffee Cake out of the oven for our late breakfast, YUM!!! Sending cyber smells to everyone |
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YUM! Hey, I thought I was the only one serving late breakfasts (er,lunch!) today!
Great clothespin ideas, ladies!!
I'm printing this thread out for use later in the year!!
__________________ Kristine
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Meredith Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 11:41am | IP Logged
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Well...Saturday's are a titch slow around here, and I'm carbing up for my BIG organizng/purging stint today
__________________ Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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SuzanneG Forum Moderator
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 12:56pm | IP Logged
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Bev, I LOVE that your first post was about CLOTHESPINS! You'll fit in just fine around here!!!! And, of course with a username like "montessorisbev", your first post HAD to be on the Montessori Forum!
Lovin' all your ideas!
__________________ Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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marianne Forum Pro
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 1:33pm | IP Logged
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AndreaG wrote:
Wow- what great ideas Ladies! I just knew these clothespins had potential!
I've also done an activity where I wrote letters of the alphabet on clothespins and had the kids hang pictures that started with that letter on a clothesline with the appropriate pin. |
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I really like this one. Gotta get more clothespins.
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lapazfarm Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 1:59pm | IP Logged
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Great ideas, ladies! I have a huge pack of these at home waiting to be put to use!
Here are my ideas:
Write the names of the planets on the clothespins and pin them to the correct picture, in correct order, on a clothesline.
Same thing with Phases of the moon.
Write words on the clothespins and they pin them around a card with the correct part of speech.
Write color names on the pins and they clip them to the correct color tile from whatever color box you have.
Use numbered clothespins rather than arrows to clip to bead chains.
Have an assortment of play foods, 5 baskets, and 5 clothespins labeled dairy, meat, vegetables, fruit, grains. Let them sort the foods into the baskets and clip the correct pin to each basket.
Clip word cards on a clothesline in alphabetical order.
That's all I can think of for now.
__________________ Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Mackfam Board Moderator
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Posted: July 14 2007 at 6:39pm | IP Logged
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I love the idea of using the clothespins as markers on the bead chains!
__________________ Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Land O' Cotton Forum Pro
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Posted: July 16 2007 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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Thank you all for the great ideas for clothespins! I have been mulling over some way to use them for a clock (a la the golf tee clock), but I haven't come up with a workable solution yet. These are great ideas to get me started.
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Donna Marie Forum All-Star
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Posted: July 16 2007 at 9:01am | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
Use numbered clothespins rather than arrows to clip to bead chains.
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I LOVE this idea...it makes it easier for me as I used pony beads and shoelaces for our bead chains...sometimes those laminated bits of arrow get a bit fiddly (is that a word? ) when there are so many of them...
Oh! I have another idea written down somewheres that has to do with the Bible...gotta get that one out and share it...I am organizing and I have that ..."and what GREAT place did I put that yesterday?"...phrase on my lips every morning...IYKWIM
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc
__________________ God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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