Add one more for the Auditory sense!

It seems as if there are never enough auditory sense works for the Sensorial area (other than the sound cylinders and the expensive bells).  It's easily neglected.   "Forest Sound Bingo" was a work I created for matching the sound to the picture using bingo chips (actually I "borrowed" the chips from my kids' Connect Four game).  I found various forest sounds (animals, insects, storms, etc.) from the internet and put them on a CD.  I then made different bingo cards with pictures of the animals.  While making the CD I had iTunes pause a few seconds between sounds and also repeat the sound to give the children extra time to find the match.  This is another work I have not put out yet this year, but have in the past.  The kids enjoyed this work.  At the time I did not have headphones, so the one thing I had to watch out for was that the sound was never up too loud as to bother other's working nearby.   This year we have a new CD player with four headphone jacks - I can't wait to try it with the Forest bingo game!  Happy Holidays!  I hope to use some of this time off to create more works.  

First Post

I am a former computer programmer but for as long as I can remember have always wanted to be a preschool teacher.   Therefore, using the computer comes natural to me.  I find myself using the computer immensely to help with my development as a teacher and can't imagine life without it.  So blogging seemed like a next step!  I am in my second year as being a head teacher at the school where I teach.  I have been working at the school for 5 years and had the great luck of doing my internship with a phenomenal Montessori teacher, Leslie Barron.  She always inspires me and amazes me and I value all that she has taught me, and is still teaching me!   

Another passion of mine is creating Montessori works.  I hope to post photos and describe works that I have created.  Hopefully they will help someone else out in the Internet - give them an idea or spark their own creation.    

So, here goes for my first work.  During my intern my synthesis was on Forests.  I have fond memories of doing forest hikes with my father.  He truly loved the outdoors.   This was a big part of the reason I picked forests.  One of my synthesis works is called "Forest Guess Who".  I took a Guess Who game,  took out the cartoon people and put pictures of forest animals and plants.  You can do this for two of the game boards or you can do it for one game board and laminate a copy of the pictures on cards.   Anyway, it's really just like the Guess Who game except with a different theme.  When I play it with the children I say things like "Is it a plant or an animal?",  "Is it big or small?", "Does it have fur?", etc. .  The children enjoy this work.  Another twist I have added is to put the children's and teacher's pictures in the slots and play "Guess Who" with the classroom.  I have not added it to my class this year but really want to, I think it's a nice way for the children to feel connected with each other and to feel included.