Matching object to word; pouring; tongs

Activities on 14 Aug 2009

Montessori Pink Series - matching object to word

Noticing that he wasn't so interested in matching picture to word card the last round, I decided to change the activity to match object to word instead. These words are used more frequently (compared to say cab, jab, lab) and the objects are familiar to him. Also, its good to vary the type of activity to keep lessons interesting & seem less like learning & more like fun games.

For this first set of words, he seemed confident. He looked at the words. He took the objects. But his co-ordination was a bit off. E.g. he saw "cup" then took the cup, but when his gaze returned back to the paper, he was looking at the word "bun" and for a moment was about to place the cup at the "bun" word but he eventually sorted himself out and placed the cup in the right place, without me intervening.

Point to note is that he did not need me to prompt him to say out the alphabets, then say out the phonic sound & then blend it. He did went through that process silently in his head (or at least I like to think so). This is the 2nd time I brought out this set of words, so either he has a fantastic memory (of where to place what), or he really is beginning to get the hang of early reading.

Being a new skill that he's still learning, he did place the bun & bib in the wrong place (the object bib, was placed on the word "bun" & vice versa). I merely said out loud the phonic sounds for the word bun while pointing to the printed words (which I normally do anyway as reinforcement at the end of an activity). I didnt drop hints (body language) that it was wrong. I chose to start with "bun" as opposed to "bib" as "bun" is the first item on the page (top left on page). He realised it was wrong & scanned the page & swapped the bib with the bun. So I hope you dont think I'm boasting about my son being so smart.

I thought I'd try another sheet with him, since he finished the 1st sheet faster than I expected & to see if it was a case of blind memorising. So, was it blind memorising? I dont think so. But as with any new skill, he still needs lots of practice....slowly. I'm not a kiasu mum. I also dont want to push and risk him rejecting learning to read & write. Learning should be fun at his age. It just means I've to be a lot more patient & creative.

Photo above shows the 2nd set. Those words are not used as frequently on a day to day basis, as the 1st set. Noticed that he was losing his enthusiasm with this set. Perhaps I should only do one set at a time. With this, it was difficult to draw his attention to the words. So, I let him play with what he wished for a few minutes & then drew his attention back. I helped him along by saying aloud the phonic sound of the alphabets & let him blend them together & place the objects.


Pouring

I picked up a tiny coffee stirrer stick from Subway, where I had my dinner the night before this activity. It's that thin white stick placed across the yellow container in the photo below.

I wanted to see how he'd do with this new challenge, in terms of using it to scoop & pour. He could get a few pieces (just 1-2, but then again, spoon is real tiny) of the tiny pink sago beads onto the spoon but couldn't adjust his arm/wrist to keep the spoon horizontal. So after a few tries on his own, I modelled it for him by placing my hand over his & scooping.

After a just a few tries of that, he flicked the spoon out of the container which sent the beads flying everywhere! I expected a mess based on past experience, so I had placed only a thin layer of beads into a shallow container. For him it was just too fun to resist doing the flicking again! Ended up with loads everywhere. Ah well, I turned it around into getting him to help in cleaning up (he used his pincer grip); practice for using a brush & dustpan (can't do it yet); and to learn that there are consequences to his action.

Tongs

Took out the "cotton ball & tongs" activity from the same "pouring activity" box while I proceeded to nicely pack away the containers used. He's supposed to use the tongs to pick up cotton balls from that rectangular container & place them in the smaller circular container. It helps develop the muscles in his hand. It's an important fine motor skill to learn now, in the build up to learning to use a pair of scissors. When I turned around, he was placing the last ball with his tongs, into the circular container! He did it all by himself! Hooray!

In future, I can vary this activity by placing the cotton balls into a narrower container, or a deeper container (to get his wrist going), or use a tighter pair of tongs, or tweezers, or a pair of trainer chopsticks, or slightly heavier objects....

All done mama!