Showing posts with label guest blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest blogger. Show all posts

Jul 19, 2018

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle - Kids Book Review

Image result for very hungry caterpillar

Read on this kids book review of the bestseller The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle


Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Author: Eric Carle
Distributor: Puffin Books
Age in yrs : 1.5+
Recommendation : Strong 


The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of the most illustrative and informative books for children between the age group of 1 to 5 years. The book is basically the story of a caterpillar dissecting the pangs and toils of its life. The language of the book is very simple. This has been especially done so that the children are encouraged to read the book themselves. With its extensive illustrations, the book also provides a lot of information to the children and at the same time persuades them to think and answer some questions; like the number of days in a week or naming food items or stating the stages of evolution of a caterpillar.



Fact and Fiction Balanced Well

The author has given away some really interesting facts in the book in an easy manner which is why the knowledge becomes readily available to the children and they rather take it as obvious facts. While doing so, however, the author has not indulged in scientific facts that become boring after a point and has also emphasized on the fictional things that might amuse the children. Furthermore, the book very accurately states the metamorphosis process which has been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society.

Timeless Classic for Children

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of the best timeless classics for children because the book and the story was initially published in 1969, but over the course of 40 years, the book still hasn’t lost its charm and continues to mesmerize young readers from around the globe. The simple story of a caterpillar’s transformation into a beautiful butterfly has become widely popular because of its scientific approach.

Eric Carle’s books have an uncommon place in everyone’s heart. The way he makes his representations makes them so bright and engaging all. This Very Hungry Caterpillar book has holes through its pages and it worked extremely well with kids as they like putting their fingers in things.





It is a very cute charming tale about growing up – development of a caterpillar from egg to butterfly and in the meantime it’s very educational for younger children because the main character has to overcome his ravenous appetite, so ends up eating a lot.



In this procedure youngsters can learn to count, explore different fruits, hues and find out about caterpillars transform into butterflies.

It also gives a good introduction to days of the week and some food vocabulary.






In this book we discover that caterpillars, similar to people, appreciate eating junk food and fall sick, so we can likewise make a point to kids about adhering to a good diet as the caterpillar feels better after eating leaves(good diet).

Book Review by Vaishnavi YelchurRead all reviews by Vaishnavi HERE.


This post first appeared on Moppets Wiki



Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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Postman Bear By Julia Donaldson - Kids Book Review

Image result for postman bear

Read on this kids book review of the book Postman Bear from the celebrated author Julia Donaldson. 

Book: Postman Bear
Author: Julia Donaldson
Age in yrs : 1.5+
Recommendation : Strong





‘Postman Bear’ is a dazzling story of woodland friends receiving a very special letter.

This story with a well-known setting utilizes rhyme to superbly add fluency and is based around a little Bear in bright red midsection coat composing and delivering letters to three of his companions. Set in a woodland, the pursuer is able to follow the Bear as he goes to different areas to post these letters and kids are able to count and ensure that each one is delivered, as well as encouraged to make guesses as to who is behind each front door and eventually what exactly could be written in the letters. Toward the finish of the book the Bear prepares for the birthday party heating a cake lastly respects all his friends at the entryway.




The story offers a few open doors for youngsters to conclude, construe and translate information both with the inquiries asked inside the book, for example, ‘Who’s behind this entryway?’ and the splendid illustrations in this story additionally gives much possibility for guardians to make inquiries and incite kids to expand upon such abilities fundamental to reading.



On the whole ‘Postman Bear’ is a brilliant read for youthful readers to expand upon their phonics abilities.The magnificent illustrations using interactive flaps to reveal extra information drive fun, surprise and fabricate early perception and comprehension for moppets.




Book Review by Vaishnavi Yelchur. Read all reviews by Vaishnavi HERE.

This post first appeared on Moppets Wiki


Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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May 12, 2018

Ranganna (Tulika Publications) - Kids Book Review


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Read on this kids book review of the book Ranganna from Tulika Publishers. 

Book: Ranganna
Creator: Arthi Anand Navaneeth
Distributer: Tulika Books
Age in yrs : 4+
Recommendation : Strong


Ranganna, a fascinating book for moppets who loves to paint their nails.



It is a book about a blue child elephant named “Ranganna” who lives close to a dhobi ghat.


The elephant is exceptionally enraptured of the hues around him. He goes insane over the shades of garments spread over the ghat for drying, shades of the blossoms, rainbow colors etc. This little elephant had two little companions called Anushka and Aditi. One day when his companions came to offer him food, he saw the dazzling hues on their nails and opened up about his desire to get his nails shaded. Ranganna’s companions begun giggling saying never knew about an elephant wearing nail clean. Still Anushka and Aditi did not need their friend to get frustrated, they began tallying elephant toes with the goal that they can bring an alternate shading for each nail as Ranganna wished. At the point when the elephant nails are painted with nail hues, the Ranganna was overwhelmed with euphoria and did his most loved elephant dance imparting the joy of nail hues to every one of his companions in the ghat.

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We can utilize this book to present hues, fundamental counting and elephant dance to moppets.

Book Review by Vaishnavi Yelchur. Read all reviews by Vaishnavi HERE.

This post first appeared on Moppets Wiki


Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!



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May 4, 2018

Just Enough Carrots - Math Start Series - Kids Book Review


Read on this kids book review of the book Just Enough Carrots from Harper Children Publishers. 

Book: Just Enough Carrots
Creator: Stuart J. Murphy
Publisher: Harper Children’s


Just enough Carrots, an astonishing book for moppet’s to begin with comparative concepts – less, same and more which are the early concepts of math.





In this book a bunny and his mom rabbit makes a visit to the supermarket.They choose to get carrots, and the bunny requests more. The child/bunny is exceptionally perceptive of what is in alternate customers trucks and compares how various animals has in their cart compared to what he has in his own cart, so bunny thinks about the quantity of carrots they have in their truck to those in the other creature’s carts and begins saying some have less, some have increasingly more and a few has a similar number of carrots. They do comparative correlations for purchasing peanuts and worms. Here the youthful rabbit couldn’t comprehend why mother is purchasing such a significant number of peanuts and jars of worms until he went home and received their visitors.



The story additionally presents different creatures with their staple food,for illustration: carrots and rabbits,peanuts and elephants. As the story goes rhyming, it interests young readers along with the great list of activities for comparing amounts at the end of the book.


Book Review by Vaishnavi YelchurRead all reviews by Vaishnavi HERE.

Book Courtesy: Thyai Readers Club, Salem.

This post first appeared on Moppets Wiki


Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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Feb 23, 2018

Top 4 Benefits Of Mazes For Kids & Free Maze Printable

Mazes are great for working on various skills for kids. Read on to know the benefits of mazes for children & also featured is a FREE maze printable / worksheet (Spring theme) for kids, which is powered by education.com

benefits of mazes kids free printable worksheet spring theme


Mazes are loved by most of the kids & they provide a challenge for children that they enjoy! How the child solves a maze also provides a window to a therapist into the skill set of the child if therapy session is in progress. Mazes can also be taped to a wall at your child’s eye-level. Working on a vertical surface helps to promote wrist extension in kids.


Here are some benefits & reasons to do mazes with your child -

Fine Motor
Mazes require the child to control the pen/pencil through the maze without hitting the black lines. Fine motor skills are mastered by this very exercise that helps in writing later.

Visual Tracking
Mazes require the child to use his eyes to scan the maze in order to find possible solutions. Scanning is a great skill used for reading and writing, as it is important to scan from the left side of the paper to the right side.

Problem Solving
Mazes help the child to work on planning and problem solving skills to reach to the end of the maze.

Confidence
Mazes boost your child’s confidence like anything. Starting from easy to difficult mazes, a child can glide into the mazes gradually.

There are many websites that offer free printable maze worksheets for a variety of age levels and themes. 

Spring is in the air! This flowery maze is great pre-school practice for those fine motor skills. 

Download this FREE maze printable from HERE

This is powered by education.com , visit them for more fun educational activities.

MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.COM
Education.com provides learning resources in over 20 countries and six continents. Their digital resources, tools, and learning materials are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices. They are useful in any type of teaching moment and many can be used to support national education standards. Their mission is to empower parents and teachers to help their children build essential skills and excel.


If you also have any activities ideas for kids, then we would love to feature them on this blog! Shoot us an email using the contact form HERE along with a brief about you & your idea & we will get in touch with you soon!


Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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Nov 21, 2017

The Magic Umbrellas - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews



Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is The Magic Umbrellas! Read on this full book review. 


Book: The Magic Umbrellas
Author: Theertha Raj
Illustrations: Nancy Raj
Publisher: MsMoochie books
Recommendation: Strong
Age: 3+ years



Story

A little girl Leela's umbrellas keep getting lost. First day of school, she loses her first one, no one has a clue, on second day second one, but someone sees it, flying out of the window, third day third one goes 'whoosh' and everybody sees it flying out. Where are they going? Leela's mother decides to follow the forth one!



The suspense is built and unfolded in each passing day. We are kept glued till the end.

What I Liked

Suspense: I liked the 'Suspense' angle. I like children stories that try to incorporate suspense or investigation theories with very simple stories. And more so, I loved the ending, the suspense ends with a strong message.

Illustrations: detailing in illustrations like mess of classroom in the break time, vapor evaporating from hot cutting tea, umbrella designs is wonderful.

Green highlighted text: the story uses two fonts, one - normal and second - highlighted bold and bigger green fonts, these bigger fonts tell you all about the umbrellas.

Our Experience

Let me tell you about a couple of questions asked by my kid and answers given by me after 3rd reading of this book. 

Q: mom how can Apoopa be young here (see the pic above) A: Oh! this coconut incident happened when he was young, so...
Q: what's pillion? A: back seat of a scooter
Q: How can author and illustrator both be 'Raj' A: just a coincidence Q: what's a coincidence? A: ...and i explained



I am sure each book and each story has a plethora of opportunities to talk, discuss and derive at learning and values we seek out in life.

Go ahead and enjoy this umbrella unfolding its magic!


Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at 
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews



Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is One Fish Two Fish by Dr Seuss! Read on this full book review. 


Book: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Author: Dr. Seuss
Concept: Math and Phonics


About

It's no story book. It is just a book with funny phonetic sentences and funnier illustrations. It is more or less a funny 'Math' concept book. It touches upon all the basic Math concepts like colours, numbers, distance, speed, height, sizes and opposites in the simplest and funniest and rhyming way we can ever imagine.


You can read this book or you can sing. It will give your kid's imaginations little furry wings and keep your funny bones tickling!
For instance, Red fish, Blue fish, one fish, two fish, fat fish, thin fish, old fish, young fish. Some are fast and some are slow. Some are high and some are low.

Phonetic rhyming words like Run-fun-Sun. Bump-Wump-hump-gump. Here-there-everywhere. Dear-hear-near-ear-fear. Old-gold-hold-cold. so on and on the book goes on for 62 pages without beginning without end. Well, because fun is not supposed to end!

Our Experience

Needless to mention, we had tons of fun laughing out loud, singing and reading this book together. And I must caution you, you will not reach to the last page so easily while reading it to your little ones, as he/she will turn back pages and say Mumma! please read this again! uff! AGAIN!


One Fish Two Fish.... A book to relish!


Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at 
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


Read More »

Tiddler - The Storytelling Fish - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews



Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Tiddler - The Storytelling Fish! Read on this full book review. 


Book: Tiddler - The Story-Telling Fish
Author: Julia Donaldson
Publisher: Scholastic
Age: 2-4 years
Recommendation: Strong


About



Tiddler is a fish. He likes to make up stories. He makes up stories of how he got late for school (which he does every day). So no one believes him when he says I got late because I met up with a mermaid or got caught in the net and so on.

But what will happen when he really gets lost and doesn't reach school on time? Will his stories help him? Is there anyone who believes in him?

Best part: of the story is this jingle that gets repeated 'Tiddler is telling a story, Tiddler is telling a story ..... ' kids would love to hear this little song and would literally sway with you if you do.

It's a very relate-able story by all kids who often times makes up stories of their day to day encounters with friends, teachers, etc. At the same time, the book may be used as an opportunity to discuss pros and cons of making up stories.




Strongly recommended! 


Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at 
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


Read More »

Fun With Alphabet Stories - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews



Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Fun With Alphabet Stories! Read on this full book review. 



Concept: Alphabet Stories
Book: Fun with Alphabet Stories (Set of 6 books)
Publisher: Navneet Publications (India) Ltd.
Age: 1.5+ years
Recommendation: Strong




Concept

Alphabet stories are conceptualized to focus on the derived learning it imparts, of words beginning with a particular alphabet. For instance Story of letter 'A', 'B' and so on till letter 'Z'. So there are always 26 stories. These stories can be designed in a progressive way to suit the audience from toddlers to kids age 11-12 years.

Primarily, each Story has many words beginning with that particular alphabet.

The ones designed for toddlers are very, very simple stories packed with as many simple words of that alphabet as feasible.

This is the best way to enhance a kid's vocabulary without fussing about it.

About The Set

There are many books available in the market based on the concept. But this set by Navneet is my absolute favorite.

Divided into 6 six books, there are of course 26 stories. Let's look at one of the stories. Story of Letter 'G' for instance:

Geeta Gorilla guards a Guava garden in Gauhati.
Through the gaps in the wall, goats get into the garden to eat the guavas.
"Eat some garlic and blast the goats with your breath," Ganju the goose suggests.
Geeta eats lots of garlic.
She blows her garlic breath.
the goats gag and hurry away.
Geeta is garlanded as the best guard in Gauhati.
"Thank you, Ganju," Geeta says gratefully.


Just 8 simple sentences, telling a proper story (the story has a problem and its logical resolution too), packing as many as 14 different 'G' letter words, including 3 proper nouns and 7 common nouns is an achievement in itself.

Don't you think?

Our Experience



I picked up this set when my child was just one year old. Like most of my books, I didn't pick it up for teaching anything. I picked up because, I wanted books with silly simple small stories to be read to a one year old. What followed was beyond my guess. Kid loved all the stories no ends. I had no choice but to follow 3 steps 1) read out 2) re-tell 3) repeat!

My Recommendation

Buy the set, start with Story of letter A, sit on the story for as long as child wants you to, read, tell, repeat! Move on to Story of letter 'B' when your child tells you to.

You may also want to check out my video review of this set in this video below. It also includes a read-aloud of story of letter 'F' for reference.




Even though I recommend these books for 1.5 years onward, I have successfully done storytelling of these stories with much older kids too.


Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at 
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


Read More »

Clumsy - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews



Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Clumsy! Read on this full book review. 


Book: Clumsy!
Author: Ken Spillman
Illustrator: Manjari Chakravarti
Publisher: Tulika Publishers
Age Group: 2+ years
Recommendation: Strong



About The Book: 

Disability is not always physically glaring, sometimes it's more like inability to do things the way it's expected. The book tells a tale of a girl who lacks heavily in what we call 'motor skills', yes! And how she is been treated by all around her on this point alone.

Family, friends, teachers call her names; Some call her 'Clumsy', some 'Butterfingers', some 'Slowcoach', some 'Messy' and what not!



One day, her grandmother gives her a paintbox. She loves to paint. In her imagination she is not clumsy, not butterfingers, not messy. She loves to draw and paint her imagination. She also signs off her painting with a name, that's not Clumsy or butterfingers or messy or slowcoach, but with her real name. Because she has one just like all of us.

The beauty of the story is the message hidden in it. Let's accept all inabilities around us instead of shaming! Let's focus on abilities a person possesses rather than not.

I some times wonder... forget about kids, aren't we adults clumsy at times? It is the time to accept.



Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at 
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook groupTwitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


Read More »

Nov 20, 2017

Montessori Color Tablets Box 3 - Extensions, DIY & Alternatives (Guest Post By Devi Sekaran)

Montessori Colour Tablets are sensorial materials found in the Montessori 3-6 years classroom. They assist with visual discrimination and perception of colours. They come in three boxes - 1, 2 & 3. Today I have a guest blogger with me - Devi Sekaran, a mom who is passionate about Montessori & does a lot of Montessori inspired works with her kids. Read on to see her kids' experience & extension works with Montessori color box 3, a standard Montessori material used for color gradation. At the end, I will also share an alternative educational material for color gradation & how you can make your own DIY Montessori color tablets using free printables.


Dr. Maria Montessori believed that every child’s sensorial experiences begin when the child is born. And over the years, she created many sensorial materials that covers the five senses: tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. She believed that children should be given as much sensorial experiences as possible. All the materials in a Montessori classroom are carefully designed to incorporate ‘Control of Error’ and to ‘Isolate the Quality’ in order to develop a child’s sense to understand the environment around him or her.

One of my favourite sensorial materials is the Colour Box 3 which is used to develop a child’s visual sense. In a 3-6 Montessori Classroom, a child is introduced to Colour Box 1, then Colour Box 2 and finally Colour Box 3. In our home, we do not have Colour Box 1 and 2 but we do have Colour Box 3 and it has been an amazing addition to our shelf. This material is great for visual discrimination and other extensions involving language and mathematics.



Both my daughters have been introduced to Colour Box 3 in their schools while we use the Colour Box 3 at home to do other extension works. Check out the pictures below on how we use it in our home.

Here my daughter (4 year old) is using the Colour Box 3 and the DIY continent images. She matched the continent images to the colour tablets and continued with grading.






Here, my daughter (5+ years) used the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs to do colour sorting and as an extension we did skip counting and x7.




Using the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs, my daughter (5+ years) created this beautiful spiral pattern.




You can read more about Montessori Colour Box 3 HERE.

You can also DIY these color tablets if this sounds expensive to you to buy. HERE is a great DIY tutorial for color box 3. You can download the free printable of color box 3 from HERE.

Happy Montessori-ing!!!

~ DEVI SEKARAN

(The above images belong to Devi Sekaran and should not use for commercial purposes)

Thanks a lot Devi for sharing your wonderful experience & extension exercises with the color box 3. Lots of love to your kids!


Devi Sekaran is a stay at home mom of 3 kids trying to make each day fun with playing, baking & learning with Montessori! You can follow her on Instagram, her handle is @minehisandours. She shares some amazing Montessori inspired activities, DIYs & her food adventures regularly! 

If you have something to share with the world in the domain of early learning or parenting & wish to contribute to this blog, please do get in touch with me HERE.


I love Montessori color box 3 as well & I have a variation of this material from Skola Toys which is called Skola Color Wheels.



You can check out my review of Skola Color Wheels in this video below. It is a great hands on way to practice color gradation. And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more such reviews, Montessori & Waldorf inspired hands-on activities, and much more!






Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


Read More »

Oct 3, 2017

Sea In A Bucket - Children Book Review By Shital Choudhary - #MondayMorningReviews

children kids book review the k junction sea in a bucket eklavya publication


Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Sea In A BucketRead on this full book review. 


Book: The Sea in a Bucket (An Avehi-Abacus Story)
Publisher: Eklavya Pitara
Illustrations: Deepa Balsavar
Age Group: 3 years +
Recommendation: Strong




About The Book: 
The book is a pictorial representation of our 'Water-Cycle'.

It starts like this, "This is Sonu", "This is Sonu's Bucket", "This is the tap that brings water to fill Sonu's Bucket" and so on it goes to describe backwards what gets water to the tap, lake, river, mountain, clouds, and role of the Sun and the Sea.

The previous sentences gets repeated with each step forward, which makes the reading rhyming and fun.

The last page also deals with what happens to the water after Sonu bathes with it. It completes the circle.

Illustrations:
Illustrations steal the show here. At the end of the book, there is a chart given compiling all the illustrations of this book. This 'all pics-no text' chart speaks for itself and explains the whole water cycle.

And of course there is more to the illustrations then just water-cycle. The detailing of - at the residence, river, lake, mountains, at the sea has much more to talk about than just the water-cycle. 


Somebody is feeding the dog, someone's brushing teeth, a lizard on the wall, fishing, goatherd, some writing happening at the banks of the river, snow clad mountains, Yaks, Snow leopard, monks pine trees, mountaineers, and more. 

Oh! One can play a fine spot game with these illustrations. 

Our Experience:
We vacationed in Sikkim this summer. I had ordered a set of 22 books from Eklavya Pitara and this book was one of them. I had no clue what was inside the book except for the concept. Imagine our surprise when we received this book just after returning from Sikkim! It was like re-visiting our memories of the mountains we had just visited. How? (see pics) the snow clad mountains (Zero Point), the Yaks, the flower valley (Yumthang valley), Teesta river, the monks and the monastery, the pine trees, the flags of monks on the mountains, the tea leaves plucker with her basket.... woohoo! Couldn't have asked for more!


A must have book!


Book review contributed by Shital Choudhary
Chief Reviewer at
Children's Book Reviews & Stories


Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories


This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.

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Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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