The Wizard of Oz Unit w/ Free Printables

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The kiddos and I have been reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum over the past couple of weeks.  What a difference between the original book and the movie with Judy Garland!  My husband and I are quite shocked by some of the differences.  I can't wait until we finish the book this week and share the movie with the kiddos. They're quite intrigued by it.  Perhaps we'll do a comparison of the two when we're finished.

Until then, we have some fabulous activities on our shelves.  Did I mention I have two new sets of shelves? They're beautiful.  Once I paint the learning time room and decorate a little, I can't wait to share our new and improved learning space.  As we're making improvements, I decided to place my first order of Montessori materials.  I think I may have a new passion or obsession or whatever you want to call it.  A second order will definitely be made after the holiday season.  Just the feel of the materials makes me melt.  They are amazing.  You can be sure you'll be seeing them in my future posts, and a couple in this post.

I'm not sure what it is about this year so far, but I feel like the kiddos are really struggling to master material.  Perhaps it's because I'm struggling to present material in an organized fashion?  Everything seems so chaotic.  Over the weekend, I took some time to organize my thoughts and am attempting to be more on top of things.  I've realized we need to take a few steps back and review basics again, in order to move ahead in the direction I want the kiddos to go, especially for Bulldozer's sake.  It's hard for me to remember that even though I've taught and presented material last year, his brain wasn't ready for it yet, and so he simply let the information go in one ear and out the other, never choosing related activities on the shelves.  For him, this year is his year to learn and understand the concepts.  It's Dinomite and Princess' year to master them.

Here's what's on our shelves!

Language:

Movable Alphabet Spelling

 Do you see my movable alphabet? I have a REAL Montessori Movable Alphabet!  It. Was. Worth. Every. Penny.  Oh how I love it.  And Dinomite, the kiddo who hates spelling, loves it too.  Would you believe this is the first activity he picked off the shelves today?  Incredible.

The spelling words for this week are all from the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  All of the words focus on sounds made by the letter "o."  We're reviewing that letter in every way we can this week.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Wizard of Oz Unit Language Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

My Book of Short "o" Sound Words

 Notice my second new Montessori material?  Hello phonetic reading blocks!  They are the cutest little things and just fabulous.  I was so excited to design an activity that can be used with the short "o" sound block set.

The kiddos will write the names of each of the items, descriptions, or actions displayed in the pictures on each page of their book. If they need help spelling words, or remembering what words to use, they can create or find the words using the phonetic reading blocks.  (Note: You do not have to have the blocks to use this book as an activity.)  A control book is also provided for them, if they decide not to use the blocks.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Wizard of Oz Unit Language Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Long "O" Phonograms

 This activity is a review for Dinomite, but new to Princess and Bulldozer.  The kiddos will sort out the cards by long "o" phonograms, and practice saying the words as they go.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Long O Phonogram Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Noun Sorting

We've had sentence diagramming activities on the shelves for a while now, but only Princess has selected the work from the shelves and semi-mastered the parts of a sentence.  In an effort to start helping Bulldozer and Dinomite catch up with her, I created this activity.  Notice my new and real solid Montessori Grammar Symbol?  I have a whole set of them.  The kiddos love them as much as I do.

In this activity, the kiddos will sort the cards into three categories: Person, Place and Thing.  They did a fabulous job with this today when I presented the activity, so I'm hoping they'll continue to choose the work on the shelves.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Wizard of Oz Unit Language Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Math:

Learning Decimals the Montessori Way

 Aren't those materials beautiful? The thousand and hundred units are solid wood.  The tens and ones golden beads are plastic.  The decimal number cards are also solid wood.  My kiddos couldn't keep their fingers off of these materials today.  We've worked on place values before with my laminated paper versions of the number cards, but it was such a different experience working with the other materials.  It brought a whole new meaning and understanding of the concepts.

The kiddos will create numbers ranging from 1111 to 9999, not only showing the actual number creation but the amount as well.  Talk about making it real!  I know this has nothing to do with our unit theme, but I couldn't resist using the materials this week.

Rainbow Fraction Circles

 Even though I have yet to read about any rainbow in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a Wizard of Oz Unit would not be complete without some sort of rainbow activity. So here you have it.  Rainbow fractions.  We've been working on factions for a while now.  Bulldozer has even been working on fraction pages in his workbook by choice, but I thought this activity would be great to tie it all together.

The kiddos will practice making fractions and whole units, using the circles and pieces provided.  Since taking this picture, I have started putting velcro on each of the pieces, so the kiddos don't have to worry about their fraction scattering by accident.

Source: I created this printable for this activity. The Circle Fractions Printable is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Sequencing Events in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Technically this could count as a language activity, but I feel sequencing is a math activity too, even if it is about literature.  The kiddos will sequence the events in the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  This printable was designed to go with the movie, but still works with the book.

Source: This free printable can be found at Homeschool Creations.

Culture/Geography:

Kansas in Pictures

 The kiddos will sort through and study the pictures in the basket representing Kansas. I had hoped to also include some figures as well, but haven't done so yet.  Every time I think about it, the kiddos are asleep, and the figures are in their room.  Lol.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Wizard of Oz Unit Culture & Geography Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

United States of America Puzzle

 The kiddos are getting really good at putting this together, identifying their states, locations etc.  I thought it would be fun to bring it out to review.

Oz Direction Game

I found this fabulous map showing all of the different places in the book we're reading.  It definitely helps put things into perspective.  To help the kiddos review their directions and compass skills, I designed a game.  It can be played individually or with others. The goal of the game is to collect pom poms for each color of the rainbow.  Once someone has all six colors, they win.  The pom poms are collected as the kiddos land on different colored spaces on the map.  Each turn, a kiddo picks a card that tells them how many spaces they can move in what direction.  Hopefully this makes sense. There are times when a kiddo can't move, because there aren't enough spaces, but it didn't seem to bother them too much.  Everyone enjoyed playing this today.

Source: I created the printable for this activity.  The Wizard of Oz Unit Culture & Geography Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Science:

Scale of Tornado Intensity

This tornado activity comes from another unit we've done, but fit perfectly with this unit as well.  After all, how strong does a tornado have to be to pick up a house?  This question was actually asked by Bulldozer as we were reading the first part of the book.

This activity will help the kiddos review the Scale of Tornado Intensity.  Using the control provided, they'll match up the picture and description cards.

Source: I created printable for this activity. The Scale of Tornado Intensity Printable is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Types of Tornadoes Matching

This is also from another unit we've done. The kiddos will match pictures and learn the different types of tornadoes.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Types of Tornadoes Printable is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Visual Arts:

How to Draw a Lion

Dinomite's Lion

All three kiddos love these step by step cards on how to draw animals.  The lion cards were a bit tricky, but already, after just one day of learning time, Princess and Dinomite have both tried the activity.  Dinomite decided to add a few things to his drawing.  Lol.

Source: The step by step instructions on these cards can be found at How to Draw Animals.

Tornado Creations

The kiddos will use cotton balls and glue to create tornadoes.  Then they are welcome to draw a picture using markers.  I taught the kiddos how to stretch out the cotton balls to make layers, but it turns out this was a bit more challenging for them than I thought it would be. So, they decided to just glue a bunch of cotton balls in the shape of a tornado.

Dinomite's tornado pictures.

Bulldozer's tornado picture.

Music:
The kiddos continue to practice the piano, though I feel we're in a bit of a slump as far as that's concerned.  We've progressed to reading notes on the staff which is freaking the kiddos out.  I'm definitely going to have to come up with some activities to teach some music theory.  You'd think this would be easy, as I have a degree in music, but I'm finding it rather tricky at the moment.

The kiddos have also been introduced to songs from The Wizard of Oz, the movie, which they're thoroughly enjoying.

Physical Education:
This fall the weather has been perfect for afternoon walks.  We have a very a large cemetery in our backyard with beautiful paths, hills, and more.  The kiddos and have really enjoyed walking each afternoon.

Practical Life/Sensorial:

Building with Logs

 The Tin Woodman is constantly chopping and building with logs during the story.  I thought we could do some of the same using pretzels and peanutbutter or sunbutter, left over from last week. The kiddos are really enjoying the activity.

Building a Yellow Brick Road

 The kiddos practice their cutting skills, as they cut cheese and build their own yellow brick road.  In my mind, I figured they'd make bigger bricks, but cutting cheese into the tiniest pieces works too.  Lol.

Princess' Yellow Brick Road

We've been including food activities in our units to help with sensory sensitivities and also to provide a snack during learning time. The kiddos each breakfast at 6:30 AM.  We start learning time at 9 AM.  Working from 9 AM until 12 PM, without food, isn't possible for the kiddos.  You'll notice more in our upcoming units. The kiddos have had fun picking out different snacks on Pinterest with me.  Lol.

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