Delightful Moments, Shared Inspirations
This corner of the Aquinas Learning Journal will highlight a few selected moments or inspirations pulled from the larger AL community (twelve U.S. states, Brazil and the Philippines!) with the intent of fostering delight in the moment and inspiring great ideas and shared community learning!
Share your own moments, “today I delighted in” thoughts or photographs on the Aquinas Learning Family Page or email them to AquinasLearningJournal@gmail.com. You may also comment below.
“We made a Trojan Horse today! It took starting and stopping twice. Several fingers were glued together on multiple occasions. That darn head did NOT want to stay on. The first picture really captured the project for each of the kids:
Kateri: School is so great!
Avila: Do we have to do this?
Blaise: I wonder if my dinosaur toys will fit in there!
Isaac: Let me just help you with that one thing right there... and there... and there...actually, I'll just take it from here...”
—Bethany Rogers, Manassas Center, Prima I mentor (boys)
“Building a ziggurat!” —Faith Rose, Director, Parsippany, NJ
“T and K finishing a game of ‘go fish’ with Ancient Civilization cards. Yes, we sang ‘and built the ziggurat’ when we matched all the Mesopotamia cards. And yes I made the joke about not having any ‘potamia’ let alone a ‘mess o’ potamia’.”
--Byrne Family Aquinas Learning at home.
Edible Pyramids by Aquinas Preparatory- Catholic Classical Education (Houston, TX)
Montessori inspired geography …
Pin pricked continents
“This is a sample of a Montessori style work we incorporated into Centers. It’s called Pin Pricking. The children trace each continent then use a pin to literally prick holes along the tracing lines; it’s essentially manually perforating each continent instead of using scissors. (It highlights hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, perseverance, and fortitude. Odds are they won’t finish it in one Center time; so it’s something they can build on as they choose.) Then they assemble the continents on a larger sheet of paper and label them. They can add to this map throughout the year if they choose as well.” —Annie Fulkerson, Director, Houston, TX
Note: patterns were made by mentors; punching tool can be purchased at Montessori shops such as this.