Montessori Casa #1 Tour

The following pictures are from my classroom, and hope that you'll enjoy where I spend 80% of my life here!

To the right of the door, is our sand table. To the left of the door is the cupboard where the children put their lunches when they come in the morning. Every morning the gardener/janitor, Frankie, comes into the rooms and opens the windows, vents below he windows, and the vents on the upper part of the back wall, which you can see through the windows.

This is the Geography Shelf...We have the continent puzzle map, but at this point don't know if there is even room for other individual continent puzzle maps. These are the only flags that we got, lucky for us, they've represented the major countries in North America.

The next shelf up is North America continent poking. And next to that is my homemade North America continent folder. I'm the master contact paperer! Actually, I really don't care for contact paper and wish upon a star every time I have to use contact paper for a laminator!

This is on the other side of the room. The original picture was super dark, so thanks to computer technology (love, love, love technology being here!), i was able to add flash and brighten it up a bit...

The children's cubbies are to the right of the door. I have 16 children total. The room is 20x20. The children's water cups hang on hooks directly underneath the window.

I'm in the process of getting a dish washing and cloth washing station set up. Not having a lot of room, i have to really brainstorm. I don't have a lot of resources for getting another table. We'll see, maybe by january I'll figure it out!

You're looking at the metal insets, and math shelves. This is nice to create a little island and break up the space a bit...although there is a bit of a runway. I'm hoping to experiment with the room over the break to see if I can make the most with the space, especially if i'm adding another table.

Here is a better view of the metal insets, and view of the circle corner. The shelves on the back wall make up about 1/2 my storage . When I first arrived, I had to clean this out to find out what was there. I also ended up having to take off a lot of the math materials, as the children weren't able to keep their hands off it. It helped a lot. Having a group of children that is entirely new to Montessori has proven to be a big job .

The shelves below the continent map (bulletin board) is the sensorial area. There are 3 single shelf units.

The language area is to the left of the # rods (blue and red rods in the foreground). You can see a sliver of the sand paper letters.

This is the view from our circle area. The 2 shelve units on the back wall, closest to the windows are the practical life area.

This is the view as you enter the room, the door directly in back is the bathroom. I sure miss having a space where there is a sink outside of the bathroom as well as in the bathroom!

The bulletin board on the left is our continent board, as we are slowly moving through the continents with our contient song and exploring each area!

pile of conch

gate to paradise...

celestial view

Banking is the major industry...next to tourism of course.

This is downtown Nassau. Oddly enough they have pedestrian signs up but they aren't worth much. People walk around cars that are stopped in the middle of the street. Pedestrian rights are fairly non-existent here. So you pretty much have to cross at your own risk.

Baby Flamingos

Ardastra Gardens and Zoo

Lory Parrots eating an apple on my arm...what a sight!

this is the Nassau Library...a peculiar situation that's for sure. They can afford really nice computers and be hooked up to the internet, but they don't have any of the books in a computer system. They keep your library card on file...you win some you lose some!

palms exposed

truly paradise...

Looks can be deceiving! This is the guard dog, Joy. She tries to make up for it with her sporadic bursts of barking. Unfortunately, she's invested with fleas so i don't pet her at all! Feral dogs roam freely on the island. I've been told that a few years ago things used to be really bad and visitors would be warned about the packs of dogs that roam around the island. While there is a Human Society, they are not an active voice in the community in spaying and neutering animals. They are a fairly new organization here.

The small boats (yeah right) that park in the Marina at Paradise Island. Atlantis is the pinkish spiraled buildings in the background. Dollar signs just flash before your eyes as you walk by these floating homes.

Conch (pronounced Conk) Shells for sale down at the Wharf

come escape here! I took this on a day trip to P.I. and walking through Marina Village.

Cruise ships park in the dock in about 15 minutes...it's truly an amazing sight to watch. Weekends downtown are overrun by tourists from the ships. The bridge in the back ground is the bridge to Paradise Island.

Marina Village is a place mainly for tourists. There is Starbucks here as well as shops and restuarants.

outdoor view of "the Dig"...a school passes up by! The aquariums make up "the dig" and have all kinds of fish. At one point there is a glass tunnel that you can go through and watch the fish swim overhead. Truly an amazing sight!

all kinds of rays! This is from "The Dig" from Atlantis...

view from foot ferry to paradise island

banana leaf

star fish for sale downtown at the wharf

kitchen for one

my living room

home sweet home finally!

my new place

ceiling fans are a must here...these are the historical features in my place. I think they are the first oscillating fans ever invented...probably about 1950?

sunset over my new place

no pics of homestay #2, but here's homestay #3...month of October

view of Cable Beach

first view from homestay #1

Fort Fincastle

a picture is worth a thousand words

The Nassau Library

To check out one book, it cost $5, for $10....so much for public library access! Hardly anyone uses this place...i wonder why.

Goat brutality

it seems the only food this here goat was getting was when patrons would feed them the 5 little morsels...which wasn't very often, as we were probably 1 of 20 people in the entire zoo...needless to say, we suffered some abuse from this grumpy goat but survived!

March of the Flamingos

If you notice the flamingos legs bend in the opposite direction from ours...and their beaks are truly unique! They are fed certain foods to get this brillant color...

feeding the Lory Parrot at Aardastra Gardens and Zoo

VanderPOOL

So i'm finally in my own place, although currently borrowing the neighbors email to post this: The cable guy came today to finally get my cable up and running. But the gardener thought he was here to clean the pool....so when he came around to my door, he asked me in his thick bahamian accent in what i thought he said "where's the pool?" He then clarified that he was here to install cable...Oh right!

I'm also home sick today....not fun but have some sort of larangitis/cold thing that's going around the school...I might also have some must/mildew in my room which could be contributing to the problem as well...any suggestions on dealing with the symptoms would be great!