I spy with my little eye

Over the course of the year we've gone through a lot of different activities during the transition time between recess in nap. In less than half and hour myself and another teacher need to get 10 children inside, undressed (remember I'm in Minnesota and winter gear is in a category all its own!) with everything put away, through the bathroom and calmed down enough to quietly walk into a darkened room to lay down silently for an hour. 

It's gotten easier as the year has gone on, but there's still a huge span in how quickly those children go through the process. We have some children who will be done in about 5 minutes, and then other who take nearly twenty before they're even lined up to use the bathroom. To help fill up this gap time we used to sing songs, play the animal guessing game, pretend to make applesauce/pickles/cupcakes/you get the idea. For a while I would even  grab a book to read to the whole group. 

However, all of these things required adult participation to some extent. And even though there are two teachers, it's pretty common to have children spread out in a few locations (near the boot racks, in the coat room, in the hallway, and the bathroom itself). That makes it hard to keep an eye on everyone and making sure the stragglers are still moving along. 

So what's the Montessori solution? Give them something they can do themselves.

Enter "I spy"and "look and find" books. The first child done is in charge of the book, they choose which page to look at and who's turn it is to search for the hidden object. The easier versions of these books have a separate picture of the mystery object along with the word, so they're perfect for the non-readers to independently see what they need to find.

I don't think any parent would object
to good old Winnie the Pooh

The verdict? The children love them, and I think our overall pace of coming in has sped up because they all want to be the one to choose the book. There have been occasions of over zealousness, but because they all get a chance to participate at some level these are pretty mild. My biggest concern as a teacher has been trying to find books that aren't "brands". Especially in Montessori we try to avoid tv and movie themed characters as much as possible. Unfortunately that is what is available at the  preschool level and so I can only hope that having it as an independent activity is better than exposing them to commercial characters.