What I came back to

So after almost two weeks out of school to recover from a tonsilectomy I came back to...well let's just call it an interesting day. Here's a little sample-

M wandered back and forth in front of the daycare room door before class started, unsure if she wanted come in and say hi to me like I usually expect.

S, by contrast, came running up to the door and after telling me that he ate peas at grandma's (of course that takes priority!), he proceeds to rattle off about how I got my tonsils out, but that I was gonna be back, that I got my tonsils out, and how the fire alarm goes "eeehh!!!" really loud, that I got my tonsils out, but was gonna come back...and on and on in that vein. Obviously he'd been storing up things to tell me.

N, gave me a big old grin and then went about her day; though later I heard her telling some of the others how she was "Glad teacher Alex was back". So sweet!

And the elementary students made fun of me for sounding funny. Though I did at least get them to say I sounded like a 10 year old boy rather than 7....I think that's an improvement?

Meanwhile J and I had an excellent start to the morning, he easily came in and took care of his things in the coat room. Then he was busy running little errands for me and this kept him pretty happy. Until something glass broke in the classroom and he refused to stay away while I was cleaning up. One of the things that I'm very firm on is that all the children stay away when something breaks in the classroom until I let them know it is safe. So that led to a bit of a meltdown.

Ch and I were happily fetching cards about the Duluth area, while I juggled keeping K on task with cleaning up the pink tower.....until he pointed out the wet spot on the mat...and his pants...and a good chunk of the carpet....ooops. Luckily M was happy to finish doing fetching with Ch while I herded K to the bathroom and cleaned up.

All in all a pretty typical day, it was like I'd never been gone.

And then nap came. J needed a reminder about how I actually did expect him to stay on his cot during nap. L needed a reminder to not crawl on the couch by her bed. K needed a reminder that his blanket was supposed to stay on his cot. And S....well S needed a reminder that he's actually supposed to sleep during nap, but apparently that doesn't work when you don't have a big enough blanket to cuddle up in like normal. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure the usual spare isn't soaking wet in the wash...

Then we finish out the day by waking up a soaking wet J from nap, taking him to the bathroom and spending the next 20 minutes helping get him out of a pair of poopy pants while trying to keep the bathroom semi clean.

Yep. I'm back. And I teach preschool. No way around that. It's good to be back...from some things at least ;)

Things we say

Sitting in the daycare room, peeling the sticker off a child sized hammer. S walks up and watches curiously.

"Are you going to ham with that?"

*Don't crack up, don't crack up, don't crack up*

Two thumbs down

Actually the morning would have been ranked worse if I had more thumbs....

I had one little boy screaming because he'd gotten a cylinder stuck in the cylinder block for 6th time this week and I refused to help him get it out and told him he needed to fix it before doing another work.

Then I had another child who had already maxed out my patience quota with touching things he hadn't been shown yet. Please not that we have had two months of school where this has been the rule and it wasn't even yet 10 o'clock in the morning.

And then there was a third child who for some reason was having some sort of drooling epidemic. Saliva on his sweatshirt neck, saliva soaking his sleeves, saliva on the mystery bag and table...yuck.

And on top of that add the multitude of other children just up to the usual preschool antics of being silly, experimenting and not always paying attention to what they're doing.

So yeah, a double thumbs down day.

So what did I do?

Left the one child crying, sent the other out in the hallway with the aide to practice listening, armed the last one with a tissue and steered him to the sink. Then I got to deal with the regular hazards of the day....by making a book?

Yep. When all else fails I like to just sit down and start working on something. It always draws a crowd and I get something done! So today I sorted newly laminated cards and then put the ones for our new "Vertebrates and Invertebrates" book in order. One special child got to walk to the conference room to fetch the book binding equipment. Then they all watched excitedly as I punch and bound the pages.

Bonus; I then rotated the new book and cards out for our previous biology activity (living and non-living) and set two of the four year olds to work breaking it in....looking back I don't recall how they actually did but at least they were busy for a bit!

So, that didn't exactly solve all the problems, but it did keep everyone busy and let them settle in so the morning went from a double thumbs down to at least neutral.

That's a win, right?

Now I call that a successful lesson

I was trying to find something new to engage M with without presenting a brand new work. So I settled on the land and water forms, thinking she had really enjoyed them last year but hadn't really used them too much this year. The regular presentation involves pouring water in to pre-molded forms that show the basic land and water forms (lake, island, etc.). It's a pretty simple activity and while most children enjoy it, there's not a lot for them to do with it. Pouring the water is fun, and of course we teach the language of the formation, but there's not much to manipulate and explore with.

So as an extension I made some laminated cards showing real life pictures of the different land and water forms. I had M take them out and try matching which form they went with; trickier than it sounds since of course real life doesn't ever quite match the 'ideal' definition. However she did great with it, and almost the entire class was gathered around watching by the time we finished and flipped them over to check the color coding on the back.

And of course someone else wanted to do it the instant she put it back so that right there marks it as a successful presentation in my book.

But then it got better.

At least an hour later I was doing the sandpaper letters with a couple of children and we were doing the 'i' sound (like in 'itch' and 'in'). And from across the room, in the midddle of her work, M pause and pipes up " i for isthmus!"

Now that's success!

Fall activities

So while most of the activities in a Montessori classroom stay constant (the pink tower is ALWAYS out!), and others are modified to keep the children interested (like adding a rolling pin to go with the modeling clay), we still like to do some seasonal or holiday activities.

This week I introduced pumpkin scrubbing. It wasn't something I had planned (a parent brought in a bunch of small, decorative gourds for our upcoming festival) but boy have the children loved it! The first day I put it out none of them really noticed it on the shelf. So when I kept seeing one of the younger three year olds wandering I invited him to be the first one to try it out. I had to change up a few things mid-presentation (that's a big no-no there!) but I wasn't quiet willing to deal with the gallons of water that were going to end up on the floor if I used the bowl and pitcher I had originally intended to....No idea what I was thinking there. While I try not to be bothered by it when the children spill or make a big mess, that doesn't mean I need to ENCOURAGE it!

So after outfitting J with the proper equipment I proceeded to watch as all the other children gathered around, now eager to try the new work (of course!) and eagerly asking if they could be next.

Well J did keep saying yes, but then he kept scrubbing. And scrubbing, and scrubbing. And then it was time to go home. There were about 10 little pumpkin gourds scattered around the classroom and no too much water on the floor. Now that's such a nice change from the aimless wandering he was doing earlier in the day!

I was a little concerned that he was going to repeat that again today; good for him, but frustrating for the other children. But M beat him to it! When she gets an idea in her head she's bound and determined to follow through and after seeing her keep her eye on the work yesterday I wasn't too surprised that that was the first thing she rushed to do!

So she scrubbed pumpkins for about half an hour and emptied the basket of them. C came up to me, all concerned that there were no pumpkins for her to scrub. So, I invited her to grab the basket and go with another teacher to fetch more from the back hallway. I might have made a bit of a mistake there since she went back at least once, possibly twice for even MORE pumpkins!

Basically at the end of the day I needed to use the dishes trolley in order to haul all the clean pumpkins out of the classroom. And I have to say I'm quite impressed by all the places they thought to put them!

Construction

Don't let anyone tell you there's such a thing as a word that's too big for a three year old!

"I gotta tell Teacher Alex!" S hollered as he came pounding the door, lunch box swinging wildly as his dad dodged out of the way. He looked up at me with those giant brown eyes, mouth open with awe.

"There's an excabator out there! There's two ekabators! And they're MOVING!" The sheer excitement of the situation seemed to be too much for him to even get the words out and yet he had to tell me so fast that it took a second to even register what he was saying.

"Yes there is an excavator out there. What's it doing?"

"The ekabator's digging the dirt! I'm gonna tell F." And with that he pounded off to let his brother know about the excavator. You know, in case he had somehow missed the GIANT YELLOW MOVING machine in the front yard.

And who know there were so many ways to say excavator?

One month

Tomorrow marks the official end of one month of school...and I won't get to be there for it :( While I'm at home recovering from strep throat the kids will be there with a substitute teacher. And you know what, I'm not too worried. Today I really saw how much progress we've made over the course of that month.

J and little C spent almost all morning following M around. She invited them to watch her arrange flowers, then she and J built the pink tower together while C went off and made his first bird book (mostly) independently. Meanwhile S asked to learn about the geometric solids and before I could even answer O offered to teach him! So they spent about 15 or 20 minutes building rocket ships and discovering other ways the bases of the solids fit together.

Meanwhile have no idea what big C did most of the morning. I just know that every time I looked up she was happily working away diligently at something. Fastening buttons, cutting paper, playing with clay. She still likes to come over and tell me what she's doing but she's become such an independent worker that I'm really proud of her.

And then there was K. K who doesn't speak much english but is finally showing that he has a lot of comprehension of what we're saying. K who had to change his pants at least 10 times the first day of school but hasn't had an accident the past 3 days of school. K took out two activiites completely independently and even returned one of them to the shelf without a reminder! He knew that he needed to finish cleaning up the grain he spilled before it could be put back and did such a good job (with a little helping encouragement) that I could finally introduce water pouring to him. That was when I found out that he did know the words wet and dry. So now thanks to that one presentation he's got several new activities to try-

• Putting on an apron, including snapping it
• Actually pouring water
• Wiping up a spill with a cloth
• Hanging said cloth up on the drying pack WITH a clothespin
• Rolling an oilcloth (ok, this one he already knew but needs more practice!

And how do I know all these things? Because today I could actually sit and observe to take all this one. I gave 4 or 5 new presentations and was barely interrupted during them for an 'emergency'. Yet I still had time to sit on my stool and take notes. It was wonderful to see them all settled in to the routine and busy working both alone and with each other.

So here's hoping that they're at least half as good tomorrow!

Please let some of these good things happen tomorrow!

Some weeks there's just too much..

...and those are the weeks I don't feel like blogging. So here's a little rundown of the week and hopefully that will earn me some forgivness for posting late.

Monday-

The week didn't start out too, bad; two children gone (one out sick, the other just because she never comes Mondays). So I got to focus on K, who continued to wet his pants several times despite being sent to the bathroom nearly every half hour. And J, who still refuses to wait to touch materials AND insists on playing with them at the shelf...I think that's a pet peeve of mine actually, very frustrating. Add in a little bit of the usual Monday messes (finding out I forgot to order our food work groceries the week before and had no silverware for lunch) and it was an all right day. So I enjoyed a night of training of the dog and having movie night with my friends. Then Tuesday started.

Tuesday-

Everyone was back on Tuesday. S was back, still recovering a bit from his cold and spent the entire day whimpering, whining and on the verge of tears. Well, except for the time he spent avoiding the classroom and garnering sympathy from the staff in the hallway while he pretended to need to use the bathroom 6 times in 3 hours.... And whenever he was in the classroom he flat our refused to work on anything, even his favorite bead stringing and kept crying if I moved more than 3 feet from him. I did finally let him go lay on a cot for a while, only to see him spinning circles on it and throwing puzzle pieces...so that wasn't really helpful.

Oh, and to top this all of little I was also crying her head off. She misses mom, she was tired, she didn't want to do anything, she didn't want snack. So after about 10 minutes of letting her whimper and trying to find something for her to do I gave up. Yep, that's what I said: I gave up. I told her that when she was done crying I would love to spend some time with her but that I didn't want to be by her while she was crying.

So she kept screaming and hiccuping for nearly 40 minutes. I'd go over to her every now and then and repeat my offer but she usually just started screaming louder so I mainly let her be. Finally she calmed down enough that I let her stand by me and watch me do some work (trying to find something she might want to try) and I finally got her interested in dusting the classroom with C.

And then we had a fire drill. Not our first one of the year but still. So, S screeched and jump right up in to my arms and I calmly carried him out while praying little I wouldn't start up crying again because S is pretty big for a three year old and I wasn't sure I could carry both of them. Luckily she seems to go a bit more to the side of being silently shell-shocked by the fire alarm. Anyways we all made it outside and then of course they were distracted the rest of work time so it was a huge relief to go out to recess. Then I realized it wasn't even Wednesday.

And meanwhile K still had a giant grain spill that he had been cleaning up all morning. Literally, all morning....

Wednesday-

It felt like a repeat of Tuesday (sans the fire drill). S and I both crying most of the morning and not letting me get more than a few feet from them while all the other children are desperate for some new presentations. I actually had to put an end to S going out in to the hallway to use the bathroom because he would simply go out and sit in one of the chairs for 20 minutes...yeah not why we're at school buddy sorry. Of course when I broke the news to him that he was at school to be in the classroom that started a whole new wave of crying. So the morning felt like being in a loop. K even dumped out all the grain again, though at a different table (so you know, I would have different shelves to sweep under).

And so did nap time. J has been refusing to stay on his cot much less sleep for the past 3 weeks. He's gone from being my most consistent napper to the one who keeps me so busy that I can't even leave his side to hush another child or he'll be doing circles around the room. Even bribery with a favorite story book made no impact. Sigh.

And it kept hitting me that it was only Wednesday...

Thursday-

Not quite as much as a loop as Wednesday luckily. S was still constantly on the verge of tears and constantly asking if he could lay on his cot or go to the bathroom. I made it very clear that there would be no cot until nap time and myself and the hallway staff teamed up to make sure that he went directly to the bathroom and came back. No stops to sit and loll around in the waiting chair, no sidetracking to visit his brother, etc.

I was a little nervous about little I because the first thing I see in the morning is a note from her mother saying how she is leaving for a trip and this is the first time ever that I has been away from her; GASP! Ok, ok, I do get that it is a big deal but still...I is almost 3, that just boggles my mind!

And actually I was the happiest she had been all week. I pin that on the consistency of coming to school for a few days in a row. She talked about how her grandma was picking her up and momma was going on a girls trip. So I made sure to give her a presentation right away (before she could ramp up any tears) and between me and M (who's taken her under her wing) little I was pretty happy all day. Constantly asking "When it's the clean-up song we go outside? Momma's gonna pick me up?" but pretty good compared to her usual standard.

J still bounced all around on his cot all nap time and hardly anyone else slept so I had a group of 6 crowded in our little play space afterwards....and then I got home and realized that my exhaustion wasn't all from the kids: I was definitely getting a cold, no matter how hard I wanted to deny it. And I still hadn't swept up all the grain K had dumped out again earlier in the day.

Friday-

Friday was the day I needed after the rest of the week. 4 children were gone--4! It was so nice! Me and my stuffy nose and scratchy throat were so thankful to be able to talk quietly and move slowly all day. K was gone so the grain stayed in the cup (though another child had a pretty big water spill but at least that will eventually clean itself up!) I was gone and with only 6 other children S seemed to feel like he could finally spend enough time with me (and had finally quit asking to lay on his cot!)

I tried to get through as many presentations as possible to make up for being so busy the rest of the week so now those children have some new things to practice.

Then nap time rolled around. J was up to his usual antics but I knew I had to crack down on one of the other children who has also been getting some bad habits at nap and just told him that I couldn't sit with him today. J said ok, lay quiet for maybe 2 minutes then wandered over to sit with me. Every time he did I waited until he squirmed enough to be completely off my lap then sent him back to his cot. Finally he got quiet, his head hanging off the edge of his cot and fingers playing with the dirt on the floor.

Then we got up and I found out why he'd been so still...and laying on his stomach.

"J, the back of your pants look wet, do you need to change them?" Blank look. "Let's go change them."

I'm proud to say that I was smart enough to be prepared with gloves and all my supplies before helping him take of his pants but....let's just say I now feel like I am prepared for just about any other bodily function mess this year.

And that's how the week ended.

Is it vacation yet?

Meet the kids!

I can't believe that it's been over two weeks since school started! My biggest surprise was that it took us until this week to break our first piece of glass (from the grain pouring)...and then of course we broke three plates since! Oh well, it was a nice streak while it lasted.

Now that a bit of time has passed I feel like I have a better handle on the children in my class and have seen a bit more of their personalities. I'd really love to look back at the end of the year and see how far off I was!

The second years-

C - She's come back just eager for school, especially to share the experience with her little sister just starting in the other room! She's been wonderfully eager to practice a lot of things from last year while I've been busy with the younger students. Last year I guessed she was going to be one of the easy good ones and I'm glad to see the summer hasn't changed her!

S- A very mature and self contained little girl S has been very eager to show around the younger students, though she sometimes gets a bit silly and carried away with pretending and making up stories. I think she'll be a lot more focused once I have time to start working with some more challenging things with her, though I hope she learns that practice is an important part of learning!

M- My youngest returning girl who often acts like the oldest. She's very happily settled in to the role of older mentor and loves working with the younger children. What's really impressed me is how understanding she is with them and pretty open to compromising. She's always been a very dedicated worker and I can only see that continuing. I really hope she learns to speak up a bit more for herself though rather than coming to tattle to me.

O- The only returning boy who is thrilled to have more people to tell his stories to. Unfortunately he's a bit too forward and in your face for most of the younger children, and the one who doesn't mind gets way too crazy with. He's got very good intentions but is definitely a wanderer and doesn't have a lot of impulse control yet. Unfortunately he also has strong opinions and wants to make sure they're heard!

N- My honorary second year student! N just turned four the second week of school and is so mature for her age that she's already settled in with the other girls. She's careful with the materials, follows directions easily and is extremely respectful and polite. These are the types of kids you dream about having in class! She's also very eager to help the little ones and is really good with them. And even though she doesn't know a lot of works in the classroom she's been very good about keeping busy, mainly by working with the older girls. I think she's going to be another really good one!

The new ones!

C- Another one I was excited to have! C has an older brother in the other classroom and I can see a lot of similarities. He's going to be a pretty quiet one and I'll have to make sure I don't overlook him.I think he's going to be mainly an observer rather than a doer (like his brother actually!). He doesn't want to do too many new things with me, but he watches everything! Now if we could just get over his nerves about using the bathroom at school...

I- My youngest little one who is only going to come three days a week...which concerns me. Other than the obvious of having less time, I think it's going to be hard on her because of her habits. She's obviously used to having mom (or dad) nearby during all things and is constantly asking me 'What next?" or saying "it's too hard!" She also seems to be a perfectionist and only wants to do things the right way. Sorry, but I have nine other children that need my attention, I'm not going to be there to affirm everything and I only hope that she adapts to that even though she's only here a few days a week....She's definitely a brave little thing though. It's obvious that she's just waiting for mom to come and fighting to hold herself together and not cry. That's some guts and determination there!

J- My puzzle expert. J was the first one in our class to successfully complete the puzzle map of South America (yes even before the four year olds!). He's going to keep me on my toes because he's really quick and needs challenge. He's also excellent at keeping busy and has awesome work habits when it comes to choosing things and putting them away when done. I hope I can keep up with him so he doesn't get bored and cause trouble!

K- My work in progress who I'm already sure is going to be the most improved by the end of the year. Right now he only speaks about 10-12 words without prompting, though even over just two weeks I feel like his vocabulary is expanding. He's also spending most of the day in the bathroom, changing clothes while we try to figure out how to convince him to use the toilet. He's been really curious about the other children, though it's obvious he hasn't had much of a chance to play with children his own age and isn't quite sure how to. However his mom was mostly concerned about his behavior, and other than taking toys from children he's been a very sweet boy who tries to please and has been my buddy when it's time to take the nap room down at the end of the day. Maybe by the end of the year he'll be putting the cots away himself and I can just watch!

S- Another younger sibling who definitely is used to having a bit of his own way through whining. Part of it right now I think is he's still usually in a state of exhaustion and running on fumes most of the times. He definitely wants to listen and follow the rules, but easily forgets what he's doing and gets distracted. Yesterday we spent an hour picking up grain together because he purposely dumped it on the table and flicked it around. On the other hand he didn't really complain much as we did it. I'm thinking he'll be one who just needs to get used to the schedule (and get more sleep!) and once he finds those interesting activities I won't need to worry about him so much!

Wait...I thought I was the teacher!

So every weekend I make my plans for the next week. Which presentations I want to show which children, who needs to practice sandpaper letters or counting, etc. Last week I introduced J, who is almost 3 years old to the number rods. He's really excited about numbers and unlike most children that age actually understands the idea of counting, rather than just reciting the numbers in order.

Unfortunately just counting the rods wasn't exciting enough to engage him for too long, and even though he could easily identify the number cards that went with them he just wasn't in to counting the rods and labeling them with the cards. So I decided that this week I would do a fetching activity with him. To do this I would show him one of the number cards and have him bring me the rod that went with it. I already knew that he loved to move and match things that went together so it seemed perfect for him.

So I wrote it on my sheet and figured I would wait for a not so busy time when I could work with him one on one. Unfortunately I had another student this morning who just wouldn't settle in, and of course 2 or 3 others with various little problems that needed my help. Meanwhile J was wandering around, slightly bored and messing a bit with things on the shelves. I suggested that he take the number rods out and count them, figuring I might be able to join in a bit later and if not at least he would have some practice with them.

Well that didn't go so well. He got out a mat fine and most of the shorter rods. Then as he began taking the larger ones off the shelf (the biggest, 10, is a meter long) and playing a bit where he would let them swing down to the ground with a satisfying thunk. And of course he decides to do this when I'm completely occupied and stuck helping another student. And of course one of the older children comes over to inform me what he's doing. Yes, yes I see, I have eyes, I know who's causing trouble.

So I told J to use both hands, and had M (who came over to tell me what he was doing) to help show him how to hold the rods properly. So she trooped over, and immediately got upset about how he had messed them up on the shelf. "No, that' doesn't go there." She told him repeatedly, re-arranging them back in order. J seemed a bit interested and first, then kind of lost interest as she simply did it herself when he couldn't (or wouldn't?) put them back in order.

Then she had the best idea and caught his attention. "J, let's do fetching!" Wait a second, that was my idea! Before I know she has the numbers out on a mat and all the rods are on a separate mat and she's telling him to go and get her 1. And he's not quite running back and forth and she's helping him count the rods when he messes up and carefully places the numbers as they go all the way from 1 to 10. And I finish up helping my other student and just go to my stool and just watch for a bit. Finally I take out my clipboard, look at the lesson plan and write next to the number rod fetching for J, M did with him instead.

One less presentation to worry about this week!

Now that's a valid point

Today while folding laundry with the children I handed a stack of napkins to a not quite three year old.

"Here I, you know where these go!" Big smile of encouragment.

"Where?"  (with that adorable lisp of course!)

"In the hutch."

"But I can't open it."

"Sure you can, I've seen you. Just pull hard."

"I can't open it with something in my hands." (well, that IS very true)

"You can set them on the snack table, open the door and then put them away."

She looked contemplatively at the napkins in her hand then marched off. Only in preschool can the problems be so novel and yet so easily solved!

Week 1: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the cute!

So it's taken most of the weekend to recover but I'm proud to say that myself and all 10 students survived the first week of school! Well...I think at least....not sure how they fared after going home on Friday.... Obviously I didn't have time to take pictures much this week so use your imaginations ;)

The good:

1. Everyone made it through the morning work cycle with minimal crying by Friday!
2. No broken materials during the first week, way better than I expected!
3. I know everyone's name ;)

The bad:

1. I have no idea what my non-native speaker is saying 99% of the time
2. One of my 3 year old boys is already comfortable enough to start testing the limits....by climbing trees...and shoving sand in his face...and sliding his cot around the nap room....
3. Lots of changing of wet pants...yeah....

The ugly:

1. Above mentioned child who was shoving his face in the sand had lovely colored snot running down his face when mom came to pick him up, oops!
2. I was so busy at one point I allowed a younger child to create an utter mess with the clay because it was keeping him occupied. Let's just say that I'm still finding green clay in odd places, such as my backpack...which was in the closet.....
3. At one point there was a puddle of urine...on a table...how?

The cute:

1. One of my new little boys kept calling for me to tuck him in at nap, and then fell asleep before I could make it over there. So tired!
2. Another new child went through every single cylinder block, then every box of knobless cylinders, then every single puzzle on my intro shelf. I foresee a good work ethic there!
3. All my returning children entertained themselves spectacularly while I was busy integrating the new ones. I showed one of them how to use the new stereognostic bags and she proceeded to show the others how to do it...and made sure they all had a turn...and they helped each other with their blindfolds (including remembering to put the dirty ones in the laundry!)....and they did this all week...I'm so glad they're back!

It's gonna be a good year!

A new year

Well it's been a long hiatus. Spring was full of upheavals at our little school but with classes starting up for a new year tomorrow if feels like we're finally moving forward. Tomorrow it will be up to me, six new students, and four old students to begin building a new classroom community. Here's hoping it goes as well as last year, I"m ready for it! 

Drawing a crowd

Today I started reading a story with one child. By the end of it I had four clustered around me and a fifth child hurriedly cleaning up so he could come and join us.

Later I was presenting the golden beads to a child, practicing counting teen numbers. One child drifted over to watch. Another pulled up a chowki to work nearby. (and by nearby I mean practically on my feet!). The final two set out their work at two of the nearest tables.

So in this whole room the entire class was crammed into a space about 8 feet square. None of them was really chatting with each other or all that interested in much beyond their own work, they just wanted to be close by I guess.

And then the baby came to visit us.

Little T often comes in to hang out in our room while his mom gets some work done in the office. He's a good little observer and the younger children love having him visit. So of course when T got a bit fussy and I shifted him from his bouncy chair to a mat on the carpet my students followed him like ducklings.

Granted they did all finish the work they had out first (including putting it away!) so I can't be too upset. Still though, they have an entire classroom I prepared especially for them. Come on guys, appreciate it already! ;)

What bravery looks like

Bravery is when you're 3 or 4 and your teacher unexpectedly brings you in to the 'big kids' room to practice folk dancing; and you follow willingly.

Bravery is listening to some strange adults play music and shout directions at you; and still trying your best to copy what everyone else is doing.

Bravery is holding hands with strange children; and not crying when they pull you around unexpectedly in a circle.

Bravery is being separated from the classmate you do know to be partnered with a stranger; and barely even hesitating to follow.

Bravery is leaving that crowded, noisy room; and then coming back all on your own.

(I'm so proud of all my students who did all this and more today! They were so brave to participate so willingly in an unexpected and chaotic event with adults and children they're unfamiliar with. Excellent attitudes guys, just excellent!)

Reapearance

Spring is coming! And after discovering that "Lake Superior" had moved into our play yard earlier this week we've migrated to having recess in the front yard; which has the major benefit of all day sun and a good drainage slope.

And finally today, the sandbox reappeared. Yesterday the last few stubborn remnants of ice and snow made the sand visible but too tough for much digging but not today. Today there were mud pies made, moats dug and castles constructed. Sand gardens were planted and chocolate cakes decorated. Hands were brown and gritty from the digging and carrying. A few faces got washed in dirt (both intentionally and not) and there was hardly a clean mitten in the place.

But best of all were the little treasure that were unearthed. Colored stones and coins we had purposely hidden as well as the regular run of the mill pebbles that for some reason have the same effect as unearthing real treasure, go figure.

And now I realized that I forgot to double check the pockets of a few overzealous treasure seekers....The rule is if you find it you bury it in a new place but it's been a while and I bet there's been some forgetting....

Hopefully there's some treasure left!

Feed the birds

So just when we decide to let the other classroom borrow our sunflower seed work the birds start visiting our feeder, looking for more seeds! So it was the perfect time to break out the mortar and pestle. I hope they like crushed bread crumbs because at this rate the children are going to cover what little snow is left with them!

Why should I do all the work?

C loves fetching things. He loves matching. He loves the flags in our classroom. So it's not much of a jump to assume that he loves fetching the different flags and matching them to the pictures in the book.

So today he helped me solve the problem of checking that our flags on the stand, actually matched those in the little flip book. We started at the beginning; I pointed to the picture, read the name of the flag and asked him to go and fetch it for me. He'd hurry off, find it in the pile of flags on the mat and then lay it on top of the picture in the book. C even caught the subtle difference between El Salvador and Nicaragua, which I didn't even notice the first time.

El Salvador

Nicaragua

If we ran into a picture we couldn't match I took it out of the book so the children wouldn't be looking for it in the future. At the end we actually had two flags that didn't have a match in the book and I promised C that I would make some new cards for them so they could be a part of the matching.

The funny part about all this? I've been meaning to check this material for a while, C just made it easier and more purposeful for me to complete the task. Sure it took a little bit longer (well maybe not, he was pretty fast) but instead of just making sure the book was accurate I helped pass along some of the country names to C at the same time. Two for the price of one!

A point of arrival

Thinking back on most of the blog posts I realize that I've mainly looked at where the children are going and how they're going to get there. Kind of what I was thinking about when I named this blog "The Points of Departure" But the Montessori process isn't just about departing, it's also about arriving. However there is no 'final' arrival point for human being, but rather many. I didn't realize it during class, but looking back today I'm pretty amazed at where we've gotten.

C started out the year barely speaking, Today he spoke in so many full sentences that I wasn't able to count them. And so many of them happened without prompting. And were on topic with something going on in the classroom. In a way the other children could understand. It's not that he doesn't have any more language skills to build, but he's transformed so much that it's almost ridiculous.

O is finally starting to recognize when he's not moving consciously. He now immediatly responds when I remind him to 'walk carefully' or to 'sit down until you're in control of your body'. And he can do these things. This is the little boy who used to lean on a table so hard that it would slide 2 feet, and yet he wouldn't notice that he was basically falling over as his top half followed it and the bottom stayed behind.

M settled in to the Montessori routine like she was made for it. Choosing work and keeping herself engaged was no problem for her. What was a challenge was speaking up. Today she has no trouble letting her classmates know if she doesn't want them to touch her work, or remind them how to do something. She was the one who started the singing as I finished emptying the dish water and she sang the loudest today when we practiced "I've been working on the railroad".

C used to get more self contained when I gently asked her to find something to do without me. She'd usually go sit in the library, sucking her thumb. Today she happily gets up when I tell her that it's time to do something on her own. With a simple "Ok" she conf

idently sets off to work with another child or take something off the shelf.

W was the child who couldn't stand the idea of having to solve a problem on his own. In the beginning of the year he'd been reduced to tears when I told him that I needed to leave the coat room without him because all the other children were ready. Nowadys he's not thrilled about it, but he's comfortable having to try something on his own. When his zipper gets stuck he checks in with me (just in case I've changed my mind from all the previous days and will just do it for him!) then he'll go back by his hook and start over to see if he can fix it.

And S....well S was gone today but earlier this week she polished all the glass objects in the room. And I mean everything. The girl I needed to explain about how practice made perfect repeated the polishing activity so many times that I needed to restock the cotton balls and rein her in from polishing the food dishes since she was running out of material.

Of course I still have goals for them but I'm really happy with where they are right now too. I can't wait to welcome some new children to our class and have my 'old hands' show them the ropes!

How some days go

Today it sounded like we had a leaky tire wheeling around the room thanks to 3 or 4 children rambling around the classroom going "ssssss" repeatedly.

How else are you going to find all those things that start with the S sound? Like scissors or sink or snowman? That's what happens when all anyone wants to do is sit and observe the teacher. She's going to start quizzing you on what sounds all the objects she's using start with. It's amazing how many things have the p sound; picture, paper, pink, polka dot.

And if you do a really good job finding things your teacher might make you laugh by teaching you alliteration: "So sick S sleeps, snoring soundly." or "Pointy pear parade past pandas."

And that's how we spend our days.

Isn't preschool great?

Adventures 'beyond' the classroom

"I want to go ask one of the bigger kids to read this to me," C declared today.

"One of the kindergartners?" I clarified, then set her up with a visitor's badge and sent her (and the book she wouldn't let go of) off to the other classroom. Now C isn't overly shy, but I've yet to know her to walk into the other classroom without some sort of back-up--much less talk to someone over there. But as I peeked in after her I saw her standing confidently next to the teachers assistant, waiting patiently for her turn to talk.

So when she still wasn't back in a couple of minutes I got concerned and peeked in again. C was still standing by the assistant as yet another kindergartner said that they were busy. The assistant teacher kind of looked around and I had the feeling she'd already gone through the entire list of children who could read and had come up empty. So it was on to phase 2!

"Is everyone busy? How about we go and ask one of the elementary students instead?"

So that's what we did. C was definitely more nervous going in to the 'really big kids' classroom, but she followed me in and was just ecstatic when one of the first graders agreed to come over as soon as she finished cleaning up her painting. 5 minutes later the two of them were camped out back in the 'safety' of our classroom, reading the puppy story together.

At this rate if I'm not careful I'm going to have to worry about which classroom my students are spending most of their time in!

Heard at school

O: "Miss A, I'm running out of energy."
Me: "Well why don't you go sit in the library and rest with a book then?"
O: "Okay!" Runs over to the library area...yeah, out of energy.

A child trips over his own shoes, another drops a plate that clatters extremely loudly, another child is too far on the edge of their chair and tips it over with a crash. For all these instances another child immediately asks, "Are you ok?" and then immediately add on, "Did it break?".....

Apparently these are the questions I ask way too often! (But at least they're in the right order!)

Building Community

The preschool years are when the child begins to awaken to the community beyond their family unit. They're ready to begin making real friends and exploring new places. My little class has long ago accepted each other as a part of their new community, you can tell by how comfortable they are around each other and aware they are.

It's not uncommon for them to notice when a child does not come to school, asking my where so and so is. Or if another child leaves for the bathroom they're apt to notice and wonder aloud where they are. None are shy about asking anyone else for help, nor are they are afraid to say no to someone (well...M's still working on this occasionally). 

So I've begun throwing some new things in to the mix. The other children's house in our school is fully established in that it has the full three year span of children (unlike our new class that is just growing with younger children). Many of the kindergarten children in the other class are becoming fluent readers and so myself and the other teacher have been encouraging them to come over and read to the children in my class. 

It's actually quite entertaining how shy these 'big' kids can suddenly become when they enter another room; even if it's only filled with people they know! We had quite a few of these visitors today, and I tried to make sure I modeled greeting them warmly and making them feel welcome. I helped direct them to a specific child who wasn't working and would probably like to hear a story (luckily all my children said 'yes' when asked). I had them pull out our special reading mat (Thanks mom!) and stayed out of the way while the visiting kindergartner read at lighting speed before popping up to leave. I made sure I thanked them for reading to us and encouraged them to come back again if they'd like. Hopefully this modeling will rub off on my students and they'll pick up on doing it themselves soon.

The books that take less than 1 minute to read ;)

As an adult it was a pretty funny situation to witness. Children who know they don't really have any reason to be nervous try to pretend they're not, and then leaving as soon as possible; elated and relieved at the same time. Meanwhile my students were quite happy to sit down and listen to the stories, though I could tell they were a bit confused when the kindergartners kind of hid behind their book rather than showing the pictures like they're used to when I read. And then when the older student would leave (usually after only a minute or two since the books are pretty short), there would be this little pause as my children seemed to be thinking "That was it? Huh what do I do now..."

So that's our first real step to building up a bigger community. By welcoming 'strangers' in to an environment where my students are comfortable it gives them a chance to learn some of the social graces associated with visitors before they become a visitor themselves. Now I just need to find more excuses for them to visit the other classroom.....

How to get them to do what you want

So I've been wanting the children to pay attention to a few more of the materials in the classroom. In a larger class there is more pressure to branch out because items will naturally be in use more and so the child needs to wait their turn. This also means that children are reminded about something they may not have used in a while when they see someone else using it. In our little class this just doesn't happen as often.

So instead I gave them some subliminal prompts!

Ok, ok, that's not how I'm supposed to say it. Quoting my Montessori trainer I gave them an "indirect lesson"

I've been waiting for them to experiment a bit more with the pink tower, exploring how all the blocks are related to one another now that they have no trouble building them in order. So I took it out myself. As soon as I did S asked to join me and together we scattered the blocks around the classroom and then rebuilt the tower. By then we had a larger audience so I purposely started experimenting with the cubes, stacking them in different configurations.

M didn't even want to wait until I was done to try that out for herself, she set out immediately to get the brown stairs out to try experimenting. C joined her and the two of them set about building everyone's 'house' out of the blocks (though C also insisted they build a clubhouse....a tall clubhouse!). I noticed M taking stock of the prisms, seeming to notice their relationships in size for the first time as she attempted to build a solid structure.

I'm gonna call that one a success.

My next task was to remind them about the metal insets. Other than W the other children rarely take this work out, despite my attempts to introduce a few variations to C and S. So instead of suggesting it and being turned down I simply took it out and began tracing and coloring the shapes myself. Same as before the children would eventually drift over to watch what I was doing. W immediately joined me, dragging a second chowki over to work right by me.

Unfortunately he did his usual quick trace, trace and barely color in before deciding he was done. I'm hoping to get him to take his time to color in a shape more fully as well as doing a different shape on each side of the paper. But since he's still having such trouble choosing work at all I don't want to make this in to a longer, harder work that he steers away from in an effort to take life easy. Some work is better than none right now!

C, on the other hand, got out an inset and spent quite a bit of time hanging out by me and coloring it in more fully; enjoying the process and hopefully strengthening her hand for writing later.

See how tricky we teachers are? :)

Heard at school

In the morning daycare room with several children coloring together at a table.

"What are you drawing?" One asks another.

"It's an abstract." The girl responds without pausing.

"Oh," Other child resumes coloring.


In the classroom where two children are doing fetching with the kitchen classified cards.

"Will you go get me the Whisky?" One says solemnly.

"Whisky, whisky, whisky," the second chants at she skips off.

At this point their teacher (aka. Me) needs to leave the room for a minute to laugh without having to explain why calling a whisk, whisky, is so funny.

Montessori Sunday: Sound Cylinders

The sound cylinders are a material in the Sensorial area of the classroom. While the majority of materials in this area focus on the visual sense the sound cylinders isolate the sense of hearing (if you couldn't guess that from the name). The material is made up of two sets of 6 sealed wooden cylinders in blue and red. They contain different substances and vary in the loudness of the sound produced when shaken.

The child and adult carry the boxes to the table and line up one color in a row on the table. The adult demonstrates how to lightly hold the cylinder and shake it by each ear to hear the sound it produces. After inviting the child to try the adult says "These red cylinders are the same as the blue ones, let's see if we can match them."

She demonstrates separating out the first of each color and listening to one cylinder at a time. If they don't match the directress demonstrates how to discard one cylinder to the side and try the next of that color instead. When the cylinder do match they are placed side by side to the top left of the table. The discarded cylinders are brought back in to the line and the process is begun again. This way of matching is identical for other sensorial materials in the classroom. That means that even though it can be difficult for the child to do the process independently the first time, the skills they learn help with other materials later. Once they understand the process they can apply it to other matching activities like the smelling bottles, touch tablets and fabric swatches.

Right now most of the children in my classroom still struggle with the matching process. They can match the cylinders by their sounds, but aren't very systematic about it and so usually only end up matching one or two sets before getting bored or frustrated. One of the youngest still simply likes to shake the cylinders and marvel at the sounds they make.

And either process is fine. I don't really care if they can match the sound cylinders perfectly or not. (Though it is a good tool to help identify if a  child is having trouble hearing in general). What I want them to do is begin to refine their sense of hearing, learn that they are different degrees of sound. And as for the matching process...well I'm hoping one day it will click and they'll understand why I tried to present it this particular way. Until then they can try and make up their own systems. Maybe one will be even better.

It Happens.

Spilling that is. Some days more than others.

First C spilled some grain and it was scattered so far that he was completely losing track of where he was picking it up to. So I helped him get that under control.

Then O spilled a little bit of water while pouring with the land and water forms. And then as he was wiping it up he proceeded to spill the rest of the water out of the plastic forms....I"m hoping he learned the lesson that when you pick up and tilt something with water in it it will spill...and spill EVERYTHING! He got so distracted that he couldn't even manage to walk back and forth to get a new cloth to dry with. So I got the majority of the water mopped up for him and then got him to finish the job with not quite constant reminders of what the next step was.

And finally at the very end of the day S and W spilled the water from the dish washing bins....both of them. Spilling the first one apparently inspired them to go back and get the second and attempt to pour it onto the counter by the sink because 'the floor was wet' in front of the sink....

That one took a little bit. Luckily while the two of them and myself got in to the rhythm of wiping and wringing water into the sink the other children kept themselves busy singing songs. No clue what songs they were singing but hey, they were amused. It took moving an entire shelf, drying the dustpan and brush (don't ask) and probably half of our generous supply of floor cloths. And what did we accomplish? A floor that didn't have any visible puddles but still squeaked when you walked.

Um...mission accomplished I guess? After all, we were leaving for the day, it'll be dry by tomorrow....right?

No wonder we can't keep track of what's going on!

"D is this your snack?" An older child came in to the coat room.

"No that A's." He replied and turned back to putting his shoes on. The older child obediently tried to hand it to D's brother who frowned.

"That not mine. I give mine to daddy...my daddy already." He replied firmly, making no move to grab the offered snack. The older child looked from one boy to another, all of them standing in silence. Finally she turns around and leaves without another word. A turned and looked at his brother.

"That your snack D, I saw'd the 'd' on it." He stated firmly.

"Oh," his brother answered, still pulling on his shoes. "Ok." A accepted this without comment and started putting on his own shoes.

Meanwhile as I walk out to the other room I see the older child, snack still in hand, trying to explain herself to another teacher.

"Did you find out who's it was?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ask D and A?"

"Yeah."

Silence

"I don't know who's snack it is!"

Oh the mysteries of preschool.

Montessori Sunday: Golden Beads (Part 3)

Ok, so I'm a day late but the Golden Beads are just so darn useful that I can't short them now. Trust me, they do justify having 3 separate posts for themselves.

After the child finally has a solid foundation and understanding of the beads themselves, and how they relate to on another it's time to begin the basic math operations. This same material will be used to teacher addition. It'll be used to show how subtraction works. The children will multiply, they'll divide--all with the same golden beads. Now that is a multipurpose activity.

I do want to point out that the golden bead material includes both the physical beads and their matching cards. The beads are present to give the children a concrete material to manipulate, while the cards are there to show the abstract symbols that society uses. Both parts are important to help prepare the children for further mathematics work at the Elementary level. While doing the operations with the golden beads we're not focusing on whether the children are getting the right answers or not. The process of how things are done is what matters in the children's house. Having the children physically experience adding the beads together to make a larger pile matters more than what 8,932 + 6,247 equals. They can see that putting two smaller quantities together makes a larger one, so they can really understand what the process of addition is.

The idea of subtraction is similar. The children get to be a part of actually taking away a certain number of beads from a larger quantity. They can see that this process results in a smaller number then they started with.

Multiplication usually puts a grin on their faces because they have a 'secret' when they go to collect their beads and cards. (Hint: The secret is that they're all getting the same number). The children who have done multiplication before think it's hilarious and the new ones are properly shocked when the secret is revealed. It's definitely a more fun way to show that multiplication is really just the adding of the same number a certain amount of times.

Finally the children learn the process of division, which usually ends up becoming their favorite way to use the golden beads. I think it's because everything ends up 'fair' and these older children are just beginning to build up a strong sense of right and wrong. The beads are handed out from largest to smallest, with each person getting the same amount and any extras 'remaining' with the teacher.

That's what a remainder means! I remember thinking during my Montessori training. Somehow I made it all the way through high school calculus and all of college without having a real understanding what was happening with division. And I could have learned it at 5 years old.....I kind of feel like I missed out...

Montessori Sunday: Golden Beads Part 2

Last week I introduced the Golden Bead material, one of the key Montessori materials for teaching math. This work allows young children to work with numbers in the thousands while only needing to be able to count up to 10. Pretty neat.

When Dr. Maria Montessori first came up with the idea of the golden beads she thought they would be used at the elementary level, that the younger students in the Children's House would not be interested or able to understand the idea of them. What she found though was that it was children around 4 or 5 years old who were truly interested in using these beads to convey the idea of numbers, not the older elementary children! It's pretty amazing what children can comprehend if given the right context to experience something with.

Once the child has become comfortable with identifying all the beads and cards by their names (1, 10, 100 & 1000), they can begin learning the change game. Learning this as adult even made an impression on me. I remember needing to carry over numbers in school, but didn't really have a good understanding of why. Learning to do so with the golden beads finally made it click exactly why and what was happening. Now I wish I would have just learned it this way in the first place!

The directress will have the child bring a large tray over to the supply of golden beads on the shelf and begin loading it up in a haphazard manner. Handfuls of 10's, fistfuls of units and piles of hundreds are added to the tray without much thought as to their order. At a mat the directress informs the child that they are going to count ALL these beads, usually sparking a shocked response since the messy pile looks unconquerable. To make it a little less intimidating the beads are sorted into categories.

"Let's start with the units. 1, 2, 3..." The directress shows how to count the beads one by one into a small cup. "10! Wait, 10 units? That's the same as 1 ten bar. Let's go back and exchange these." Together child and adult go and exchange the units for one of the bars of 10. And so the counting goes until there aren't enough unit beads to make into a ten bar. The ten bars are counted and exchanged in to hundreds, then the hundreds counted and made in to thousands. Finally there's only a small piles of beads left and the child is sent to fetch the matching cards to form the written number.

"That's our answer, we counted all the beads we had on this tray. Want to do it again?"

The act of simplifying this messy mountain down is a favorite with children. It seems so intimidating until they begin to actually do the process and find out how simple it is. It's also extremely important that they fully understand this concept because they will need to be able to exchange beads freely using the four basic math operations.

Late Start!

What do you do when the roads are icy and the school district calls a late start?

Well you smile warmly at your students, watch them work happily for about 20 minutes, then call them to the circle to end the day.

After all, it takes nearly half an hour to get that bead on and get all dressed to go home. Plus if it's warmed up enough that now everything is melting in rivers off the roof you don't want to miss having some extra play time outside in the sunshine!

(Minnesota weather is just crazy sometimes!)

What we do all day

Thought you might like to see what sorts of things we do all day. I have to say there's quite the variety!

Looking up and coloring flags

Getting really good at that tricky trinomial cube

Practicing a puzzle map of the world

Cutting and pasting to make snowflakes

Learning how to pin fabrics together

Fetching different flags (they wanted to have ALL of them)

Cutting and arranging flowers in vases with our new stand

Cracking the code of the decanomial square

Practicing colors and learning how to use a screwdriver

Building tippy towers with the knobless cylidners

Keeping our new bird feeder full

Washing and drying dishes

Peeling and cutting carrots

Mixing colors to see what they make

Learning the different categories of numbers up the 1000!

Taming tricky botany puzzles (left: parts of a flower, right: parts of a tree)

Peeling and slicing hardboiled eggs

Ok, so we still need some work with getting just the peel off!

Language is ridiculous

What's harder than learning to read?

Learning to read when the book you want to read is about pirates...pirates who speak piratese.

While practicing reading with a first year elementary students today I had to pronouce and explain the following words:

-Aye!
-Lubber
-doth
-thy

And a mix of more that I can't remember. Then we got to the part that stumped her cold. She sounded it out, hesitated, looked at it again and looked up at me.

"Um..."

"Yep, that's what it says.It's in the book. Go ahead."

"Shut up," she read again, hurriedly skipping away from the bad words and racing onward. Oh the perils of reading, the world opens!

Making decisions isn't always easy

The children are in charge of so many decisions over the course of the morning work cycle. They get to choose what to do, when to do it, who to work with (or not), and even how long to work with something. It may not seem like a lot, but to children who are so used to having adults be in charge of them it's a novel idea that they are in control.

Some children settle right in to the idea, like M. I have to admit that she is my star decision maker. I watch her go from activity to activity all morning, it's rare to see her  wandering the room; there's always something she wants to do next. Sometimes I can even hear her decision making as she chats with the other children. Like when she wanted to have snack today and the table was already full so she said to another student how they could go and choose a work to do and then when they were done it would be their turn to have snack.

M is also really flexible with her decisions. She and C were going to do some fetching with cards today, but another child was using the Solar Sytem set that they wanted and as soon as she realized it she paused for a moment, then turned back to C and said "Oh, we can't do that, someone's using it. But we can do the flags instead!" Wow, that's an extremely mature response from a 3 1/2 year old. Not only did she not get upset about someone else using what she wanted, she also got herself on track to do something else.

Now that skill is going to serve her really well at some future job!

But making decisions isn't always easy, and even being able to do so is something that you need to learn. W is on the opposite end of the spectrum from M. He's more than happy to work with the classroom materials, but when he finishes with something it's very obvious that he has no clue what he wants to do next and wanders about the room instead. He gets distracted by what the other children are doing, pausing to watch them for a little bit then wandering off again.

He'll choose some of his standard favorites like watering plants or washing windows, but as these aren't a real challenge for him they're over quickly and he's once again wandering the classroom. He'll often imitate what the other children choose (like this morning when he took out a puzzle after S and C began working on some) but again most of these things that are simpler exercises that don't engage him for long.

For a while I had thought that W really wasn't interested in any of the materials and that's why he wasn't choosing work--nothing appealed to him! But the last few weeks I've been specifically asking him if there is something new I could teach him. Oh he chose a few things, namely work he'd just seen other children working on. So it seemed like he just didn't know what was interesting to HIM and was just following the crowd.

So this week we're starting a new regime to help him learn some choice making skills. I have a box on my desk with pictures of the materials. When I see him wandering we're going to get that box out and choose 5 different materials that he wants to work on. These go in the cover of the box and he chooses one to start with immediately. Then whenever I see him wandering later in the morning I can direct him to go choose one of the other pictures to take out next.

I'm hoping this will help keep him focused because he does seem to want to work, but just isn't sure what to do. He gets to choose the initial materials based on his interest (though currently he seems to mainly choose what is on top of the pile) and so when he's directed to those materials latter it's still  his choice of what to do, rather than mine as adult.

So that's our experiment in decision making this week. Here's hoping that it goes well!

Montessori Sunday: Golden Beads (Part 1)

The Golden beads...I'm not sure if there is a more versatile material in the classroom. This lovely material introduces the child to the decimal system (including numbers up to the thousands), the idea of carrying over from one category to another (such as 10 tens turn in to a hundred), and also gives the child a concrete way to preform the four basic math operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Wow, that's a lot to get from one material, so to make this a more complete post I'm splitting it into two parts. Needless to say learning this material is a long process; children may end up using the golden beads for both their second and third year of children's house. A classroom that I student taught in did a great job as building a solid foundation with the golden beads and it was very apparent that the children had a good understanding when they progressed to later materials.

The initial presentation to the child is simply naming each of the different categories (units, tens, hundreds and thousands). Ideally the beads for this material are made out of glass, so when the child is introduced to the thousand cube there is a very distinct impression of how heavy and large a number this is. It is also convey to the children that there are 10 units in one of the ten bars, and 10 ten bars in a hundred square, and then 10 hundred squares in a thousand cube. This idea will be reinforced later with a special activity with the beads.

 From there the children begin fetching certain quantities of the numbers. For example: "Bring me 5 10's.No that's not a typo, I said "5 10's." The child may not have mastered the formal names of numbers yet (such as twenty, fifteen, etc.) but they can count to 10, so why should we hold them back? Yet another reason why the English language makes education so much harder!

As the child get competent they are asked to get more and more numbers until finally they are fetching from all four categories (ex. Get me 3 thousands, 4 hundreds, 5 tens, and 6 units). How's your memory feeling? I know that I sometimes forget what number I've sent them for!

Around this same time the child is introduced to the decimal cards, which are introduced the exact same way as the beads. The children also learned to recognize the cards by fetching them, and eventually work up to getting four cards at once.

Finally the beads and cards are combined and the child's memory exercised as they are asked to get numbers such as 6,592 with both the cards and beads. This can take children weeks to months to master, but it's a vital step to make sure they understand and can remember these large numbers because the next step is doing math problems with them. 

Yep, we teach children how to add, subtract, multiply and divide using numbers in the thousands. None of this silly single or double digit stuff for Montessori children....ok, ok so it sounds like bragging, but is it really all that tricky when all you need to do is be able to count to 10 and remember the names of the categories?