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!