Learning to work together

Both S and L didn't fall asleep at nap today, so they came in to the classroom with me for the afternoon. By this point in the day the oldest children are about an hour in to the afternoon workcycle and so it's important that any nappers who can't sleep don't disrupt them. I usually try to take advantage of this to work one on one with the younger children but had some cutting prep for an art work to do. So instead I proposed this to S and L-

"Do you guys want to work together?" "YEAH!" I had them set out the color tablets, showing them how to get out only one of each color. Then I used a small indicator stick to point to one tablet and sent both girls out in search of something that was the same color. After a couple more turns, making sure they understood the 'game' and the idea of taking turns, I stepped back and let them run it.

This is one of the hardest things to learn as a Montessori Directress, when to step back and leave the child working. The role of the teacher is simply to guide the child in how to use the material, and then let them explore and learn from it at their own pace.

I purposely set up my cutting work at a table where I could still see and hear the girls without being in their way. S and L did come and check in with me a couple times, mainly to show off what they had found for colors. Otherwise they were quite happy to take turns choosing the color and then both going to find an object to show the other. Finally they got stuck on looking for something gray and kind of gave up and put the work away.

But still, they're 3, that's a pretty good process for them. They cooperated, took turns, and even decided together when they were finished working. Actually sometimes I think those younger children end up working better together than the older ones!

Montessori Sunday: Color Tablets

Welcome back to another Montessori Sunday, the educational part of the blog. Come on, I'm a teacher, there has to be more on here than just cute stories! Today I want to talk about the color tablets since they've been mentioned quite a bit on the blog lately.

The color tablets are part of the sensorial area in the classroom, specifically the sense of vision. I want to remind readers that the point of the sensorial materials is to teach children to refine their use of the senses. The materials isolate one property of the world (color in this case) so that is easier for the child to grasp the concept. Think about it this way, telling a child "this pencil is blue, and so the rug, and the sky, and this piece of paper. They are all blue." can be confusing as is might be difficult to notice what these various objects all have in common. With the color tablets everything is the same except for the color of the tablet, so it is easy for the child to differentiate.

There are actually 3 separate boxes of color tablets. Box 1 has pairs of the three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. Most children come in already knowing the language for colors and so they begin with the next box. Color box 2 also has pairs of tablets but has even more colors. This box is first presented as a simple matching activity which can be extended to matching at a distance, or matching with objects in the environment. The child is shown how to handle the tablets by the edges so as to not mar the colored part with fingerprints.

Color box 3 is the most complex and has an impressive 63 tablets in it. Unlike the first two boxes, the tablets are not paired, but rather graded. Each color has a progression of dark to light and the child is introduced to the idea of grading by the shade of the tablets. This is done first with just a single color at a time and the child works up to doing multiple colors. As a culminating event the child is shown how to make the 'sunburst'. The sunburst involves grading all the color tablets around a centralized object (usually a globe). I can say from personal experience that it is a daunting task to sort out and grade that many tablets. The children love the finished product though and it's pretty common to see them working in pairs to complete the sunburst.

Back in action

Whew, back after an almost two week break for the holidays. It was nice to have some free time, but I did miss the children. Boy were they happy to be back! Actually now that I think about it, it's kind of surprising that we didn't have anyone who was reluctant at the door.... though that might be connected to the fact that the short week had a lot of families just taking some extra vacation time.

Those who did come back though were ready to work. After doing some greeting at the door and giving a little assistance in the coat room I came into a classroom that was just humming with activity. Yet I had almost half an hour to sit and observe what was going on. Then I made the mistake of leaving the stool. I'm beginning to think that a teacher sitting quietly on a stool is absolutely invisible to the children. It's actually kind of funny.

J, one of our smallest students was wandering around, telling me she didn't know what she could do so I suggested she get out the color tablets. J couldn't find them and I didn't remember if she'd had a presentation or not. I showed her the box and asked if she wanted to invite S to work with her. I knew S had been shown the color tablets but she is also pretty shy and doesn't like to try out new work. I was really hoping that J might convince her to not only repeat this work, but to branch out to something new. Yeah...it didn't really work out that way, but oh well. So instead I decided to give J a quick refresher on how to use the tablets.

I showed her how to handle them, taking out a few colors and matching them. It was pretty easy for her, and she even knew all the names. Pretty soon she had the entire box out and mixed up for matching. Another three year old, Q, had wandered over at this point and was really interested in what we were doing. I asked J to pick out a tablet and ask Q if she could find the match. They were just delighted! Q and J thought this was just a great game. I stuck around just long enough to make sure they got the idea of taking turns and actually verbalizing the color.

And then I left. That's the ideal role for a Montessori guide; giving the child just enough to get started, working and curious for more, then leaving them to explore.

Ideally.

Because that's sure not how my next presentation went.

First off, I will give M some leeway because being invited to help make birthday treat is enough to make anyone forget what they were working on. Anyways, after that M had come back in and chose a new work like he'd been taught. I caught him, and asked him to clean up the practical life activity he had out and go back to the number rods. After he did that though I found he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing with the number rods. So I sat with him, and kept him on track....and kept him one track...and helped him some more...and realized he had no recollection at all about how to do combinations of 10 with the rods. Finally after about half an hour we had made all the combinations, written them down, and I had him start cleaning up while I read a story to some 'wanderers'.

I have to say, with as much trouble as the actual process was, M has the concept of clean up down pat! That's got to balance out not remembering how to do all the steps right? Well at least it's a transferable skill!

The Bigger Picture

When Dr. Montessori first began her Casa Dei Bambini she had huge classes of children (close to 40 or 50 children) that would never be allowed in schools today. And for that I am grateful. The classroom I currently work in has 32 children and 3 adults in it and we are plenty busy.

Now let's take a step back and think about what this large class size actually means.There are 32 children between the ages of 2 (almost 3) and 6. They are all at varying levels of skill (both physical and mental) and a wide spread of interests and personalities. It is extremely difficult for both adults and children to all gather together for any lesson as a entire group. Instead, over the course of 3 hours in the morning these children are all basically free to move around the classroom, choosing whatever activity they want (provided they have been shown how to use it). Some choose to work with others, some by themselves, and others to do nothing at all. While we really try to discourage them from doing nothing (mainly because it ends up becoming a distraction) it does happen.

So 32 individuals (35 if you count the adults) engaged in different activities, sounds like chaos right? Not as much as you think. While things are not always running perfectly smooth in our classroom as hoped (we're getting there!) there are some key rules that keep it running smoothly. 

Probably the biggest one is that a child can work with a material as long as they like, but when they are done it needs to be returned to the shelf for the next person. Returning the material also means restocking it (such as paper for art activities) or drying objects that may have gotten wet. A perfect example right now is our stamping activity. Yes, we trust children at age 3 to work without direct supervision and not poison themselves on the ink pad! We also trust them (after a demonstration) to get a new piece of paper from the stack on the counter and place it on the tray with the ink pad and stamps for the next child. 

Now I won't try to pretend that this always happens, and often one of the teachers ends up replacing the paper, but it is becoming less and less frequent as the school year progress. By independently allowing the children to prepare the tray we adults lessen the burden on ourselves. Other than the obvious effect of not having to keep the tray stocked we can also say when a child brings us the empty tray "Oh, it looks like someone forgot to get a new piece of paper. You can find a piece for yourself on the counter." And believe me, when there are 32 students busy at work, saving yourself that extra minute or two to dig a piece of paper out of the cupboard will add up!

Other basic classroom rules include-

• Not taking a material out until you have been given a presentation on how to use it
• Respecting the work of other children (usually by not touching their materials)
• Generally being kind to others
• Maintaining safe control of ones body (ex. not hitting, pushing, etc.)

All of these add up at a classroom community that may be busy and look quite chaotic until you take a few minutes to observe and see that the buzz of activity is purposeful and productive. Here is one of the main differences between Montessori and standard daycare. The children are taught to be responsible for their own behavior and actions, rather than being enforced by an adult. Hence why we can have only three adults in a class of 30+ children, and not worry about a mutiny!