And then there was....one?

So with Christmas falling in the middle of the week I expected to have a few children leaving early on vacation (hence why we opened our class gift last week!) But I can't say I expected to be down to just one child in class today!

As soon as M came in this morning I told her "Guess what! Today it's just me and  you, we can do anything you want!" She looked around the classroom, taking it all in with her fingers on her lips as she thought. Then she asked "Why are the dishes over there?" "Oh I washed them all for the new year. Do you want to help put them away?' And that was what she chose to do. The possibilities were endless and she wanted to put dishes away. Her dad just laughed when I told him at the end of the day.

Not that we spent the whole day flying solo. She and I attended a little re-enactment of the Nativity Story in the other classroom. Another segment of sharing family traditions that has been going on for the last week. Afterwards a Kindergartner from the other room kept peeking in to our room and I finally extended her a formal invitation to join us for the morning. She was absolutely thrilled!

Together we three cleaned up the classroom; scrubbing the sink, dusting shelves, collecting ALL the laundry to be washed. M really enjoyed showing our visitor around the room, and our visitor was quite pleased that she already knew how to fold a dustcloth and could show it to M. I have to admit they were just adorable siting on the floor, the Kindergartner patiently showing each step and M copying her exactly. Unfortunately my camera was too far away to snap a shot, darn!

M was also happy to share our end of the day traditions. She let our visitor know that the clean up song was playing and they needed to put their work away, and she also showed her were the necklaces were so the two of them could be in charge of putting up the chairs...though who else was rushing to do the job I'm not sure ;) M was also quite proud to demonstrate how we put the bead on at the end of each day and together we all counted the beads for December to finish out 2014.

It bodes well for how M is going to help any new students settle in to our room, I can't wait!

Just a regular morning

E, M and J are sisters who attend our school. J, the youngest, obviously adores her older sisters and they are all obviously very close. This year M moved up to join E in the elementary class and it's obvious that J misses having her in the Children's House all day. She's grown used to it as the year has gone on, but still tries to spend as much time with her older sisters as possible during before and after school care.

This morning E was busy knitting on the couch, and J was watching her like most mornings. She was happy just to sit next to her sister, holding the ball of yarn and watching E knit. J's friends weren't quite as keen on this idea. They wanted her to come and play with them, they wanted her to color by them; but J just said "No, I want to watch my sissy!"

Did they just accept this answer and go off to amuse themselves? Of course not! They decided that they would all watch E as well. Now E's a pretty easy going and quiet girl, and even though I could tell she was enjoying the attention she's not really one to take advantage of it and act all silly or anything.

This wasn't quite true for the children watching her. The little pack got louder and more rambunctious as they jostled around in the small space. First they discussed whether it was 'knitten' or 'knitting'. The loudest voice was winning until I broke in with a simple "E is knitting." and quieted the kindergarten who was convinced the word was 'knitten'.

There was some bouncing up and down as they shifted from standing to squirming on to the couch, to jumping up again. J accidentally dropped the yarn ball. It bounced around, rolling farther and farther away despite the many eager hands trying to stop it. Next thing I know, 4 different little girls are holding a section of yarn, waving it up and down and giggling hysterically. The line got longer and longer, while the ball got smaller and smaller.

I stepped in again, reminding them not to tangle up E's yarn, and suggesting they find something else to do. They happily complied, one of the older ones staying behind to wind up the fallen yarn a bit. Throughout this whole thing E had just kept sitting there quietly, knitting away. When it was clean-up time she silently rolled up the rest of the yarn the younger girls had been playing with, gathered all he knitting supplies and walked off to class. Just another regular morning in a mixed age school.

Montessori Sunday: The Mixed Age Structure

Instead of featuring a Montessori material this week I want to focus a bit more on some of the intangible aspects of a Montessori classroom. I've talked a lot in my posts about how we have a mix of ages in our classroom, and even a little bit about why this. I was reading through articles on some other blogs I follow and this one article from Montessori on the Double struck me as a great example of this aspect of classroom structure. I promise if I had the time/opportunity to just sit and observe in our classroom at school I could write something similar, I know the same type of experience is going on for some of our younger children but I haven't found the time to just sit and observe so closely yet. Maybe I'll make that one of my goals for the upcoming week.

Enjoy!


http://montessorionthedouble.com/2013/11/02/what-its-like-being-the-youngest-child-in-a-montessori-class/