Basic items for making Montessori Materials

Hopefully most teachers are lucky enough to have some of these tools available at school, though personally I never could find the time to actually work on projects at school and ended up taking them home anyways. Here’s my suggestions for some items that have made it easier to make quality materials at home.

• Computer and printer
• Basically essential! Use to make any type of card or book materials.
• Cardstock and/or scrapbook paper
• I was gifted a bunch of old scrapbook paper by an aunt and used it to make fun color coded card sets. Put out feels to your family/friends to see if they have any extra laying around.
• Sewing machine
• I grew up with a mother who sewed all my Halloween costumes, so I feel like I had a jump start on this during training. Most materials can be sewn by hand but I think it’s totally worth it to learn how to use a sewing machine to help speed things up and overall make a sturdier product. If you can find someone with an old serger machine they’re willing to part with this makes for even faster sewing on a lot of things.
• Laminator
• Not necessary for those just making materials for at home use (though highly recommended if  you want them to last through multiple children or be used out of doors). A lot of school supply stories offer lamination machines where you can pay by the foot. However since a personal laminator can be bought for under $100 it might be worth the hassle free of being able to laminate at home. I have one just from Target and it’s been just great, though sometimes feeding it small labels can be tedious trying to make sure they don’t shift around! Of course laminate is also expensive so ask your school if they’re willing to reimburse you for making materials!
• Book binder
• Definitely a wish list item. I had originally gotten a  comb binding machine as a gift from an aunt (my family is pretty awesome by the way! ;) ) but I finally broke down this Christmas to get a metal cinch binder instead. Comb binders are cheaper, but do make a cheaper feeling book, and the plastic combs on several of my books have snapped due to use/age. This binder has been nice; the holes feels a bit big on smaller books but I’m very happy with it.

These are the things I use on a regular basis that have made my work easier. Obviously there are ways to get around using one or the other, but if there's a convenient gift giving occasion in your future you might want to think about dropping some hints for one of these!

Do you have any other recommendations that make your material making easier?

Welcome!

Maria Montessori referred to adults in the Children's House as Guides rather than teachers. The idea being that they were not teaching the children, but rather guiding them in a direction that they could discover the information for themselves
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However as one of those Guides I've struggled to find someone to guide me after completing my training! The majority of websites about Montessori are either informational or about parents sharing their experiences following the Montessori principles with their own children. Now I think all of those are great, the more the word gets out about Montessori the better!

However, the blogs that speak to me the most are those published by other Guides. Those who not only practice the theory in their daily lives, but also know the reasons behind why we do what we do. These are the ones that most often inspire me to create something new to share in my classroom. They give me ideas of little tweaks that make things run just that much smoother.

My hope is to add to this small pool, to give others working in classrooms (and at home!) more resources to draw from. After all, we prepare the environment for the children, giving them the tools to learn what they need. Why not do the same for those attempting to guide them in the write direction?

Onward!

A change of direction

For those scrolling through older posts this is where a shift in direction happens. Overall a pretty subtle one, but still a different direction.

I found it hard to consistently tell tales about what happened in the classroom as I got more students and had several very challenging ones that I didn't want to write about over and over again. Now I'm in a new state, a new school, a new classroom...and I"m still not sure I can consistently share what's going on in the classroom.

However over the years I've found that my real passion about the classroom is figuring out how to craft, beautiful and engaging materials to share with the children. And as time has gone by I've been disappointed again and again over the lack of quality resources for Montessori guides. Between these two things I want to take this blog in a new direction.

So, sorry mom but there won't be quite so many cute kid stories. But I'm sure they'll sneak in from time to time!

Montessori Monday

So I did want this blog to be not just about my doings in Hong Kong, but also to add some Montessori philosophy into it. I'm also hoping it will help me learn how to explain the Method in a concise way that people who know nothing about it can understand. So I'm going to try to every Monday have a post about a different Montessori material and how it plays an important part in the curriculum.

Maria Montessori with children

But since today is the first post let's do a quick overview of the Montessori curriculum. Maria Montessori began the first Montessori class in 1907 in the slums of Italy. The owners of a building for low income families initially hired her to keep the children who were not old enough for school occupied while their parents were at work so they did not damage the building. Dr. Montessori began this school with only a few materials originally designed for children with special needs, and some practical activities such as hand washing and sweeping. The children in this setting flourished and their behavior so impressed visitors that new schools following the same method were opened and the scenario repeated with children from different backgrounds. Over the years Maria Montessori developed materials for teaching reading, writing and math due to the prompting of parents. She found that not only could children do these higher level academics when given the right materials, but that they enjoyed mastering them as well. As the years progresses Dr. Montessori expanded her teachings to children of school age, and then for children from birth to three.

100 years later the Montessori method is still in use and succeeding with children around the globe. Some schools follow the philosophy as laid out while others have adopted new ideas as the years have progressed. The Association Montessori Internationale is the body which helps monitor schools for their adherence to the original Montessori method. Unfortunately the term 'Montessori' is in the public domain and many schools which claim to follow the philosophy do not. Today many research studies about child development are finding that the ideas developed by Dr. Montessori in the 1900's have a scientific base.

In the children's house, which covers children from 3 to 6 years of age, there are four main areas of the classroom: practical life, sensorial, language and math. Practical life encompasses those simple, everyday activities that we do to maintain and beautify our environment and selves. Activities like buttoning, dusting, caring for plants or preparing food may all be part of the practical life curriculum. The sensorial materials are specifically designed to isolate one quality of the world such as color, smell or weight, and give it a physical form. These materials are not designed to teach the children that objects have different properties (such as roughness or smoothness) but to help them classify and name these qualities. The area of language in Montessori covers both oral and written language (which is both writing and reading). Much of the language material is given after the child has had experience in practical life and sensorial as these activities indirectly prepare the child for writing and reading. The math materials are designed to give children physical objects that they can manipulate when working with numbers. Montessori found that even very young children could do arithmetic with numbers into the thousands if given the right material.

Beyond the materials the Montessori classroom emphasizes the building of community. Children are given a chance to practices the lessons of grace and courtesy, which include things such as blowing your nose, and greeting visitors. The children are encouraged to collaborate and help one another, a system that is greatly enhanced by the mix of ages in the classroom. The youngest students are shown the culture of the classroom by the older ones, and in turn help them practice leadership skills. Montessori focuses on the whole of the child's development, not simply the academic skills.