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!

Better Days

Ok, so Monday's post was a bit of a downer. How about some success stories for a boost tonight instead?

Story 1: The farm

Remember those two kids struggling to get the farm set up? Well today we used a timer (not very Montessorian, I know, but sometimes things need a little prodding to get going). The verdict? A HUGE success! Not only did they get the entire farm set up, but they kept the energy rolling and made it through the entire packet of labels...though they didn't quite know where to put 'the', 'a' or the 'and' labels that somehow got mixed in with things like 'the spotted white dog' and 'kicking horse'. Oh, and that 'kicking horse' label took a little bit because they read it as the 'chicken horse'. I can understand how that would be hard to label since I"m still not sure exactly what a 'chicken horse' is exactly....

A successfully labeled farm!

Story 2: When Mommy comes to visit...

When mommy comes to visit some kids don't leave her side, or they are inconsolable when she leaves. But then there are some who don't do either. Instead they buckle down and show how much work they can do. Thank you A and O for doing just that. Both their moms visited today and without any suggestions both of them promptly took out their favorite works, set them up at a table near their mom's observation stool and got right to work. As far as I saw they both concentrated and completed their work and put it away for the next person. If only we could get that to happen with every kid class would go A LOT smoother. Thought O did get a little bit jealous/protective when some of the other children began talking to her mom, but she just went over and listened and walked back to work whent he children left. Oh well, her mom said she had a good visit anyways.

Story 3: Writing can be easy

How good is your phonetic reading?
1. Pony
2. Strawberry
3. Pink
4. Working mat
5. Teddy Bear

Oh yes, writing actually can be easy...when you know all your letter sounds. This afternoon I suggested to M that she take out Moveable alphabet for her language work, and after needing a reminder about what material it was I thought maybe I should check and see which letter sounds she knew before suggesting words to write out. Turns out she knew them all. Yes, all of them. Now in my training they made it sound like of course every child should know ever sound when they're using the moveable alphabet but really, that doesn't always happen. We don't want to hold them back if they're really eager to start writing, or if they're getting stuck with learning sandpaper letters sometimes presenting the same information with a different material works better.

M wanted to get out some objects and write the words for them, but I tried to encourage her to think of some of her favorite things instead, hoping to give her some different practice analyzing the sounds. She did pretty well, didn't need my help finding any of the sounds she was looking for...though I think maybe we need to practice listening to ALL the sounds. After all, I'm pretty sure that 'strawberry' has a t in it somewhere.....