A geography day

W and C started it by working on the world map today. I think W just really wanted to use the clay, but they also had fun putting the puzzle pieces in the frame. While they were doing that S took out the new little flag book I had made for them and was heading to the library to look at it when M caught her.

"I wanted to read that!"

"Ok," said S, who's always up for some socializing. So together they got out the reading mat and crowed around, flipping the pages to look at the different flags.

"That's South America," S said matter of factly as they flipped to one page. Now I know "South America' doesn't have a flag but hey, at least she was using geography terms! Then S got in trouble with the next page.

"What's that one?" M asked.

"I don't know." S replied after a short pause, quickly flipping away from it.

"How about this one?" M asked again. S just looked at it for a minute, struggling to figure out what to say. Finally she came up with,

"You have to read it silly!" and turned the page again and stated "That's South America." I couldn't help but giggle a bit as she kept trying to convince herself that she knew the names of those flags. After a few pages she did come and ask me to read a few of the names, but S was definitely determined to know them by herself. I have a feeling that girl's going to learn to read by sheer determination some day when she gets it into her head.

Afterwards C recruited M to do fetching with him using the flags. She happily pointed out the pictures in the book and sent him to bring them over from the stand. Unfortunately there were so many flags there that it was hard to pick out specific ones so I helped them spread all the flags out on one mat and work at a second with the ones they had already found. They were so in to their little game that when we noticed that some flags in the book were not out they asked me to check in the closet for them.

Soon they had ALL the flags for North and South America out on the mat or in the stand. They were bound and determined to find all the matches. M was having a great time directing C, who couldn't have been more pleased than when he brought back a matching flag. They made it through nearly all the flags before they finally got tired and went on to new work. I checked it later and that's about 35 flags....They went back and forth nearly 30 times matching the flags and pictures. Without any prompting or real help.

Now that's a great example of the kind of repetition we want happening in the classroom!

An individual presentatioin?

So I finally got tired of waiting for our world map to arrive in the mail. Though I only mentioned it yesterday I do have more than 24 hours of patience, I promise. This material has been on order since early August...I think I've been quite patient.

Anyways today I dug up in the attic of the school to drag out an old one. A large chunk of central america is missing and there are only 3 knobs on the entire puzzle but I decided it was better than nothing. W takes out the globes in our classroom almost daily and I have really been waiting to introduce him to more aspects of geography. I've talked about the puzzle maps before in this post: Montessori Sunday: Puzzle Maps, but today was the first time I've actually presented it to a child using all the steps.

My favorite part is using clay to demonstrate how a round sphere (like the globe) can be cut in half and then flattened to make the two flat circles of the map. I started the presentation with S and as soon as she started bringing materials to the mat the other two little girls in the class had also wandered over to watch. By the time we had discovered that the colored continents were the same on both the globe and map the boys had all joined us.

So I presented how a globe can be turned in to a mat to the entire class. Now in my album this presentation is written up for an individual, and I did insure that S was the one who actually got to do the squishing down of the clay, but who am I to tell a group of quiet and attentive 3 & 4 year olds to go away. I just figure I saved myself having to repeat the exercise 4 more times!

The puzzle itself was no problem for S, and I hadn't thought it would be but it's a doorway to other things for her later down the road. What I hoped would happen is that the other children would be eager to try the giant map out for themselves, seeing how fun and easy it was for S. We'll find out tomorrow when there's more time. I'm quite curious to see how W especially does with it....he's still in a bit of a wandering mood and needs some work to engage with. Hopefully geography is it.

Onward to the New Year!

The children came back today for their first day of 2015 and it went so well! It was a great morning with a lot of self-directed work. Several children helped me put away the small mountain of laundry we had washed before break, while the rest quickly settled back in to some of their favorite work activities.

C tagged along with me for a little bit before asking, "Eggs, teacher Alex." Lucky him he got the very last hardboilded egg and proceeded to spend the next half-hour peeling and cutting it, happily engaged in getting himself a snack.

W went through is usual repertoire of washing the windows, sweeping off the tables, trying to sweep the carpet, watering the plants; all the usual classroom maintenance stuff that he likes to do. Then it was back to the tried and true globes. I'm really hoping to get the world puzzle map soon so I can introduce it to him since he seems so interested in the globe. Then I'll be able to judge whether he actually likes the globe itself, or is just taking it out because it's easy ;)

Our lovely new flower arranging stand
(thanks dad!)

C and S did fetching with the new solar system cards, I helped them out with learning the names and spawned interest in some other children to learn some new vocabulary as well.

Meanwhile M went from work to work to work, I couldn't even keep track of what she was doing other than to note that whatever she took out she put back properly and seemed to be concentrating on while she had it out. My friends, those are the types of children you dream about having in your classroom. I need to remember to mention how great she is at keeping engaged during the next parent teacher conference.

At the end of the day they were all tickled silly by the amount of beads we had to put on our string to catch up for all the days we had been gone. That was it, the end of our day. It was like they'd never left...please tell me that tomorrow's going to go off just as well...please?

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!

Montessori Sunday: Sandpaper Letters

I was trying to decide which material to highlight when it occurred to me that I hadn't yet showcased the sandpaper letters. I think it was my Montessori trainer who said that if she had to set up a Montessori classroom with only a few of the real materials it would be the sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet and the golden beads. So obviously the sandpaper letters are of great importance.

The sandpaper letters are just what they sound like; letters (ideally cursive) cut out of sandpaper and mounted on wood. The consonants are mounted on pink and vowels in blue, which matches the scheme of the moveable alphabet that the children will learn to use next.

Using the sand tray to practice
forming ta cursive 'o'
(like in ostrich and on)

They are first presented to the child around 3 years old, when they begin to show interest in identifying the sounds of words. The directress will usually first introduce the letter that child's name begins with, as well as one or two other common sounds (like t, s, or b). The child is shown how to trace the letter with the pointer and middle finger. Near the end of the tracing the directress will say the sound of the letter, not the name. The child is invited to try and the sound is repeated. Together child and teacher think of some words which begin with the sound, and then move on to the next letter. Once the child has been introduced to all 3 letters a three period lesson is began, where the directress gives little commands to help reinforce the sounds that go with each symbol. Ex. "Trace 'c'", "Tap 's'", etc. At the end of the lesson the child is asked to trace each letter a final time and asked "What sound is this?"

Obviously is takes a long time to get through the entire alphabet of 26 letters, so it is important that the sandpaper letters are used often so ensure the child has a solid foundation to begin writing later. Because English is such a non-phonetic language there are also sandpaper letters for the more common phonograms in the language (ch, sh, th, etc.).

The reason the sound of the letter is introduced, rather than the name is to ease the child in to writing and reading easier. Knowing the sound 'b' instead of the name B, helps the child know what symbol make the 'b' sound in "ball", rather than having to go through the extra step of translating the sound 'b' into the name B and then trying to recognize the symbol.

Cursive is preferable for the same reason of making later writing easier. With cursive letters all the symbols are distinct, it's much harder to mix up b, d, p, and q when they are written in cursive script. The motion of forming cursive letters, with it's continues curves and loops, is also a more natural hand motion and so is easier to young children to follow. It also helps prevent letters being written backwards and upside down because there is a natural flow from the starting point.

All of this in one single material in the classroom. Those sandpaper letters are so important for later work...now I feel  like I should be working with them even more in the classroom!

We love our sand

Specifically in the sand tray...and that's where we're trying to keep it. Our classroom sand try is actually a mix of color sand and some salt. The children can practice forming letters and numbers in the tray with their fingertips.There's also a small dish with a cloth to wipe the extra sand off their fingers and I've really been trying to make sure they're only using their fingers, not their whole hand to ensure that the sand tray actually stays full of sand.

Making numbers has been especially popular. C especially loves to go through the entire box of sandpaper numbers, forming each one in the sand tray and then giving it a gentle shake to clear the sand before making the next number. Hopefully I can get them excited to start writing letters in the tray as well, it will making learning to write later that much easier if they have the muscle memory already. Until then we'll keep on plugging away with the numbers, especially 0, the current favorite number in the class.

Painted Hands

Today our work was painting hands. Red ones, orange, yellow, green, and at least one blue for everyone (it seems to be our classrooms most popular color!).

And this project has been nearly 2 weeks in the making, talk about a long process for the children!

First the children helped me rip construction paper into confetti sized pieces (mostly at least). We soaked them over the weekend. Then, one by one, I showed them how to use the paper making activity. They scooped the sludge onto a frame, spread it out, used a sponge to soak up most of the water, and finally rolled it flat. Since they each were in charge of making 4 cards this was a pretty long adventure so it took the better part of the week to get done. Especially since I tried to make it as independent a project as possible. I also used a toaster over to help dry out the paper; the children all loved when it dinged at the end shouting "It's done!" They were quite amused that I was 'cooking' their presents.

Finally all the cards were dry with edges trimmed and ready to decorate. So myself and each eager child sat down and painted their hands to 'stamp' the paper with their personal signature. They were all very excited to do their 'fingerprints' as they kept calling it.

Note to mom: Gee, I wonder if they get told at home "Look at all those fingerprints you left on the window!", like I did a lot.

I was very impressed with their self control all morning. No one protested the ticklish feeling of having their hands painted, and in fact they all chose four different colors to stamp on. They mostly waited patiently for their turn, I had children simply checking in ever minute to see if it was their turn, rather than just hovering a couple feet away. Oh well.

In the end we had a lovely row of hand stamped cards drying to go home. I don't know how those normal preschool teachers do these types of projects day in and day out. Whew!

It's not just for girls

A lot of people think Montessori is really more for girls. They can't imagine getting little boys to sit quietly and concentrate on something for an extended period of time. They don't think the practical life exercises like sewing, preparing food, taking care of plants or dusting will appeal to boys.

That's just being stereotypical.

I'm very lucky that right now there's no stigma of "That's for girls/boys!" in our classroom (even with colors which for obvious cultural reasons seems to get drilled in very early on). So I had no problems showing O how to arrange flowers. It's a presentation I've been meaning to give him for a while, but one that needed to wait until we had a fresh delivery of flowers. No point showing him how to cut and put them in a vase if there was only one or two flowers to use!

I'm so glad that I finally got around to this today because he absolutely loved it. This is the same little boy that came in to the classroom in September and was so unaware of his movements that he would move the tables a foot or two as he tried to see what someone else was doing. Today O stood quietly and observed with his hands at his side as I demonstrated how to cut the stems underwater and them place them in a vase. I felt no qualms about handing over the gardening shears to him. I knew he'd taken to heart my message that they were sharper than scissors and we needed to be extra careful.

I helped him through the process one time, making sure he didn't skip any steps and reminding him gently if he did. O was more than happy to try and do it the way and I had shown him and happily went to get another bunch of flowers when the first set ran out. He did come to me a bit later, upset that the flower kept falling out of the vase but perked right up when I told him how he needed to cut the leaves so it would fit inside the mouth of the vase.

M with all her arrangements.
She was so focused on making them they she didn't
want to waste time spreading them around the room for display!

O made a few arrangements, then neatly cleaned up...well at least I think he did. I know I saw him drying things and folding the apron neatly. But M had been shadowing his work station, just waiting to pounce on it to arrange some flowers herself. So she was already hard at work before I had time to go over and inspect.

Now after this whole little tirade of how much a boy enjoyed flower arranging I have to admit that I have been a little biased by only showing the girls the button sewing activity in the classroom. But NOT because the boys weren't interested in it. In fact I had one little boy that for weeks kept taking out the basket and asking for a presentation....but he wasn't ready for it yet. It's commonly recognized that boys mature more slowly than girls, and that includes the fine motor control necessary for sewing on a button.

I purposely made an activity for threading a needle, the primary step in learning how to sew a button, to help gauge when children might be ready. I told C that he needed to master that work first and then I would show him how to sew a button. He's still working at it- and so are the other boys.

There are no 'pink' or 'blue' areas in the classroom. Everything is for everyone and that's the way we like it in our room.

We're teaching....physics?

What is the maximum weight a 5 year old can pull? Does friction have any impact? What about the slope? What if the 5 year old is sitting or standing? What if a 4 year old helps?

Ok, ok so not exactly the most advanced physics questions but the children were quite eager to find out the answers anyways. A large group of the children spent most of recess making a sled train. They'd have 3 or 4 sleds with a rider in each holding on to the rope of the next and try to move them. Unfortunately what mainly happened was the person in the first sled (the one who ended up pulling most of the weight) would slide right out of their sled. So they'd start all over again.

They experimented with different people pulling, taking away the last sled, and then just as they'd get the train going someone else would jump on and the entire thing would fall apart. No one got mad though, they'd just up and try again. Foot by foot they moved the little train along.

Then they got to the sliding hill....

I'm not quite sure what happened. All I know is the next time I looked over all the sleds were at the top of the hill, children were swarming around, hopping in and out, pulling one another a little ways and stopping, turning sleds around, all sorts of commotion. I felt kind of bad breaking it up with the call to go inside.

Oh well, tomorrow they'll get to experiment again.

One of those "is it time to go home yet?" days

Montessori has connection of freedom and responsibility. The children are allowed freedom, but only if they can show they will be responsible enough to handle it. And I had to take away a lot of freedoms in my class today.

1) One child was brandishing a knife at someone else...twice
2) Another couldn't keep his hands off everyone elses work
3) Another couldn't decide what he wanted to work on (all morning long)
4) Yet another child drew until we were out of drawing paper (and did just a little scribble on each piece)

So, their freedom to work on what they wanted without adult interference was taken away. Not handling the responsibility that goes with freedom of choice? Sorry guys, but I'm going to have to take that away.

1) Not treating potentially dangerous objects with respect? Well I guess you aren't allowed to do that work until I have time to re-present how to do so carefully again. Which might not be for a while because let's be honest, I'm tired of cleaning up the egg crumbs on the floor after you leave.
2) If you can't stop touching work, then you may not observe. And it's still observing if you're standing 5 feet away. And no, you can't observe someone else. Or that person either.
3) Can't decide? I'll decide for you then. Don't want to do that? Sorry, make your own choice next time.
4) Out of paper? Oh look! You have this entire side still that you haven't colored on, and plenty of space still on the other side. Let's see what you can find out.

As you might be able to tell from my responses I was a bit worn out today...maybe even before the day really started. In my defense there were quite a few things working against me. The heat wasn't working so we had the little space heater going in the doorway between the classrooms and the hustle/bustle from next door kept filtering in and adding to our normally quiet community. I was also attempting to make paper with each of the children to use as their holiday presents. It's an activity really designed for an older child, or a teacher being more hands on.

So yeah. It was one of those days were I'll admit I was pretty glad when the day was over.

Until I came home to an impatient dog who didn't want to listen as well!