Fall activities

So while most of the activities in a Montessori classroom stay constant (the pink tower is ALWAYS out!), and others are modified to keep the children interested (like adding a rolling pin to go with the modeling clay), we still like to do some seasonal or holiday activities.

This week I introduced pumpkin scrubbing. It wasn't something I had planned (a parent brought in a bunch of small, decorative gourds for our upcoming festival) but boy have the children loved it! The first day I put it out none of them really noticed it on the shelf. So when I kept seeing one of the younger three year olds wandering I invited him to be the first one to try it out. I had to change up a few things mid-presentation (that's a big no-no there!) but I wasn't quiet willing to deal with the gallons of water that were going to end up on the floor if I used the bowl and pitcher I had originally intended to....No idea what I was thinking there. While I try not to be bothered by it when the children spill or make a big mess, that doesn't mean I need to ENCOURAGE it!

So after outfitting J with the proper equipment I proceeded to watch as all the other children gathered around, now eager to try the new work (of course!) and eagerly asking if they could be next.

Well J did keep saying yes, but then he kept scrubbing. And scrubbing, and scrubbing. And then it was time to go home. There were about 10 little pumpkin gourds scattered around the classroom and no too much water on the floor. Now that's such a nice change from the aimless wandering he was doing earlier in the day!

I was a little concerned that he was going to repeat that again today; good for him, but frustrating for the other children. But M beat him to it! When she gets an idea in her head she's bound and determined to follow through and after seeing her keep her eye on the work yesterday I wasn't too surprised that that was the first thing she rushed to do!

So she scrubbed pumpkins for about half an hour and emptied the basket of them. C came up to me, all concerned that there were no pumpkins for her to scrub. So, I invited her to grab the basket and go with another teacher to fetch more from the back hallway. I might have made a bit of a mistake there since she went back at least once, possibly twice for even MORE pumpkins!

Basically at the end of the day I needed to use the dishes trolley in order to haul all the clean pumpkins out of the classroom. And I have to say I'm quite impressed by all the places they thought to put them!

Construction

Don't let anyone tell you there's such a thing as a word that's too big for a three year old!

"I gotta tell Teacher Alex!" S hollered as he came pounding the door, lunch box swinging wildly as his dad dodged out of the way. He looked up at me with those giant brown eyes, mouth open with awe.

"There's an excabator out there! There's two ekabators! And they're MOVING!" The sheer excitement of the situation seemed to be too much for him to even get the words out and yet he had to tell me so fast that it took a second to even register what he was saying.

"Yes there is an excavator out there. What's it doing?"

"The ekabator's digging the dirt! I'm gonna tell F." And with that he pounded off to let his brother know about the excavator. You know, in case he had somehow missed the GIANT YELLOW MOVING machine in the front yard.

And who know there were so many ways to say excavator?

One month

Tomorrow marks the official end of one month of school...and I won't get to be there for it :( While I'm at home recovering from strep throat the kids will be there with a substitute teacher. And you know what, I'm not too worried. Today I really saw how much progress we've made over the course of that month.

J and little C spent almost all morning following M around. She invited them to watch her arrange flowers, then she and J built the pink tower together while C went off and made his first bird book (mostly) independently. Meanwhile S asked to learn about the geometric solids and before I could even answer O offered to teach him! So they spent about 15 or 20 minutes building rocket ships and discovering other ways the bases of the solids fit together.

Meanwhile have no idea what big C did most of the morning. I just know that every time I looked up she was happily working away diligently at something. Fastening buttons, cutting paper, playing with clay. She still likes to come over and tell me what she's doing but she's become such an independent worker that I'm really proud of her.

And then there was K. K who doesn't speak much english but is finally showing that he has a lot of comprehension of what we're saying. K who had to change his pants at least 10 times the first day of school but hasn't had an accident the past 3 days of school. K took out two activiites completely independently and even returned one of them to the shelf without a reminder! He knew that he needed to finish cleaning up the grain he spilled before it could be put back and did such a good job (with a little helping encouragement) that I could finally introduce water pouring to him. That was when I found out that he did know the words wet and dry. So now thanks to that one presentation he's got several new activities to try-

• Putting on an apron, including snapping it
• Actually pouring water
• Wiping up a spill with a cloth
• Hanging said cloth up on the drying pack WITH a clothespin
• Rolling an oilcloth (ok, this one he already knew but needs more practice!

And how do I know all these things? Because today I could actually sit and observe to take all this one. I gave 4 or 5 new presentations and was barely interrupted during them for an 'emergency'. Yet I still had time to sit on my stool and take notes. It was wonderful to see them all settled in to the routine and busy working both alone and with each other.

So here's hoping that they're at least half as good tomorrow!

Please let some of these good things happen tomorrow!

Some weeks there's just too much..

...and those are the weeks I don't feel like blogging. So here's a little rundown of the week and hopefully that will earn me some forgivness for posting late.

Monday-

The week didn't start out too, bad; two children gone (one out sick, the other just because she never comes Mondays). So I got to focus on K, who continued to wet his pants several times despite being sent to the bathroom nearly every half hour. And J, who still refuses to wait to touch materials AND insists on playing with them at the shelf...I think that's a pet peeve of mine actually, very frustrating. Add in a little bit of the usual Monday messes (finding out I forgot to order our food work groceries the week before and had no silverware for lunch) and it was an all right day. So I enjoyed a night of training of the dog and having movie night with my friends. Then Tuesday started.

Tuesday-

Everyone was back on Tuesday. S was back, still recovering a bit from his cold and spent the entire day whimpering, whining and on the verge of tears. Well, except for the time he spent avoiding the classroom and garnering sympathy from the staff in the hallway while he pretended to need to use the bathroom 6 times in 3 hours.... And whenever he was in the classroom he flat our refused to work on anything, even his favorite bead stringing and kept crying if I moved more than 3 feet from him. I did finally let him go lay on a cot for a while, only to see him spinning circles on it and throwing puzzle pieces...so that wasn't really helpful.

Oh, and to top this all of little I was also crying her head off. She misses mom, she was tired, she didn't want to do anything, she didn't want snack. So after about 10 minutes of letting her whimper and trying to find something for her to do I gave up. Yep, that's what I said: I gave up. I told her that when she was done crying I would love to spend some time with her but that I didn't want to be by her while she was crying.

So she kept screaming and hiccuping for nearly 40 minutes. I'd go over to her every now and then and repeat my offer but she usually just started screaming louder so I mainly let her be. Finally she calmed down enough that I let her stand by me and watch me do some work (trying to find something she might want to try) and I finally got her interested in dusting the classroom with C.

And then we had a fire drill. Not our first one of the year but still. So, S screeched and jump right up in to my arms and I calmly carried him out while praying little I wouldn't start up crying again because S is pretty big for a three year old and I wasn't sure I could carry both of them. Luckily she seems to go a bit more to the side of being silently shell-shocked by the fire alarm. Anyways we all made it outside and then of course they were distracted the rest of work time so it was a huge relief to go out to recess. Then I realized it wasn't even Wednesday.

And meanwhile K still had a giant grain spill that he had been cleaning up all morning. Literally, all morning....

Wednesday-

It felt like a repeat of Tuesday (sans the fire drill). S and I both crying most of the morning and not letting me get more than a few feet from them while all the other children are desperate for some new presentations. I actually had to put an end to S going out in to the hallway to use the bathroom because he would simply go out and sit in one of the chairs for 20 minutes...yeah not why we're at school buddy sorry. Of course when I broke the news to him that he was at school to be in the classroom that started a whole new wave of crying. So the morning felt like being in a loop. K even dumped out all the grain again, though at a different table (so you know, I would have different shelves to sweep under).

And so did nap time. J has been refusing to stay on his cot much less sleep for the past 3 weeks. He's gone from being my most consistent napper to the one who keeps me so busy that I can't even leave his side to hush another child or he'll be doing circles around the room. Even bribery with a favorite story book made no impact. Sigh.

And it kept hitting me that it was only Wednesday...

Thursday-

Not quite as much as a loop as Wednesday luckily. S was still constantly on the verge of tears and constantly asking if he could lay on his cot or go to the bathroom. I made it very clear that there would be no cot until nap time and myself and the hallway staff teamed up to make sure that he went directly to the bathroom and came back. No stops to sit and loll around in the waiting chair, no sidetracking to visit his brother, etc.

I was a little nervous about little I because the first thing I see in the morning is a note from her mother saying how she is leaving for a trip and this is the first time ever that I has been away from her; GASP! Ok, ok, I do get that it is a big deal but still...I is almost 3, that just boggles my mind!

And actually I was the happiest she had been all week. I pin that on the consistency of coming to school for a few days in a row. She talked about how her grandma was picking her up and momma was going on a girls trip. So I made sure to give her a presentation right away (before she could ramp up any tears) and between me and M (who's taken her under her wing) little I was pretty happy all day. Constantly asking "When it's the clean-up song we go outside? Momma's gonna pick me up?" but pretty good compared to her usual standard.

J still bounced all around on his cot all nap time and hardly anyone else slept so I had a group of 6 crowded in our little play space afterwards....and then I got home and realized that my exhaustion wasn't all from the kids: I was definitely getting a cold, no matter how hard I wanted to deny it. And I still hadn't swept up all the grain K had dumped out again earlier in the day.

Friday-

Friday was the day I needed after the rest of the week. 4 children were gone--4! It was so nice! Me and my stuffy nose and scratchy throat were so thankful to be able to talk quietly and move slowly all day. K was gone so the grain stayed in the cup (though another child had a pretty big water spill but at least that will eventually clean itself up!) I was gone and with only 6 other children S seemed to feel like he could finally spend enough time with me (and had finally quit asking to lay on his cot!)

I tried to get through as many presentations as possible to make up for being so busy the rest of the week so now those children have some new things to practice.

Then nap time rolled around. J was up to his usual antics but I knew I had to crack down on one of the other children who has also been getting some bad habits at nap and just told him that I couldn't sit with him today. J said ok, lay quiet for maybe 2 minutes then wandered over to sit with me. Every time he did I waited until he squirmed enough to be completely off my lap then sent him back to his cot. Finally he got quiet, his head hanging off the edge of his cot and fingers playing with the dirt on the floor.

Then we got up and I found out why he'd been so still...and laying on his stomach.

"J, the back of your pants look wet, do you need to change them?" Blank look. "Let's go change them."

I'm proud to say that I was smart enough to be prepared with gloves and all my supplies before helping him take of his pants but....let's just say I now feel like I am prepared for just about any other bodily function mess this year.

And that's how the week ended.

Is it vacation yet?

Meet the kids!

I can't believe that it's been over two weeks since school started! My biggest surprise was that it took us until this week to break our first piece of glass (from the grain pouring)...and then of course we broke three plates since! Oh well, it was a nice streak while it lasted.

Now that a bit of time has passed I feel like I have a better handle on the children in my class and have seen a bit more of their personalities. I'd really love to look back at the end of the year and see how far off I was!

The second years-

C - She's come back just eager for school, especially to share the experience with her little sister just starting in the other room! She's been wonderfully eager to practice a lot of things from last year while I've been busy with the younger students. Last year I guessed she was going to be one of the easy good ones and I'm glad to see the summer hasn't changed her!

S- A very mature and self contained little girl S has been very eager to show around the younger students, though she sometimes gets a bit silly and carried away with pretending and making up stories. I think she'll be a lot more focused once I have time to start working with some more challenging things with her, though I hope she learns that practice is an important part of learning!

M- My youngest returning girl who often acts like the oldest. She's very happily settled in to the role of older mentor and loves working with the younger children. What's really impressed me is how understanding she is with them and pretty open to compromising. She's always been a very dedicated worker and I can only see that continuing. I really hope she learns to speak up a bit more for herself though rather than coming to tattle to me.

O- The only returning boy who is thrilled to have more people to tell his stories to. Unfortunately he's a bit too forward and in your face for most of the younger children, and the one who doesn't mind gets way too crazy with. He's got very good intentions but is definitely a wanderer and doesn't have a lot of impulse control yet. Unfortunately he also has strong opinions and wants to make sure they're heard!

N- My honorary second year student! N just turned four the second week of school and is so mature for her age that she's already settled in with the other girls. She's careful with the materials, follows directions easily and is extremely respectful and polite. These are the types of kids you dream about having in class! She's also very eager to help the little ones and is really good with them. And even though she doesn't know a lot of works in the classroom she's been very good about keeping busy, mainly by working with the older girls. I think she's going to be another really good one!

The new ones!

C- Another one I was excited to have! C has an older brother in the other classroom and I can see a lot of similarities. He's going to be a pretty quiet one and I'll have to make sure I don't overlook him.I think he's going to be mainly an observer rather than a doer (like his brother actually!). He doesn't want to do too many new things with me, but he watches everything! Now if we could just get over his nerves about using the bathroom at school...

I- My youngest little one who is only going to come three days a week...which concerns me. Other than the obvious of having less time, I think it's going to be hard on her because of her habits. She's obviously used to having mom (or dad) nearby during all things and is constantly asking me 'What next?" or saying "it's too hard!" She also seems to be a perfectionist and only wants to do things the right way. Sorry, but I have nine other children that need my attention, I'm not going to be there to affirm everything and I only hope that she adapts to that even though she's only here a few days a week....She's definitely a brave little thing though. It's obvious that she's just waiting for mom to come and fighting to hold herself together and not cry. That's some guts and determination there!

J- My puzzle expert. J was the first one in our class to successfully complete the puzzle map of South America (yes even before the four year olds!). He's going to keep me on my toes because he's really quick and needs challenge. He's also excellent at keeping busy and has awesome work habits when it comes to choosing things and putting them away when done. I hope I can keep up with him so he doesn't get bored and cause trouble!

K- My work in progress who I'm already sure is going to be the most improved by the end of the year. Right now he only speaks about 10-12 words without prompting, though even over just two weeks I feel like his vocabulary is expanding. He's also spending most of the day in the bathroom, changing clothes while we try to figure out how to convince him to use the toilet. He's been really curious about the other children, though it's obvious he hasn't had much of a chance to play with children his own age and isn't quite sure how to. However his mom was mostly concerned about his behavior, and other than taking toys from children he's been a very sweet boy who tries to please and has been my buddy when it's time to take the nap room down at the end of the day. Maybe by the end of the year he'll be putting the cots away himself and I can just watch!

S- Another younger sibling who definitely is used to having a bit of his own way through whining. Part of it right now I think is he's still usually in a state of exhaustion and running on fumes most of the times. He definitely wants to listen and follow the rules, but easily forgets what he's doing and gets distracted. Yesterday we spent an hour picking up grain together because he purposely dumped it on the table and flicked it around. On the other hand he didn't really complain much as we did it. I'm thinking he'll be one who just needs to get used to the schedule (and get more sleep!) and once he finds those interesting activities I won't need to worry about him so much!

Wait...I thought I was the teacher!

So every weekend I make my plans for the next week. Which presentations I want to show which children, who needs to practice sandpaper letters or counting, etc. Last week I introduced J, who is almost 3 years old to the number rods. He's really excited about numbers and unlike most children that age actually understands the idea of counting, rather than just reciting the numbers in order.

Unfortunately just counting the rods wasn't exciting enough to engage him for too long, and even though he could easily identify the number cards that went with them he just wasn't in to counting the rods and labeling them with the cards. So I decided that this week I would do a fetching activity with him. To do this I would show him one of the number cards and have him bring me the rod that went with it. I already knew that he loved to move and match things that went together so it seemed perfect for him.

So I wrote it on my sheet and figured I would wait for a not so busy time when I could work with him one on one. Unfortunately I had another student this morning who just wouldn't settle in, and of course 2 or 3 others with various little problems that needed my help. Meanwhile J was wandering around, slightly bored and messing a bit with things on the shelves. I suggested that he take the number rods out and count them, figuring I might be able to join in a bit later and if not at least he would have some practice with them.

Well that didn't go so well. He got out a mat fine and most of the shorter rods. Then as he began taking the larger ones off the shelf (the biggest, 10, is a meter long) and playing a bit where he would let them swing down to the ground with a satisfying thunk. And of course he decides to do this when I'm completely occupied and stuck helping another student. And of course one of the older children comes over to inform me what he's doing. Yes, yes I see, I have eyes, I know who's causing trouble.

So I told J to use both hands, and had M (who came over to tell me what he was doing) to help show him how to hold the rods properly. So she trooped over, and immediately got upset about how he had messed them up on the shelf. "No, that' doesn't go there." She told him repeatedly, re-arranging them back in order. J seemed a bit interested and first, then kind of lost interest as she simply did it herself when he couldn't (or wouldn't?) put them back in order.

Then she had the best idea and caught his attention. "J, let's do fetching!" Wait a second, that was my idea! Before I know she has the numbers out on a mat and all the rods are on a separate mat and she's telling him to go and get her 1. And he's not quite running back and forth and she's helping him count the rods when he messes up and carefully places the numbers as they go all the way from 1 to 10. And I finish up helping my other student and just go to my stool and just watch for a bit. Finally I take out my clipboard, look at the lesson plan and write next to the number rod fetching for J, M did with him instead.

One less presentation to worry about this week!

Now that's a valid point

Today while folding laundry with the children I handed a stack of napkins to a not quite three year old.

"Here I, you know where these go!" Big smile of encouragment.

"Where?"  (with that adorable lisp of course!)

"In the hutch."

"But I can't open it."

"Sure you can, I've seen you. Just pull hard."

"I can't open it with something in my hands." (well, that IS very true)

"You can set them on the snack table, open the door and then put them away."

She looked contemplatively at the napkins in her hand then marched off. Only in preschool can the problems be so novel and yet so easily solved!

Week 1: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the cute!

So it's taken most of the weekend to recover but I'm proud to say that myself and all 10 students survived the first week of school! Well...I think at least....not sure how they fared after going home on Friday.... Obviously I didn't have time to take pictures much this week so use your imaginations ;)

The good:

1. Everyone made it through the morning work cycle with minimal crying by Friday!
2. No broken materials during the first week, way better than I expected!
3. I know everyone's name ;)

The bad:

1. I have no idea what my non-native speaker is saying 99% of the time
2. One of my 3 year old boys is already comfortable enough to start testing the limits....by climbing trees...and shoving sand in his face...and sliding his cot around the nap room....
3. Lots of changing of wet pants...yeah....

The ugly:

1. Above mentioned child who was shoving his face in the sand had lovely colored snot running down his face when mom came to pick him up, oops!
2. I was so busy at one point I allowed a younger child to create an utter mess with the clay because it was keeping him occupied. Let's just say that I'm still finding green clay in odd places, such as my backpack...which was in the closet.....
3. At one point there was a puddle of urine...on a table...how?

The cute:

1. One of my new little boys kept calling for me to tuck him in at nap, and then fell asleep before I could make it over there. So tired!
2. Another new child went through every single cylinder block, then every box of knobless cylinders, then every single puzzle on my intro shelf. I foresee a good work ethic there!
3. All my returning children entertained themselves spectacularly while I was busy integrating the new ones. I showed one of them how to use the new stereognostic bags and she proceeded to show the others how to do it...and made sure they all had a turn...and they helped each other with their blindfolds (including remembering to put the dirty ones in the laundry!)....and they did this all week...I'm so glad they're back!

It's gonna be a good year!

A new year

Well it's been a long hiatus. Spring was full of upheavals at our little school but with classes starting up for a new year tomorrow if feels like we're finally moving forward. Tomorrow it will be up to me, six new students, and four old students to begin building a new classroom community. Here's hoping it goes as well as last year, I"m ready for it! 

Drawing a crowd

Today I started reading a story with one child. By the end of it I had four clustered around me and a fifth child hurriedly cleaning up so he could come and join us.

Later I was presenting the golden beads to a child, practicing counting teen numbers. One child drifted over to watch. Another pulled up a chowki to work nearby. (and by nearby I mean practically on my feet!). The final two set out their work at two of the nearest tables.

So in this whole room the entire class was crammed into a space about 8 feet square. None of them was really chatting with each other or all that interested in much beyond their own work, they just wanted to be close by I guess.

And then the baby came to visit us.

Little T often comes in to hang out in our room while his mom gets some work done in the office. He's a good little observer and the younger children love having him visit. So of course when T got a bit fussy and I shifted him from his bouncy chair to a mat on the carpet my students followed him like ducklings.

Granted they did all finish the work they had out first (including putting it away!) so I can't be too upset. Still though, they have an entire classroom I prepared especially for them. Come on guys, appreciate it already! ;)