Three New Works

So, I've come to the conclusion that I can't say "children" anymore! It's driving me crazy! I re-read some of my blog entries, and they sound so formal and boring...not like how I would talk at all. So, I'm turning over a new leaf and just writing "kids". That's how I refer to them, and it doesn't seem like slang to me. It makes them seem more personable. "Children" are very well-behaved and intelligent..."kids" are fun and cute and I love 'em!

So...back to what I was writing about. Here are a few new things on the shelves for the kids:


Shelling peanuts has been a VERY popular work (and also very messy!) Above is how it's laid out on the tray. And this is how it is laid out on the table:



A close-up of the nutcracker. I got it from Montessori Services- they said it was easy for kids to use, and it really is. Just keep twisting, and voila- a nice snack! Here's a close-up:



It has been messy, but everyone is learning to hold the nut-cracker OVER the bowl to crack the peanuts. A hard concept, I'm realizing...but they learn when they have to sweep both the table and the floor afterwards. At least, I hope they learn. I would welcome any suggestions on making it easier for kids to clean up this kind of mess after themselves. What if they don't know how to sweep a floor yet? It's easy for me to get frustrated when there's a huge mess, and I have to mostly clean it myself. We have to work on sweeping lessons, I guess...


Here's another work that has been fun, and produced nice results: pasting! Or gluing, or whatever. We started calling it pasting in the fall, so that's what it's remained. I cut a bunch of circles with the help of a wonderful friend's die-cutting machine (thank you!), and this is the tray on the shelf:



When someone wants to paste a collage, they bring the shot glass to me and I put a little glue in the bottom. It really takes just a little (maybe just covering the bottom, or even less). Then they can lay it out on an art mat:

The brush and shot glass are great. It took me a few tries to figure out the best method for us, but so far this is a winner. We don't have any painting works out (and I don't know if we ever will...maybe!), so this gives them a chance to practice using a paintbrush. It's easy to control, and doesn't waste glue. Here are some of the pictures that we've made so far. They're hanging up on our front door where I see them every day, and I really like them! They actually make me smile when I look at them, and I can't say that with the average kids' art project!



Here's one more, sorting nuts and bolts.


The pieces of felt give the kids a place to put the nuts and the bolts, and then the trickiest part is matching them up again. And then getting the nut on the bolt. Just the right challenge, so far.

We have school tomorrow...maybe I'll remember to take pictures of the kids actually using some of these materials. I do like to do that...the problem is remembering. And then not getting distracted by a crying toddler, someone needing more toilet paper in the bathroom, or someone begging for a sandpaper letter lesson. We'll see...the chances are slim.

What We've Done Lately

Here is a brief overview of what the children have been working on (at least what I've been able to photograph):

Everyone has been working with the puzzle map of North America. It is a fun, large puzzle and they are starting to grasp rudimentary geography.


Beginning in January, my youngest daughter Jane joined our class...it has been an expected challenge (she is not quite 17 months old) but she is adapting. Gene really helps out, and gives her attention when I cannot. We keep some of her things in the schoolroom where she can reach them.


Lucy using one of the dressing frames- small(ish) buttons.




Lucy using one of the geometric drawers- this drawer is a conglomeration of shapes that don't fit any other category. The other drawers have circles, triangles, rectangles, polygons, etc. Children can use them as puzzles, finding where the shapes go back in, and also match them up to cards. In the process, it is easy for them to learn the names of all the shapes.


Norah was the first to build a maze with the red rods (originally used to learn length- short, long, shorter, longer, etc.) But this is a fun extension, and the other children begged to walk in it as well.


Here's an example of our snack table. The children love snack! They usually check to see what snack is as soon as I lay it out (around 9 am!) and some of them choose to eat pretty early. These pictures show our "cutting a banana" snack. I started laying this out about a month ago (before Christmas) and they love to use the little knife and cutting board. The bananas have a small slit in the peel so the children can peel it without help. Then they can eat it whole if they want, but they all choose to cut it in slices with the knife, put the slices on their plate, and then eat from there.


There is always a control card laid out with snack. It has the name of the food written on top, and then a picture. The point is for the person having snack to lay out the food on the card, and then put it on their plate. This helps especially to control quantities, so one child won't eat all the snack. Though it still happens sometimes...


There is always a glass of water and a plate for each child. They eat snack, wipe their hands and face if needed on a wet cloth I leave out, and then dry them on a dry cloth, or the kitchen towel. They bring their used dishes to the "dirty dish bin" left on the floor of the kitchen. They wipe their place, and leave it ready for the next child. Only one child at a time can eat snack, but their is often someone else waiting to race into the kitchen as soon as the snack table is vacated.

So, I just rearranged the whole school area. I gave each child their own set of shelves, with their own materials on them, and after one day of school (Friday) I can say that it is a very good arrangement!

My reasoning:
1. We were running out of room on the shelves, but I didn't want to put away some of what I considered to be essential materials of the school, in case someone was interested in doing them. And I was having trouble deciding what to remove to make room for new works.

2. Some of the materials were not being used AT ALL. This would usually not happen in a Montessori classroom, because there would be at least 15-20 children and one of them would certainly be interested in a certain work... But I didn't know how to excite interest in some of the basics...pouring, spooning, the sensorial materials.

3. The children seemed a little bored. They would do their 3-4 favorite works, and then want to be done! Even though there were some things that I thought they should be interested in...I couldn't force it. And I have had Janie (my 16 month old) for a couple weeks now, and she'll be staying with us for the rest of the year. While I enjoy having her home more than sending her away, it makes it a little more difficult for me to give quality attention to the other children...and they also tend to be more distracted by her as she likes to babble and move constantly around the classroom. We just have to work with her, and around her...

So, I am feeling really good about the shelves as they are now. I am able to put out just a few of the materials that each child is working with (the ones they tend to choose most), and I put all the rest away. Now they have a more limited choice (maybe 9-10 options total, plus one shelf full of things that are for everyone to use- mostly art materials). I also put out some things on their shelf that I WISH they would work with, and we'll see how it goes. I can talk those materials up a bit, because they are specifically for one child and there is a sense of ownership there that I think helps them be more interested.

If someone wants to work with something on another person's shelf, they may come to me and request that it be on their shelf soon. I don't want them working with another child's materials, even with that child's permission...I would rather they focus on their shelf.

We'll see how this works. It has just been one day, but I can't see how we can go too wrong with this!

I'll post pictures of new works soon. I know the pictures are what really makes a blog appealing...so I'll do my best!

I love Montessori! I know I've probably said it before on this blog, but it's the truth. It is working so well for our family. Case in point today...we had just eaten brunch after church, and were starting to clear the dishes, when the kids pulled some work off the shelf and were quickly absorbed in it. Gene started making a "Christmas Chain", a work just presented on Friday that he hadn't tried yet, and Lucy got some paper and a pencil and drew pictures. They were so calm and peaceful, and we were able to clean up quickly while they worked.

It was nice for us (as parents who appreciate a quiet house), but I am writing this post mostly because I am so excited and happy for them. In my pre-Montessori days (i.e. a few months ago) I would sometimes wonder how I would ever do art projects (or any craft-type project) with them. I would try once in a while, pulling out all sorts of materials to make something-or-other, and then Gene would say he wasn't interested. Or he would attempt the project for a couple minutes, and go back to what he had been doing. The problem was that we were doing projects on my time. Montessori allows children to work on their time, to take a "prepared" project off the shelf and work on it whenever they feel like it. This means they are actually interested in the project, have NOTHING else they would rather be doing, and will probably work on it for a while and do a good job on it (or at least as good a job as they are capable of).

Gene cut, colored and glued together 5 paper rings, and was so proud of himself. Norah worked on it on Friday, and they are both excited to hang the chains on their respective Christmas trees. Yeah, Montessori!

Christmas Ideas

I have had a few good ideas for Christmas activities, and I am way too tired to take any pictures of what I've spent this evening assembling, but here is the rundown... I found some red and white beads and a green string, so we will have "Christmas" bead-stringing on the shelf tomorrow. We have a stringing activity out often, but because of limited shelf space it is not always available. It does tend to be popular, however (being one of those "classic" preschool activities). I also sorted through our duplos (which are rarely used in our house...I think the children think they are boring because all they know how to do is build towers with them...they have yet to use their imaginations!) and put all the red, green and white duplos into a Christmas-decorated basket. We'll see if that makes them attractive enough. I also spent a while cutting out Christmas pictures from catalogs- Christmas trees, wreaths, stockings, candles, etc. I will put it out as a collage/pasting work tomorrow.

One other idea I had (though haven't gotten ready yet) is having the children cut paper to make their own paper chains. For anyone reading this who is also teaching young children, this would be excellent cutting practice. My children have been using scissors more often lately, but cutting on a line (especially a long line) is more difficult for them than I thought it would be, and yet they lack incentive to improve that skill. What is the point of cutting a bunch of lines drawn on a piece of paper (which is one work offered on our shelves)? But, if the point is to cut strips of paper (nice looking strips!) and then make a decoration from them, they might have more reason to work on their cutting. I can't wait to give it a try!

Wednesday, December 3

A nice, peaceful day today. Everyone got to work and settled down fairly quickly once we returned from picking up Norah. I never know how long it will take to get started once we pick her up. Gene and Norah usually race ahead and wait for Lucy and I, but now with snow on the ground everyone wants to pick it up or eat it or whatnot. Lucy was intent today on picking up a huge chunk of dirty snow and carrying it with her the whole way home. And then she wanted me to carry it because her arms were tired! I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway, my point is that there is often some distraction on the way back to our house. And once we get there, they have to remove shoes/boots, mittens, hats and jackets, and put them all in their proper places. Then they wash hands before starting any work. Sometimes (and I don't know how) it seems to be close to 9:30 or even 9:45 once in a while before all three of them are actually working. And we go to pick up Norah at 9! I wonder if we can improve on that:)

The highlights today were as follows:

Gene-
coloring a picture
sandpaper letters
all the dressing frames
cutting paper
reading a book

Norah-
putting dimes in a bottle
playdough
putting pins in a shaker
lesson on coloring a picture
bean bowl

Lucy-
playdough
pins in a shaker
pooh puzzle
stamping
butterfly puzzle
duck floor puzzle
reading

Here are the new works I just mentioned:

"Coloring a picture"...I have been printing out coloring pages from online (look up "free winter coloring pages" for instance), and then laying out a couple choices for coloring. A child would choose a picture, and take it with a bowl of crayons and scissors to a table. Placing the materials on an art mat (we have some wild crayoning kids and the tables don't appreciate it) they can color the picture. That part is obvious. Then, if they want, they can cut on the lines that you may be able to faintly see in the picture...I drew lines above and below each picture, so that when cut the picture would be completely free of "computer lingo"...the words that always print telling the website the picture was printed from, etc. I am trying to incorporate some cutting practice in, as well as coloring, and it has been really popular. Gene is actually coloring, and learning to color in the lines! (He was never interested in coloring books, and loved to scribble on blank paper, but that's what it would be, lots of scribbling. So, this is a new step for him:)



Below is "Pins in a shaker"...I will take votes on new names for this. I bought some long sewing pins with colored heads, and they fit nicely in this vintage sugar shaker I found at a thrift shop a few weeks ago. I first saw this work at Go Like the Wind Montessori school I visited over the summer, and have been wanting to put it together ever since! It has been used every day since I put it out...The shaker is turned over, and all the pins are dumped in the small red tray (really a cardboard lid for a wine gift-box, but such a pretty lid I had to find a use for it!). Then, carefully, a child can pick up a single pin and put it into a hole in the shaker. They can put them in any holes they like, but when they are ready to put it away they must put the pins around the edges again.


And here is a picture from a few days ago...it wasn't during school-time, but Gene and Lucy pulled the Magneatos out, and I was finally able to interest them in building three-dimensional towers. They watched as I started one, and then helped to build a little of it. But then, they went back to their comfort zone and began putting them all end-to-end to build "roads"...


Also, at circle time today, we finished up reading a Bill Peet book (Zella, Zack and Zodiac)...I had never read any of his books before, but am pleased with what we have read so far...they are long but interesting picture books. I am enjoying reading random picture books during circle times...we don't have a theme to what we read, but I find that the books hold the kids' attention, and help them to settle down for the other activities we do. We also recently read "The Rainbow Fish".

And then, at the end of circle time, we build a couple "pink and brown towers" all together. It was fun for them, and I am hoping to interest them in using the cubes and prisms a little more (actually, at all...they have not been chosen by anyone by me!)

New Choices

As I mentioned, there are some new works on the shelves that I haven't posted about. And some have been pretty popular lately. Here they are, in no particular order:

This is "leaf rubbing", and it has been out on the shelves for maybe a month now. Not a ton of use, but more so lately.


It took me a while to figure out how to present "leaf rubbing"...but this seems to be working. The leaf is real, and taped to a square of cardboard. To do this work, a child gets a piece of "metal inset" paper, puts it on top of the leaf and attaches the paper with the clothespins. Then they can rub the crayon all over, pressing harder to really bring out the veins in the leaf. Once they have rubbed a leaf, I will put tape on the back, and they can stick it to a branch of the tree I drew on our wall (I will post a picture sometime...right now it is too dark in the schoolroom to do the tree justice).


This is a "sewing cylinder"...at least that is what we call it. I got it from Montessori Services, I think.


There are many holes to put the large wooden needle into, and it is a pre-sewing exercise. Basically the wooden needle goes through multiple holes until the string is used up, and then it can be taken out again. But it is trickier than it looks...getting the cylinder unthreaded takes a lot of patience and requires good eye-hand coordination.


Sorting money is a very new work. Gene has been dealing with money for the last year or so, and very interested in it, but I realized that Lucy has barely touched a coin and couldn't tell the difference between any of the silver coins. So I pulled this together last night and presented it today. Everyone is pretty good at sorting, but it is fun to introduce new items to sort. And eventually they will learn the names of the coins, and learn more about them. But first things first!
These are the magneatos...we got them for Christmas a couple years ago, from a children's toy magazine. There are two sizes of "sticks" and many balls, and they are all magnetized. Here are some ideas of things to make with them, but so far the most popular has been to just stick them all together in a long line. Hopefully they'll get a little more creative soon...





I had fun with them, anyway. Maybe seeing what I did will rub off on somebody!


These are the sound books, which have been filling up with "sounds" at various rates. Gene has begun filling his yellow sound book, and Norah and Lucy are about halfway through their red sound books. They are very simple...I draw one big letter on each page as they are introduced to that particular sandpaper letter. Then, every time I give a lesson on a new sandpaper letter, I have the child show me how they trace the previous letters in their book. It is built-in practice.



This is the first sound in each red sound book. I just draw them in, though I know that Laura in the blog My Montessori Journey has the children in her class paste in a die-cut letter. I like that idea, but for now drawing seems simpler. Everyone has been fascinated, however, watching me color in the lines. I think we need a coloring activity...we haven't used many coloring books, mostly because Gene was never interested in coloring and Lucy was too little. But now that coloring is more popular, I think they need to appreciate the art of "coloring in the lines"...someone actually asked why I was doing it that way!!!