Let It Be Montessori

Okay, So Here's What Happened...

 

This is an edited post from our classroom blog, December, 2011.

     Last Tuesday we received the first measurable snow of the season. The afternoon class was so excited to see those gigantic flakes falling outside the window that we literally dropped everything and went outside.

    Day 1: Now, it had been raining all morning and that was why we had to stay inside all morning. But as soon as the temperature dropped just a couple of degrees, the rain turned into big, fat, wet snowflakes and that somehow made it essential that we get outside and stick our faces up to the sky and catch as many of them on our tongues as we could. And it makes an everlasting impression on us to look up to the sky and see nothing but dense, gray clouds with snow falling out of them, don't you think?


     This is an artsy way of saying that we went outside in the very wet snow and we stayed there a long time. Some of us got very, very wet. Miss Heather had to put her coat in the dryer when she got home and many other friends did too, I am sure.

Miss Angie smartly used an umbrella to keep out of the snow. Note the playground conditions in the background of this photo.

      But the children were extremely happy and they were helping each other and being kind and smiling.  Most of them walked around with a kind of astonished look on their faces. The ones who got too cold or too wet were able to go inside with my assistant teacher, so it was a win-win situation for everybody I think.  Until everyone had to go home and dry all their snow gear. But I digress...

A and D shovel the slush.

     Day 2: The next day was really terrific. We got out the sleds and kids were sliding and building forts on the basketball court and once again, looking astonished.  Morning or afternoon class, they loved the snow.

A friend on a snow-covered tire with the morning sun lighting up her face.

     Doesn't it sound terrific?

     Day 3: The next day is when things got a little messy.  All that snow had melted into rain and it collected in what we call Lake Montessori covering the sidewalk. Another low-lying area, we call the Pond, is located in the grass a little further west toward the road. The morning children tried to shovel the muddy water just like they had with the snow the day before but they quickly learned that water can't be shoveled. Now I agree that I look at this photo and there is a little part of me that screams, "What were you thinking?!!" But just a tiny part that I tend to disregard.

Many friends join in to try to move Lake Montessori.

     The children's intentions were good. All of this started out because they couldn't ride the bikes through the puddle so they wanted to move the puddle. And they were learning so much! One question was, "Why doesn't the water just go into the ground?"  When we repeat the experience in the classroom with a fishbowl of soil and a watering can it will make even more sense. But it's best to start with a concrete example.

 

      So when they realized that shoveling wasn't going to work, I brought out the wheelbarrows. The kids love the wheelbarrows and we rarely get to use them so this seemed like a good time for a lesson in fluid dynamics. I suggested that the Pond could hold more water so the challenge became getting the water out of Lake Montessori and into the Pond via wheelbarrow and snow shovel. If you want to see happy kids, give them a physical job that requires them to use their whole bodies in the great outdoors and makes them think. For some, messy is okay. This job was all that.

M. and A. successfully moved then poured a wheelbarrow of water into the Pond.

 

     When was the last time you moved a wheelbarrow full of water 10 feet across soggy grass? I know, why would you want to? But these guys had nothing else to move. They LIKE moving things from one place to another. And the benefits are immeasurable. In their second attempt, A. told M. , "Miss Heather said to keep it balanced! Look, it's balancing!"  We can't recreate THAT kind of hands-on discovery and purposeful work in the classroom. 

A. found a bucket worked better than a shovel.

 

      When it was discovered that a bucket worked better than a wheelbarrow to carry the water, they changed their tools. They did actually manage to lower the water level of Lake Montessori but soon we were wet and cold and all but a few of us were ready to go inside.

     I'm sorry so many of your children have come home wet and muddy this week. It's entirely my fault. They weren't like that because they were trying to get dirty. They were just doing good, purposeful work and having fun. They were also learning a little science and a little about themselves. I want the children to understand that when they walk into a puddle of water in their tennis shoes their feet are going to get wet and cold.  The same thing happens when they put their cotten gloves in a cold pile of wet snow. But hopefully they just need to learn these lessons a couple of times before they can make good decisions about dressing for the weather conditions.

     In my dream classroom, I would have a mudroom with rain coats and boots for each child, lots of extra hats and mittens, and maybe even a washer and dryer. A gym would be nice, too.  Until then, please understand that I am NOT encouraging your kids to get wet and dirty, but I'm also not insisting that they stay clean. The outside is composed of soil, water and air and it's a good and happy day when we can touch them all.

Heather

  

Roly Polies - Mankind's Most Forgiving and Durable Pet

      Call them wood lice or pill bugs or potato bugs or sow bugs - all of those names will pull up a similar picture on Google. Roly poly is the name the children seem to prefer for this tiny bug that eats rotting vegetation and curls itself into a ball when threatened. With children digging them up and carrying them around, they must feel threatened a lot! But they are such good sports. 

     Roly polies have been especially important this year to the children in our classroom. Perhaps part of the reason is our extended outdoor classroom time which allows more opportunities to find the bugs, collect them, then build a community around the activity. Who is the chief collector? Who helps? Who carries the jar? Who decides when a jar is needed? Who brings them into the classroom? Who remembers to put them back outside? 

S.  found and counted 92 roly polies one morning.

      Roly polies are a terrific example of how learning takes place without any teaching. I have attempted to list below all of the skills that I have observed being used to handle these tiny terrestrial crustaceans.

1.) small motor - it takes a well-coordinated, yet gentle, pincer grip to pick up a roly poly.
2.) visual skills - you have to see them crawling through the dirt and mulch.
3.) bravery - you have to be "ok" with them crawling over your skin.
4.) observation - "That's a roly poly!"
5.) visual - "This one is little and this one is big."
6.) estimating and counting - How many do you think are in the jar? How many are actually there?
7.) love and respect for other living things.
8.) social - working as a team to collect and  study them.
9.) language - isopod, pill bug, sow bug, terrestrial crustacean, armadillidiidae, wood lice, moist, damp, rotting vegetation...  
10.) classification - pill bugs and sow bugs are all members of the wood lice family, but only pill bugs roll into a ball.
11.) observation - they have 14 legs (or 7 pairs) and we find lots of roly polies under pieces of wood. 

I'll stop there but you could probably can add a couple zillion more...

     This week we will discuss what we will need in order to have a living collection of roly polies in the classroom.

Rockets

     Rockets are big. Rockets are loud. Rockets are powerful and kind of dangerous. And when rockets are launched, people count backwards. What's not to love about that? Especially for preschoolers.

     One child in my morning class has been deeply interested in rockets and the moon since the beginning of the year. His interest has now spread to the rest of the class. The children have been so interested in rolling up paper into rocket-shaped tubes that we have added a third tray to the paper shelf in the art area. 

• Shelf 1 is clean, white paper that we use for drawing and coloring.  
•  Shelf 2 is sometimes a maze or a "coloring" sheet that has a picture of something related to an area of study in the classroom. (Some children are not interested in making marks on paper. Coloring sheets can be helpful for those who need more direction than a blank paper can offer. We never discuss coloring inside the lines.)
•  Shelf 3 is paper that has been used on one side, the "recycled" paper. This is the paper that the children can use to roll, fold, cut, tape, and generally make into whatever they want it to be. 

     In the photo below, someone made a "Feuches Haus" (fishy's house) but lately, it's mostly been rockets. 

 

   One specialist who visits our morning class each week asked me, "Is that all they do all day? Make rockets?" Well, not EVERY day. Some days they choose other things. But they are working on something, here. Rolling a sheet of paper into a tube seems like a magic trick. It's a transformation from a flat surface that can accomplish little on its own into a structure that can roll, can fit into a smaller space, can be used as a tool, can be placed inside another shape, can even support weight as a column or pillar. There is also a joy that comes from working with your friends to make the biggest, longest, pointiest rocket-like object you can make. 

     Wikipedia defines engineering as, "The discipline, art, skill, profession and technology of acquiring and applying scientific,mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes."

          Maria Montessori said,  "Imagination does not become great until man, given the courage and strength, uses it to create. If this does not occur, the imagination addresses itself only to a spirit wandering in emptiness." - -Dr. Maria Montessori , in To Educate the Human Potential

      Rolling up paper rockets is hands-on engineering practice. It seems like a waste of paper and tape to some, but not in my class.  

     Since Johnson Space Center and the Moon are both off limits to us for field trips this year, providing a real experience with a rocket is out of the question. So we are relying on the following storytellers to help us make the leap from the concrete objects we have not yet experienced to an abstract understanding of them. 

     These two beautifully illustrated stories by Oliver Jeffers.

This book combines actual NASA photos of the moon and Earth. Written by Anna Milbourn and Benji (Illu) Davies.

 This fun countdown counting book by Michael Dahl, Derrick Alderman, and Denise Shea.

      We made these fun, cardboard tube rockets from an idea I borrowed from bhoomplay's blog.

     Ours turned out great thanks to lots of help from parents. And the children showed great concentration when painting them.

 

     We followed the children's interest in space and rockets by offering them supplies to make colorful maps of the solar system. We also had a Moon Party to celebrate all we had learned.

     Those blogs will follow.

     Thanks for reading and thank you to bhoomplay and all those other bloggers and pinners who help me find activities that appeal to students' interests. You all definitely rock!

Heather

 

 

This Makes Me Smile

     One morning in early March it was cold and drizzly outside. I gave the children the option of staying outside with me or going inside to the classroom with my assistant. When I poked my head in to see if anyone in the hallway needed my help changing out of their gear, I was greeted with this beautiful sight.

    Since October we have all worked together to learn to hang up our coats and snowpants and tidy up our outdoor shoes by our lockers. It has been six months! But look at this sweet result. The children who chose to come inside organized their coats and shoes by themselves.

     As Montessori teachers, we are not disappointed when children are not able to follow directions or unable to do exercises correctly. We do not grade their abilities, but rather try to quietly guide the attainment of these abilities.

     Dr. Montessori described it like this, " The Montessori teacher is constantly looking for a child who is not yet there ..." and "The teacher, when she begins to work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work. " - The Absorbent Mind

     The sandbox will be open on Monday and these coats will be left at home. But next October, the owners of these coats will help the new children learn how we take care of our outdoor clothing. December's snow will bring absolute anarchy to this hallway and January's ice cold wind will have us convinced that we might not ever match 42 boots with 21 children. But by March we will see this same, orderly scene. It happens every year.  The children learn to take care of themselves.

Chinese New Year

 

    I have become very timid about observing holidays in my classroom because each one brings with it the possibility of offending some of my families. I would love to be able to observe the cultural traditions of holidays and leave the religious components to families and their religious institutions, but that is also offensive to some. I know I can't make everybody happy, but I still wish to try. 

    For years my wise and wonderful husband has suggested that I stay away from religious holidays and any holiday that was created to sell greeting cards. Celebrate real things, he says, like Spring, an eclipse, the solar system, leap year, rock music, a new classroom pet, gravity... he's got a great list. That's why I picked him - he's a super genius.

    This year I listened. I've already announced that the Birch Room is ignoring Valentine's Day. But Chinese New Year seems like a good fit for us. Sure, there are religious aspects such as the burning of the kitchen god. And Hallmark does sell cards for Chinese New Year. But in large part, it's an observance of Spring and the moon and family. Those are real things we study in our Montessori class and therefore, Chinese New Year is a holiday for us!

    We did not have an actual celebration, more of an observance through reading, discussion, and a few great art activities I saw on Pinterest. (My lack of artsy craftiness is a moot point now that I have discovered Pinterest. I am forever grateful to everyone who shares their brilliance there.)  Our first project was this dragon I saw at No Time for Flashcards.

    We changed it up a little bit because we didn't have the capability to give everyone a hand in the bubble-wrap painting. We left the white butcher paper unpainted. But the children in both classes were able to cut and tear their choice of paper and glue it on whenever they got the notion during class.

    After they glued for two days, I cut out the dragon shape and displayed it in our hallway for display. 

    I also saw this beautiful idea for making cherry blossom or pear blossom branches at Fairy Dust Teaching 

    Ours turned out to be a sweet little arrangment. Just some tissue paper glued onto a few branches. I only have this video capture image for now.

    What I loved about this project was that the night before we had a big storm and I was not willing to go out looking for branches on a dark, stormy night. The next morning on the playground a friend found a fallen branch and brought it to show me. I asked if we could use it for an art project and he graciously said yes. Talk about following the child... 

 

Free the Children! (to use the water)

    Smoothing the way for true independence for the children in my classroom is my first priority. But it can be hard for us adults to hand over the reins - or the garden hose - as it is in my situation. If you want to make a group of even seasoned Montessori teachers uncomfortable, give a 4-year-old the working end of a garden hose and show him how to turn on the water. Suddenly, the adults are taking cover over by the sandbox.

    But it doesn't have to be that way. Just like any activity, learning to use water requires instruction at first and some supervision throughout. This isn't gasoline we're talking about - it's just water. Water is the perfect practical life material. It isn't sticky, it doesn't attract pests, and it dries up and disappears from sidewalks, clothing, and skin without a trace. If you turn your back on a child with a lot of water at his command, the worst thing that can happen is someone might get wet. And wouldn't that be terrific?

    It's been so hot in our part of the country and our school gardens have been suffering. So I set out our large collection of watering cans and I opened up the rain barrel. Within minutes I had attracted a circle of children wanting to pour water on things. I was hopeful that the water was actually going to make it to the plants but I needed to give guidance on how to pour the water on top of the little plants and at the roots of the taller tomatoes and sunflowers. So I needed a helper to fill the cans and my friend D was at the ready. When I walked away to help a friend, he took over the rain barrel. He learned to work the valve and filled up the other children's watering cans.

    Soon, my friend L wanted to fill her own can so I asked D if he could let her and he did. You know where this is going, of course. All of the children who wished to were using the rain barrel hose to fill up their own watering cans. Most of the water got to the plants, but not all and that is okay. No one ended up soaked and everyone felt great after doing such good work on a hot day.

    The next day, the rain barrel was empty so I started the process again but with the fresh water garden hose. It was the same story but with a lot more power behind the water. D came over to help and I showed him how to adjust the flow of water. He allowed others to help, and he stayed and supervised. I watched from afar.

    On the third day, it was so hot that the children were red-faced and miserable and asking to go inside early. Some of my friends still needed to move their bodies before settling into their afternoon work, so I brought out the spray bottle (my friend Ana's idea.) Spray bottles attract attention immediately so when the first child approached I asked him if he would like me to spray him with cold water. "Yes!" he replied. And you know how this goes. Everyone who wanted sprayed got sprayed and those who did not, were not.

    My friend D was there again and he wanted to be in charge of the sprayer. I wasn't sure about that, but he had demonstrated such responsibility and respect for others with the garden hose that I gave him the bottle with careful instructions to ask every person before spraying and not to spray anyone who did not want to get wet.

     D did an excellent job and soon brought me an empty spray bottle. The children were cool and happy and only a little bit wet. I thought that was pretty terrific.

    The reason this topic speaks to me today is I catch myself getting so caught up in preparing practical life materials with careful controls of error that I forget the "fun" part. It's important to learn to pour water carefully from a pitcher, then to learn to make bubbles with a whisk in a bowl. 

    But sometimes you just need to turn on the tap, pour some soap into the sink, and make the biggest pile of bubbles you've ever seen, preferably with a friend.

    Yes, it is imperative the children learn about water conservation and why we should not waste water. But before we can work to conserve something, we must learn to care about it. Before we can ask the children to turn off the water, we have to trust them with the power to turn it on.

 

Spools, Tees, and Marbles

     I was introduced to this material from my practical life instructor, Don Czerwinskyj. 

     To make this, you need a small muffin tin. Mine is the 8-muffin size. You also need 8 wooden thread spools, 8 golf tees, and 8 marbles. Put them together in that order and see if you can get all of the marbles to balance on top of the tees.

     I usually put this work on my practical life shelf in the spring. The children really enjoy it.   

 

Today's Big Deal!

I found these two wooden divided boxes at Goodwill for $1.99 each. They are perfect for our cutting strips and envelope sealing work. 

The widest divider holds envelopes and a little tray to collect the pieces after cutting.

The three-year-olds love this work and the tray that lets them take all of the work to the table at once might add to its appeal.  It would be ideal if the scissors could be in the center to avoid encouraging left-handedness. Let's watch and see if that turns out to be a true obstacle or one I have imagined.

Make Your Own Solar System Mat

I made this felt solar system mat to aid the study of the planets.

        My first step toward building a solar system and space unit was to buy this Planets and Sun set from Priority Montessori Materials.  This set comes with the planets, the sun, and labels for each. I also purchased the companion nomenclature cards. 

                                                              
 

        I have seen some mats that are a cross-section of the solar system, but I wanted the children to have the visual of the planets and their orbits going all the way around the sun. And the solar system is BIG! I wanted this work to be physically large, as well.

        Here are the supplies needed to make this mat:

•    I bought about 2 1/2 yards of 74-inch black felt with sparkles from JoAnn Fabrics. I wanted space at the top to arrange the planets and the cards, so I needed the mat to be a rectangle, not a square. My finished mat is 54" x 74".
•    1 large bottle of white puffy fabric paint, 1 long piece white chalk, 1 skein of yarn, scissors, 2 large thumb tacks. I also used my laptop to find directions on the internet for making an ellipse.

 

        Start by placing the thumb tacks in the what will be the center, or foci, of your ellipse. The farther apart, the narrower your ellipse. The closer together, the more round your ellipse. Then cut a piece of yarn a little longer than the major diameter of your ellipse (the longest point.) Tie the ends of this yarn together so you have a loop of yarn and bring it around the two thumb tacks. Pull the other side of the loop taut. It should look like a triangle, as in the photo below.

        Now you need to test the diameter of the ellipse. Gently pull the point of the triangle in a circle all the way around the tacks. This will be the orbit of Neptune, the planet farthest from the sun. If your finger goes off the felt, your string is too long or your tacks are too far apart. If your finger does not come close to the edge of the felt, the orbits of all of your planets may be too close together. Adjust your string and thumb tacks accordingly. You have to do a little fiddling, here. If Neptune's orbit is good, put your chalk at the point of the triangle and draw a complete ellipse around the foci. 

        For the orbit of the next planet, Uranus, cut your string to make it shorter but do not move the tacks. Again, test your orbit and if it fits within Neptune's orbit, draw it in with the chalk. (The actual orbits of the planets in our solar system are not an equal distance apart but this mat is only an aid to the imagination. We try to make it accurate in concept even though it cannot be accurate in scale.)

        The reason we use chalk is so we can wash away any lines we don't like. So if you are unhappy with the results of any of your orbits, resize your yarn and start over. After you have traced the orbits of all 8 planets to your satisfaction, pat yourself on the back and take a break. Then look at your solar system mat once more to make sure you have room for your sun in the center and an orbit for each of the 8 planets. If it's all good, start tracing over the final lines with the puffy paint. It's a good idea to test this on scrap fabric, first. 

        In addition to the orbits, I used some sparkly silver puffy paint to simulate the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Then I filled a little drawstring bag with small rocks and the children place these "asteroids" on the mat along with the planets.

        When finished, let the paint dry overnight. When it is completely dry, take it outside and use a spray bottle or a fine stream of water and wash out the excess chalk. Your completed mat can be folded and placed on the shelf next to the planets. 

        The planets are fragile and the heavy sun is especially susceptible to being dropped and cracking. I put our sun in a basket to make it seem less like a ball and give it a little more protection.

        I hope your children love this work!

 

Watercolor Maps of the World

 Something creative and beautiful has come out of our study of geography. 

Some of the children in my Montessori 3 to 6-year-old class are not quite ready to pin-punch all 7 continents of the world, but they are interested in making a world map.

My good friend and fellow Montessorian, Angie, came up with a new idea to help them. We would help the children trace the continent puzzle pieces onto circles of white watercolor paper. After tracing them, the children go over this outline with a blue crayon. Then they use watercolors to paint each continent the same color as the puzzle map. The crayon lines keep the colors from bleeding into each other.

After the continents are dry, the children paint the oceans.

 
Sometimes Montessori maps of the world are placed on large blue paper, but we thought it was important to show the earth as it really is, a colorful sphere set in the blackness of space. The finished watercolored hemispheres are glued to extra-large black construction paper.



 
The children write The World at the top. Some of the children write the continent names on labels then stick them over the appropriate landform. We help the ones who are not yet writing.
  

When a child finishes any of the maps, we have a celebration at the end of the day.

For the world map, we sing two songs: "The Continent Song" and "He's (She's) Got the Whole World in His (Her) Hands."

 The Continent Song - to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

"Do you know the continents, the continents, the continents?

Do you know the continents? Sing them now with me.

There's North America, South America, Antarctica.

There's Europe, Asia, Africa - Australia.

Now we know the continents, the continents, the continents.

Now we know the continents, next time sing with me!"

and

She's got the whole world in her hands.

She's got the whole world in her hands.

She's got the whole, wide world in her hands.

Erin's got the whole world in her hands.