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.

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.