Around My Classroom

I can not believe the month of September is almost over. Where did the time go?
My class has been very busy working on "All About Me" posters or drawing self portraits. I am in the process of receiving baby photos for our "Guess the Baby" game, in which I will display pictures of the children as baby's and they will guess who is who. The children are very excited to see one another as babies. And the parents are having a lot of fun trying to find pictures of their child so that the other parents can't tell who is who.
I had planned on doing family trees as mentioned in a previous post, but, time does not permit. However, since the theme for October is "Trees", I have decided to move the family trees to next month.

What's the Point of Practical Life?

In today's post I will discuss the concept of Practical Life
in the Montessori curriculum.  Practical Life is the first
curriculum area taught in the Montessori program and is often the
most popular area with students. The main purpose of Practical
Life is to develop skills that prepare a child for reading, writing
and arithmetic.  Therefore activities are designed to develop hand
eye coordination (when holding a spoon or sewing a button),
concentration when repeating sequences (with matching or folding
socks), and independence (by learning to pour themselves a
beverage to drink), to name  a  few .

Practical Life is divided into smaller sections:
1) Control of Movement which includes cutting paper, sorting an
array of items and transfer activities.
2) Care of Environment, which is their classroom.  This involves
washing windows, watering plants and washing a table.
3) Care of Self, which covers learning how to button, zip, lace and
velcro clothes and tie shoes and washing hands.
4) Grace and Courtesy, which teaches children how to greet people,
prepare foods and serve them to their friends

In Montessori teaching,  every lesson in Practical Life and
Sensorial prepares the child for further development in reading,
writing  or arithmetic.  This is accomplished by what we call,
"direct" and "indirect" aims.  Indirect aims mimic aspects of
advanced cognitive skills.  For example, in spooning, children
move items from the left bowl to the right bowl, mimicking reading
patterns and therefore indirectly preparing for the complex task
of reading.  The direct aim in spooning are things such as
developing independence and developing concentration.  One may
look at it in simpler terms as direct aims being those goals we can
not see because they come from inside the child (for example,
concentration).

I'd like to share an example of how children have the need and
desire for Practical Life activities in a Montessori classroom and at
home.  I had a little boy in my class one year who's mother said it
drove her "nuts" because all this child wanted to do was roll
everything in sight, including the bathroom mat outside the shower
and she had no idea where this came from.  This parent attended
our information night on Practical Life and Sensorial and it was
then  that she found out we roll our mats the children use to do
 floor work.  We practice this on a daily basis with the children
so they can master this  skill.  It turned out to be his favourite
 thing to do :)

I'd like to finish my discussion on Practical Life with a quote from
Maria Montessori:
"If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist
them to advance on the way to independence.  It must initiate
 them  into those kinds of activities, which  they can perform
 themselves. We must help them to learn how to walk without
assistance, to run, to go up and down the stairs, to pick up fallen
 objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express
their needs and to attempt to satisfy their desires through  their
own efforts.  All this is part of an education of independence".
(The Discovery of the Child,  pg 56-57).

Practical Life at the Beginning of School Year

Here are a few pictures of what my Practical Life area looks like so far. Practical Life at the beginning of the school year is very different than Practical Life at the end of the year. I always start off with very simple lessons to accommodate the new and young students. As you can see to the right, my Practical Life is minimal however, that will change in October where I add more to the shelves and change a few things around. I like to start with the basics to remind students how Practical Life lessons are to be completed correctly.
Below is our simple transferring lessons.

Next comes the lacing, sorting, and fine motor lessons.

The last two shelves are cutting and care of the environment. The students are in charge of most of the cleaning up.


Our theme "All About Me" is officially underway and I will have examples of what the children are working on in the next few days

First Day of School

After 18 months off on sick and maternity leave, it's finally time for me to go back to teaching. It has been a bittersweet transition for me, though teaching is my passion and I love working with the other children, it's tough to be away from my own baby all day while I'm at work. But when I return home at 4:15, the moment Noah and I see each other is the best feeling in the world. Today when I arrived home Noah would not stop kissing me :)
I had a good first day. Since Montessori schooling teaches that the classroom is t he responsibility of the children, and my role is simply to direct them through activities and tasks, it is the children that keep the classroom in order and tidy. So on our first day together we went over the rules and routines of the classroom to remind them what is expected of them all.
I only have a few new students this year; most of the children are returning students who I have worked with before, so we have been spending time doing activities getting to know each other again and having fun. And I look forward to the days and weeks to come when the class settles into routine and normalization occurs.

I must stop typing as I am falling asleep at the keyboard. Good night everyone :)

Music for Montessori

I have always had a passion for music. In fact in university, in addition to my primary focus of Sociology, I also minored in Music. And fortunately I have been able to apply my skills and love of music over the past 10 years at both of the Montessori schools I have worked at as the school Music Teacher.
In a previous post discussing the annual conference for the American Montessori Society, I briefly mentioned my excitement when meeting Frank Leto and how I was so impressed by him that I purchased all his CDs to bring back to my school and play them for the children. As many of you may know yourself, from searching online and in bookstores as I have, Montessori music is very hard to find, so this was a wonderful opportunity for me to get more teaching resources for my music programs at school. Click here for Frank's site.
All of my students absolutely love Frank's music, and I appreciate his work very much because Frank Leto is a Montessori teacher himself and I now model my music classes on what I have learned from him. He takes music elements and translates them into simpler versions for the age group 3-6. He makes music more hands on rather than sitting at your desk learning what a "whole note" is. He gets the young children involved which makes it easier and more fun for 3-6 year olds.

My son, Noah loves to watch Frank's Youtube videos, click here to see his favourite . Every morning he gets very excited pointing to indicate he wants to watch Youtube with me, and then he sits dancing on the spot for a good half hour listening and watching Frank perform. It is a joy for me to watch him. I hope this is a sign of things to come. Perhaps Noah will love music just as much as his mommy! Will I have a new concert partner one day? he he he :)

One Month Left...

Very soon I will be going into my school to set up my classroom for the upcoming school year. It will be a big new challenge this year being a "working mom" for the first time, but I am ready to be teaching once again and very excited to share my new ideas with all my future students.
I am planning on holding a "Guess the Baby" contest during the "All About Me" unit and children at our school. It is always fun to see the parents match baby photos and discuss the photos with the teachers. I will include a picture of myself and of my son (just to throw them off a bit). But it shouldn't be too tricky, as most parents already know my son from extra events held by my school over the past year. Even though I have been off on maternity leave, I still enjoyed attending our school events, such as the Winter Concert and Family Fun Day.
I have also decided that another fun activity for my students to do as a part of "All About Me" will be to build a family tree. They will bring in pictures of their immediate family members (up to first set of maternal and paternal grandparents), cut the faces out and paste them on a tree with no leaves and then label their names. I have done this activity with students in the past with much success! And will post pictures of their works of art once school gets under way.
Until then, however, I have 4 weeks left of summer to enjoy some time sitting by the pool, entertaining friends and family and most importantly, treasuring my time with Noah.

Up and coming year

As my maternity leave is coming to an end I am busy getting things ready for my classroom and enjoying my little guy before he spends more time with grandma!
I have all my themes picked out (my school has a monthly theme), which I am very excited about and can not wait to share with all of you once school gets under way :)
Every three years I like to start the year with the theme, "All About Me". Since Montessori children are in the same classroom for three years, this ensures that my oldest children do not repeat any themes throughout their schooling. Starting with "All About Me" is a great way to get to know the new students and know the older children better. The students love learning new things about each other, as do the teachers. By getting to know my students on a more personal level it helps me when giving lessons, especially those that a child is having problems with mastering. I can gear the lesson towards something they are interested in. The best way to interact and learn about each child is to go around the circle and discuss with them events, their likes and dislikes that are currently going on in their lives.
As for material on the shelves, I have a fair bit for this theme, and every three years the homemade materials increase. I always get the older children to make a little book about themselves. The younger ones make a house out of construction paper and place the people in their family on the windows of the house. It is funny because some of them make up people in their family. Even though I know a new baby does not exist I still let them place them on their house. It is always fun to see the parent's expression :)
In the current school I am teaching at, we try and put materials on the shelf that are theme related each month in each curriculum area. All About Me is a little challenging, however, I make it work. For September we do not really put out a lot of materials on the shelves because we like to discuss and practice classroom basics, for example, tucking in chairs, folding mats, washing hands, ect.
Once school starts I will post pictures of the materials I have created. I will be going into the school in August to set up and get all the materials for each theme being done for the whole year ready. Each month I will share what my students are doing with each theme.
Now it is time to go for a swim (39 degrees out there, it is hot!!!)

New ideas are always welcome, please share your thoughts!