Progress in the classroom

I thought I would share with you what the children have been up to these past few weeks. We have started our Montessori program and are currently learning about the sound /a/ and /c/. We have also gone over numbers 0, 1 and 2. I will make sure to post something about our learning to record our progress. The photos speak for themselves:

 

Practical exercise: locks and keys

Practical exercise: hammering

 

Botany/science

 

More practical life to develop fine motor skills

 



 

Working with number rods (quantity and symbols)

 

 

The spindle box (quantity & box)

New rules in the classroom

This year, I realised after these first 3 weeks that tidying up is not one top priority for my preschoolers and as we have so many boys in our group, they usually like to gather all together on the main mat, tipping boxes together and  "messing" together. I can't call it "playing", "learning" or "working" as there is absolutely no constructive activity... Rachel and I have had to restructure their little group constantly and redirecting their work/play. They were not able to choose exercises on their own. So this week end, I thought long and hard about what I could do to change this and help them focus a bit more.

 

Choosing an activity on their own and tidying up carefully is very important as it helps preschoolers to develop their sense of responsibility. How a child learns to clean up now sets the stage for how they will complete the exercise later. When a child chooses his/her games/activity, this also shows that they have reached a certain level of maturity and that they are quite self-assertive and confident. What could I do?

 

I want the children to learn that some materials can only be played with on a mat or at the table, that some activities are for 2 children at a time only, that others require more concentration and can only can be played by one person. I also want them to realise that we are a "use the mat" environement and that everybody need their own working space. From now on, I only authorise 2 players on the big mat in our book corner. No more big boisterous groups of boys playing war and shooting on the mat!!!

 

So I tried to turn all these rules into a game and created labels/cards with the pictures of a type of materials/activity. Below each picture of the activity, I added a mat or a table to indicate where this should be played with. I laminated the cards, punched 2 holes and laced a string through to make a necklace. I explained the children that from now on, if the necklaces corresponding to the activity were all taken/used, this meant that they had to go and find something else to do until it was their turn. I remined them all of where the materials went and where the floor and table mats were stored. The kids loved the idea and really took to the "game". It worked wonders today. We got a lot more done today and it was so much more peaceful and organised!!! I hope this system will keep working. I will let you know.

 

 

 

 

We are now using these little necklaces for the dinos, the animals, the brown stairs, the Pink Tower, any of our constructin materials and for Play dough. 

 

 





Settling down into a routine

The first few weeks in September are always a time to settle down and get used to the new rules and the new environment. This is also a time during which children get used to one another and get to know one another. So we are taking it easy and the children are discovering or re-discovering new games or materials.

 

I had this simple game last year in our classroom. I cut an opening in the plastic lid and children loved sliding round tokens made out of cardboard. I decided to print the children's faces and laminate them all. I then cut them in a circle. The children are now using these instead of the old cardboard tokens. This is very popular as they love looking at their own pictures and really enjoy recognising their friends on the tokens. This is a nice way for them to learn each other's names too. And this help the children to eercise their fine motor skills in preparation for writing. They have been shown how to grasp the laminted tokens between their thumb, middle finger and the index.

 

 

Here is another activity on our Practical life shelf that is quite popular among the boys. I bought several new locks and voila.. Great practice for these little fingers! 

More activities on our Practical Life shelf: hammering

At the moment, our jigsaws in our science corner are very popular. The children sit together spontaneously by group of 3 or 4 and pick /exchange these jigsaws and comment a lot on what they see. Brilliant exchange of knowledge!!

And of course, what would we be without our play dough!!! This is such a fun activity !

The Helping Hands!

Starting the year, one of my main focuses is to build the sense of community or team work among children. As I mentioned earlier on this year, we work introducing general grace and courtesy of our environment. One thing we also do  as much as possible is to direct the children to reach out to each other when they need help or a partner. So to further kindle a feeling of togetherness among the children, as well as to bridge our book The Kissing Hand with our work team concept, I invited the children to make handprints on a plain white sheet of paper. Each child chose a colour (blue, green, yellow or pink) and made a print on the page. I then wrote their name below it. The effect is fantastic!! It is simple but effective as one little clever young man exclaimed proudly: "We made a patchwork with all our hands!! That's because we are all friends!!". So young and so aware. All my efforts were rewarded today!!

One more sheet to go and we will be finished!

All About Me - Part 1

In my post yesterday,  I outlined the SPHE program we like to follow in our Montessori classroom. I explained how closely linked it was to our first theme of the year,  "All About Me". Let me now show you a bit more in details  what we actually do at the beginning of the year, and you will understand what I mean.  Learning to care for and respect the environment and other people is one of the cornerstones of the Montessori method of education (and also a strand unit in our SPHE program).  At the beginning of the year, there is always an immediate need to focus on the rules in our classroom (practical life and courtesy). We are welcoming  9 new children this year and at this point, we just need to do lay the foundations for the future.

On a practical level, Montessori has always believed that the Practical Life Exercises (PLE) were essential to her method as they provide a sane and wholesome range of activities which allow the children to develop control and coordination of movement, awareness of their environment, orderly thought patterns, independent work habits, responsibility etc.. All these can only be attained through spontaneous purposeful work.

And this is what we work on in particular during the first 2 weeks:

- How to wash hands at the sink

- How to use the bathroom

- How to work on a table

- How to work on a rug and walk around it to respect each other’s work

- How to stand in line to wash hands, wash dishes, use the bathroom

- How to walk around a rug?
- How to get the teacher's attention

What else do we focus on? Well, of course, I feel it is very important to teach the children how to tidy their classroom, clean it and organise it. And we nip it in the buds straight away, from the first week at preschool. Everything in our classroom (like in any other Montessori classroom) has a place, and it stays in the same place all year, so that children can find things and put them away more easily. During the first few weeks of school, children explore almost all of the main materials in our classroom while learning rules for using them. 

I do a lesson for each center before the kids use the materials, and we go over each center’s rules every day for the first few weeks. The first day of school, I split the class in 2  halves. My assistant takes half of the children to the practical Life Exercises and the Sensorial Centres and I take the other half to the maths and Literacy centers (afterwards, we switch). We show them where everything goes, and we explain safety rules. We take a few things down and put them away asking the children if they remember where they go. Then, each child is given one or more items from that center and the children take turns putting them away. There are times when we have to repeat this. These lessons last as long as needed. There is no set end time for beginning school lesson.

We also tackle courtesy lessons and outline behavior rules at the beginning of the year. On the very first day and every day thereafter, we review the rules carefully as a group.  I begin by asking the children “Does anybody know why we come to school?”.  After a few responses (usually not correct ones) I prompt them and say “We come to school to LEARN.”  Next, I tell the students that learning is like “getting smart” (they usually understand that much better) and in order to learn we have to follow some rules; this is when I introduce the rules chart with pictures.   I tell them that there are five very important things we must do in order to learn and I say the rules out loud as I point to them on the chart.  The next day when I ask these questions a few more students will be able to answer them, and finally after several days everybody should be able to answer the questions.  After the initial few weeks of this type of review I switch to having our Leader of the Day (LOTD) point to the rules on the chart and the Leader says them for us or picks friends to say each one.  This process helps the children internalize and take ownership of the rules.

                                                   

Another great way to introduce the rules is to read from the series of books titled The Best Behavior series (click here to have a look on Amazon.co.uk).  There are many books in this series that address behaviors such as sharing, cleaning-up, kicking, hitting, biting, and unkind words. I read one of them every day at the beginning of the year during circle time

  

   

Finally, making friends and feeling that we belong is a very important aspect in the children’s normalization process in the Montessori classroom at the beginning of the year especially. So during the first 2-3 weeks of the school year, we also tackle this topic. The first thing is to get the children to know each other’s names as quickly as possible. Especially for the newcomers. I like to read Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff.

 

 In the story, the teacher has 26 students and each student's name begins with a different letter of the alphabet.  In turn, each student is an animal that begins with that same letter of the alphabet. (Adam is an alligator, Brenda is a beaver)  Their last names rhyme with how they're getting ready for school (Adam Krupp wakes up; Brenda Heath brushes her teeth). We identify students with names that matched the alphabet letters in the book or with names of animals. I write down each child’s name on a colourful card sheet, place a photo of the child beside it as well as a picture of an animal whose name starts with the same letter). By the time we are finished with the book, everyone will have heard everyone else's name, know the first letter of their name and their friends’ too.  Don't worry, I will probably write a post on this activity too.

It would be interested if you could share with us what you do in yor classroom or at home at the beginning of the school year.