Activities encouraging "Positioning schemas"

We have been observing the children very carefully these past few weeks to identify the schemas  in action in our classroom in order to learn more about each child's personal learning process. 

Schemas are patterns of repeatable behaviour the children use to test out ideas and to make sense of the world around them. Once a schema is identified, it is very important to offer the child appropriate activities which will nurture the patterns allowing the develop and progress of learning. 

After a few weeks of careful observations, it emerged that a group of younger kids in particular shared the same schema called "positioning". The children love lining up toys or placing objects in very specific ways . It does not necessarily follows the logical thinking process  of an adult but it seems to make complete sense to their little minds.  And I dare you to try to "reorganise" everything... Tantrums may follow, tears or screams of frustration. We have observed children positioning, ordering and arranging objects sometimes in very obsessive manners. They sometimes line them up in order of size, colour or shape or texture too. They also love "stacking" activities: cylinders, blocks, lego, cubes, animals on top of each other, books etc... Some of them also like their food to be placed in a certain way on their table mat and they can be very particular about it. Or they may not like if certain type of food is touching. 

Keeping this schema in mind, we had a look in our classroom to make sure the children had enough opportunities to play and learn . Below, are a few of the "Positioning" activities children are presented with or can choose from in our setting. These activities are usually loved by smaller children and though the materials themselves might have a more direct objective (such as counting and representing quantities or matching colours), we let the children in a "positioning" schema use them freely. They just enjoy placing the counters in a certain way. Later, as their learning expand, they will start using them in the way they are meant to. 

This game is supposed to help children learn about following patterns with colours and shapes. Many of them just love stacking the beads onto the rods, following their own design.

Some children also like lining up the crayons. As simple as this. 

This is not the right way to use the Montessori Pink Tower but here again, you need to step back and recognise the child's schema and allow him to test his ideas. Observe the need for lines, order and association in the picture. 

Our bear counters are a favourite. We use them with the wooden grid to associate numbers and quantities or to categorise them by size or colour. But children make their own rules, placing the bears in the way they like. 

The Montessori Brown stairs is often used by little ones in a "positioning" schema. Here, it has actually been used correctly but the little girl decided to use other material and is placing them on top of the stairs in a manner that allows her to problem-solve, question, predict, imagine, speculate and develop independent choices as she was making decisions in an area she was familiar with.

Blocks can be lined up, stacked up. We have coloured blocks and natural colour blocks. Children use them to build anything. They sometimes choose to place them in a certain order that make sense to them, mixing them up with other blocks or other materials. It may seem random to you but the fact is that children use that type of play to develop a methodical, systematic and logical collection of information through heir senses and their movement. 








Here are a few more examples of classical positioning schema:

 

                   

We also use our sensorial table as an invitation for "positioning". Last week, keen on creating further experiences, I filled our table with all sorts: wooden dice, plastic letters and numbers, bear counters, plastic counters, wooden beads, etc... I place a sorting wooden tray on the opposite side of the bin and let the magic begin. The children were immediately attracted to the activity. I didn't give them any directions but let them explore the possibilities themselves. Some recognised the potential for categorising or sorting. The younger children enjoyed choosing a place for each item, deciding on placing one or two or more items together, on top, beside etc... 

What else do you do in your classroom to support the "Positioning" schema?

How to record progress on sandpaper letters and numerals

One thing I needed to do this summer was to get a bit more organised as far as my record keeping in our language area is concerned. While I used to be able to know exactly which letters and sounds a child had mastered from the top of my head, this very inefficient and poorly thought method let me down many times as the number of my children started to rise last year. For this reason, I needed to find a better way to keep my observations in order. I needed something easily accessible and practical.  And then, I found an very interesting post on To the Lesson. Sasha shared with us how she uses little booklets with  the entire alphabet on the inside cover. Each time a child has been introduced to a sound /letter or has mastered it, she records it in the booklet. So I “stole” this fantastic idea and adapted it to the needs of our classroom. You see, in Montessori education, we tend to introduce letters by phonetic sounds rather than by their names. Each letter/sound is introduced in an order that permits the child to make out words.  Different schools have different orders. The one I chose to follow is suggested in How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin.

This is a wonderful book written by one of America's most respected Montessori educators and authors.  Here it goes:

1.  c  m  a  t 
2.  s  r  i  p
3. b  f  o  g
4. h  j  u  l
5. d  w  e  n
6. k  q  v  x  y  z 

So using Sasha’s idea, I spent a few hours making little booklets. In the inside cover, I have written the 6 sets of letters studied in our classroom. Each page of the booklet has picture (an apple for a, a tractor for t etc..) to represent the sound. Under each picture, the child can trace the letter. I have decided that once a child has completely mastered a sound/letter, I will let him/her trace the letter in question. When opening a booklet, I  will be able to see straightaway how far he/she has gone in her learning of the sandpaper letters. By the way, I got the pictures from Homeschool Creations.

As I mentioned in my post on our new calendar (here), we have a Letter of the Week added to our routine at circle time. It goes without saying that each letter will also be introduced following the order mentioned above. I will not introduce any other set until I am satisfied that the children have mastered the set. The children moving faster will be able to do extra work using our letter boxes and the moveable alphabet.

And to keep the momentum going, I decided that I could create the same type of booklets for numerals. No sooner said than done:

What do you think? What do you do in your own classroom? Let me know.

Colouring flowers and assessing.....(???)

I was working today!! Yes, you heard me well.. On Saturday. And probably tomorrow too!  June can actually be actually quite a cumbersome month. for teachers. I still have about 10 portfolios to finish and it is taking me ages. But I know that the end result is worth it.

What is giving me extra work as well is the backlog of reports due for the end of the year. As you probably know, observations and assessment are critical components of the teaching process. It is not uncommon to observe a Montessori classroom and see the teacher sitting quietly in a corner with her notebook or clipboard taking notes.  Such observation is critical to the success of the Montessori program. Thanks to them, we can see which lessons need to be introduced next, which ones need to be repeated, who has mastered a skill and who hasn't quite grasp a concept yet.  I use several proven techniques when observing children. Depending on the reason why a child is observed, I would choose the method which relays information more clearly than others. 

I have to admit that the checklists are probably the technique I use the most.  If you check the pre-k pages, you will be able to  purchase an 18 page packet of assessment tools which will save you lots of time and help you organize your assessments so you can fill out your "end-of-the-year" reports  quickly. I found this packet very practical, but I have adapted it to fit our classroom's curricular requirements. So, here I am now, looking back on the progress of each of my students. I didn't want to overwhelm parents with too much information and I don't want to make my report too rigid either. Yet, I want to provide everybody with an accurate summary of what their child has learnt and achieved this year. Parents need to be aware of the tools their children have been given as they enter primary school. So I came up with the following:

Each petal describes an exercise that the child is able to perform: "uses scissors correctly", "holds pencil correctly", "good pencil control", "takes turn and shares", "good concentration and focus", "answers and asks simple questions" etc... I colour each part of the petal if the child in question has mastered the skill. I really like the presentation. It is simple, very practical, concise and  extremely easy to read.. And it is cute looking too!!! I have made it easy for download right here. I hope it helps.