My Montessori Journey

New work this week..........

I like to put out seasonal activities throughout the year in as many curricular areas as I can.  Due to the TONS of resources available on the world wide web, I am never at a loss for finding new things to make for the classroom.  When I think back to how I made materials in the past when I taught Montessori, I can't believe how many hours I must have spent on them.  At that time (12 years ago), I found black and white pictures in books, copied them, colored them by hand, cut them out, glued them onto a background, then laminated them.  Now, it's as easy as downloading a file, printing it, and laminating it OR doing a "virtual" cut and paste (already in color) on the computer. 

Many of the new things out this week are materials gleaned from web resources.

This is an alphabet matching activity I printed off from Kidssoup.  Doesn't it look great on the red gingham metal tray I found while thrifting this summer??  To do this activity, the child matches the apple with the uppercase letter to the blossom on the tree with the lowercase letter.  I programmed the back of the apple cards with the lowercase letter to allow for independence and cross-checking.  This activity will go on the language shelf.

This is an apple matching game also printed from Kidssoup.  Three children can play this at once.  To play, the matching cards are placed facedown in the center of the rug as shown in the photo.  The children take turns turning over a card and seeing if it matches their board.  If it does, they place it on their board.  If not, they can give it to the person who has the match on their board.  I placed this on the sensorial shelf since it involves visual discrimination skills.

This is a new Practical Life activity that I pulled together to go along with our apples for September.  I found this cute little green pail and the apple pencil toppers among all the goodies in my cupboards.  I added the ice cube tray and the strawberry huller and it was shelf-ready.

And this little basket has three large apples cut from craft foam and a worm cut from brown felt.  This is a little guessing game to play with a friend.  Two children may do this activity together.  One child covers their eyes while the other child hides the worm under one of the apples which have been laid out on a rug.  The other child then uncovers their eyes and guesses which apple is hiding the worm.  I like having these types of simple games out.  They are very helpful for developing friendships between children.  Last week I had a few teary children, which is to be expected the first week.  When I was able to engage the teary child in an activity with a content child, oftentimes the sadness disappeared and the basis for a new friendship was formed. 

Handwriting Without Tears

I am working hard to get my handwriting shelf ready for the children to use.  When I taught in the public schools, my school adopted the Handwriting Without Tears program.  It is one of the best programs around, in my opinion, for teaching proper strokes in a fun, developmentally appropriate way.

For very young children (like the ones I teach) who are just beginning to understand the concept of what a letter is, the program uses wooden pieces that can be manipulated to form the capital letters.  My dad made a bunch of these for me several years ago.  They can also be ordered from the company.  The neat thing is that children learn that all capital letters are made up of big lines, little lines, big curves, or little curves.  For my classroom, I will be using the wooden pieces along with some letter mats (control cards) that I ordered from the company.

On the bottom of this language shelf you can see what I have set up so far.  From the left:  a basket which contains the wooden pieces, a tray with a foam mat and the control cards for all the capital letters, and a tray with a magic slate and magnetic wooden pieces (more on this below).

You can see I had a little helper (my son) when I was trying to photograph this after class on Friday.  To do this work, the child gets a rug and places the basket of wooden pieces on it along with the tray that has the foam mat and control cards.  The foam mat is placed on the rug.  Next to it they place the white mat for the letter they wish to make.  You can't see it well, but the HWT program uses a little smiley face in the top left corner to show children where to start their letters.  It is referred to as the "starting corner".  That is SO important, because so often children start their letters from the bottom and get into bad habits that are hard to reverse.  And in case you are reading this wondering why it matters where they start the letters, I will give you my two cents.  In the finished product (in this case that would be the finished letter on the page) it doesn't necessarily matter how they form it as long as it's legible.  However, the ultimate goal is being able to write fluently enough to be able to express yourself with handwriting.  Starting at the top and going to the bottom allows for the most efficient way to build such fluency.  If you are starting any old place when you  make any given letter, fluency will be affected or reduced.

Here you can see the control card and the foam mat with the wooden pieces on top to make the capital letter I.  As I look at this, I'm thinking that when I present it to the child, I will put the control card on the left, then the blue foam mat on the right.  This will reinforce the concept of left to right since I will have them make it on the control card first, then on the foam mat.

On the other tray on my shelf is the Stamp and See Screen.  This is similar to a Magnadoodle for those of you who know what that is.  This one is made by the HWT company.  It comes with 4 magnetic wooden pieces (big line, little line, big curve, little curve).

Here is how I have it laid out on the tray.

In the first picture you can see the screen with the wooden pieces forming a capital D.  Once removed (see second photo) they leave an impression on the screen.  This can then be traced with the finger or with the little yellow "chalk" piece that is attached.  The little yellow chalk is angled on the end and short to force little fingers to use a proper tripod grip when holding it.

Other HWT resources that I have and will be using are the preschool workbook and CD. 

While I was working in the classroom yesterday after the children left, my son who attends preschool here was playing with the wooden pieces and made the U and O pictured above.  I think all the children are going to enjoy working with these materials next week. 

To anyone (especially fellow Montessorians reading this) who is wondering if I have abandoned teaching letter formation with the sandpaper letters, the answer is NO!  I will still use the sandpaper letters to introduce the sounds and to practice correct formation of lowercase letters.  However, since I don't have any uppercase sandpaper letters, this will provide a nice balance to what already exists.

Finally, as I wrote a few days ago, we are spelling the name of the snack helper each day on line, then that child hangs up their name on the name clothesline.  In addition, we count the letters in the name, talk about what sound it starts with and who else has a name that starts the same.  I think I will add one step and we will make the first letter of the name using our wooden pieces and foam mat.  We can also write it in the air to practice strokes using gross motor skills.

Eyeball sticks

Is that an attention-grabbing title or what?  I am just sitting here relaxing a little after finishing my first full week of teaching in my Montessori preschool classroom.  It has been a great week, and I feel very happy.  Really. just. amazing.  (and kind of tired)

A while back I wrote some detailed posts about how I go about introducing sounds in my classroom.  Today I wanted to show you an additional activity that I hadn't mentioned before.  To completely understand what I am writing about, please go back and read this post.  And especially if you are the parent of a child in my class, you will want to read that particular post.  It really gives a lot of detailed information about how I approach teaching the children letters and sounds.  AND........several little friends have already started their red sound books this week.  Yippee!!

OK...........after a child has learned a new sound using the sandpaper letter, writing in the sand tray, gluing it into their sound book, etc., they can take an "eyeball stick"  (I don't have a more correct term for them.......sorry!) and try to find their sound somewhere in the room.  Most often they can find the sounds on the nametags of our cubbies OR in the books in our library area.

Here is the table that always stays set up to do sound work.  At the left is the sand tray where we write our sound with our fingers.  Next is a cup with the "eyeball sticks", then a little basket which holds a Sharpie marker for writing their name on the sound book along with a glue stick and gluing mat to glue in their paper letters.  (See this post for a little more info about the paper letters.)

NOTE:  Also in the can with the eyeball sticks are some pipe cleaners which are bent at the end in a circular shape.  There are some curly ribbons tied to the circle part.  These can also be used to find a letter or word. 

Here you can see that I found an "a" with my eyeball stick.  So far I have only just begun to introduce these to the children.  I actually had the can of sticks on another shelf for most of the week until one of the children asked what they were for.  Then I had the brainstorm about using them immediately after their sound lesson to find the letter in the classroom.  So I moved the can over to the sound table for easy access and to remind me to have them do it!

The Bakery Shop Song

At group time each day we have been doing a song that I learned from my mentor teacher during my Montessori internship year.  It has always been one of my favorites to do with little ones, and the little ones in my classroom have been enjoying it immensely.  For lack of another song title, I call it "The Bakery Shop Song."  To play this game, you will need  8 little "muffins" that are each a different color.  Before laminating mine I glued glitter on the top to look like sugar.  Here is a photo of the muffins.

To play, I begin by laying the muffins down in front of me one at a time.  Together, we name the color of each one as I place it on the floor.  Then, as I point to each muffin, we count to see how many there are.  Then we sing the song.  The lyrics are below.  Unfortunately, it is not a familiar tune. 

"Down on the corner at the bakery shop

There were 8 little muffins with sugar on the top.

Along came _________ (insert child's name) all alone

S/he bought the __________ (insert the color the child chooses) one

And took it home."

As their name is called in the song, the child comes forward and chooses a muffin, then returns to their place on the line with it.  Then we count how many are left and change the number for the next verse.  We continue until all the muffins are gone.  AND (very important!!) we repeat the entire game until each child has had a turn to come up and choose a muffin.

If you are reading this right now and have a fun song/game that you enjoy doing with your group, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get some new ones.  So........post me a comment and describe your activity.

Busy little hands

Today we had a very amazing morning in the Montessori classroom considering it was only the second day of school this year for most of the 21 children.  I was really surprised how settled, focused and engaged they were during our work period.  AND............I was able to take some photos to document some of what's been going on.  You will see some little hands and feet in the photos........so cute!

This is a new Practical Life work I put out after the first day of school.  On the first day I had put out water pouring.  I didn't snap a photo, but it was just two little glass pitchers on a tray with a sponge to wipe up spills.  I learned my lesson the "hard" way as I watched several children use the sponge to soak up all the water in pitcher instead of pouring the water.  This is totally my fault...........I shouldn't have put out a water activity without demonstrating it first.  So.......after Day 1, the water was removed (only until after Labor Day), and I replaced the water in the pitchers with beans.  I also put out the rice scooping activity pictured above.  It's hard to tell, but the rice is in a little silver "bathtub".  The children have really enjoyed this work (and we've been vacuuming up lots of rice :0) ).

Several children have done my Math in a Bag work.  So I'm glad I put this out right away.  For more details about this activity, see this post.

Metal inset work...........this particular little person traced several shapes and we stapled them into a booklet.

Practical Life scooping activity.............this one has been very popular.

Two little friends worked very hard for quite a while on their cutting work.  In general, everyone is loving the cutting work.  Lots of little baggies of snippings going home each day.

Today several children worked on these bead stair coloring papers.  I purchased these as a download from Montessori for Everyone.  There are several variations in the download set including both colored versions and black and white versions.

A maze made using the Red Rods.  After constructing this, the children may take off their shoes and "walk" the maze.

Here a little friend is working so hard on her pin-punching.  To complete a whole apple, punching all the way around, takes tremendous concentration for the little ones not to mention good fine motor and eye-hand coordination.  When the shapes are punched out, the children may just take them as is, glue them on a background, or punch a hole in the top and place on yarn for a necklace or hanging decoration.

Little hands doing the necklace work.  This particular little guy concentrated very hard and strung noodles and straws the entire length of his string. 

I couldn't resist taking a photo of some little feet and legs all stretched out during our "rest" time on the line.  When we return from recess, we wash hands, then lie down on the line with lights off and soft music playing.  This helps everyone relax before our group snack.  When everyone is finished washing hands and lying down (I lie down on the line with them), Miss T or Miss Ann has us take a deep breath, then she counts to 10.  We all sit up and sing our snack song.  Then we have a fun, healthy snack together!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed our little photo gallery.  This is just a little tiny glimpse of all the busy learning going on in our classroom.

Bless the little ones

I wish I could post photos of my wonderful, beautiful students here on the blog.  Because they are truly each amazing and wonderful.  However, I am deeply protective of their privacy as well as the privacy of my own children.  So, you won't ever see a post with photos of children.  And, like many of you, I prefer photo-rich posts to non-photo ones.  Still, I really wanted to write tonight to try to express my wonder at these blessed little ones.

Today was my first "full-day" of teaching this year.  We had a morning session, 45 minute break, then an afternoon session.  Was it crazy-busy?  Yes.  Am I exhausted?  No, but close (and it will hit me later).  Still, as I am sitting here reflecting on our day, something I have always done as a teacher, I can't help but think about how blessed I am to work with these little ones. 

A man in my church recently spent about 1 hour helping in the preschool room at Vacation Bible School.  This man is also a lay speaker in our church and was, ironically, one of my high school English teachers.  I learned a LOT about writing from him.  Anyway, since his little stint with the preschoolers, he has frequently commented about how the experience "wasn't for him" and how he "survived" it, etc.  I definitely know that this age group is not for everyone.  However, as I have heard him comment, somewhat negatively at times, about his experience, I find myself getting fiercely defensive of preschoolers as a "group." 

These little ones are so fresh from God and so full of wonder and awe.  I have worked with all ages of children professionally ranging from birth through eighth graders and I have always maintained that the 3-5 year olds are my favorite group.  They are SO excited about everything, they usually love their teachers, love learning, etc.  As I said, they are "fresh" from God, without the taint of our sometimes ugly world on them yet.  And I wish you could have seen the look of triumph on the face of one little boy this afternoon as he "mastered" climbing across the bridge of our play equipment.  At first, I stood right next to him as he crossed, then I helped and watched some other students.  Pretty soon I heard him say, "Miss Laura!  Did you see me do it?"  And I hadn't, so I said, "Show me."  And he very proudly crossed the bridge with no help and total confidence.  He was BEAMING!!  My eyes tear up as I write this and for so many reasons. 

The largest part of my professional life has been working with struggling learners.  Oftentimes by the time I came into their lives, they had experienced years of school failure.  I look back at it and wish that EVERY child could experience the true joy of accomplishment on a daily basis, just like my little friend did today on the bridge.

That's all for tonight, my energy is spent.  I snapped a few photos today, but none that I will post right now.  Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll have a few photos to share that will provide some visual evidence of all the learning and doing that has been going on in our classroom.  So far, there's been so much learning and doing that I have hardly had time to grab a camera!

Reflections on our first morning

Well, my first morning as a Montessori teacher again is over.  It went very, very well.  I was so busy (because the children were so busy) that I did not take a single photo all morning.  I had my camera there and thought about it once, but got distracted by helping someone and forgot again.  So, no photos today.

I always like to reflect on things to see how they can be better next time.  And I will share some of those thoughts here on the blog.  This will (hopefully) be helpful to those of you that are also in classroom settings. 

First, I need to make my line area bigger.  I had thought this after I stuck all the tape down, but instead of ripping it up, I decided to try it with children first.  It worked okay; however, I do have enough floor space to widen (and lengthen) it, so I will probably change that yet this week, or maybe over the weekend.  It will allow a little more space between children which will help our group time in many ways.

Second, I made a mental note of several things to go over/model with the children before our next work time.  I had modelled taking work from the shelf, returning it, pushing in the chair, as well as how to get a rug, return the rug, etc.  These things will all need continued reminders and reinforcement.  However, the other things to review are walking around a rug, using walking feet in our classroom, reminding them they can use the bathrooms at any time without asking first, etc.  Really, things went very well, as I've said, for a first day.

We were able to have about a 45 minute work period, and I think they could have gone longer.  I am glad that they are so excited about the work on the shelves.  Many were reluctant to stop working.  Additionally, many were wanting to go back to work after our second line time.  However, that is when we head outside for recess, then back inside for snack, story, and dismissal.

It will take a while for everyone to get into the swing of it all.  It is hard for some, especially the younger threes, to listen at group time, take turns, keep hands to self, etc.  But that is all part of our important learning at school, and just as important as any academic skill or task.  I will try to snap some photos tomorrow.  Today we just had the morning session (no afternoon class on Monday or Friday).  Tomorrow will be a full day with a 3 hour morning session followed by a 3 hour afternoon session.  (And only 45 minutes between times; not much time to clean up, eat, use the restroom and be ready to greet a new group!!).

I will close by saying that I love being back in this type of educational environment.  Once we get through these first weeks, I am looking forward to sitting back and observing more closely and introducing more of the advanced work to the older children.   

Itty Bitty Capri Sun bag tutorial

I decided to write up a tutorial for the Itty Bitty Capri Sun bags I made a while back.  If you haven't yet tried sewing with juice pouches, this is an easy project to start with.  You will only need 5 pouches in all.  To prepare the pouches for sewing, use a knife (or I use nail scissors) to make a slit all the way across the bottom of the juice pouch (the part that allows the pouch to stand up when it's full of juice).  Pour out any remaining juice and rinse the pouch out with water thoroughly.  You can use soapy water if you want, but I usually just rinse with plain old water.  Stand the pouches upright on a towel to dry.  Make sure they are completely dry inside before sewing.  Even after standing up they still may have some drops left, so you can dry these with a towel.

You will need 5 pouches.  Four are for the sides and one for the bottom of your bag.  In this photo, the four on top are for the sides.  I planned to have the purple ones on opposite sides with the silver ones between.  The Wild Cherry pouch is for the bottom.

Line up one of your side pouches and the pouch for the bottom as shown in the photo.  Using your scissors, you will trim off the extra part sticking out so the bottom is exactly the same width as one juice pouch.

When trimmed, the bottom should look like this.

Next you will line up one of your full-size pouches with the bottom piece, backs together (logos facing out) and sew them together using a wide zig-zag stitch.  I use regular cotton thread and a heavy-duty needle.  Go from one end all the way to the other, backstitching at both ends.

Repeat the above step with the pouch you want on the opposite side of the bag.  When finished, your piece should look like the photo.  Be sure to pay attention to how you align the pouches so your finished bag doesn't have an upside-down side.

Next you will take one of your remaining two pouches and line it up back to back with one of your "side" pouches.  In my example, I am aligning the pouch you can see facing out in the photo back to back with one of the purple pouches, silver sides together.  You can see at the bottom of the photo that the bottom of the bag (the little piece I cut) is opened up just below the side piece.  Sew from the top down using a zig-zag stitch.  Stop about 1/4 inch from the bottom.  Backstitch at both ends.

Here is a photo where I am trying to show that you stop stitching about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the pouch.

Now your piece should look like the photo above when you open it all up.

Repeat the steps above to attach your last side pouch.  Now your piece should look like the photo above.

Next, you will fold your bag together so it looks more like a bag.  You have 2 side seams to sew.  In the photo above, I have aligned the unsewn side of the purple pouch (on the right) with the edge of the adjacent side.  Sew from top to bottom using the zig-zag stitch and stopping a little before the bottom edge.  Backstitch at the top and bottom.  Repeat this to sew the remaining side seam.

Now you just have your 2 bottom seams to sew and you're done.  To accomplish this, it is easiest if you kind of flatten your bag (think of how a paper bag folds up flat; your bag will fold up just like that) and align the edges of the bag bottom (shown in photo) with the bottom of the side pouch.  Sew end to end with a zig-zag stitch, backstitching at both ends.  Repeat for opposite bottom seam.

Now you should be able to open up your finished bag and stand it up on its own.  You can use it to hold pencils, markers, etc.  OR, you could place a jar inside filled with water and use it for a vase.  OR use it as a container for holding pretty much anything.

The Name Clothesline

Wow!  It's finally here.  The first day of school with students is tomorrow.  I am very excited and hope it goes well.  Today I was up at school for about 2 hours doing a few last minute things.  One thing I really wanted to have ready but hadn't done yet is the Name Clothesline.  I don't remember where I got this idea, but I'm modifying it a little from what it had been used for in the classroom on the blog I don't remember.

Each day a different student will bring snack and be our "snack helper."  As I've mentioned before, the snack helper will have various leadership opportunities which include leading the pledge, leading the line out to recess and back, passing out snack, etc.  I would also like to use the snack helper's name each day to give everyone a little exposure to the names of the letters of our alphabet.  So........I found these little t-shirt cut-outs at a teacher supply store and rigged up a clothesline on the back of a shelf.  I used screw-in eye hooks and some of the wire I used for my art wire as shown in this post.  I first tried it with yarn between the hooks, but the t-shirts were so heavy they really pulled the yarn down.

My plan is to show the snack helper's name card during our line time.  Together we will spell the snack helper's name out loud, clapping as we say each letter, then saying the name as we raise both arms like a cheer.  Tomorrow, my snack helper will be GRANT.  So we will chant and say, "G-R-A-N-T........Grant!"  I will then lay out the t-shirt letters and we will count the letters in Grant's name.  Then Grant and I will hang up his letters on the line.  For tomorrow, we will just leave the letters up all morning.  However, in the future I will set this up as an activity the children can do independently during their work time.  For example, after we have spelled and hung up the snack helper's name, any child could go over and spell their name or a friend's name during work time.  I plan to take everyone's picture this first week, then I'll make control cards with their photo and first name so they can have something to look at and check. 

NOTE:   I may need to buy more t-shirts to have enough letters.  I bought a package which had 36.  But, I need 16 for capital letters (I counted today and out of my 59 students, there are 16 different "first letters") and I still need to figure out what other lowercase letters I'll need.  My plan is to just make new letters each day as needed to spell the snack helper's name, utilizing the ones I've already made too, of course.  Does that make sense?  I am hoping the task won't be too overwhelming for the children with too many letters to go through.  Now, as I'm writing this, I am thinking I should have made the capital letters all the same color.  The t-shirts came in 4 different colors.  Well, we'll see how it works.  I'll keep you posted here on the blog.  I do think they will enjoy hanging up their name as a work.

Art shelf.....top shelf

I am finally finished with my art shelf (which is a good thing since school starts in two days!!).  I have gradually been showing pieces of it here on the blog.  You can view the previous posts here, here and here.  As I stated in the previous posts, cutting, drawing, pin-punching, gluing, and necklace (stringing) work will be out in seasonal variations all year.  In the past, this preschool has had each child bring their own scissors, crayons, and pencil which were stored in their cubbies.  I decided to have a place where everyone could go to access these supplies as needed.  However, when individual activities require crayons, pencils, or colored pencils, I usually place those supplies right on the shelf or tray with the activity.

Here you can see the top and middle shelves.  The top shelf from L to R holds:  4 baby food jars which each hold the 11 basic colors of crayons, a can of sharpened pencils, 2 mugs with skinny Crayola markers, a tray for paper, a divided holder with traced shapes for pin-punching as well as blank pieces of construction paper to glue the punched shapes on (if they wish to), and 2 baskets with a pad and pin-puncher.  Above the shelf is a canvas my oldest son painted this summer.  For more about our summer canvas painting, see this post.

Here are a few close-ups of the shelf.  I love how the crayons look sticking out of the little glass jars.  I will say that the art shelf was used HEAVILY during our open house, so I am pretty sure it will get lots of use throughout the year.  We will do seasonal crafts and art projects as well.  However, they may be set up on one of the little tables in the Practical Life area. 

I would love to hear about the art shelves and activities in your classroom and/or home.  So.....drop me a comment and tell me what creative stuff your little ones love and how you have it set up.