Our Week

We spent a lot of time doing work outside on our deck this past week to take advantage of the sunshine. Here are photos of some of the work happening inside and outside the classroom lately.

Variation of the numerals and counters materials for 1:1 correspondence 

Practicing coordination and grace and courtesy for Mother's Day Tea

Transferring tiny eggs from a nest using tweezers

making a hanging bead stair 

addition with the decimal (base 10) system materials, also known as the golden beads

working with the positive snake game

Researching the definitions of the parts of a caterpillar

addition with the number rods

making a diagram for the parts of an insect

push pinning a triangle traced from the triangle metal inset, a writing preparation material

examining a blue jay feather in the nature basket

decorating invitation for Mother's Day Tea

Sensorial Curriculum

creating patterns by matching the knobbed cylinders to the knobless cylinders 

Problem solving and using visual and tactile discrimination to build the trinomial cube 

A snow globe makes a beautiful center piece for an extension to work with grading the colors in Color Box 3.

The ability to categorize, organize, and analyze requires higher level thinking and builds a strong foundation for mathematics. 

How long are the red rods lined up end to end? These students used various materials in the classroom, including their own bodies, as units of measurement to answer that question. 

Dr. Montessori believed that there is nothing in the intellect that doesn't first exist in the senses. Children are constantly taking in information from their environment. Their brains analyze the information and form impressions. From the ages of 0-3 the process is unconscious. From the ages of 3-6 observations of the environment are conscious and intentional. During the age of 2-3 there occurs a great push from the child for independence, with the child often asserting him/herself in the choices that he/she makes. He/she takes the impressions that he/she actively gets from his/her environment using his/her senses to classify information. Children from 3-6 years old need to have order to process the myriad of impressions gathered through their senses to be able to form connections between things and situations. Development as seen through brain research is a process. Repetition of exercises in a consistent environment help strengthen networks of connections in the brain.

Dr. Montessori described man's hands as the instruments of man's intelligence. The materials in the Sensorial Curriculum involve the use of the hands in a classifying act. The hands and the mind work together making a mental connection between an abstract idea and its concrete representation. The sensorial materials are concrete pieces of information that can be organized into meaningful patterns. Work with the didactic material helps to develop a strong foundation for mathematical concepts.

"The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth". - Maria Montessori

Hello Meadowbrook Montessori Families,

On Thursday afternoon, the children walked silently along the trails through the playground woods, as they were lead on a nature walk by Lynsey and I. We observed mushrooms, moss, caterpillars, berries, and more. We stopped to listen to a crow. We also stopped on the trails to talk about how to respect the living things on our playground, such as not shaking or picking leaves off the trees and how to observe the small creatures that may be found. We are lucky to have a natural playground at Meadowbrook. The children not only learn about nature there, but the natural environment encourages imaginative play and social development.

In our classroom we will have a nature basket designated for interesting objects found in nature. The children are always welcome to bring objects to this table and have the choice to share about the special nature object in circle or simply to place it on the table for others to gently explore or examine with a magnifying class. After a period we will send the object home with the friend who brought it, so that room may be made for other nature objects. A monarch butterfly caterpillar is visiting our classroom. The children enjoyed observing it this week. Lifecycle of a butterfly work and parts of a butterfly work were introduced. We hope to watch it complete metamorphosis. The children are also learning to care for our two classroom goldfish. Together we will decide on names for our fish.

I am very excited to announce our first primary classroom field trip. The primary classroom and the first and second year elementary students will be going to the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center for an interactive exploration of the salt marsh on Thursday, September 22nd. We are planning to leave school by 9:15 am and return to school by 12:15 pm. Field trip permission forms will be sent home in the communication folders next week. Please let me know if you would like to be a driver/chaperone for this trip. Led by marsh educator Linda Woodard and volunteers, the children will have an opportunity to experience the marsh first hand using their senses. They will learn about the adaptations of plants and animals unique to the salt marsh, look through algae for small critters, jump on the mud, and feel the marsh fish, the mummichog. Before our trip the children will be introduced to materials in the science area about plants and animals of the salt marsh and we will learn a song about the marsh together at circle.

Dr. Montessori said, "The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge." Children love to explore with their senses. Montessori had this in mind when she designed the beautiful materials of the Sensorial area of our curriculum. The Sensorial materials are grouped according to the sense which the material serves to isolate (Visual Discrimination/Auditory Sense/Tactile Sense/Thermic Sense/Olfactory Sense/ and Gustatory Sense). After the initial lesson on the use of the material, many of the materials can be explored while the child wears a blindfold to further isolate the sense. The aims of the Sensorial curriculum are the the refinement of the ability to observe, compare, discriminate, differentiate, reason, decide, solve problems, and appreciate our world. The materials assist the child in sorting the myriad of impressions that they have gathered through their ability to "absorb" their surroundings.

“The Child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope...hope for peace in the future.”  Dr. Maria Montessori

Have a peaceful weekend,

Jill

P.S. - Please check the laundry, flower, and snack calendars listed under pages on the blog. Let me know what week you would like to sign up for laundry and flowers if you haven't already.