SHOW AND TELL
Bring something used to build a house
Topic: Housing
Almost all creatures find shelter.
The value is collaboration, which is the power to work together for the common good.
For safety we’ll learn how to resist stuff in our environment that is not good for us.
Outside we’ll imagine how to build a house.
The songs we’ll be singing are Day-O, Do-Re-Me, Home on the Range, and Red River Valley. We’ll also practice patterned clapping.
Our art activities are mazes, stamp sets, painting with a screen, animal houses, and paper roll houses.
Creative dramatics will be imagining ways to use things and how many things a thing can be.
For motor development we’ll build stamina with running, jumping, sit ups, and push ups. For body development, we’ll work on bilaterality with balloon volleyball, imitating patterns, bunny hop, and play pass.
INDIVIDUAL LESSONS
A basic principle in the Montessori classroom is the completely individualized curriculum. It’s so second nature to those of us in the field that we forget how foreign it is to people who only know conventional education. A parent whose last classroom experience was a class of 150 students finds our Montessori system incomprehensible. A class of 26 three- to six-year olds can hum quietly with children choosing work on their own, completing their work, and coming out of a three-or four-year cycle far advanced academically. How do they do that?
At the beginning is the routine. The children have a social time on the playground before class to connect with the people with which they’ll be spending the day. When it’s time for class, the routine is orderly and calming. Perhaps they start with a song or a discussion about the date for the calendar. There may be a short group lesson or sharing time. Then the children are released one by one to begin their work. This may be work they choose themselves or work assigned by their teacher.
The room will begin to settle into a busy-ness. The level of focus ebbs and flows. The teacher knows where every child is on the curriculum, and also knows which child is exhibiting particular sensitivities for learning. As the class settles, the teacher might invite one child or a small group for a lesson that best suits their progress in the Montessori cycle. The teacher knows how to present the work in a way that is best suited to the child’s particular learning style. If a child shows no attraction for any work, but just cruises, the directress will observe whether it is just a “down” day for the child. It may be that this child is an observational learner, absorbing lessons by watching other children manipulate the material. Children have been known to observe at the school over several weeks and every night go home to practice.
The teacher will know which children need to reinforce their learning by teaching another child. Sometimes young children are particularly motivated by learning from someone only slightly bigger or older than themselves. Some children develop strong leadership skills by teaching new or younger children. The teacher observes children who don’t challenge themselves and invites them into an excitement about achieving by creating lessons tailored to the child’s unique interests.
Classroom News
While working with the geometric shape puzzle Erin correctly identified the square, triangle and even the pentagon. Shapes are building blocks for several bigger concepts like; Same or Different, Categorization, Problem Solving, Math Skills, and Letter Recognition. Letters are very similar to shapes. The letter V is a triangle missing a side, and the letter O is just a circle. Understanding what shapes are and that they have meaning starts to build literacy. Practicing distinguishing between a square and a triangle help students recognize between different letters.
We discovered that Luke enjoys music time when he locates the teacher’s song book he picks it up and takes it to his teacher. When the teacher sits down and opens up the book Luke is the first and sometimes the only child sitting on the carpet with anticipation in his eyes. One of the songs we often sing is “Wheel’s On The Bus” this song is interactive and hand motions are used throughout the song.
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