Show and Tell
Bring a thing Dad uses
Topic: Male Role Models
We’ll appreciate the male qualities of strength and risk taking.
The value we’ll be studying is courage to deal with things that are scary, difficult, or painful.
For ecology, we’ll be studying water, like how it gets dirty and then how it gets clean.
Outside, we’ll be playing Red Rover.
The songs we’ll be singing are Happy Talk, 76 Trombones, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, High Hopes, and Let There Be Peace on Earth.
For creative dramatics, we’ll be playing dress-up relays.
Our art activities will be family rock portraits, flag collage, who’s in my family, and where I live.
For motor development, we’ll be working on strength with situps, deep knee bends, and rocking horse. For body movement, we’ll be working on postural response with find the shape, crab walk, and tight rope.
WAITING FOR THE CLICK
Every Montessori teacher recognizes the “click”. It’s personified in pictures of a child as she places the tiny top block on the pink tower. It’s that moment of epiphany when the face glows with the understanding that “I can do it.” As the adults who create the environments for our preschoolers to grow and learn in, our job is to:
o Prepare an environment where the child can function independently. This means to allow the infant to be unfettered by infant seats, strollers, and cribs. It means small tables and chairs, implements that fit the child’s hands and stature, and quality tools like real scissors, rakes that don’t break, and pitchers that really pour.
o Create spaces that invite the child. Materials must be available for when the child is interested, not taken down and made available when the adult wants. This means art material, intellectually stimulating books and toys, music that the child can play or turn on, and snacks that the child can chose freely. All that is available to the child must be beautifully placed on shelves or tables and never be cluttered or overwhelming
o Show the child how to do the work. We must show slowly and obviously, sometimes many times, how to achieve the object of the material. Mostly this is done with as few words as possible.
o Invite the child into our own worlds. What we enjoy or spend our time doing, our children want to do. Our children see everything, and they are driven to learn to function in our society. They want to help cook, do laundry, wash the car, garden, and do paperwork. As parents, our preschoolers have antennas about everything their parents say and do. When we react with enthusiasm to good things like books, charity, and exercise, our children mimic us. When we react negatively to good things like math, and teachers, our children mimic us. If you want a barometer of your actions, look at your child.
o Be patient and stay out of the way. Montessori educators present material and learning many times and many different ways. Sometimes the internalization of true learning comes before we finish the lesson. Other times, the “click” doesn’t come quickly. So we continue to present in other ways and we wait. Buddhists call this “click” enlightenment, and they wait. So we wait and watch. When it happens, it’s a beautiful thing.
Coming Up
Father’s Day Breakfast - This is one of those biggies for the children. Dads, please put Friday, June 16, on your calendar as a day you’ll be going in to the office a little late. We’ll begin breakfast the continental breakfast at 7:00, ending by 9:00. Also while at the breakfast make sure you and your child get your picture taken for our picture wall and to post on Facebook.
Flag Day – Wednesday June 14, is Flag Day. It’s a wonderful reminder to review the meaning of this symbol of our country.
Lunch – We take a firm stand on nutrition and we would like to ask that parents discontinue adding candy and cookies and other hi sugar treats in their child’s lunch.
Water Play – Every Friday is water play day. All children should come dressed in their swimwear and have clothes to change in to when water play is over. Bring a towel and all things should be labeled with your child’s name. All children must have shoes for water play, water moccasins or water friendly sandals work great.
Classroom News
The work the students do during class time can make such an impression that they will take a learned concept and use it outside of the class time as was the case with Zane. During snack time chex mix was on the menu and when Zane sat down to eat his snack he first separated then grouped all the various shapes as he ate one section at a time. This is a direct correlation to the sorting work in his class.
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