montessori Archives - Page 2 of 6

four montessori color mixing lessons

Color mixing works are always a hit in the classroom. We progress through all these variations during the year, because while it seems like a simple concept, it truly is something that takes children years to fully internalize color mixing. And, while I didn’t plan this, with St. Patrick’s Day coming up, what better time to have a little rainbow fun!

We use four main lessons for color mixing, one group lesson and three individual works. The group lesson is the introduction, and usually the best place to start. The following is roughly the order we progress through during the year (of course this year we mixed it up, so it doesn’t really matter.)

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montessori presidents day & money sorting work

Presidents Day is coming up this Monday, traditionally, it is a day to celebrate Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays, however, this year I decided to celebrate it in a more inclusive way by focusing on all the Presidents that appear on common coins and bills.

I prefer my works to start at a very concrete (real) place. Children are familiar with money, it is common and known to them. We build on this concrete foundation by providing a range of images, concrete to abstract – pictures of money, real photographs of the Presidents, paintings of the Presidents, statues, and monuments. Since many of these paintings and statues are not familiar to the children in our class, I have color-coded the cards so it is a self-correcting and independent work.Continue reading “montessori presidents day & money sorting work”

meaningful sensory experiences in the montessori classroom & connections to home

Sensory play is a big deal in the educational arena. If you are on Pinterest, you will constantly see new Pins featuring themed sensory bins or new recipes for goopy substances for your child to experiment and play with. I do love sensory bins, at home we have a rice table, a bin of cloud sand, and Kinetic Sand, also known as the coolest sand ever. My stepdaughter can’t walk past the Kinetic Sand without scooping it up into a ball, then letting it ooze and melt over her hand. Obviously, sensory materials meet a need in all of us, and can be highly addicting, the question is, how can they fit into a Montessori classroom.

The Montessori Sensorial curriculum allows the child to explore and categorize their world based on their senses. Lessons are presented using specific materials, each which focuses on one particular dimension. So this is not a new concept to the Montessori classroom, actually it is the foundation and the basis of the pedagogy, and it extends beyond the Sensorial area of the class, it is part of all the curriculum areas.Continue reading “meaningful sensory experiences in the montessori classroom & connections to home”

knitting in the classroom

I long to be able to knit — sweaters for my children, shawls, hats, and mittens — but I knit squares and rectangles. I can’t count stitches, I need to look up directions any time I have to do anything beyond a regular knit stitch. But recently, I dug up two matching needles (which was quite a feat in my house) and a variegated skein of yarn, I cast on, grabbed a basket and I started knitting.

I am not knitting curled up on my couch with a cup of coffee, I am knitting in my classroom. I am doing my work.

As my work can attest, I am not staring at the needles when I knit, I look down for a second when I start the stitch, and then I am scanning the classroom. It is amazing that there is always space to sit near the child or children that are a little unsettled.

I am modeling work, respect, concentration, commitment to a project. How’s it going? Some days better than others. There are days where I don’t have a second to take my work off the shelf and do a row, other days where I can sit and knit for what seems like ages (but is really about 5 minutes).

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2013 — half a year in review

Hoping that everyone had a holiday filled with peace and love. Ours was delightful, filled with just enough of everything.

My favorite part of 2013, is this, montessori works. I love the community of fellow Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio, eclectic teachers and parents that I have interacted with both here, and through other blogs, websites and facebook. One of my goals for this year is to be here more, and I do want this to happen, because, like everyone else, I am trying to find just enough balance in home, work, screen time etc.

Now to transition from just enoughs to superlatives, here are the most pinned, most viewed and then my most favorite posts from last year.

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Montessori Record Keeping

We have just finished up our fall conferences at my school. One important tool that we always use, revisit, and expand,as we write up our conference notes, is the master record that we keep for each child.

This year my co-teacher and I revisited the form we had been using, which was an inherited form that neither of us had developed, and while it was great, it wasn’t working for us. We wanted to make something that was meaningful for us, and that didn’t seem overwhelming to update, the previous record was 8 pages.Continue reading “Montessori Record Keeping”