montessori works - Page 8 of 9 -

letter writing montessori style

Who doesn’t love mail?

In our house, my daughter is the official mail opener. Any card she receives she rereads daily for weeks, and then hoards it in her specail paper box. Or, if the card is from my mom, it usually sings, and then she and everyone in the family listens to tinny renditions of You Say It’s Your Birthday. So, in a class of preschoolers and kindergarteners, what better work could there be to encourage writing than letter writing, complete with mailbox and delivery person.

This mailbox, while very cute, is temporary. I made this one for Imogen about two years ago and it is just on loan. If you are interested, I followed this tutorial. I have a more permanent one planned, I just need to find it and buy it. Continue reading “letter writing montessori style”

montessori gift ideas

It seems to be birthday season (as if there is a season to having babies). For me, buying birthday gifts – for children other than mine – can easily turn into a stressful outing. I want to balance the wants of the child and respect both my personal philosophy on toys and the parents.

For gift giving, I don’t really have any hard and fast guidelines beyond no batteries and no characters. I like gifts that are open-ended and don’t have to be used in one particular way, however, there are really only so many ways to use a bug catcher or hand drill!

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art closet – my montessori corners

Just as I am not the Montessori teacher to go to for art ideas, I am not the artsy mom either. I can get into crafts, but as I confessed in my last post, I do struggle to find ways to encourage and support art in the class and the home. My general philosophy for most things is — if the materials are ready and easy to put together, it is far more likely I will use them. Following that, at our house we have the our art closet. It’s not perfect, it’s not always neat, it’s not a lot, but it is working.

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painting at the easel

I am not the Montessori teacher to come to when you are looking for a fantastic new work for the art shelf. Together with my co-teacher, Callie, we try to keep all the works on the art shelf process-oriented and open-ended, but we are always looking for creative new ideas and ways to fit these goals. One thing I do think we have figured out, our easel painting setup.

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basics – my montessori corners

I have tried to think about what would define our home as a Montessori home, because it is, but how? I do not have works for my daughter – she comes to school with me and has a whole class full of works and two wonderful teachers, thankfully that is off my plate – but I still support and develop the basics of all Montessori activities — coordination, concentration, independence and a sense of order. Here are a few ways that I have found that work for our family.

The Learning Tower

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writing with the moveable alphabet

If I had to pick, I think the moveable alphabet has to be my favorite work in the class. It is a work that can be modified to fit so many levels, it can be extended to meet the child where they are and you can connect it to the interest of the child.

blue, green, red, yellow – writing words describing her metal inset

Work with the moveable alphabet consists of what is called encoding – or spelling. Encoding almost always comes before decoding (or reading), it is very important that the child have a great deal of experiences with encoding before we present any sort of reading. And, since Dr. Montessori was so brilliant, she knew if you took away the mechanics of forming the letters (handwriting), and gave then a set of letters – the moveable alphabet – a young child could easily build meaningful words.

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