A Montessori class is full of movement.
You want to do the pink tower?
After the child has placed his floor mat, he makes ten trips back and forth, between the work mat and the shelf where the pink tower is stored. If you count retrieving and returning the floor mat, the child will have moved through the room 22 times when he has completed the work. Not only does setting up any given work take a fair amount of trips through the class, most often there is no straight path to the shelf or to the table – there are other children’s floor mats, other shelves and tables in the way – the child must be able to coordinate his movement as not to step on any other child’s work or run into a table or shelf.
But what do you do when you see there is a need for more movement, especially during the morning work cycle?
You make a movement shelf.
Yes, by default a Montessori class requires a child to refine his movements to be able to function in the class, and walking on the line is a wonderful work that enables the child to further practice and hone those skills, but, by providing actual movement works that are skill specific and can be practiced at any time, this is filling a need that needed to be met in our class late this spring.Continue reading “movement shelf”