Category Archives: montessori

Father’s Day French Yogurt Cake

French yogurt cake has been a staple in our house for the last few years. My obsession started after I read A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenberg (here is her blog post about the cake). Over time we have tried many variations, and finally settled on a recipe that fits our family.

The delightful part of the recipe is that the units of measurement are based on the yogurt container (about half a cup). The lovely and romantic story is that this is one of the first cakes that young French children learn to make. If we lived in France, I would have a darling glass yogurt jar, but since we don’t, I have an old YoBaby yogurt cup that we just reuse.

Father's Day French yogurt cake - a mostly independent baking project | montessori works blog

Why is this a fantastic early baking experience? Well, first it is absolutely delicious. Second, I love it as a transitional baking project. Rather than having all the ingredients premeasured (as I do with other baking projects) part of the work, and the fun, of making this cake is using the yogurt container as the unit of measurement. It adds in that next step in to the baking process. It does require support from an adult, but it is building the bridge to more independence in the kitchen. And, did I mention it’s delicious as well as adaptable?

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french knitting

You know when you see something on Pinterest and you can tell it is going to change your life.

Well, life changing may be a stretch, but this was a fabulous addition to our practical life shelf.

French knitting - montessori works

A few weeks ago, this Pin, was on my Pinterest home page. A large, stable looking French knitter, and I knew it would be perfect for the class.Continue reading “french knitting”

that’s a wrap

Today was our last day of school, our kindergarteners graduated, everyone ate some cookies, there were many hugs and some tears. Tomorrow will be full of packing, cleaning, and planning for next year.

There is a final tradition at our school, and it is one that you won’t find in your albums, but is important to us nonetheless – full body portraits.

montessori works - portraits

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movement shelf

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.

Montessori Movement Shelf - montessori works

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”

summer bucket list & the we don’t know what to do bucket

One day this summer I am going to wake-up and think, “What are we going to do today?” I know this will happen because every summer/Christmas/spring break it has, and at the  end of each of these vacations I am sitting there thinking, I meant to do so much, what happened to the time.

Enter the buckets. Now, I am not only ready, but I have ideas that will keep both Imogen and me from saying “What are we going to do?”

Now there are two buckets (Imogen/Maddy focused) and one large white board (Aimee focused) – I do love a good list.

Let’s look at the exciting ones first.

montessori works summer bucket list

The basic plan was – think of places/activities/outings that would break the routine, write them on popsicle sticks, then color coded the sticks with scrapbook paper. Based on the day we will decided which type of stick to pull from which bucket.

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