Sweet Stories

We had such a sweet day all around. It is so much fun watching the children try to compose themselves during the school day, just knowing that the excitement of Halloween is just around the corner! U.P. wrote and illustrated a Halloween story:

Once upon a time,

there was a ghost in a village.

He was nice. He didn't hurt.

One day he met a girl.

They were friends.

Now that's a Montessori ghost story if I've ever heard one!

This student, RB, must be trying to control his excitement with the Individual Silence Game. He waited there with the lavender pillow for a full minute of silence. After rolling up the mat and putting the work away, he noticed a framed picture of Maria Montessori. He brought the frame over to me and asked, "Who is this woman?". I replied, "It's Maria Montessori. She loved children. She invented most of these materials you see." RB's response was this, "Oh. That's sweet of her."

Have a sweet Halloween!

Spiders

In the spirit of Halloween, we studied spiders today. We used the lightboard to trace a complex spider web, then we added spiders with ink thumbprints. I was so happy to see many of the children adding eight legs to their spiders, after we read a book on parts of a spider. U.P. loved the word "arachnid" and wanted to know more about these animals. We also discovered that spiders can make as many as seven different kinds of silk, each used for a different purpose (egg cases, wrapping prey...). Can you believe that a thread of spider silk is stronger than a thread of steel that is the same thickness?

Here's a spider web activity you can try at home. Finding a web is easy on foggy or dew-covered mornings because the water droplets reveal the silk threads. You'll have to wait to see the spider at work because a spider can't catch a meal until its web dries out. If your child would like to check out the intricate design of a web, here's a trick biologists use to make spider webs visible.

Step One: Put one sock inside the other to make a double-thick bag.
Step Two: Fill the bag with cornstarch or talcum powder.
Step Three: Close the opening by tying a knot in the top of the "bag".
Step Four: Hold the bag next to a spider web (not over the top of it).
Step Five: Pat the bag gently to force poweder out of it onto the web. Hint: Stand upwind so the air carries the powder onto the web.
Step Six: Keep patting the bag until the web is lightly dusted.

Another great extension to this topic is installing a Garden Spider Web Frame from Montessori Services in your backyard. With a little time and a lot of patience, children can observe a web being formed and eventually a spider hunting for a meal.

BOO!

Halloween in a Montessori classroom is much different than in a traditional setting. There are no scary images posted around the school and the children are not coloring pictures of witches on their brooms. Instead, the children are learning about bats and the way that they "hear" with echolocation. They are studying the many uses of a pumpkin and exploring the pumpkin life cycle. Check out this book from your local library, it's fantastic. You can also preview half of the book here. We do sing Halloween-inspired songs that allow for use of the imagination, but are not scary or threatening. The children haven enjoyed singing Stirring the Brew, while adding their own concoctions to the brew! We also sing Five Little Pumpkins, but we remove the word "witches" and replace it with "bats". Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing it at home, also, each child gets a chance to shut off the lights when we sing "out went the lights" near the end. That's their favorite part!

"Five Little Pumpkins"

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,

The first one said "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said "There are bats in the air!"

The third one said "But we don't care."

The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run!"

The fifth one said "We're ready for some fun!"

Woooooo went the wind and

Out went the lights!

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

There are several different variations to this song, but this is the one that we've always liked. If you would like to make a "Five Little Pumpkins" mini-book at home, follow the directions here.

Scroll down to the printable templates at the bottom of the page. On Halloween celebration day, we continue to sing songs and I will paint little decorations on their faces. We do not dress up for several reasons. Many times children dress up in very scary costumes and this changes the child's peaceful personality entirely. Younger children spend the day frightened and/or crying because of these costumes. Also, parts of the costumes break easily or are lost and the teacher spends much of the day consoling or trying to fix swords and wands. Instead, we have lots of fun and enjoy a non-threatening aspect of the holiday.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Maitri Learning

In order to expose the children to zoology, we teach a series of lessons. Ideally, the first lesson is an introduction to the animal through actual observation. As with all Montessori activities, we start with the concrete then move to the abstract. Our children have daily interactions with our classroom fish and sometimes with our school dog, but the reptile, amphibian, and insect are a bit more difficult. If anyone at home owns a reptile or an amphibian, we'd love to borrow it at some point throughout the school year! Next, the child is introduced to the zoology puzzles. These puzzles surely are a classroom favorite.

Next, we teach the children the language of the parts of the body. Typically, I use the puzzles to introduce the vocabulary, but we were able to purchase the Maitri three-part nomenclature cards this summer. I was very excited about these cards, but I wasn't sure how the children would respond to them- you never really can gauge their reaction to new materials. It turns out, they LOVED them. I introduced the parts of the horse cards to a small group of two children and by the end of the lesson, I had five "observers". The cards and beautiful and very well made.

Each "part" of the horse is highlighted on the card. The children thought it was amazing that only a small part of the horse was colored in and they thought the pictures were gorgeous. Check out the website for information and references for parents.

Pumpkin Science

I put out a new science experiment yesterday entitled "Pumpkin Sink or Float". I have this work set up at a permanent "station" so that the children can just sit down and perform the activity. I leave work out like this on rare occasions, maybe if it's only going to be out for a few days and I want the children to see it and work with it, or if there are too many parts involved in the work for the child to carry from the shelf to a table.

On the table, I have a tray, an apron, a large bowl, a sponge, an orange colored pencil, and a stack of experiment papers in a plastic folder. The experiment paper has an area for predictions (a space for a picture and a line for the word "sink" or "float") and a similar area for conclusions. After putting on the apron and filling in the paper, the child carries the bowl to the sink. There is a black line drawn on the bowl to show the water's surface line.

Now for the fun part...the child carries the bowl back to the tray and places the pumpkin gently into the water. It typically bobs up and down for a few moments and then settles on the surface of the water. It fools them all! Finally, U.P., my afternoon kindergartner, commented "We keep guessing that the pumpkin will sink. And it floats every time. Will the answer ever change?" That is the point of the experiment. Are there any factors that change the composition of the pumpkin so that it will sink? I'm curious to see if any children will alter the pumpkin in any way before putting it in the bowl. I'll keep you posted on any progress of the pumpkin experiment!

Happy Diwali!

This weekend starts the Indian holiday Diwali/Deepavali. I was told of a story about a good prince named Rama who traveled to save his wife, Sita from an evil king. Rama prevailed and returned home following a lit path of candles. Hence, the holiday is oftentimes referred to as the "Festival of Lights". Another Indian parent told me the holiday acts as their New Year. I find it fascinating that different regions of India celebrate the holiday differently and even refer to it by different names.

We had two Indian parents come into the class to give demonstrations on Henna designs, or Mehndi, and also to distribute Bindis. One mom explained to the class that the purpose of the Bindi is to strengthen concentration.

The children were fascinated by the beauty of the Indian culture. We are very fortunate to have such a diverse school, the children come to know and respect other cultures as much as their own. Thank you to our parent volunteers for contributing your time and energy into our classroom. You make such a difference!

Look What I Found!

I stumbled across this great article by the author of Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn. Please take a moment to read it, hopefully it will open your eyes the way it has mine.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm