Getting into a Montessori "Groove!"

I just finished up my second week of preschool! During this week I have definitely learned a lot -- and I think the kids have too! One of the things I have learned is that since I am only one person, I am limited in the number of material lessons I can give during one class period.

This limitation has brought me to the realization that I must give initial lessons on most materials during the large group Circle Time. Up until this point I have shown the kids what new materials were out in the classroom and then left it up to them to come and ask me for lessons on the materials. Although the kids have really been responsible in asking for lessons on new materials, I can only give so many lessons at one time and in one morning.  And, since I was spending so much time giving lessons on materials, I did not have time to observe the kids working or begin things like sandpaper letters -- which is very important!

So, as I stated earlier, I will give initial lessons on most materials during large group Circle Time. Then, I will be able to give additional lessons on these materials as they are needed and also have time to observe the kids in their work and start on some individual/small group language lessons during work/play time.

I tried this new approach today in my 4's class and it worked very well! So, next week I plan to start the sandpaper letters with the kids! I am really excited to see how the kids respond to these!

This week I added even more materials to my preschool classroom. The theme is "All About Me and My Family," so many of the materials are related to this theme.  Here are some of the materials I added:

I am incorporating an "Artist of the Month" this year.  This month is Thomas Gainsborough.  These are the two prints of his that I have out in the classroom: "Pinkie" and "Blue Boy."  He is known for painting portraits on landscapes.

Body Part 3-part cards

Shape Person craft

Bead Stringing

Pin Pushing: person

Growing Up sequencing activity.

Body Parts patterns

Red Kobless Cylinders

Sponge Squeezing: This was a huge "hit" with the kids!  And, yes, I realize that the sponge is on the wrong side of the tray... I accidentally put it there when I took the picture...

Baster: This was another huge "hit" with the kids!

I also added the Red Rods this week, but the picture I took of them disappeared into cyber space...

Here are some pics of the kids using the new materials this week:

Growing Up sequencing

Bead Stringing

Pin Pushing - person

Shape Person craft

Body Parts 3-Part Cards

Baster

Sponge Squeezing

Red Rods: Doesn't he look proud!

Red Knobless Cylinders: This is not the presentation I gave on this material, but this is what most of the kids did when they tried it themselves!

Body Part pattern

I'm really getting excited to start our Fall theme unit!  But, we have one more week of "All About Me and My Family" this week.  The focus will be more on families this week.  And, then on to Fall!  I have so many fun activities and materials ready for our Fall unit!

I'm linking up with Living Montessori Now and One Hook Wonder for Montessori Monday.

 

Here We Go: The First Week of Preschool

I  usually come up with a title for each of my posts before I start typing them.  But, today, I am at a loss.  Since the Montessori Makeover is complete, I'd like to leave that title for the time being and use something else.  I'm hoping by the end of this post I will have come up with a catchy title!

So, today was the last day of my first whole week using the Montessori-based curriculum in my preschool classroom.  The week has gone better than I could have imagined.  The kids are taking interest in all of the materials I have brought into the classroom.  And, they have fallen into the new routine very easily.  I couldn't be happier!

I started off the week thinking that it would take the whole week just to get the routine down -- using rugs and table mats, etc.  But, much to my surprise the kids caught on so quickly that I was able to start introducing materials the second day of each of my classes (3's & 4's).

I am doing the material presentations a little differently in the 3's class than the 4's class.  After much contemplation I decided that in the 3's class, for now, I would need to introduce most of the materials to the whole class at the same time so that there would not be any issues with kids pulling things off the shelves that they had not yet been introduced to.

In the 4's class, however, I am introducing materials to the kids when they ask to have them introduced -- and sometimes I go around and ask kids if they would like a lesson on a specific material.  I put the materials on the shelf, tell the kids at Circle Time what the new materials are and where they are located, and then wait for the kids to ask for lessons.  For the most part, this is working out really well!

Here are some of the materials I introduced this week:

Whole Hand Transfer Activity

Pink Tower and Brown Stairs

One-to-One Correspondence -- balls into egg tray

Classmates 3-Part Cards

 Here are some pictures of the kids using the new materials:

Pink Tower --check out her concentration putting the last cube on the tower!

Working Together

Pink Tower -- stair stepping the smallest cube.

Classmates 3-Part Cards -- I gave him a lesson, he finished it and put everything away.

 I was not able to get pictures of the Whole Hand Transfer activity.  I honestly almost skipped this activity all together because I thought it might be a little to easy for this group of kids.  But, there was one student I wanted to have the chance to use it, so I decided to put it out anyways.  It was not a very popular activity, although a few kids did try it.

The One-To-One Correspondence with balls & the egg tray, on the other hand, was very popular.  There were several kids who took turns one after another on the same rug.  However, I did not manage to get a picture of anyone using it.  Oh well!

During Circle Time, along with doing the calendar, weather, music & movement activity, and reading a book, I am also introducing many of the Grace and Courtesy lessons.  This week we learned how to roll and unroll rugs, carry a rug, walk around a rug, roll and unroll a table mat, ask to work with another child, stand, walk, walk on the line, the Silence Game, and Walking on the Line to music (which we turned into a freeze game as well).  All of these lessons went very well!

Here is a picture of the 4's class Walking on the Line to music while playing the freeze game:

The adults you see in the picture are the assist parents that work in the classroom with me.  My preschool is a cooperative, which means that the parents take turns assisting me in the classroom.  I am lucky to have a wonderful group of parents!

After such a successful first week of school I am really excited about the rest of the year!  I feel like I am really doing what I am supposed to be doing.  I have so many more opportunities to work with the kids on a more individual basis than I ever did before.  For the past 11 years I have been teaching preschool I was limited to teaching the same things to all the kids at the same time.  Now, although all the kids are using the same materials, they are not all using the same materials at the same time.  They are using them when they are ready and interested.

All in all I feel such a sense of accomplishment!  All of the literally hundreds of hours of work I put into this transition have paid off in full the first week of school.

I am linking up with Living Montessori Now and One Hook Wonder for Montessori Monday!

Montessori Makeover: My Classroom (part 2)

After spending about two mornings a week in my classroom over the last few weeks, I finally completed the classroom portion of my Montessori Makeover!  There are still a couple "piles" of stuff that need to either be donated or put away.  But, for the most part, the classroom is ready to go.

As you will notice in the photographs, there are some aspects of the classroom that do not conform to the traditional Montessori classroom:

*  Many of the shelving units are still painted a bright green color.  This may be something I will change in the future.  But, for now, for the sake of time and money, they will stay green.  Plus, I like the color!


*  There is a brightly colored circle time rug rather than the traditional circle or elliptical shaped "line" on the floor.  Again, this is something that may change in the future.  But, for now, will stay.


*  Most of my supply storage is in the classroom.  That's just the way it is.  This is not something that I can change.


*  There is a block area, pretend play area, and a gross motor area in the classroom.  These are things that were already there and the children enjoy.  So, they will stay as well.


Here are the photographs:

Block Area -- this used to be the Circle Time area

Practical Life -- the small rectangular table to the right of the picture towards the back is for food preparation.  This used to be the table that I kept all the painting supplies on.  The table was originally meant as a work bench for using tools, so the top was in poor condition.  I covered it with blue vinyl like most of the other tables in the classroom.  The small round table is for eating snack and the large rectangular table is for practical life work.  The small wood shelf is for snack set-up items like plates, napkins, cups, and pitchers.

This is a different view of the practical life area as well as the art and sensorial areas.  To the right of the picture, towards the front is the practical life work shelf.  There is a small independent work table past that and then the art shelf.  The round table to the back, middle of the picture is the art work table.  To the left are two easels for painting work and a sensory table.  The long shelf towards the back is for sensorial work.  I am planning to get a large, solid colored area rug for the floor in front of the sensorial shelf.

Another view of the practical life, art, and sensorial areas.  To the left, front of the picture there is another small independent work table.

Gross Motor Area

Pretend Play Area

Circle Time, Math, Culture, Science Areas, and a partial view of the Language area.  The shelf to the left is for math work.  The shelf in front of the window is for science work.  The green shelf to the front, right of the picture (you can only see the corner of it) is for culture work  The vertical book shelf is for, well, books of course.

This is the Language area and the science work shelf.  The tall green shelf to the left is for language work.  The short green shelf to the right is either going to be for more language work or maybe more culture work.  I'm not sure yet.  The rectangular table is for small group lessons.  Towards the very back of the room, you can see the children's cubbies -- and some other stuff that is waiting to leave the classroom.

Well, there you have it!  I am really happy with the results of this makeover.  The next step is to put work out on the shelves to start the year.  Of course, since this is the beginning of a new school year and the beginning of the Montessori curriculum, we will begin the year with work that the children have probably already been exposed to.  Things like Mr. Potato Head, peg boards, bead lacing, etc.  The Montessori materials will be added as lessons are given on each material.

I also have some more materials to purchase for the classroom.  I plan to purchase work rugs from Ikea.  These seem to be the most reasonably priced rugs I have found at this point.  I also need to purchase small table work mats.  I will probably see what Ikea has in this area as well.  I am always open to suggestions, so please feel free to let me know if you have any ideas for classroom work rugs.

As I complete the set-up of each individual area, I will post updates to my blog.  And, as I go through the year I will be sharing some of my own ideas for Montessori-style works as well as updates on how the year is going.  Please "stay tuned" for further "Montessori Makeover" updates! 

I am also very happy to announce that I will be taking Karen Tyler's online Montessori teacher training through World Wide Montessori Online!  Since I neither have the time or the money to complete traditional Montessori training, this was a wonderful option for me.  I have heard so many great things about Karen Tyler's program and her resources for Montessori educators through yahoo groups, blogs, etc., that I have no doubt I will benefit greatly from her program!

A Car Wash: Montessori Style

So, this past week we went to "Sights and Sounds on Thursday Nights" in Chelsea, Michigan where my parents live.  We have gone to this event on a few other occasions over the Summer -- Froggy Boots enjoys dancing to the music of the street performers (especially rock and roll or country music).

On this occasion, however, there was also a Boy Scout yard sale going on at the old train depot!  Well, I couldn't exactly pass that up, now could I?  So, after we ate dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, we headed over to the yard sale.  Along the way we passed a few of the street performers.  But, for whatever reason, Froggy Boots didn't seem as interested in them.

At the yard sale we found a few treasures for Froggy Boots.  The two most important were one of those red and yellow Little Tikes cars and a Thomas t-shirt.  She was thrilled with both!  In fact, she insisted on wearing the Thomas t-shirt right away and began removing her shirt right there in the parking lot!  Thankfully, I am not scared of a little dirt and germs, so the fact that the t-shirt had obviously been in storage in someones' garage didn't bother me.



I took a couple pictures of Froggy Boots in her new Thomas t-shirt.  But, unfortunately, when I went in to upgrade to a new phone this weekend, the pictures on my old phone magically disappeared after they transferred my contacts from the old phone to the new phone.

The Little Tikes car was also a little (or a lot) on the dirty side.  But, I saw that as a great opportunity to have some fun with a practical life activity -- a car wash!  The next morning, that was our project, washing Froggy  Boots new car.

Here are some pictures:

Froggy Boots chose to use the scrub brush most of the time instead of the wash cloths.

Getting some more water and bubbles on the sponge.  She wasn't to sure about the bubbles at first -- she is quite afraid of bubbles for some reason -- but, this was a great opportunity to see that bubbles are fun!

Later, after the car was pretty close to clean, Froggy Boots decided that the "wormies" (millipedes) on the sidewalk needed a bath as well.  Needless to say, they did get clean, but I'm not sure whether they appreciated the bath or not.

Just after we finished the car wash, Grandma Shelley stopped by for a visit.  She happened to be in Ann Arbor that day and so decided to stop by and see us!  She got to see Froggy Boots try out her new, clean car for the first time since we brought it home.

Froggy Boots kept trying to steer the car with the steering wheel.  But, as those of you who have owned the little tikes car know, the steering wheel does not actually control the wheels.  So, she kept going off the sidewalk into the grass.  She'll get the hang of it eventually!