10/27 - 10/31

I offered to write the blog this week because I took the photos of the garlic bread and spaghetti project, so I am a guest writer, writing from an observer’s point of view. It was a pleasure to observe part of this project.

Our curriculum springs from three sources: the child, the adult, and the environment. We see it at a careful dance between protagonists, during which each dancer responds to the other. If there is a leader, it is the child, but they are beginning dancers, so as we adults follow their lead, we also lend our support. And, just to push this analogy a bit farther, we adults prepare the dance floor, removing obstacles which might trip our beginning dancers, and adding background music which is so intriguing that we often stand back and just watch as a child dances with the environment.

This week Angelina added a cooking element to the environment by bringing the ingredients for garlic bread and spaghetti to the children for snack. After showing everyone the ingredients, she asked for their help to assemble it. That was one of her contributions to the dance.

She asked three children at a time to join her at a small table and named all the ingredients and tools they were going to use.

Spreading butter takes focus which, among other things, strengthens a child’s ability to muster the concentration it takes to learn how to read. We have a reason for most everything we do in a Montessori classroom – ask us!


If some butter is good, more is better.





Mmmmmmmm!
Cooking is possibly my favorite and certainly one of the most intriguing activities you can do with your child. Our children spend their childhoods finding their place in society – first in their families, then in the Children’s Garden society, next at a bigger, more “grown up” school, and eventually in the world of adults. Giving them many ways to be involved in the real day-to-day work that is required to keep a home running smoothly tells them they are needed and loved.

Maria Montessori’s development of the Practical Life area was aimed at giving children ways to participate. Although the practical life exercises begin with practice – pouring beans from one pitcher to another, or transferring kernels of corn from one container to another with tweezers – they graduate quickly to real and meaningful activities. Children in a Montessori environment mop up spills, help take out the compost, wash tables, wash their hands, scrub the floor and arrange flowers. They water plants and care for pets. The classroom is their room, and they learn to take care of it. Cooking uses all the skills they are acquiring in the Practical Life area, and ends with eating, one of the most important human social activities. What’s not to like about that?

So......who will dance next week?
Kathryn

week of 10/20-10/24

Another week has wandered in and out our door, carrying with it some cherished memories and discoveries.
Many of us are preparing for the Halloween holiday at home and although we don't celebrate Halloween at school, it has become a hot topic of conversation. We have pirates, princesses, spidermen and any number of other characters filling the imaginations of the students. We have been singing songs and chants celebrating the month of October and the children are enjoying social opportunities to discuss their excitement.
Here a student works on a calendar page for October. This affords an excellent opportunity to practice writing skills and serves as an introduction to the concept of time and its passage.

One child pulls a letter from a basket and announces "a" does anyone have an "a"(short phonetic sound). The children examine their sheets and place a disk on any "a's". This process proceeds until someone enthusiastically yells "BINGO" and the game begins again.

Triangles, triangles, triangles everywhere. Here a student is working with the constructive triangles exploring different ways to form equilateral triangles.

Voila! If you put them all together you get one big equilateral triangle!

How many of us lament over unwashed dishes on the dinner table (myself included). Here the students are responsible for washing their snack dishes and cleaning up after themselves. They do a spectacular job and although the dishes are not always rendered clean, they are cleared from the table, washed, rinsed and set out to dry.

Thank you for another wonderful week.
Remember the wine auction is at 7:00 on Friday, October 24th.
There are no costumes permitted at school on the 31st. Thank you so much for your help with this!
We'll see you all on Monday.

week of October 13-17

Are we having fun yet? I think it is safe to say, YES WE ARE!
Students are finding a natural rhythm within the various transitions of the classroom and a buzz of conversation and play fills the backyard.

A snippet of Montessori philosophy:
During the first phase of a child's life s/he draws from the environment in much the same way that a seed draws its necessary nourishment from the soil. There is a symbiotic relationship between the child and the environment, as with the seed and the earth. The young child's mind is similar to a sponge, effortlessly absorbing the world around him including sensory information, environmental stimulation emotions, language, etc. For this reason the child is able to effortlessly adapt to his environment and in so doing begin the process of self creation. In order to keep the environment rich, diverse and reflective of the child's life we strive to bring a variety of stimulating materials into the classroom. In keeping with this intent, we introduced a basket of flora from the frontrange of the Rockies, several scenic photos, and even one photo of a rattlesnake encountered on a hike accompanied by a snake skin.


A student examines a yucca pod.


Water pouring activities are always interesting to the child, especially with the addition of orange colored water.



Magnetic/Non-magnetic explorations have arrived in the classroom and students are exploring this principle through a variety of materials.



Thank you to Susan Daggett for reading to the class on Thursday!

Looking ahead:
The wine auction is scheduled for Friday, October 24th. We'll see you there.

Announcements:
We have had several requests for the, "Why Do Leaves Change Colors", book written by your children. I will be placing an order next week for more copies of the book. I will only be ordering the number of books that have been requested. If you are interested, the cost is $32.00, please tell Angelina or post a comment on this blog.

Thank you so much for another wonderful week. We will see you on Monday.

Why Do Leaves Change Colors?

Our Fall book, entitled Why Do Leaves Change Colors, has arrived in the classroom. It was written by our students, your children, with photographs by Angelina! Click here to view it. If you are interested in owning a copy for yourself, there are a few available in the lobby. If we have a number of interested families we will order more.
Enjoy!

10/6- 10/9

We had a short but eventful week here at Children's Garden WHPM. The teacher's were busy ringing your phones at odd hours of the day and night with six week phone calls (if we haven't reached you, we will). The students were busy exploring the classroom, experimenting with new activities and socializing with one another on the playground .
A student is picture here working with the Number Rods. The Number Rods (also called the red and blue rods) are a wonderful Montessori math material. They are made up of ten wooden rods increasing in length from 10 cm. to 1 meter in equal encrements. The rods are painted in alternating red and blue segments of 10 cm. This work provides a concrete method for devolping concepts of number quantities and number sequence. When used in combination with the wooden numerals(seen below) the activity encourages the association of the numerals 1-10 and their corresponding quanties.
This student carefully graded the color tablets from dark to light, then formed them into a sunburst pattern. We celebrated his hard work with this picture.WE DID IT. The grapes were finally ready and look what we made... JUICE. The students helped pick the grapes from the arbor in the backyard and selected a few choice peaches from our tree. We carefully de-stemmed the grapes and sliced the peaches. Then put them into the juicer, moved the switch to 'on' and seconds later we had delicious juice....and look at this gorgeous compost! Our compost pile is happily brewing in the backyard, hungrily devouring our food scraps.

Thanks for another wonderful week in WHPM!
Looking ahead:
There will be no school, Oct. 10-13th.
There is a classroom volunteer orientation meeting scheduled for Thursday October 16th at 2:30, we hope you can make it if you are interested.
The wine auction is scheduled for October 24th, be sure to save the date.
And just a reminder, don't forget about Gulliver... no trip is too small for him and the students love the activity.
Thank you so much and we'll see you on Tuesday.

9/29 - 10/3

Fall is upon us and we are enjoying being together outside on the playground watching leaves change, gathering peaches that fall from the trees and waiting for the first cold snap so we can press our grapes into juice!



In the classroom we are praticing skills that help bring a sense of order to ourselves and our environment. Pushing in chairs, unrolling and rerolling rugs for floor works, and learning to use a broom, mop or sponge to take care of the occasional spill all aid in the development of independence. These skills also help nurture the budding sense of awareness of responsibility for self, others and our surroundings and build esteem through small jobs well done.
It's fun to find the match with this extension of the Pink Tower. Cards showing the "footprint" of each cube are laid out on a rug so the child can match the cubes to the printed squares. This reinforces the concepts of large and small, builds hand to eye coordination and concentration. As we watch the leaves turn and drop to the ground, we are inspired by the season of Fall. These days the children enjoy painting paper leaves in vibrant red, gold and purple. We hang their creations in our windows and on a real tree branch that graces our book corner.
Finding just the right tension on the ropes of the stilts takes a practiced hand and good balance!
The children love to paint things with water and brushes on the playground. Rocks, flagstone, and fence boards are popular choices.

Looking ahead, six week phone calls begin Monday, October 6th. We will be calling each family to check in about the start of the year and we look forward to talking with you. If you have a time and date preference you can let us know by posting a comment on this blog or tell us at the gate. Also just a reminder that there is no school Friday, October 10th and Monday, October 13th. We will be having staff work days and our retreat over the weekend.

See you next week!
Shannon, Angelina and Belle

Week of 9/22 - 9/26

The transitions from home to school are becoming smoother as students become familiar with the rhythms and routines of the classroom. Occasionally, an eager student will arrive, fleet of foot, and race out the door in a bid to join friends on the playground...Or to explore the great outdoors... at least the great back yard.
We introduced a new outdoor activity this week, hammering, and it has been unanimously embraced by the students. The work includes: a child sized hammer, nails, and safety goggles.
It has quickly risen in popularity, with a line often forming in anticipation of its use. Each student enjoys the chance to pound a few nails into our resident stump

Monday marked the first day of a new season, AUTUMN. We discussed the changing leaves, the cooler temperatures and harvesting. We stepped into our backyard, to the welcome sight of a pear tree, thick with ripe fruit ready for picking...So we picked them and cut them up...
We added a few delicious ingredients (1 arrowhead mills yellow cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. applesauce, 2T pumpkin spice mix, 1 c. water and lots of loving attention)...

And after a great deal of mixing by several small and capable hands...We poured the mix into a greased bundt pan and baked at 350 for 45 minutes.

Then of course we ate it... but I am sure you guessed that. To continue this exploration of Autumn harvest fruits, Angelina brought in a wide variety of seasonal apples, eight different types to be exact (as well as a few pomegranates and some peaches from our tree). The students took turns cutting and sampling these ripening flavors of Fall.

This was another great opportunity for the children to practice their food preparation skills and the group nature of the activity, provided a setting for socializing. There was a good deal of conversation on the topic of Apples... "I like the green ones", "the purple ones are sweetest", "I like these... the Asian pears...would you like a taste", "no thank you, they taste funny", etc.

We are also singing a fun seasonal song on line:

(tune of London Bridges)

All the leaves are falling down,
falling down,
falling down,
Twirling swirling to the ground
It is Autumn.

All the leaves are falling down,
falling down,
falling down,
Red and Yellow, Orange and Brown
It is Autumn.

In closing, I would like to add a disclaimer. When highlighting an activity or theme, there is always a danger that we may overlook the nuts and bolts of the classroom and the environment. Our classrooms are a hive of productive, self directed activity. The students are choosing work from all areas of the class and are developing a focused and concentrated approach to their lessons. It is difficult to provide an exhaustive overview of our week, but it is our hope that these snippets provide a window, however narrow, onto the week and foster communication.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Have a wonderful week and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.