Blog for 11/15

Montessori education focuses on developing the whole child.  This includes fine and gross motor skills.  What are these skills, what are they important and how do we develop them in the classroom?

Gross motor skills involve coordinated movements using the large muscles of the body such as the arms, legs and core muscles.  Children use gross motor skills to crawl, walk, run, jump, hop, swim and play. Developing gross motor skills help children learn to balance, maneuver around obstacles and control their bodies.

Fine motor skills involve using the hands and fingers to grasp and manipulate small objects such as knobs of puzzle pieces, spoons and forks, pencils, markers and paint brushes. Fine motor skills include everyday tasks such as buttoning clothes, tying shoes or zipping zippers.  

Gross motor skills also help lay the foundation to be able to complete fine motor skill movement such as pinching or grasping. The development of the large muscles in the arm help build strength and coordination in the smaller muscles of the fingers and hand.  The development of the large muscles of the legs and core help children sit upright for proper posture when writing or attending class instruction.  

How do we develop these skills in the classroom? 

Fine motor development happens in Practical Life and Sensorial. Many of these materials have small objects or tools that require the use of the thumb first two fingers of the hand. This is called the pincer grasp and is also the grasp we use to hold a pencil.  The Knobbed Cylinders in Sensorial are grasped and moved using these fingers. Tools in Practical Life such as a strawberry huller, tweezers, and pitcher handles also use this grasp.

Gross motor development also happens in Sensorial. The Pink Tower and Brown Stairs both have a set of ten blocks that need to be carried, one at a time, from the shelf to a mat on the floor. We also have a fun activity in our classroom called Movement Spots.  Students place 2 colored spots on the floor, read a simple command card with a single word on it (walk, hop, jump, etc.) then perform that action starting at one spot and ending at the other.  We also practice walking on a line to develop balance and coordination. Students also have many opportunities to develop gross motor skills on the playground at recess by running, jumping and climbing on the play structure.

Here are some photos of our students developing fine and gross motor skills in our classroom and on the playground.

Motor Development in P1 and on the Playground

Here is an article about Gross Motor development if you are interested in learning more.

Why Motor Skills Matter

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini

10/15 Blog

One of the founding principles of the Montessori classroom is to develop global awareness in our students. What does this mean? At the Primary level, global awareness involves teaching students about different nations and cultures. Our aim is to develop in our students an understanding that while there are many different people in the world, we all have the same feelings and we even share similar experiences such as playing, learning, and spending time with friends and family.

Developing this idea in our classroom begins with the study of the world and its continents. Our first lesson begins with our globe and learning which parts represent the water (blue areas) and which parts represent the land or continents (colored areas).  Each continent is represented by a different color and we sing a song to help learn the names of each one.

This work is revisited each month as we learn about different parts of the world, the people, animals, literature, artists and unique features (mountains, rainforests, buildings and structures, etc.) of each continent and the countries within it. The students are fascinated by the fact that other children live, play and go to school in different parts of the world, just like they do. Our aim in building this awareness is to develop an understanding that we are global citizens and are connected to each other through shared experiences such as learning, playing, eating, and traveling.  

“From a young age, each child should begin to understand that they are individuals who are a part of the human species, a member of society, and on a much larger scale, a citizen of the world. By nurturing this awareness of the world, the child will begin to develop a universal understanding and appreciation of all life on earth.”  Maria Montessori

This month, we also learned the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.  Students practiced different sorting jobs to help learn what kind of animals have bones inside their bodies and what animals do not. Vertebrate lessons also helped us understand some of the characteristics of mammals.  In addition to having bones, mammals also have fur or hair covering their bodies, breathe with lungs, are warm – blooded and give birth to live babies.

Anatomy lessons were fun as we practiced putting a skeleton floor puzzle together and matched parts of the body with the appropriate label. Bones give our bodies shape and protect our soft internal organs. We have also been enjoying lessons on the parts of the pumpkin and practicing some Halloween songs in English and in Spanish.

Here are some photos of ongoing work in the classroom this month:

Photos for 10/15 Blog

One of our favorite poems in Spanish this month has been about pumpkins.

Cinco Calabazas

Cinco calabazas sentadas en su casa

Una calabaza se siente muy cansada

Cuatro calabazas sentadas en su casa

Una calabaza se siente asustada

Tres calabazas sentadas en su casa

Una calabaza se siente enojada

Dos calabazas sentadas en su casa

Una calabaza se siente sorprendida

Cinco calabazas sentadas en su casa

Cuando sale el sol se sienten muy feliz.

Here is another poem we have been learning about skeletons.

Skeleton Parade

The skeletons are out tonight

They march about the street

With bony bodies, bony heads

And bony hands and feet

Bony, bony, bony bones

With nothing in between

Up and down and all around

They march on Halloween.

9/30 Blog

This month, we had fun learning about Community Helpers. Our community can be where we live, go to school, play, eat, shop and work.  Places in our community can be our homes, school, library, a favorite park, the dentist’s office, the doctor’s office, the grocery store, the fire station and restaurants. Community helpers are the people who work and live in our community.  These people can be teachers, librarians, dentists, doctors, fire fighters, police officers, farmers, and veterinarians. Some of our students were thrilled to discover that their own parents were community helpers!

We also enjoyed lessons on nutrition and food groups. Students enjoyed sorting pictures and models  of different foods into the appropriate food group category and loved playing a game that let them choose foods to fill a healthy plate with good food choices. We discussed how good foods help our bodies to grow and stay healthy and looked at our own snacks and lunches to apply our lessons to the food we eat.

Here are some photos of our students working in P1 this month:

Photos for 9/30 Blog

Please sign up for a virtual Parent Teacher Conference on Sign Up Genius if you haven’t already done so. We would love to talk with you about your child’s progress!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini

9/15 Blog 

Developing Independence at School and at Home

One of our goals in Montessori education is to develop the skill of independence in our children.  This is an ongoing process that is revisited and reinforced throughout the school year.  

How do we do this and how can you follow through at home?

In the beginning of the year, we teach our students that each job in the classroom has a specific place or “home”.  Every job is carried to a special work space.  This space might be a table in the classroom or a cloth lesson mat on the floor.  Tables and mats help define a work space and students receive lessons on how to keep all their work on their mat or table.  Students also learn that some jobs are better suited to the floor (the Pink Tower or Brown Stairs in Sensorial, the 100 Board in Math, the Moveable Alphabet in Language, etc. ) and others work better when done at a table (pouring with water, writing jobs, painting, cutting with scissors, etc.).  

Once an activity and work space have been selected, students may work with any job they have had a lesson on, then return that job to its specific place in the classroom.  The expectation is to encourage students to do a variety of activities on their own.  Not only do students learn to take care of the classroom, but they develop decision making skills and independence. 

Students spend much of the first few weeks of school getting oriented in the classroom, learning how to maneuver in the Montessori environment and how to ask for lessons on jobs they are curious about. The materials and space in the classroom are designed to allow students to move freely and put activities away successfully.  Materials are light and small so that children can carry them without dropping them and have a small number of pieces so that they do not get overwhelmed with the process of cleaning up.  

As teachers, we keep our expectations of our students realistic.  Spills happen.  Cleaning up a spill does not mean making the table or floor spotless, but by giving the children the tools they need and lessons on how to use them, children learn how to take care of their environment to the best of their abilities.  Taking care of their environment gives children a sense of responsibility and ownership.

How can some of these practices happen at home?

A child’s play area can be organized by using small tubs for toys such as legos, blocks, action figures, etc.  A small rug, blanket or towel can be used on the floor to define the play space for these toys.  This makes cleaning up significantly easier for the children since the toys are in one area (the rug, blanket or towel) instead of the entire room.  Encourage your child to use one kind of toy (blocks) at a time, then clean it up when they are finished.  Give your child an appropriate amount of time to clean up their toys before moving them on to another activity (dinner, bedtime, etc.). 

Set up a low drawer in the kitchen that your child can open and close independently.  Store a small amount of snacks in the drawer that your child can open successfully when they would like a snack instead of always relying on an adult to prepare something for them.  Keep a small, child size broom and dustpan close to the floor that they can use to clean up any dry spills.  Sponges or dish cloths can also be kept in low places for your child to use to clean up any wet spills.  Show them how to use the snack drawer, how to throw trash away appropriately and how to use the broom, dustpan, sponge and dishcloth.

Here is a link to an article about other ways to develop independence at home:

Developing Independence at home

In addition to working on developing independence in our classroom, our students have been busy building a variety of academic skills.  Here are some photos of some activities and jobs going on in our classroom.

P1 Photos for 9/15 Blog

Our students have been learning new songs and poems this month.  Here are a few we have been learning.

Away Up High in the Apple Tree

Away up high in the apple tree

Two red apples smiled at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

And down they came

And, mmmmm, were they good!

5 Little Apples

Five little apples in the grocery store

One rolled away and then there were four

Four little apples growing on a tree

One fell off and then there were three

Three little apples wondering what to do

One got pressed for cider and then there were two

Two little apples ripening in the sun

One got picked and then there was one

One little apple looking for a bunch

I took that one and ate it with my lunch!

Diez Manzanitas

Uno, dos,tres manzanas,

Cuatro,cinco,seis manzanas,

Siete,ocho,nueve manzanas,

Y una mas son diez,

Diez, diez,diez manzanitas, tengo yo.

Parent Teacher Conferences are coming!  A Sign Up Genius email will be sent out on September 22.  Please sign up for a Virtual meeting to hear how your child is doing.  

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us through email or Procare.  

Thank you!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini

August 31, 2021 Blog

Hello, P1 Families!

The month of August flew by and we spent much of our time getting to know each other.  We learned how to use lesson mats for work on the floor, how to take care of our classroom by putting materials back where they belong, enjoyed learning about the Outdoor Classroom with Ms. Gayle and, especially, we learned about making friends in our classroom.

We also spend some time learning about the seasons.  Ms. Diana practiced the names of the seasons in Spanish:  Invierno (Winter), Primavera (Spring), Otono (Fall) and Verano (Summer).  We practiced learning the days of the week and the months of the year in both English and Spanish and learned about different types of weather.

We looked at Living things compared to Non Living things and learned what plants need in order to survive.  We learned about different materials that can be used in the garden and how plants grow.

The Kindergartners learned about using the Goal Chart to track their progress and work during the day.  They also practiced being good role models for the younger students in the classroom.

Here are some photos of our P1 students working in our classroom.

Photos for August 30

In September, we will be learning about Safety, Community Helpers, Nutrition and Food Groups,  Land, Air and Water, the differences between Plants and Animals, and how apple trees grow.  We will also host a Scholastic Book Fair from September 13 – 17.

School will be closed on Monday, September 6 for Labor Day as well as Tuesday, September 7 for Teacher In Service.  Classes resume on Wednesday, September 8.

We enjoyed getting to know our new families as well as catching up with our returning families with phone calls and our Parent Orientation Zoom meeting.  Thank you for all your support!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini