Montessori Compass: Parent Education

With many new students in the classroom this year, I am giving extra attention to a critical component to any successful Montessori program - parent education.  While many of our new students are siblings from previous families, parents can still benefit from learning more about Montessori theory and philosophy. After all, there is always more to learn!  Thankfully, we utilize a valuable tool that not only aids us in general record keeping in the classroom, but also in educating parents about all things Montessori.

If you are not familiar with the online recording keeping system, Montessori Compass, please be sure to read a brief description on THIS POST or visit their website.  The purpose of this post is to bring to your awareness the incredible resource Montessori Compass provides for parents.

Parents of students whose teachers utilize this program have a huge amount of information available at their fingertips!  Having logged into their personal accounts, users can find the tab 'Parent Resources' in the 'My Backpack' heading.  Clicking here, a parent is brought to a page with the headings 'Montessori 101' and 'Montessori Materials.'  Under 'Montessori 101,' Tim Seldin, President of the Montessori Foundation, has prepared an extensive explanation of Montessori philosophy and links to details about specific curriculum areas.  Included in a 'General' section, is information and history of Maria Montessori, philosophy, and explanation of common myths associated with Montessori education.  This  alone would be more than adequate to begin educating parents, but there is more.

The Parent Resource page also includes a heading, 'Montessori Materials' which is an extensive list of many Montessori materials/lessons with detailed explanations and photographs.   There is no denying that such a resource is instrumental in helping parents to better understand not only their children's experiences in a Montessori setting, but also supports their own decision to have their child attend a Montessori school.  If you are a parent of one of my students, I recommend preparing a cup of coffee or tea before exploring this page, then ENJOY!

"Yay, the Pink Tower is up!"

It is always such a joy to see the scientifically designed Montessori materials in active use.  With our new and young group, we wanted to be sure the children were ready to receive the lessons for these special materials.  We were excited to see the Pink Tower being built as it is a sign of how our classroom is already progressing.

Walking slowly and carefully on the line.  (You should see how carefully they roll the ribbon afterwards!)  

Transferring with a small spoon.

Beginning sound work.

Building '-at' words with the Moveable Alphabet.

A pre-writing lesson.

Tactile discrimination with the Touch Boards.  As most of our students are new to the classroom, they have been very intrigued with this material.  

Folding Cloths.  A seemingly simple activity to the untrained eye, but I am here to let you know that this is quite the challenge for many of these young hands.

Letter sounds and symbols with the Language Step Board.

Carefully lining up the boxes for Opening/Closing practice.

More work with Sandpaper Letters.

Initial lesson with the Metal Insets.

We are witnessing a huge benefit of finger knitting -  the building of concentration!

Sponging activity - this child is saying, "Squeeze to the last drop…"

A math lesson with the Short Bead Stair.

This has been a popular activity - hanging small clothes items on the line.  The fine motor practice and concentration necessary for this activity has been wonderful to see!

Language work with Animal Matching Cards.

Pre-writing lesson:  Rock Painting.

Transferring water with a  ladle.

Pouring dry items - notice the careful placement of the hands and fingers.

Using the Parts of a Flower botany puzzle...

…and the Parts of a Bird animal puzzle.  These puzzles have been in active use this week!

Matching farm items to their cards (object to picture matching).

More Metal Inset work, concentrating on proper  hand placement and pencil grasp.

Rolling up a 'table-top mat,' which we use for smaller activities at the tables.

The Pink Tower debuted in our classroom this week!

Introducing language (color words) with the First Color Tablet Box.

Refining visual discrimination of length with the Red Rods.

Print Making

This past year, I have very much been enjoying the discovery of loom knitting.  As a result, my stash of yarn leftover has exponentially increased!  What better way to use some of it than to make an art activity for the classroom?

Print making art activity at a table:  I used a hot glue gun to attach thick yarn around wooden blocks.  We chose to use the red paint to correspond with our color/number theme with the Short Bead Stair.

Imagine the open-ended creative possibilities!  

Such activities in the classroom not only allow children to enhance fine motor development, but they also provide opportunities for them to practice decision making and following sequences of lessons/activities.    

There is still a lot more yarn left - I am sure we will be using it for more art activities in the future!

First Steps

We have had a week filled with many 'firsts' as most of our students are brand new to our classroom.  To give my readers some perspective, 76% of all recored lessons in our classroom this week were under categories of 'Basic Classroom Skills,' 'Control of Movement,' or 'Grace and Courtesy' in the Practical Life curriculum!  We are taking our 'first steps' together and I am looking forward watching the children learn and grow in their independence while realizing their full potential.
 

Working with kinetic sand - this has proven to be a very popular activity!

Sorting stones/gems by color.

Rolling a mat.

Using a Cylinder Block - this material was very popular with this particular group!

A language activity with opposites puzzles.

Transferring water with a baster.

A basic transferring activity with a spoon and small red bells.

Opening and closing boxes.

Bears in a Line - this activity helps to show how to properly form a line.

September calendar work.

Scissor practice.

Learning to snap with the Snap Frame.

Early language work - matching pictures.

Writing practice with the Sandpaper Letters.

Pouring colored water.

Transferring pom poms.

Enjoying the nature mandala art.

A fine motor activity using just the fingers - placing gems into the spaces to form the number 'one'.

Pre-reading language work - matching pictures.

Building concentration with another fine motor activity - placing rubber bands over the box and then removing them.