This Week...

 This week I have been doing some letter recognition with my language sensitive children.  The urge to work with the large movable alphabet is so great these days and so we are doing just that!  The last few days I have had some of my children who are getting ready to head into pink reading boxes work with the large movable alphabet.

I would hand each child a letter and give them the sound and send them off into the classroom to find an object to match the sound.  This was fun and interesting.  I had to encourage some children to think outside the box and look in cabinets and through materials to bring items.  Funny how Montessori children are so sensitive to everything having its place in the classroom.  I really had to say, "its ok to bring a metal inset for the sound m".

In this picture wood was brought for "w" bear for "b" nut for "n" and tile for "t".

Fox for "f", Racoon for "r", Pink for "p" Owl for "o", Red for "r" and Metal inset for "m".

 I cannot express to you how much I love exploring art with your children!  They embrace many mediums and truly love this part of their day.  The poppies that are being drawn and painted this week are simply stunning!

Please think of a way to use these beautiful pieces of art that are coming home. ~Ms. Michelle

Georgia On My Mind

 It's true, I am thinking about Georgia O'Keeffe.  Leading up to this month, I knew we would be looking at her art and talking about poppies.

I love to study artists with children.  It leads into lovely art projects and beautiful discussions.  Today, I read Through Georgia's Eyes .  Reading this book to the children today brought out wonderful conversations on her art and what they saw when they looked at it.  Some of the comments were, "I see an ice monster" for one of the abstract pieces.  "I see the sun and mountains".  We talked about how sometimes we can see many things when we look at a picture for a long time.  We talked about how Georgia knew she wanted to be an artist for a long time but wasn't allowed because she was a girl.  We talked about her strength and determination.

There is a lot that is beautiful in our classrooms this week.  Make sure you take time to notice the beauty in it all.  ~Ms. Michelle

Georgia O'Keefe Art Cards with Labels

Cloud Work

Tissue paper poppies

Journey to Candy Land

 Lately the children have been making wonderful line drawings with markers at the art easel.  It is amazing how drastically a different medium can change how children create.  The children seemed to delight in creating elaborate drawings with markers.  As much as they love the paints painting doesn't seem to lend itself to detail like markers.

I was very intrigued by the side by side drawing that these two girls were working on this week.  They spent a great deal of time on these drawings that they call “Candy land”  If you look closely at “G”'s drawing you can see her Grandmother at the top of Candy land blowing bubbles with bubblegum.  I loved the process that these girls went through to create their pictures because they talked about it, they collaborated but they still had very unique drawings and I could clearly see each child's idea of what “Candy land” would be like. 

 K” was also working very hard at the easel that day and here I managed to zoom in on his picture of a “Boy playing the piano.”

Ms. Misook had her portrait drawn by “A”  Notice the matching shirts!

~Ms. Melanie

The Business of Bones

 The business of bones is funny.  At least I can say that now that we are in our fourth week with our girl and her SECOND broken arm in a year!

One of our Dad's offered to come in a cast arms for the children and talk about bones and why you would need a cast.  It was so much fun and it tied in beautifully with our class looking at X-rays of the human Skeleton.

 Dr. M put plaster on arms while the children generally played in the water and watched the process.  I think Dr. M had as much fun as the children that day.  One after one they all lined up to have a cast put on their arm.

Once the casting was done, we drew and signed each others cast!

Then they were cut off and saved to go home and played with.

 As an extension on this work, I set up x-ray making at our art table.  What fun!

And so, my girl didn't think it was so rough to have a broken arm.  After all you get to be an artist 24/7 if you want!

The invasion of Spooky Spiders

We have been making spooky spiders at the art table this week.  The
children have been very engaged in this activity. They have shown
great concentration and fine motor control when pressing the
plasticine over the styrofoam balls.
This kind of activity really helps to strengthen fingers.

Also some children have been extending the spider theme to the art
easel.  "K" drew a whole family of spiders.

Counting Your Maple Leaves

 We did some Autumn Leaf counting today. "K" spent a long time doing this work. When it was completed it looked quite beautiful.

Off the Hook Goodness!

 Sunday morning 6:45 I am up making fish sticks for the Maple Tree Children.  It is a labour of love.  Like all things, I am committed to good food that is local and sustainable.  What it means, is that some times, most times, I am working on my weekend.

I've been wanting to add fish for a long time to our menu and finding the right way to add it has been tricky.  I am not a fan of wasting food and so you will never find anything on our menu that we haven't tested til perfect or that the children don't love.

 Let me say this, they love our homemade fish sticks!  They were served up with some roasted potato wedges and a side of raw veggies.  not a scrap was left behind!

The fish was purchased fresh from Peter at the Fish Shop at the Farmers Market.  Peter loves that I am buying fish for the school and so he gives me a bit of break on it.  THANK YOU Peter!  Line caught fish is expensive. Our Halibut came from Sambro head.  It was beautiful and fresh.

Because of all the different food needs at the school I had to get creative.  I had to come up with an egg free and gluten free version of our fish sticks and so I did!  I almost love this kind of challenge because I need to research and pour over cookbooks and well, I love that.  our regular version is simply, fish sliced into sticks (I did not wast a bit of our fish so don't be fussy if your fish stick looks wonky).  I seasoned some flour with salt and pepper, dipped the fish stick in the seasoned flour, next dipped it in egg wash and lastly bread crumbs.  Our gluten free version was done with seasoned corn flour, Flax eggs and gluten free crackers.  Both versions are super tasty.

Flax eggs, 1/4 cup flax seeds and 1 cup water.  Grind the flax seeds in your processor and then add water and mix until they are the consistency of eggs.  Fax eggs keep for 1 week in the fridge.  1/4 cup of flax eggs is equal to 1 egg.

When I was done making all the fish sticks, I stuck them in the freezer and quick froze them and then transferred them into a ziploc bag.  As you can see my portions were generous and each child had two for lunch plus we gave out seconds, because we can :)   Now that I have figured this out I will be taking some parents up on their offer to come in and make these for us!

Finger Paint and the Sand Paper Numbers

 It appears I am not only thinking of the Sand Paper Letters right now but also the Sand Paper Numbers!  This week in my classroom I set up a work station for the children to finger paint numbers. ( Don't worry I've shared this with the other campus and it will be out on their shelf next week)!!

I must confess, this was not my idea. My daughter actually brought this home from school a week earlier and it got me to thinking about numbers and sensory experiences.  It is so important that children learn good habits with letter and number printing.  In my early days of teaching (gee I sound old) I use to keep a small box with sand in it so the children could make the letter or number I presented when I presented the sandpaper letters or numbers.  Do you know how amazing it is to just sit and feel sand run through your fingers?  Finch seed is like that also.  It as an incredible silky feel.  I have had that out at a table just so the children can sit and pour it through their hands.  I have watched a few do it for long periods of time.  Sensory experiences are so very important.  Many things happen to children in those moments.  The settle, they figure out a few things, and they feel quiet.  

 Anyway, back to the numbers...I wanted the children to learn how to trace or make their numbers properly by touch.  So I set up pages of numbers, a small bowl for dipping your finger, paper towel for dabbing and a pencil to record their name.

 I set out an example that I actually made in front of the children.  It was very cool having them so quiet and watching my every move as I made my own set of numbers.  It really is amazing what they take in and how keen they are to make their own version.  The best part of this project was that you used your fingers to do the painting.  I was amazed at how respectful the children were with the paints.  They were so careful not to muddle them all up and to clean their finger each time they changed the colour.

Wouldn't it be fun if we could go through life signing our pay checks this way?!

~Ms. Michelle

For the Love of Language

I love the sandpaper letters.  I love introducing them to new children and there is such excitement in the air when the children know it is their turn.  In my early days of teaching, I wasn't such a big fan of the sand paper letters.  I never found them exciting and it bothered me.  I once worked with a teacher who said (who was not trained in montessori), "I don't believe in the sandpaper letters".  That comment stayed with me for a long time.  It really bothered me probably because I had my own doubts in those early days.

It's funny how you evolve as a teacher and how your teaching style evolves and changes.  I have come to realized that children really love to touch and talk about things they see.  So this got me to thinking...how do we make the sand paper letters more interesting.

When the sandpaper letters are first introduced they are done so in a grouping of three and you trace your fingers over them and give the child the sound.  Then you invite the child to take their turn to do this.  I wanted to extend this lesson by adding tiny phonetic objects to our three sound groupings to sort.  We've also made pink sound books and have the children make a rubbing in their sound book as a way of marking or recording that work.  We then practice those sounds and match the objects each time until they are mastered.  Once mastered we move on to another three sounds.

I've even been known to keep a small dinky car in my teacher apron and have had the child drive the car to the sound for "p".  We have noticed that since we have implemented this extension to our sound work that more children are seeking us out for sound work and they are grasping the sounds quicker.  I think it has a lot to do with that tiny little object that needs to find a home under the right sound.

At the bottom, I've attached a small clip of a child working with the sand paper letters so you can see what we are doing and what we mean when we talk with you about this work.  You will also have a better understanding about it when your child just starts sounding out all kinds of words they happen upon.  Oh, and I do love when that happens because it is so empowering for children to realize that they can read on their own.  ~Ms. Michelle

How are we feeling today?

 Every day at Circle time as part of our opening routine I lay out some cards with different facial expressions on them and invite the children one at a time choose a card and tell us how they are feeling today.  The first few times we did the activity the children generally picked either the happy or sad cards.  Now some of them are starting to say things like “I'm happy because I have a little sister.” or “I'm sad because I miss my mom.”  My objective is to encourage the children to become comfortable talking about how they are feeling and I want them to know that it is normal not to feel happy all the time and that it is OK to feel sad or angry or frustrated.  I have found that not only are the children interested in sharing how they are feeling, they are also interested in how others are feeling.  I am always touched when after we talk about our feelings a child asks “How are you feeling today Miss Melanie?”

As an extension to this activity this week the art table was set up with paper plates, mouths of different expressions, eyes of different expressions and hair.  The children built wonderful expressive faces. 
~Ms. Melanie

Thinking and Drawing

 I am so glad school has started again because I miss not writing in this space about our adventures.  Last week we had a chance to travel to a place where letters dominated the forest and so we read, talked and drew our own version of Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.  I can't tell you how much I love this book.  It is rhythmic and soft and powerful and well just very satisfying as a teacher and reader to read to young children.  It has long been a favourite in our house and our copy is well loved and used.

I got particularly excited when a parent donated some sticky letters to us (THANK YOU)!  I knew I would use them to have our children make their own version of Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.

Dr. Montessori talked of how the mind and hand are connected.  I believe she once said, "hand is the extension of mans intelligence".  It is so important to spend time with your children not only reading, but drawing also.  Life is so fast today and children seem overwhelmed when you ask them to draw anything.  We will spend a lot of time putting pencil to hand in our work and art projects.   I encourage you to keep some and to file some;)!  But notice how your child's work and art evolves not only with their hand but with reading and language also.  You would be amazed how much things change and how fast language starts to take off.  ~Ms. Michelle