Thank you so much to our Maple Tree Families! Nothing puts me in the holiday Spirit more than making our annual trip to the Parker Street Food Bank to deliver our specially picked and packed handmade food sacks.
Tonight I picked up my daughter late from the school. I usually leave early in the day with her but the last few days she has asked to stay longer to play. Today I left and went to walk my dog and came back around 5 pm. When I walked into the school I was blown away by how very quiet it was. Ms. Melanie was very quietly mopping the floor and three children, mine included were playing pretend violins that they had made from sticks and connectors. In the background Vivaldi's winter was playing. I can not put into words how utterly beautiful that was to happen upon and so I sat and watched and Ms. Melanie continued to mop. It was so beautiful it made me tearful. I felt sad when I was discovered and it was over.
Ok this is an idea I found online and I loved it so much that I went right out and got one for our classroom. I so love how gentle the children are placing the ornaments on this wire tree. It is a new piece of work that requires time and patience. You can't rush with this or you will get tangled up. I watched today as many children gathered around this table and watched and waited for a turn. It is very exciting both for me and the children when new work goes out.
In the last two weeks we have had this work out on the practical life shelf. It works perfectly with clementines. Large oranges are to hard for small hands to push cloves into. It was even hard for me to do. As you can see this child is studding a clementine with whole cloves and it will get hung on our giving tree and then go home with the child that made it. This is a great activity and it smells so good. Try it at home. It will make for some very quiet time. It is interesting as always to me that the child can become so consumed and quiet with this work for such a long time. 
This week we have been getting a lot of questions about sending your child to school when they are sick. This information is covered off in the Maple Tree Parent Policy manual that everyone gets with their enrollment package when they start at the school. I know that not many people read it as there is a lot of paper that goes out in that package and it is overwhelming to read everything. 
I wanted to breakdown how we teach the children their phonetic sounds and introduce the sandpaper letters. I did this this at our most recent parent / teacher night at the school but I know some parents were not able to come and so I thought it would be a good idea to post it for those who missed it. 
Perhaps it is because I have presented them so many times since I first started teaching. Anyway, I suggested we come up with a new and exciting way to introduce them and expand on the idea of presenting the sounds. I know all to well how important the experience of touching is with this work and so we have expanded on this for the children by adding sound baskets with tiny objects to place with the corresponding sound. 
baskets have the same sounds with objects for matching. This is particularly enticing as many children are keen to get into the tiny objects which in the past only accompanied pink three letter phonetic sound boxes. We try and have two or three object for each sound. We have found this to be very successful in our classroom. If you find your child asking what a sign says while you are driving or you hear them sounding out the letters it is probably because of the sandpaper letters.
In our Maple Tree Montessori classroom this week we have started offering very simple calligraphy for the children. We have take a chinese character for example, mountain and broken it down into its strokes. We have then displayed the strokes in sequence so that the children can write their own form of the character using a special calligraphy brush and a water color hue of their choice. The children seem to enjoy this activity. The Chinese characters we are employing are an ideogram, a written symbol that represents an idea or object directly rather than a particular word or speech sound. Many of the simpler ideograms often resemble simple pictures of the object they represent.
The last couple of weeks we have been looking at Van Gogh's fourteen Sunflowers. We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and showed some of his art to the children. The first week we had a vase of large sunflowers set up with some pastels and card stock so that the children could draw and rub their pictures. The next week we had a directed painting exercise set up at the easel with just four paint colors and an example of the painting done by a teacher. The day I made the painting it was so very funny. The children were packed in tight to me at the easel so much so that I had to ask for arm space. The demand to make a painting was so great you would think that we never allowed painting at mt. What struck me about the exercise is that the children were so very keen to replicate the painting in their own way and they had questions about why I was using green the way I was and what would I use the brown for and how could I make my petals with out my paint running down my paper? So many question and it was truly delightful to answer all of these questions and to offer advice and guidance with the project. I remember one child becoming upset that the brown center was muddying up the yellow petals. I said that it made the picture more beautiful and that it was nice to see it like that and perhaps we could imagine that the sunflowers had been in a shower of rain. I have tried to showcase these paintings in the coat area and I have not rolled them up to send home I just can't bring myself to bend them. Please find them by the art file and take them home. They would make beautiful note cards for Christmas if you had them copied.
I thought I would send this out so you understand why your child may want to help set the table for dinner. Or perhaps they want to know where the table cloth and napkins are kept? The children at mt know where all our table setting items are kept and they will be on a regular basis setting the tables for lunch. Some children have be doing it for a while now but all children will be getting a turn. I have held off because I wanted to establish the routine of the morning ending and our circle time plus we have had the addition of music with Ms. Susanne and I would never disturb that. Now that everyone is comfortable we will have regular table setting as part of our daily routine again. 
The children have been making Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements) again this week. They have been using small glass dishes with kenzans inside (frogs) for holding the flowers. The children have been making the arrangements with forsythia greenery and purple pompoms and maroon daises. In Japanese flower arranging, the two main branches represent heaven, the longer upright branch and earth, the shorter, lower branch. Shin or heaven stands for vision or aspiration, sense of direction or where we would like to be going. Hikae or earth represents solidity and practicality. The human element, Soe represented by the flowers, points to how human beings can join the ideas of heaven and earth together.
The children seem to really enjoy making these arrangements and have definite ideas about how their arrangements should look. They like to talk about how things grow. Someone mentioned that we need water in the dishes so that the greens can grow. This was followed by mention of how big trees also need water. A young lady of four then mentioned that she had seen a raccoon by a big tree the evening before. The children express delight at the beautiful flowers and choose the colors of the flowers carefully. They often mention that they want their Moms and Dads to see their arrangements. Please take a look at the children’s floral efforts the next time you drop off or pick up your child.
I find myself baking a crazy amount tonight. Tomorrow we will have home made roasted squash soup with warm rolls and ginger cookies for dessert. The children love their dessert and it is such a great way to get them to eat their lunch. I feel like Monty Hall many days when some one asks me if I am ready to make a deal. I am sure you are all familiar with the phrase, "how many bites do I need to take I can have a cookie"? Ms. D is the softie on the dessert and when I don't have the energy I let her serve up the dessert. In addition to the soup and cookies I've made a batch of oat cakes for afternoon snack. typically I would make these in the classroom with the children but I am trying to free myself up to do other fun stuff and so my kitchen smells amazing. The poor boys in my house have been warned not to touch. Often we get asked by the children for the recipe for many things that we make. Once a little girl asked for our recipe for cinnamon toast as she was having her second or third helping. I can remember feeling so happy that we made something someone loved. Of course we explained that it was really just toast , butter (lots of it) and cinnamon sugar. It was a very sweet moment. Another recipe we get asked a lot for is the Oat cakes and so here it is: 
Ok so How I wish I could say this was my idea but it wasn't. I happened upon it in my search for some fall art activities. But I really love the idea and I knew we could use it as another teaching moment in the classroom. What does it mean to be Thankful? Have you ever asked your child what they are thankful or grateful for? We have talked a lot about it this past week as we approach Thanksgiving. Ms. W and I thought it would be a great idea to have our own Thankfulness Tree. The idea being we would sit with each child and talk about what it means to be thankful and and encourage them to write that down on a leaf and share it. The older children were encouraged to cut out their own leaf and do their own writing and we did the writing for the younger children. We will send the leaves home in the art files next week after Thanksgiving. If you have a moment at drop off or pick up please check out some of the responses they are so sweet and delightful. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! m
This week has just been off the rails busy! Maybe I am trying to get too much done with the children, I'm not sure. I wanted to post this much earlier but I haven't found any time at my computer this week. For the last two weeks we have been talking about everything apple related. We've been cooking with our student teacher Miss "J". We made apple Crisp for snack one afternoon last week and there has been an endless amount of talk about picking apples and spending time with our families. 
An important way that teachers in a Montessori environment support their students is by making careful observations. When a teacher observes and takes note of a child's interests and abilities she is better able to design a program that meets that particular child's needs. When it comes to early learning one size does not fit all.
Today, I invited a child “F” to practice the Spindle Boxes. This is a math activity where the child counts out quantities to nine. “F” said to me “I don't want to do this because I know how to count to one hundred! I count to a hundred with my Mom and Dad all the time.” I said “Alright why don't I show you the “Hundred Board?” This is a board squared off and numbered from one to one hundred and the child places the corresponding number tiles on the squares. First the child matches the number on the tiles with the number on the board and than when she becomes proficient she can place the tiles on a blank hundred board. “F” happily completed this activity which required patience and time. She pointed to the 40 tile and said “My Dad is 40!” I did point out to her that I am closer to 100 in age than her Dad.
Posted by the other Ms. M
Playground time is an important part of our day here at Maple tree Montessori. It is a time when the children get to burn their energy and hone gross motor skills. It is also a time where social relationships among peers can really start to develop.
I observed a wonderful example of these blossoming relationships when a boy “M” discovered a huge tree branch courtesy of Hurricane Earl. He quickly enlisted three other boys: LB, LW and F and together they moved this branch (which was the size of a small tree) to the middle of the playground. M then said “Lets lean it up against the fence”. The four of them cheerfully lugged the thing back across the playground to the fence. They leaned it against the fence and when I walked over to look at their handiwork M proudly said, “This is a fortress!” LB sat on it and said “Its a horse” and F crawled under it and said “Its a tunnel!” Mildred Parten described this type of play as cooperative play where children work towards a common goal. This is an important milestone in a child's social development.
It was truly magical to watch. We all have broken tree branches in our lives. I hope that we can see the possibilities in ours that these boys saw in theirs.
Homemade Playdough
1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
Food coloring of your choice
Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)
Stir ingredients together well. Just measure them into the saucepan you will be using to cook the dough, but mix them well before heating up the pan. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. (NOTE: When it starts to pull away from the sides somewhat and clump together and most of the "wet-looking" parts look dry, it's ready to remove from the pan.) Turn dough onto a board (or the countertop) and knead until very smooth. (NOTE: It will be pretty warm to the touch, but try to knead it until it becomes a nice, smooth ball. If it feels sticky, you can work a little more flour into it and it will be fine.) Cool. Store in a covered plastic container OR in a sealed ziploc bag. (ANOTHER NOTE: This dough does seem to always stick in the saucepan somewhat. I have tried spraying the pan first, but I still have a crusty residue on the pan when I'm finished. I am used to this now and just plan on soaking the pan after I make a batch. I just wanted you to know about that though so you wouldn't think you had goofed something up if that happens.)
When I add spices, I usually start with about a teaspoon (though I never actually use a spoon). I just shake a bunch in until I think it's going to produce the desired level of scent. (I like a LOT of scent.) If you are adding an extract like vanilla or peppermint, for example, probably just a teaspoon will be enough, but you can experiment with a little more than that. Also add gradually if you are doing glitter. I would still start with only about a teaspoon and go from there.
