What the hand does, the mind remembers. —Maria Montessori

In every Montessori classroom there is a Sensorial area and it is filled with materials that help the child study their environment through their five senses. Maria Montessori believed that for every child, sensorial experiences begin at birth and by refining these skills they begin to understand their surroundings. The sensorial materials allow the child to acquire concise information and classify things around them.  They use their senses to not only to create their own experiences and knowledge but to also help them figure out different impressions received by each sense. The child is therefore a natural “sensorial explorer.”

Each material in this area has a built in control of error, so that after an initial lesson, little teacher direction is needed.  This control of error helps a child determine what needs to happen in order to successfully complete the lesson. The children are able to distinguish, to categorize, and to relate new information to what they already know. Each of the sensorial materials isolates one specific quality such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound or smell. These materials emphasize this one particular quality by eliminating or minimizing other differences. Many of the sensorial materials are also the basis of future mathematical concepts the children will learn.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love.

Michelle & Liset

We hope everyone had a relaxing break and we were so happy to be back in class together again!

We are continuing our studies on the different classes of animals. So far, we have learned about mammals and reptiles. Currently, we just finished studying amphibians.

We have learned that:

• The word amphibian means two-lives. This makes sense because amphibians spend part of part of their lives in the water and part of their lives on land. Most amphibians begin their life in water with gills and tails. As they grow, they develop lungs and legs for their life on land.
• Amphibians are cold-blooded, which means that they are the same temperature as the air or water around them.
• There are more than 4,000 different kinds of amphibians. Members of this animal class are frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts.
• Most amphibians have thin, moist skin that helps them to breathe.
• Amphibians have a backbone, so they are vertebrates.

We have also been learning about the life cycle of a frog and what happens at each stage of development.

The easiest way to answer the question, “What exactly is the difference between reptiles and amphibians?,” is you need to look at their skin. Reptiles have dry, scaly skin and amphibians have moist skin that can be either smooth or rough.  Other differences include their eggs and relationship with water. Both reptiles and amphibians hatch from eggs, although their eggs are very different from one another.  Amphibian eggs are transparent and jelly like.  An amphibian goes through a metamorphosis to look like its adult self. Reptile eggs can be leathery or have a delicate coating. Newborn reptiles are a miniature version of their adult self.  Amphibians need a habitat that includes water, as they spend part of their life cycle in the water. Most amphibians will also lay their eggs in water. However, a reptile does not need water for its habitat, although it will often live near water.

Next, we learn about birds.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love.

Michelle & Liset

First the education of the senses, then the education of the intellect—Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for a child’s development of their senses. Although the senses are an integral part of our lives, children during the early years have the greatest potential to develop and retrieve them. It is precisely this idea that demonstrates the purpose of Sensorial materials in the Montessori classroom. The Sensorial materials are powerful tools, which allow children to become aware of their unconscious impressions and bring these impressions into conscious awareness. Additionally, they enable your children to create a basis of order in their mind, allowing for intelligent exploration of their environment.

This week we are beginning our study on the five senses.  What better way to teach this than to use popcorn? Popcorn is a multi-sensory snack as it incorporates all five of our senses. It might just be our most appetizing science unit yet! Did you ever notice that when you make popcorn, somehow the entire family knows about it and shows up to have some of this favorite treat?

We begin by discussing what our five senses are and how we use different body parts to learn about things in our environment. For example, our noses are for smelling, ears are for listening, eyes are for seeing, hands are for touching, and our tongue is for tasting.  We learned that sometimes we use more than one sense at a time.

Next, each child had the opportunity to handle popcorn kernels to make observations of what they see, smell, and feel.  We record all of our observations as we are going along. Finally, we use an air popper to pop some popcorn.  Now we can include our observations about hearing and tasting as well.

Our Kindergarten children had a great opportunity to use their senses when they visited Warrup’s Farm this week.  We learned about the process of collecting sap from Maple trees and and how maple syrup is made.   It was our first field trip in quite a while and it felt great to be able to do so!

Wishing you all a wonderful break with lots of love and laughter.

Michelle & Liset