Maria Montessori believed that nothing comes into the mind except through the senses. During the early years, as children develop their senses, their attention is directed toward the environment. The purpose of the Sensorial activities is to help the child in their efforts to sort out the many varied impressions given by the senses. These activities are specifically planned to help the child develop discrimination, order, and to broaden and refine the senses. These experiences also help prepare them to be a logical, aware, and perceptive person.

As we continue our studies on the rainbow, we started this week by observing a walking rainbow experiment.  Using cups with water, paper towels and red, blue and yellow food coloring, the children got to observe how the water traveled through the paper towel and mixed in the empty cups creating new colors like orange, green and purple.

How does this experiment work? The water moves up the paper towels through a process called capillary action. The paper towel is made from fibers and the water is able to travel through the gaps in the fibers. The gaps in the paper towel act like capillary tubes and pull the water upward. This is what helps water climb from a plant’s roots to the leaves at the top of the plant or tree.

The water is able to move upward against gravity because of the attractive forces between the water and the fibers in the paper towel.

Children observed in awe the different stages of this experiment throughout the week. The main expression used was: Wow! Followed by giggles and little dances.

Another Sensorial activity the children really seemed to love this week was a pouring and spooning work in our practical life area. As a point of interest we changed the pouring water for vinegar and the spooning objects for baking soda. The sound of the sizzling baking soda mixing with the vinegar and the carbon dioxide bubbles that created as a result, brought priceless smiles and laughter to your children. This was definitely a very popular work this week! Take a small peek of some children working with it!

As an addition, children explored the sensory bin this week searching for golden coins inside green rice. Using a slotted spoon, children sifted the rice and recollected only the coins. So fun!

On another note,  children enjoyed working with the go-together cards in our language area, sorting and matching the corresponding pictures. We have also started our studies in Wild animals. Animals like: Giraffe, Zebra, Elephant, Cheetah, Lion, Hippopotamus, Raccoon, Moose, Bear, Wolf, Orangutan, Monkey and alligator have been introduced and we have  explored some of their characteristics. If you have an opportunity to visit the zoo during the spring break, I highly recommend giving your toddler the time to observe these animals in action.

Lastly, for Food tasting, children explored Asparagus this week and had a great time exploring the outdoors and all its magic!

We leave you here with the song of the week, as children looked forward each day to sing it!

We hope you have a great Spring break! See you back on March 27th!

Best,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa  

Color recognition can provide children with essential learning tools in life. For example, color recognition is used in mathematics to categorize, sort, compare, and organize. Additionally, as children learn to identify colors and use color as a language tool to describe things, it develops and strengthens their ability to communicate effectively. Recognizing and identifying the color names is important to a child’s development. It is considered a marker and milestone in a child’s cognitive process.

Colors are part of our daily lessons throughout the school year when using the different materials, games, books, songs, and activities in our environment. However, during the next weeks, we will purposely focus on studying the colors of the rainbow.

As introductory activities this week, we used a lot of verbal communication, sorting, and small group games. Verbal communication is a great way to teach the children about colors as we give them some vocabulary for starting to describe the world around them. With our youngest, we focused on the primary colors, and with our oldest, we worked on recognizing and identifying secondary colors and their light and dark shades.

As a Sensorial experience, we decided to explore together the color green a little bit more since many of the materials and decorations in our environment have this color right now due to San Patrick’s day coming up. Children were encouraged to create green by mixing yellow and blue playdough! And oh boy! They seemed to enjoy that!

Exploring food color is one fun way to connect children with their surroundings. Who knew that colors also serve a nutritional purpose? 🙂 Children learned that it’s important to “eat a rainbow,” meaning eating fruits and vegetables from each color to keep our bodies strong and healthy. During snack and lunch, children started to share and discuss the colors they saw on their plates. We encourage you to do this at home as well.

On another note, the children were very curious about what food we would taste this week, as they recognized this activity as a part of our weekly routine. So, the children explored and tasted lemons, which was very well received by most of the children, and we enjoyed the pucker little faces. Sour and juicy were the words to describe this fruit.

Reminder: Please make sure your child has proper snow gear at school. This includes snow pants and boots, a winter coat, a hat, and waterproof mittens with their clips. We want your child to be comfortable and safe while exploring outdoors. Thanks!

See you next week,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

“Of all things, love is the most potent.” – Maria Montessori

Humans have an innate desire to connect, to experience dynamic relationships with one another. At around 18 months, there are notable changes in cognitive skills that help real friendships blossom. The toddler becomes more consciously aware of themselves and others. Watching toddlers making friends for the first time is truly a delight! In our environment, children show excitement every morning when they see their amigos and love practicing their names. Younger toddlers, still working on their expressive language, like to point to their friends with big smiles and do a little dance of happiness. During circle time, children look to sit closer to their buddies. Daily, we count how many children are present in Spanish and always reflect on who is not in class. Children seem to enjoy eating snacks together, and they love walking while holding hands.

Grace and courtesy is one of the most critical areas in our Montessori curriculum. Grace is the outer expression of our inner selves as observed in body language and movements: facial expressions such as smiles, eye contact, tone of voice, inflection, body movements, and the actual words used to express ourselves. Courtesy is the manners given for human interaction. As we all know, neither grace nor courtesy are instinctive but acquired. This is why in our Toddler environment, we use constant, daily lessons in this area through intentional modeling rather than specific lessons presented, as children will encounter at our Primary levels. It’s truly amazing to observe how your children continue to grow in gentleness, respect for each other, care and expressions of kindness, etc.,  despite their young age. It’s SO wonderful!

On another note, based on the coming Valentine’s day, children have been exploring new works on the shelves and preparing for our Friendship Celebration! They worked this week on a little art project that will be added to their Valentine’s bags.

Lastly, in the movement area, we got to say goodbye to the stairs structure and welcomed a fun Pikler triangle. Children practice using this structure to practice balancing, climbing, reaching, pulling, and falling. As a result, children begin to understand their strengths and abilities and gain better control of their movement. We also explored delicious oranges for our food-tasting lesson!

We leave you here with a sign language song the children started learning this week: “The more we get together!”

Enjoy your weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Miss Marissa