“We cannot create observers by saying ‘observe’, but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and the means are procured through education of the senses” – Maria Montessori 

The grass is getting greener, the birds are chirping louder, and after a long winter, we continue to happily observe how the Earth wakes up from its deep slumber. Even though we witness this season every year, it feels so magical every time! 

Like Dr. Maria Montessori, we believe that nature is a patient teacher and that Earth is our classroom. Corresponding to how we teach children in the Montessori tradition, nature provides us with both concrete and abstract learning for students of all ages. At our level, children have experiences that introduce them to marvelous wonders by using all five of their senses to comprehend concrete things and build a foundation for understanding the processes of natural life, plus children absolutely love the outdoors! Lately even the shoes come off! 

On that note, we have great news: Our very small hungry caterpillars have arrived and the children seem in awe!  The amazement in your children’s eyes is indescribable but we can tell you that they seem very excited about our new visitors. For the next few days your children will be able to observe the metamorphosis of a butterfly. 

We enjoy this season so much and we hope you do too! Happy Earth’s day!

Enjoy the weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

This week we continued with our eggs and chickens theme. Children learned that chickens don’t have teeth but they use their beak to crush their food, they have feathers but they can’t fly very far, and they also enjoy eating some worms and seeds. To bring a real life experience to this topic, each child got to explore an egg. We introduced vocabulary words like shell, egg white, and yolk. They also had the opportunity to practice their fine motor skills by learning how to peel their own egg. They seemed to enjoy cracking the egg and carefully peeling the shell, then they had the opportunity to taste it. Some of them were really excited to see their egg also had a yolk like the one I presented. I encourage you to add this activity at home! Children were feeling very proud of themselves!

To reinforce the Spanish language, the children were also introduced to a fun Spanish song called: Los Pollitos. By the way,  in Spanish, the chicks say, “Pio, pio,” instead of “Chirp, chirp.” Just an interesting cultural bonus sent your way :). Children requested this song over and over, so we wanted to share it with you and let your children show you all the movements that go with it, while, of course, practicing their Spanish and having fun!

We also explored the color RED during our sharing time! Children loved talking about their objects and one of the students delighted us all while playing his red harmonica. Of course, this encouraged his peers to get up and dance and we had a blast!

Finally, for food tasting we explored black beans and even though this food item didn’t receive an outstanding ovation by all, some children asked for seconds.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy this long weekend together!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

Life cycles are all around us. They are part of us and part of every living thing. Explaining and illustrating life cycles can be an important milestone for children, helping them to learn how better to respect and care for those around them.

Spring is definitely the perfect season to introduce these concepts as the children not only receive information about it but learn to observe and appreciate so many of these wonders happening  just in front of their eyes.

In our language area, this week we introduced “Eggs and Chickens” as a unit of study for the next few weeks. We focused on two concepts so far: chickens come from eggs, and a baby chicken is called a chick.

Using books and an educational video clip, children got to observe how a chicken comes out of the egg and the smiles on the children’s faces demonstrated the amazement that life brings. There were giggles of happiness and many “cheep, cheep,”  “pio, pio,” and “gobble, gobble” sounds from the children’s mouths. Children even clapped their hands at the end of the video :). There is also a matching object to picture work on the shelf and plenty of other works using eggs to reinforce this topic.

On another note, we introduced two new works in the movement area. These both were the most popular works in the environment this week. The first was oversized blocks for building and imagination. Children exercise their need for maximum effort through this work and it offers a great opportunity for problem solving and bonding with a peer. The second: a new individual rocker that is also used as a climber!

For food tasting, we explored a mushroom. As children touched, observed and smelled the mushroom, the most recurrent adjective we heard was “stinky,” however, as we encouraged the children throughout  the presentation to not get deceived by the looks or smells of a food, but always try the food since they might get surprised, children followed the advice and I happily report that the mushroom was very well received by 98% of the class who kept asking for more and more at the moment of tasting it.

This week we explored the color BLUE.  Children seemed to enjoy sharing their blue items brought from home for our sharing time. They were thrilled to be able to sit in the teacher’s chair this week and share verbally about their objects. With few or many words, this is becoming one beloved activity in our environment. We thank you again for your support to make this happen.

Lastly, we celebrated together the life of one of our special friends and we couldn’t be more proud of how much growth has happened in her life.

Enjoy the weekend and see you next week!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

I remember a couple of years ago sitting by a small window and observing the gigantic icicles that covered my view. Suddenly I noticed how, so slowly, water started to drip from the icicles on a sunny morning! I remember so clearly how this sense of joy filled my life! This was the end of my first winter in America and since then, I love the hope that spring brings when Earth seems to wake up and become alive again! Longer, warmer, and sunnier days, windows opened, greener views, flowers growing, trees budding, birds singing, and that crisp in the air are just some of the things that spring offers us and that we all appreciate!

To celebrate the return to school and the beginning of spring, the children worked on an art project creating a spring crown. They worked hard and attentively by painting and then gluing flowers and stickers on it. Together we got to say good-bye to winter and welcome spring by talking and learning about all the changes that we will be observing in the coming weeks  and naturally, sharing some treats together and dancing our hearts out. Shout out to Rebecca Page for baking those amazing cupcakes for all the class to enjoy! We truly appreciate your help!

On another note, due to the increasing amount of vocabulary your children use and recognize now, this week we introduced an activity beloved by all the children: sharing time!

I personally love this activity because it provides an opportunity for your child to develop expressive language as they learn to create and construct language. This act involves organizing ideas in sequence so they will make sense when communicated with others, choosing the words to say, and constructing a clear syntax. It’s a lot of work for our little friends but they ALL did such an amazing job sharing about their yellow object they brought from home!

Another reason why we added this activity to our environment was because of the enhancement of confidence it gives to your child: As they share something of themselves with one another, they gain confidence in becoming the focus of the group’s attention. They find out others are interested in them, they discover that there are things that they know about, and they feel good about themselves doing it! It was truly priceless to see their smiling faces and how proud they felt when they had a turn to share. It is never too early to start practicing public speaking and there is nothing better than allowing confidence to develop in a safe and familiar environment. Also, receptive language development is promoted as children listen to and comprehend the meaning of the speaker’s words.

Lastly, we celebrated a friend’s 2nd birthday and explored pineapple for food tasting! So sweet!

We can’t wait for all the adventures in the upcoming weeks as we explore and enjoy spring 2022!

Please remember to send your child with a rain coat and boots! We can’t wait for the puddle jumping season!

Enjoy the pictures,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria