What do we do all day?

Here are some photos of classroom activity from the past few weeks. I was going to organize it by curriculum area, then decided that the 'as-is' order gives a better feel for our classrooms - with the Montessori approach, there are likely children working in each of the curriculum area at any time. I hope these photos can share a touch of the joy and enthusiasm for learning we experience each day!

Place value cards

Evaporation experiment

Lots of focus practicing a lacing card - preparation for sewing

Painting - and an extension of color theory work - mixing two primary colors (red & blue) to discover that they make purple!

Memory match game to practice "heart words" (words we need to learn by heart, aka sight words)

Trinomial cube

Scrubbing fruit

Color theory - mixing primary colors with water

Self-care - button frame

An introduction to part-whole circles for math modeling

Sink or float experiment - to start introducing the vocabulary and process of scientific method, we have one chart where the child makes their predictions (hypothesis), then they test each object and record their observations on the second chart

Handwriting practice

Practice reading clock times

Cleaning a chair

"5 in a row'" math game to practice addition pairs that make 10

Handwriting practice

A kindergartner teaches two younger friends how to play another addition math game

Often our students will build a story (sentence) with the movable alphabet using some words that have a spelling/phonics concept we are focusing on (in this case, silent 'e'). After we read and revise, they will write the story into their story journal and illustrate.

"I ride on the big slide" - written and illustrated by this young author/illustrator

Practice spelling heart words in shaving cream

Letter race - a partner game to practice letter sounds

Addition snake game (modified to emphasize subitizing skills)

Number rods (modified for subitizing)

Puzzle map of North America

The movement mat provides a space for a child to practice large motor movements, exercise, or dance at any time during the morning work time

Watering our classroom plants (and admiring the spines on the cactus!)

Mystery bag game - taking turns identifying by touch what object they are feeling in the bag

For "Read Across America Week" our kindergartners met up with 4th grade reading buddies. The 4th graders read biographies to us in celebration of women's history month. The kindergartners also brought along one of our "Superstar Readers" that they could read to their 4th grade buddies. On the way back to class, one of my kindergartners asked if we could do this again... every day!

Summer Enrichment 3: Our Amazing Earth

This week we will explore some introductory geography ideas with songs & experiments. Have fun and encourage exploration!

Experiments with water

1. The shape of water 

• Demo video (experiment starts half way through

• Concept: Liquids take the shape of their container 
• Supplies: containers of different sizes and shapes, water

2. Where does rain go? (Demo video)

• Concept: Water flows downhill 
• Supplies: watering can, pitcher or container of water

3. Evaporation (Demo video)

• Concept: Liquid water evaporates into the air (yes, 4-6 year olds can understand this concept!)
• Supplies: 2 identical containers, measuring dish, lid or plastic bag & rubber band (to cover one of the containers) 
• Learning about Earth

Land & Water - on the sandpaper globe 

The earth is made up of land and water, and more of it is water than land. Here's a song (tune: My bonnie)

The Earth is covered with oceans;

The Earth is covered with seas;

The Earth is covered with oceans;

More water than land, you can see

Water, water, there's water all over the world, the world

Water, water, there's water all over the world.

What are Natural Resoures? 

(connection video)

• What are things that all people need?
• Where do they come from? Everything can be traced back to Natural Resources that come from the earth!
• Try going on a gratitude walk today - what do you notice in our amazing world that you feel grateful for?

How can we care for the Earth? (Earth Day everyday!)

This video also introduces cone, cube, sphere, cylinder, and rectangular prism

• What are things your family ALREADY does to care for the earth?
• What are some ideas of other things you could do?

Where does rain come from?

Where does the rain come from? And how does it get there? A kid-friendly introduction to the water cycle.

Learning with songs and rhythm 

(This video includes the watercycle chant, 7 continents song, and a counting song - 5 green & speckled frogs)

We do many songs and rhythms to help children remember vocab and concepts. You'll be amazed what young children are capable of!

Our water cycle chant (video): 

Liquid to gas is evaporation;

Gas to liquid is condensation;

When it falls down, it's precipitation!

Seven Continents Song 

There are 7 continents;

Asia, Europe, Africa

Australia, North America,

South America, Antarctica

Five Oceans

(Once your child has mastered the 7 continents, add the oceans!)

There are 5 oceans;

At-lantic ocean

Pacific and Indian oceans,

Arctic and Southern oceans

Think like a scientist:

Kids often have lots of questions! Encourage your child to ask questions about the world around them,. Try not to just give them an answer, but ask them questions back to help them think about it and come up with some of their own "hypothesis" first. Is there a way to test their idea or research to find the answer? 

Your curious kid might enjoy the "But Why?" podcast

Math Games and Activities - teaching 0-10

You can help your child build basic math skills at home without any special materials

Note: this page is a work in progress that we will continue to add to. Last update: July 12, 2020

1) Learning quantities

We start with 1-5. then work on 6-10

• Learn the song "Yellow is the Sun"  to teach quantities 1-10 (start with just singing 1-5 until your child is confident with those)
• Tips for parents: Teaching 1-10 with fingers (sorry the lighting is so poor!)
• Tips for parents: Subitizing 1-5 with color tiles (can use other objects instead!)
• Movement Game: Ordering Finger Cards
• Movement Game: Distance Matching

What's "subitizing"

Subitizing (SOO-bi-tighz-ing) is seeing at a glance how many objects are in a group. (example: if I hold up 4 fingers, you know it is 4 without needing to count each finger) Subitizing gives a better understnading of numbers than just counting.
Math should be mostly UNDERSTANDING concepts, NOT memorization of facts. Subitizing gives this essential foundation for building understanding!

2) Learning numerals

Numerals are the written symbols we use to represent numbers ("5" is the numeral for five, etc.). At this stage, they are learning the NAMES of the numerals; connecting those to the amounts they represent is a separate concept, and comes after they know that the symbol "4" is 'four', etc.

• Tips for caregivers: Teaching Numerals at home 
• Game: What's Missing?

3) Connecting quantity and numeral 1-10

Once your child is confident with identifying both quantities and the numerals, we can put them together - the numeral "3" represents the quantity 

• In the classroom, we first connect quantity and symbol with number rods and number cards. At home, you can use cards/papers that have 1-10 dots on them (grouped in 5s!) for your child to match with cards/papers that have numerals 1-10

Other 1-10 Activities:

• The Zero Game
• Montessori Odds & Evens activity - have numbers 1-10 on papers/cardboard ready & 55 small objects (beans, stones, cheerios, etc.) before starting Note: this is a classic Montessori activity. I have slightly adapted it to incorporate subitizing skills
• Montesori Memory Game of Numbers
• Quantity matching game - with number cards or tally, finger, or dot cards

Teaching Letter Sounds

Once a child has basic phonemic awareness skills (hearing rhymes and beginning sounds), they are ready to start learning the letters that represent each sound. We teach letter SOUNDS, not letter names first - the sounds are what they need to know to begin writing and reading!
What are the sounds? Try this wonderful website - click on a letter to hear its phonetic sounds

Here are videos and tips for teaching letter sounds at home:
Parent guide 1 - games to teach letter sounds
Parent guide 2 - letters & beginning sounds

1) Introduce 2-3 new letter sounds at a time

- only introduce new letters after they have mastered the letters they were practicing!

- Always start with review! (prevents forgetting and give them confidence to move on to something new and challenging.

- Letter sounds can be taught in any order. We have letters grouped in the following sets, but will often teach them in a different order based on the child's individual interests

Intro videos for

Set 1 (a, m, s, t),

Set 2 (c, i, p, r),

Set 3 (b, f, g, o),

Set 4 (h, j, l, u),

Set 5 (d, e, n, w)

2) Play games to practice (see demo in Parent guide 1):

-- point to ‘mmm’; point to ‘rrr’, ...
-- ‘hide’ a letter- child closes eyes while you mix them; “can you find ‘sss’?” Repeat!
-- trace in cornmeal tray (or on paper; you can “write” it on their back at the same time)
--  beginning sounds game
-- “Who let the letters out” song Set 1, 2,  3
-- “Knock knock” game with letters

Language Games - Phonemic Awareness Skills

What is Phonemic Awareness?

To become effective readers and writers, children need a strong awareness of the sounds that make up words. These skills of hearing, identifying, and working with the sounds in words are called phonemic awareness. 
We do lots of games and activities in the classroom to build phonemic awareness, and these games are perfect to practice at home - or anywhere! - because they don't require any materials. They are totally spoken, so you could even play them in the dark. 
We start with the simplest skills with our 3-year-olds, and keep increasing the challenge as their skills advance. At each level, we provide as much support as they need to feel successful - the key is that they stay engaged and motivated so that they can get the amount of repetition and practice they need to strengthen each skill.  

Introductory Games

Rhyming

Rhyming is an important pre-reading skill that young children can learn & strengthen with practice.

#1 - "I'm thinking of" 

Pick a category (fruits, forms of transporation, colors, etc.) and tell your child - "I'm going to think of different fruits and see if you can guess which one I'm thinking of."

Say a word (real or nonsense) that rhymes with the fruit - "I'm thinking of a fruit that rhymes with "nare" - what is it? .... 'pear!" (then repeat the rhyming pair together a few times. - "Nare, pear! Near, pear! they rhyme!)

#2 - "Let's think of words that rhyme with _____" 

Say, “Let’s think of words that rhyme with____” (“bat”, for example). You may be the only one thinking of words at first – and that’s okay. Your child can repeat the rhymes you say, and soon they’ll be making their own. Variation: your child names something they see (bread, plate, car, tree, etc) and you rhyme with their words.

#3 - Two words

Say two words. Have your child say them back to you and tell you if they rhyme or not (“blue, shoe. Do they rhyme? (Yes!) “one, sun” “rug, cat” etc.) Try to do a random mix of rhyming and non-rhyming, but not alternating – kids are smart and will figure out the pattern instead of listening for the rhyme!
Variation: instead of saying 'yes' or 'no', your child can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to say whether or not the words rhyme.

Beginning Sounds

Two words

"I'm going to say two words, and you say them back to me.  If they have the SAME beginning sound, give me a thumbs up. If they are NOT the same, give me a thumbs down."  

Example "rrrrun, rrrabbit"... (child repeats, gives thumbs up ).. "run and rabbit both start with the sound 'rrr'

Tips:

• Always start a few pairs that have the same beginning sound to prep the child's ears
• Don't alternate match / non-match - your child will catch onto the pattern and 
• Exaggerate the beginning sounds ("mmmmouse, mmmmat"... "ssssink, aaaaapple") until your child is confident and consistent, then make it more challenging

"I Spy" Sound Game  – Beginning sounds

Level 1: You say the beginning sound of an object and the child identifies the object. Start simple! (“I spy something you’re holding that starts with ‘fff’” when a fork is the only thing in their hand) and gradually make it more challenging (”I spy something on your face that starts with ‘nnn’” 
Watch this short video on how to play "I spy" game
For more details about how to play (including video clips) and the next levels of challenge (ending sounds, middle sounds, and segmenting all the sounds), I recommend this post by Maitri Learning

Segmenting

Compound Words

Separating the syllables of compound words (2 words stuck together to make a new word) is the first step in segmenting skills. Video example

Advanced Phonemic Awareness Games

“Slow-motion” word game

To become effective readers and writers, children need a strong awareness of the sounds that make up words. Here is a pre-reading skill to practice at home: Say a word in “slow-motion” (“ssssiiiiittt”)
and ask your child if they can tell what your word is. If this seems easy for your child, increase the challenge by adding a pause between the sounds in the word – this requires them to work harder to blend the sounds (mmmm-ou-ssss (mouse)). Remember to keep it fun and give as much support as your child needs to feel successful.
Example: Video of Blending game

Sound segmenting word game

Here is another phonemic awareness skill (awareness of sounds in words) to practice at home that helps prepare your child to become an effective reader and writer: Say a word and then sound it out verbally with your child, segmenting the different sounds that make up a word (c-a-t; sh-ee-p, etc.) To help children keep track of the sounds, we use “finger spelling” – make a fist and starting with the thumb, put up a finger for each sound you say. This is a challenging skill – it’s okay if you model segmenting a word, then have the child repeat it with you. 
Watch a short video showing how to teach sound segmenting
Song to practice sound segmenting - "In the Woods there was a Tree"
Video with rainforest themed rhyming and segmenting activities

Math Games to practice at home

Beginning Math Activities

"Subitizing" is the ability to see at a glance how many there are (example - if there are 3 oranges sitting on a table, you can tell without counting that there are 3. Here's a short video explaining how to help your child build this skill. Let me know if you have any questions and tell me how it goes!
We practice forming quantities on our fingers along with singing "Yellow is the Sun" (can also be said as a poem)

Quantities 1-10

The first skill children need to master is learning quantities 1-10, beginning with 1-5. 
1. Form numbers on fingers (I made this short video to show how to do it! We recommend learning quantities on fingers first!
2. Form numbers with color tiles (start with 1-5). Explore ways to arrange 4 or 5. Our favorite is the "4 square" & "5 pyramid"

3. Form numbers with tally sticks (5th stick goes straight across other 4)

Other early math activities:

Patterns

Grouping in 5s

Child takes a handful of objects (barrettes, legos, spoons, rocks, etc.) and then puts them in groups of 5 to tell how many there are without counting (start with 10 or fewer):

Movable alphabet - Home learning instructions

You can cut apart the laminated letters, and find 2 empty egg cartons to store them in (requires doubling up 2 pairs of letters to get 26 letters in 24 compartments; I suggest w/x and y/z)

Introduction to Movable Alphabet at home (video for caregivers)

Activity 1 with the movable alphabet (video for caregivers)

Differentiation in a Montessori Classroom

I’d like to introduce you to two of my students:

"Look! It's isosceles!"

4-year-old Thea* excitedly points to the isosceles triangle she created with wood blocks.

When Thea joined our classroom last year as a 3-year-old, she spoke no conversational English, but she could identify most print letters and numbers by name. She had an exceptional ability to absorb and remember new vocabulary and concepts. As she gradually developed conversational English, she rapidly mastered identifying the cursive lowercase letters and letter sounds, as well as phonograms (sh, oy, ee), etc. 

Forming quadrilaterals with the
Rectangle Box of Constructive Triangles

As a 4-year-old, she worked with more advanced language materials and began to sound out phonetic words. Likewise enchanted with numbers, she loves to write the numerals we've introduced on chalkboard, exclaiming, "Look, I make 1,000!" She loves blocks and shapes, so while working with the constructive triangles, I started introducing some of the triangle vocabulary, and within two days, she could identify equilateral, isosceles, and scalene triangles.

"Joey*, what color is your shirt today?"

"Red!"

"Yes, it's red! Let's go find some other things that are red."

Many children know their basic colors by age 3, but Joey struggled. I knew that he could see the difference between the colors - he consistently could match the pairs of red, yellow and blue in Color Box 1. He was familiar that "red" "yellow" and "blue" were words associated with colors, but he really struggled to connect the name with the concept. 

In addition to helping children learn new concepts, most Montessori materials  also provide the teacher with diagnostic information about how a child is learning, what they understand, and what might be barriers. If a child cannot accurately match the color tablets, that indicates a difficulty with visually differentiating the colors. When the child can match the colors, but not consistently associate the name with the color, that suggests to me that the challenge is in connecting the language to the concept.

By age 4, when the color names still were a struggle, and the typical level of reinforcement and practice wasn't sufficient, we began a new morning ritual. After our usual good mornings, I would comment, "Joey, you have on a red shirt today.... what color is your shirt?" (They wear red polo shirts as their uniform every day). Giving him the vocabulary before asking him to reproduce it helped him feel successful and confident - it was a fun, playful interaction. Eventually, I started just asking him the color of his shirt without stating it first, and then asking him to name the color of other red things in the room. Once he had mastered that red things are "red," that anchor seemed to help him more quickly master other color names.

Differentiation – adapting instruction to meet the needs of the individual students in the class – is an imperative for effective teaching. While differentiation is one of the greatest challenges for teachers to implement in a traditional single-age classroom, it is one of the greatest assets of the Montessori model. Our classrooms are inherently differentiated because each child is moving through the curriculum at their own pace. 

We see the wide range of skill levels in a classroom as an asset, and intentionally have mixed age classrooms (most Montessori schools group children in 3 year age spans - 3-6yr olds, 6-9, 9-12). Because the children are simultaneously working with different materials in all curriculum areas, there is little direct comparison between peers. I know that every child has the capacity to learn and grow, and I love how the Montessori approach helps me to give each child an individualized classroom experience. 

*Names changed

Montessori Language curriculum

I love the depth and breadth of the Montessori language curriculum!

  

 

Here's a quick overview of how our children learn & grow through the 4 layers of language learning:
spoken language --> phonemic awareness --> writing --> reading

1. Spoken language

The daily classroom learning environment is steeped with opportunities to enrich spoken language, including:

-  frequent informal conversations with teachers and classmates, 
-  poems, songs, tongue twisters, stories
- read-aloud books
- many different spoken word games
- classroom materials that teach vocabulary

2. Phonemic Awareness 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to isolate and identify the different sounds (phonemes) that make up words. Examples: c-a-t and sh-ee-p - both those words are made up of 3 phonemes. 
We begin with sound games to practice identifying the beginning sounds of words (e.g. "mommy" starts with 'mmmm'). 

Playing the "I Spy" sound game with objects (Teacher says, "I spy something that starts with d-d-d" ... and the child identifies the dog) 

Matching pictures with the same beginning sound

Older students working together to decide if the two pictures on each card have the same or different middle vowel sounds - very challenging!

Once a child can identify most of the sounds in the alphabet, they are ready to start connecting those sounds to the letter symbol, which we introduce with sandpaper letters

We begin with teaching the letter sound rather than the letter name, because the sound is what they need to know to write and read

We provide a variety of activities for practicing and reinforcing the letter sounds. In presenting new letter sounds, we often create experiential connections that help the children remember (here feeling the hhhhot air of the 'hhh' sound)

We also introduce some of the key phonograms (double letters that make one sound)

3. Writing

There are two aspects to writing - 
1) the cognitive task of identifying the sounds in a word and knowing the letter symbols to represent each sound
2) the mechanical/physical task of using a writing utensil to form the letters and words

In keeping with the Montessori principle of "isolation of difficulty," we work on each of these aspects separately, bringing them together when the child has mastered both components.

Cognitive Writing
Many children have a grasp of letter sounds before they have the strength and coordination to write well with a pencil. The movable alphabet lets children practice the mental task of sounding out words.

Once a child knows some of the phonograms, we incorporate a phonogram movable alphabet. In this photo, the children are seeing how many words they can think of that have the 'ar' sound in them

Mechanical Writing
We simultaneously prepare children for the physical task of writing both indirectly (through materials that build the strength and coordination needed to write), and directly through a variety of handwriting practice materials

Indirect preparation - Cylinder blocks (picking up each knobbed cylinder uses the same fingers needed for writing) 

Indirect preparation - metal insets

Indirect preparation - perforation work

Direct preparation - handwriting extensions

4. Reading 

Phonetic Reading

We begin with phonetic reading - words that can be sounded out. First simple 3 letter words, then longer words that include blends (two consonants together - st, bl-, pl-, -nd) and phonograms (sh, ee, oy. ...)

 A child's first introduction to reading with the phonetic object box. A teacher writes familiar letter sounds on a slip of paper, and the child discovers they can fuse the sounds together and know just which object the teacher is thinking of. They often enjoy making their own written labels for the objects too.

 Phonetic 3-part reading cards

 We have many sets of 3-part cards in the classroom to practice reading, as well as introduce new vocabulary and concepts (to pre-readers too). These are animals that live in the arctic, one of our winter themes.

 Illustrated booklets to practice phonetic reading

 Reading application - labeling components of the Backyard Biome mat

 More advanced reading work includes a systematic approach to introducing the multiple ways of spelling key phonograms (example: the 'long a" / "ai" sound can also be spelled a_e, ay, eigh, ey -- such as in rain, made, day, weigh, they. English is tricky!)

Function of Words (Grammar!)

The Montessori language curriculum includes an innovative set of grammar activities - designed to give early readers more practice through fun, engaging materials that introduce the function of different types of words (article, adjective, noun, conjunction, prepositions, verbs, adverbs)

Introducing definite and indefinite articles

After an interactive introduction to adjectives with a teacher, children are ready for the Logical Adjective game - finding adjective-noun pairs that make sense

After the Logical adjective game, a variation is the Adjective Chain game - how many of the adjectives can be used to describe one of the nouns? (We also introduce symbols to represent each part of speech)

Another activity with adjectives

The Detective Adjective Game - adjectives for color, size, angle, and sides let the child use their sleuthing skills to gradually narrow down the 63 possible triangles to one perfect match for the description

Verbs! So much fun to act out with a friend!

Sight Words
Once a child has a strong foundation in phonetic reading, we start to introduce all the crazy words in English that don't follow the rules! "Sight words" (or "puzzle words") are frequently used words that must be memorized (learned by sight), because they usually don't follow the phonetic rules of our language.

If you want more details about the Montessori approach to Language development, I recommend Julia Volkman's thorough description of the Montessori Language Program on the Maitri Learning website.