Dear families of room 104,
Monday’s teacher workday gave Ms. Ramos and Ms. Mohamed the chance to change out the activities in the area of Practical Life. The more dynamic activities were well received by the children. In this season’s issue of Montessori Life (Fall 2012) is an article titled, “Hands as companions of the mind: Essential Practical Life for the 5-year-old”. In the article there are a list of practical activities for a child at this age to practice throughout the day. I encourage you to take a look at this list and make these activities available at home.
10 Practical Life Lessons, Designed with the 5-Year-Old in Mind
1. Saddle Washing: The saddle is set on a sawhorse stand for easy access. The setup is similar to leather polishing, using saddle soap.
2. Outdoor Environment: Maintaining the outdoor environment is essential. Filling bird feeders, raking leaves, pulling weeds, and planting and watering gardens are some daily activities.
3. Creating a Nature Museum: Exploring the outdoors allows children to become comfortable with nature and living things. Discoveries of skeletons, feathers, and nests provide many opportunities for further conversation, drawing, and journal writing. Even clay found in a nearby stream can be used to form beautiful bowls.
4. Cooking: Individual and group cooking activities are a natural and important part of everyday life.
5. Sewing: Sewing can begin with threading a needle and slowly moving through a sewing sequence, using sewing hoops on vinyl with precut holes that increase in difficulty.
6. Felting: Simple felting activities begin with a foam board, a 5-inch square of cotton fabric, felting thread, and a 2½-inch felting needle.
7. Gift Wrapping: This work focuses on bow tying. (To prepare this material, individually wrap old pink tower cubes in fabric, as though you were wrapping a gift. Secure the fabric on the bottom and sides of cubes using a staple gun. Cut a length of ribbon long enough to run along the bottom and up two sides of the cube, with enough left to tie and create a bow on the top. Secure the ribbon on the bottom and two sides with the staple gun.) Using a variety of cube sizes and ribbon textures increases the level of difficulty for bow tying and draws a child's interest back to work they have not mastered on the traditional dressing frame.
8. Adjustable Wrench Work: On a 12-by-6-inch block, screw in six bolts of different sizes, leaving approximately 6 inches between each bolt. Provide a rubber-gripped adjustable wrench so children can secure the appropriate nuts into place.
9. Macramé: Drill two holes at the bottom center of an old dressing form. Secure a cord ¼ inch in diameter and approximately 6 to 8 feet long to the top of the frame, using a lark's head knot (Google this knot for more information). Tug the knot to secure. Consult a macramé instruction book, or visit http://diyfashion.about.com/od/diyjewelrymaking/ss/LarksHead.htm to select a knot style, and create a macramé pattern on the dressing frame.
10. Sensorial Materials: Children wrap embroidery floss around flat cardboard or plastic bobbins to create their own Color Tablets. Using rectangular boards, the children use sandpaper to sand one end of the board smooth and glue sand on the other end to make Rough and Smooth
Taken from: http://www.amshq.org/Publications%20and%20Research/Montessori%20Life/Fall%202012/Hands%20as%20Companions%20of%20the%20Mind.aspx
Although these activities are not always listed in the state’s Common Core standards, “A tremendous amount of development won’t happen unless the brain has the opportunity to engage in experimental interactions with the environment. It’s to engage, to explore, to handle….. to build the child’s sophisticated neurological network.” (Steve Hughes, March 2, 2012).
We continued our study of the planets and the human body. We discussed the care we can give to ourselves by properly dressing ourselves. A few kindergarten children mastered the art of bow tying this week and were able to help other children in tying their shoes. We also took care of our outdoor environment on Thursday afternoon by cleaning up the areas outside of the classroom and by the garden.
In art we spent time mixing blue and yellow in different ways to create green. Some of the paintings were of sunsets and blended blue/green/yellow rainbows. There were also several green collages with either construction paper or tissue paper. Next week we will look at the combination of red and purple.
At the end of the week we read a book about friendship. On the cover of book it showed a child playing game with a circle of string. Each child received a piece of green yarn to practice the hand games. Most children were able to make one or two triangles and the rectangle. One child put his string on the table and made designs with it, (outlining a chicken and a pair of underwear).
In the next month we will begin a study of South America in honor of Hispanic Heritage month. We welcome any presentations of specific countries in Central, South America, or the Caribbean. If you would like to read a story, share a dance, song, photographs, or specific items from this part of the world you are welcome to present them throughout the month.. Please e-mail me if you would like to make a 20-minute presentation.
Kind regards,
Ms. Joanna Boone