The Joy Of Learning

To move or not to move?

The tenancy agreement for the present building is up for renewal this July, and we have to decide to renew the tenancy or  move to another building.  If we decide to move, we would definitely need to hire one of the moving services to help with the moving. Honestly speaking, IMHO it is not a bad choice for a Montessori school, though it’s in the middle of everything and outside the school can be quite noisy, but once you close the door, it’s very secluded and can hardly hear anything even the sky falling down.

It’s an old shop house that is long and spacious, without pillars in the middle nor nooks and corners, quite suitable for displaying all the Montessori materials. The setback is, there is no outdoor space. We do have an indoor backyard, where we have plants and pets(for the children to take care) and a little space that children can play indoor games.

This rental for this place is very inexpensive, we rented this double storey cornered shop house with more than 4000 square feet of built up areas for  a rental of seven hundred fifty bucks per month. The ground floor is used for pre-school and first floor is used mainly for tutoring classes and office.

I realized that this is not a very attractive place to parents, as we are so accustomed to the idea that pre-schools must have that little plastic slide/seesaw/ swing set, otherwise, it’s not properly equipped.

I have an ex-colleague who owned a semi-D just 2 minutes away from the present building, he is willing to let the place to me to run a pre-school, but the rental is a bit steep, he wants to rent out the place for one thousand two hundreds. Although I do think moving to a brand new building with outdoor space will make us more visible and more attractive to more parents, one of the main reason I am able to survive at this present place is because the overhead is not very high. .

But, I also think if the rental is too expensive, then I would have more pressure to not follow the Montessori way faithfully and change the curriculum to meet parents’ expectations. So, there is a lot to consider and a lot to think through. :-)

Sensorial - Red Rods

Red Rods
These are ten wooden rods painted/stained red, all of the same thickness but varying in length from 10 centimeters to 1 meter.

If you intend to DIY, the cross sectional area is 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm, and the lengths are 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40 cm, ……, 100cm.

My carpenter cousin cut this rods for me, I painted them using the acrylic paint.

Materials:
Red Rods
Floor rug

General Presentation:
1.Invite the child or group of children.
2.Go over to where the floor rugs are kept.
3.Choose a rug and take it over to the floor and unroll it as you have been shown before.
4.Go over to where the Red Rods are kept.
5.Name the material for the child, “Red Rods”.
6.Demonstrate how to carry the rods one at a time by placing one hand on each end (if the child cannot reach that far one hand can hold the end and the other can hold the rod as far down as possible).
7.Invite the child to carry the red rods (short to long) over to the rug.
8.Place the rod on the rug, with the left end of the rod lined up with the top left side of the rug.
9.Continue placing the rods (not in order) until the longest rod has been placed on the rug.
10. Choose the longest rod and stroke the rods with your right hand down the front edge of the rod. When your right hand gets to the end of the rod pick it up with your right hand. Pick up the left end of the rod with your left hand (or as close as you can get down the rod).
11. Place the rod below the last prism lined up with the left-hand side of the rug.
12. Continue to select the next longest rod and place it below the last rod.
13. After the prisms have been graded from longest to shortest, slide your hand, palm side down, over the graded edge of the rods and say, “Longest to shortest”.
14. Invite the child to do the same.
15. Next take the shortest rod and move it up the graded edge of the rods pausing to note that every other rod is even when the shortest rod has been added.
16. Now, take the shortest rod and move it down the “stairs” pausing to note that every other rod is even with the shortest rod.
17. Return the rods to the shelf carrying them properly and starting with the longest rod.
18. Roll your rug as you have been show and return it to its place.

Variation #1 - Memory:
Follow the General Presentation through Step #12. Then, roll out a second rug some distance away from the first one. Carry the longest rod over to the second rug and build the graded rods the exactly the same way as you did on the first rug. This is the first memory exercise called order to order. The second memory exercise should be mixed order to order. The last one should be mixed order until you get to the middle rod and then grade toward the longest rod.

Variation #2 - Blindfolded:
After the rods have been carried to the rug and are in mixed order, have the child use a blindfold. The first blindfolded exercise has the child grade as in the General Presentation.

Variation #3 – The Longest Rod:
Follow the General Presentation through Step #12. Ask the child,
“Which two rods can be placed together to make the length of
the longest rod?” Replace the rods back to order and then
repeat for each rod.

Variation #4 – The Maze:
Follow the General Presentation through Step #12. Then, roll
out a second rug and place it right next to the first one (making a big work space). Say to the child, “We are going to make a maze!” Take the shortest rod and place it in the center of the rug. Picking-up each rod in the appropriate way, going from short to long, place it up against the rod before and make a maze. Walk the maze in stocking feet careful not to touch the rods.

Points of Interest:
1.The relationship of the rods to each other

Control of Error:
1.Visually

Aims:
Visual discrimination(Understanding of size, muscular and visual perception of dimension) which leads to observation and knowledge, order, concentration, coordination, developed small motor skills, prepare for math readiness, sequence and order.

Age:
3 and up

Language:
Long, short, red, rods, prism, maze, etc.

"Metal" Insets

http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/Reading/insets/inset1.html

PLE Exercises that use the "whole hand" (5) Large Tongs

PLE Exercises that use the “whole hand” (5) Large Tongs

Materials:
2 baskets
Pair of tongs
Medium to large pom poms

Presentation:
1. Invite the child or group of children.
2. Go over to where the work is kept and take it to a table.
3. Put the basket with pom pom on the right and the empty basket on the left.

4. Pick up the tongs and examine them. Open and close them.
4. Pick up a pom pom with the tongs.
5. Place the pom pom into the empty basket.
6. Admire your work.
7. Reverse the process and remove the pom poms with the tongs.
8. Return the work to the shelf.
9. Invite a child.

Variations and Extensions:
1. Use different objects to tong
2. Use a different separated container to tong into
3. Use different sized objects to tong

Points of Interest:
1. Seeing the tong open and close on an object.
2. Seeing the tray full of pom poms.

Control of Error:
1. No pom poms transfered.
2. Can’t make the tongs work

Aims:
Eye hand coordination, order, concentration, preparation for cutting and writing, etc.

Age:
2 ½ and up

Language:
Tongs, grasp, release, inside, compartments, etc.

PLE Exercises that use the "Whole Hand" (4) Paper Punch

PLE Exercises that use the “Whole Hand” (4) Paper Punch

Materials:
Tray containing:
Paper Puncher
A glass bowl
Strips of paper

Presentation:
1. Invite the child or a group of children.
2. Go over to where the tray is kept.
3. Carry the tray over to a table and set it down.
4. The teacher should demonstrate first by inserting a paper strip into the paper puncher.
5. Punch so that the paper hole falls into the glass bowl.
6. When you are finished, empty the punched holes from the glass into the collage box in the art area.
7. Return the tray to its appropriate place.
8. Invite the child to repeat the activity.
9. Return the tray to its appropriate place.

Variations and Extensions:
1. Use different size hole punchers
2. Use different colored paper
3. Use different shapes of paper (circle)

Points of Interest:
1. Seeing the paper circle drop into the glass
2. Seeing the holes in the strip of paper

Control of Error:
1. Paper circles on the tray
2. Holding the paper punch upside down

Aims:
Eye hand coordination, ability to use a paper punch, coordination, concentration, order, preparation for cutting and writing, etc.

Age:
2 ½ and up

Language:
Squeeze, punch, open, fall, collect, etc.

Punched holes in the collage box are used in the the art area to create collage.

Dressing Frames DIY

Liberty/freedom is another pillar of Montessori education and Dr. Montessori insists it be one of the constants of all educational endeavor.

Maria Montessori said:

“No one can be free unless he is independent: therefore, the first, active manifestations of the child’s individual liberty must be so guided that through this activity he may arrive at independence.”

“Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity, which is derived from a sense of independence.”

“We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity.”

The Montessori dressing frames are an exercise for the young child that encourages independence as they learn to dress themselves. The young child will work on coordination, concentration and motor control.

The dressing frames in the Montessori classroom are frames with various dressing exercises, but for parents with one or two kids, using a teddy bear to show a young child to dress and undress may be an alternative?

The dressing frames in my classroom are handmade.

My carpenter cousin made this frames for me from scrap wood(from wood casing of containers, beautiful pine wood, indeed)

I think you may get the shop that do framing pictures/paintings to sell you the frames. Or, if you can buy the dowels of appropriate size and make the frames yourself. My cousin just cut the wood at 45 degree at both end, and use a big stapler to stapled them together at the corner. He borrowed the stapler from his friend who does upholstery.

(L to R): Snaps, small buttons, big buttons,

(L to R) Normal Zipper, Zipper for jacket and shoe lacing,

I also have velcro, ribbon lacing, belt buckets, eyes and hooks frames that I didn’t take pictures.

I cut the materials and sent to a seamtress to surge the edge, a sewing supplies shop in Melaka town did the snaps, the holes for shoe lacing and ribbon lacing.

I borrowed this stapler from a friend who is a seamstress to staple the finished cloth on the wood frames. If I need to wash the materials when they get dirty, I can just take them off and re-staple. They are still very clean after 2 years of use, so I guess that’s not a problem.

(Pine wood is a very soft wood, so the stapling is make easier, compare to harder wood, I think)

Movable Alphabets DIY

In the Montessori classroom, children are taught to build words from the phonograms, that enable children to “write” words and compose sentences before they have developed good pencil grip. Children learn to “write” and spell what they hear, thus start encoding words(spelling) before decoding words (reading).

The movable alphabets are made from wood or plastic, in prints or cursive. The wooden ones typically cost $100-$200 a set. They are very expensive!

(L -R)Wooden Movable alphabets in print, Wooden Movable alphabets in cursive, plastic movable alphabets in print.

I choose a cursive font of size 400, choose the setting to be only the outline(to save printer cartridge!) print out 10 copies for consonants, 15 copies for vowels. While watching TV or talking to my mum during one weekend, I cut this letters out and paste them on the files.

http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfsjy/mts/lang/30.htm

montessori education, montessori training, montessori teacher, montessori course, montessori materials, montessori company, montessori reading, montessori printables, montessori method, montessori philosophy

"Spell to Write and Read" Program Review

* Nope, this is not a paid review. :-)

I can be a real annoying person. The teacher in me likes to correct mistakes. When people say “off/on the light”, I sometime told them that “off” and “on” are not verbs.:-)

I don’t know how many of us in Malaysia never learn the parts of speech (articles, nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, interjections, conjunctions, adverbs)during our school days. I attended a Chinese primary school in a New Village and a national-typed Malay secondary school in a small town (a “pekan’), and a local university that still had some ramnants of English speaking professors in the early 90s, yet I had never heard of “parts of speech”, either in 20 years of formal English lessons or in my own attempts to improve my English.

I didn’t know “sentence analysis” nor did I know how to dissect a sentence into its parts of speech. Taking up Montessori training, going through the mechanics of presenting this vital informations to pre -schoolers, to a level that they can absorb, is so much an eye opening experience for me! Then, when I went through “Spell to Write and Read”, it felt like my first English lesson after all this years of getting by.

Since many of you have contacted me on details about this program, I will try to write a review here.:-)

“Spell to Write and Read-SWR” is written by Wanda Sanseri, she offers a method of learning to read that begins with spelling, based on Romalda Spalding’s phonograms taught in “The Writing Road to Reading-TWTR”. Mrs Sanseri has expanded and adapted the technique to create a program that is thorough and will last from the earliest years through the end of high school. For about USD100 (the core kits), the program can be used for more than 10 years, I think it’s a program well worth the money spent.

The teacher’s manual is called “Spell to Write and Read”, it is the heart of the program. It explains how to teach phonograms, how to create a “learning log,” the book in which all rules and spelling words are written, and when and how to start using “The Wise Guide”.

“The WISE Guide for Spelling” has two thousand spelling words broken down into twenty word lessons. Many of the sections end with reinforcement ideas and “spelling enrichments, including playing games, deaf-signing the phonograms, and how to set the table properly using the alphabet, different activities related to grammar or other aspects of language i.e. compound words, oxymorons, alliteration, and suffixes are a few of the items discussed. Students are also required to write original sentences in these activities.

The program begins with phonemic awareness for the youngest (preschool) students. Students learn to speak and print the single consonant and vowel phonograms and then begin spelling before learning multi-letter phonograms, moving on to spelling in as brief a time as three weeks before complete mastery of the phonograms. Handwriting is taught to non-writer as we go along.

Mrs. Sanseri recommends that the parent/teacher should make a learning log of her own from a composition notebook before beginning with the child. Older students who can write are expected to make their own learning logs; however, for younger students, the teacher/parent can help to log.

Since the method is rather alien to most of us who learn the “hole” language way, several readings of “Spell to Write and Read” will be needed in order to understand the method. I found putting together the “learning log” was instrumental to my understanding of the big pictures and what needs to be done.

It is a thorough, rigorous, and offers a logical approach that may be tailored to the individual student. The diagnostic tests help the parent/teacher to identify the level of an older child and to chart the progress of the child. Frequent repetition offers reinforcement to students who have difficulty with spelling, and the suggested games allow spelling to become a fun and interesting subject. My students often go home talked about “Bingo”, “tic-tac-toe”, some parents did wonder: did I just play with them that they were so excited to come to class on a Saturday morning ?!!