The Joy Of Learning

PLE - Presentation on Wrist Turning (1c) Dry Pouring - Pitcher & Narrow Neck Bottle

Creamer and bottle for orange juice, both can find in Jusco.

Dry Pouring #3 Pitcher and Narrow Neck

Materials:
A tray on a shelf/table containing:
1 pitcher containing popcorn, lima beans, kidney beans (later rice, etc.) (change often)
1 narrow neck glass container (i.e. vitamin bottle, juice bottle, salad dressing bottle, vase, etc.)

Set-Up:
The pitcher should be placed on the tray so that its spout is pointing inwards.
The narrow neck container should be placed on the tray so that it’s next to the pitcher.

Presentation:
1.Invite the child or a group of children.
2.Go over to where the tray is kept and take it to a table.
3.Lift up the pitcher over the empty narrow neck container. Be sure be high enough as not to touch the empty container.
4.Support the pitcher of beans with the other hand.
5.Pour slowly.
6.Admire work.
7.Reverse and support narrow neck container like the pitcher and pour beans slowly into the pitcher.
8.If any beans spill, pick them up one at a time with the fingers that are used for writing.
9.Return the tray in its proper place.
10. Invite a child.

Variations and Extensions:
1.Different dry ingredients to pour
2.Different sized pitchers and narrow necked containers

Points of Interest:
1.Seeing empty pitcher or narrow neck container
2.Seeing the beans go from one container to another
3.Sound of beans
4.Last bean

Control of Error:
1.Beans on tray
2.Beans still in pitcher
3.Beans still in narrow neck container
4.Clinking of glass

Aims:
Eye hand coordination, concentration, control, ability to transfer objects, preparation for cutting and writing

Age:
2 and up

Language:
Names of the ingredients, empty, transfer, pour, narrow, neck, etc.

PLE - Presentation on Wrist Turning (1b) Dry Pouring - Pitcher & Wide Neck Bottle

Creamer from Jusco and glass bottle of pickle choy sam.

Dry Pouring #2 - Pitcher and Wide Neck Bottle

Materials:
A tray on a shelf/table containing:
1 pitcher containing popcorn, lima beans, kidney beans (later rice, etc.) (change often)
1 wide neck glass container

Set-Up:
The pitcher should be placed on the tray so that its spout is pointing inwards.
The wide neck container should be placed on the tray so that it’s next to the pitcher.

Presentation:
1. Invite the child or a group of children.
2. Go over to where the tray is kept and take it to a table.
3. Lift up the pitcher and over the empty wide neck container. Be sure to be high as not to touch the empty container.
4. Support the pitcher of beans with the other hand.
5. Pour slowly.
6. Admire work.
7. Reverse and support wide neck container like the pitcher and pour beans slowly into the pitcher.
8. If any beans spill, pick them up one at a time with the fingers that are used for writing.
9. Return the tray in its proper place.
10. Invite a child.

Variations and Extensions:
1. Different dry ingredients to pour
2. Different sized pitchers and wide neck containers

Points of Interest:
1. Seeing pitcher or wide neck container emptied
2. Seeing the beans go from one container to another
3. Sound of beans
4. Last bean

Control of Error:
1. Beans on tray
2. Beans still in pitcher
3. Beans still in wide neck container
4. Clinking of glass

Aims:
Eye hand coordination, concentration, control, ability to transfer objects, preparation for cutting and writing

Age:
2 and up

Language:
Names of the ingredients, empty, transfer, pour, wide, neck, etc.

PLE - Presentations on Wrist Turning (1a) Pitcher to Pitcher

I will be listing some of the Ideas for PLE over the next few days.

Dry Pouring # 1 Pitcher to Pitcher
Two creamers (you can use child sized pitchers if you can find them)

Materials:
A tray on a shelf/table containing glass pitchers:
1 pitcher containing popcorn, lima beans, kidney beans (later rice, etc.) (change often)
1 empty pitcher

Set-Up:
Pitchers should be placed on the tray so that their spouts are pointing inwards, beans in the pitcher on the left.

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. Lift pitcher with the beans up and over the empty pitcher. Be sure to be high enough not to touch the empty pitcher.
4. Be sure to support the pitcher of beans with the other hand.
5. Pour slowly.
6. Admire your work.
7. Reverse and use the other hand and repeat exercise.
8. If any beans spill, pick them up one at a time with the fingers that are used for writing.
9. If need be, replace the tray in its proper place.
10. 10. Invite a child.

Variations and Extensions:
1. Different sized dry ingredients to pour
2. Different sized pitchers

Points of Interest:
1. Seeing empty pitcher
2. Seeing the beans go from one pitcher to another
3. Sound of beans
4. Last bean

Control of Error:
1. Beans on tray
2. Beans still in pitcher
3. Clinking of glass

Aims:
Eye hand coordination, concentration, control, ability to transfer objects, preparation for cutting and writing

Age:
2 and up

Language:
Names of the ingredients, empty, transfer, pour, etc.

Eye tracking problem ?

Work of an 8 years old, intelligent boy.

I see this so often that I start to wonder what is going on with our children or our education system?

I think more and more children are required to read at a younger age when they are not developmentally ready and there were insufficient direct instructions that prepare them the skills required for reading.

Montessori designed many of the practical life activities and pre reading activities to train the eyes to track from the left to the right, to avoid such reversal problem, thus equiped the children with the skills required for reading.

How proper phonics instruction help children to spell?

I dictated 20 words, basically finger spell the words i.e. /k/ /a/ /n/ for can, the dictation process is to help children learn to associate the sounds and their symbols, train their ears to listen, and think to spell, instead of memorizing the whole word as an entire picture.

Compare the work of a 12 years old and a 6 years old.

Joel is 12. Noor is 6.

Noor came to me 4 months ago, have been attending kindie for 2 years, couldn’t read a word in English, couldn’t understand my instruction in English. I had to talk to her in Malay to stop her from crying. For a 6 years old, she did pretty well in this dictation, didn’t she?

Joel joined in last month, his English teacher complaint that he couldn’t spell “fish” and scolded him for being lazy. He has very short attention span, wondering eyes and low self-esteem, failed most subjects in school regularly. I suspect he may have attention problem or learning difficulty or could be just have poor instruction from his kindie years. I gave him a diagnostic test when he joined, he scored 1 word out of 50 words, the score just indicated that he couldn’t spell at all. He probably has poor visual memory and couldn’t store much images of whole words in his long term memory. I have no doubt he would have trouble reading a las vegas strip map as an adult without remedial work.

After joining the class 5 times, he knew the sounds of phonograms A-Z and a couple of the multi -letter phonograms. Though he mixed up the vowels a lot and is still developing his instant association of sounds and symbols.

In today’s dictation, even though I gave him the clue that /p/ /e/ /t/, the /e/ is the first sound of /e/ /E/ (letter e), he still wrote down /p//a//t/. He is going to be challenging, but also the kind of student that need much help to learn to spell and read. I am not so optomistic his parents will be patient to see him building proper foundation and improve from there though.

It’s very sad to see parents placing more emphasis on exams/tests and UPSR than the fact that their 12 years old couldn’t spell, read nor write. I have a couple of kids like this last year, just when they started to get a hang of things and started to “get it” after 5-6 months, their parents pulled them out of the SWR class, because their test scores in school hadn’t improved.

Another girl I had, she came to me at the end of her kindie year, couldn’t read nor spell after staying in the same kindie 8 a.m - 6 p.m since she was 2 1/2 years old. She obviously has attention problem and couldn’t sit still, she showed a lot of reversal problem i.e would write top as pot, map as pam.

Nevertheless, she is a very intelligent girl, she knew all the letter sounds of A to Z within 4 weeks, I only spent 10-15 minutes doing lesson with her every week because she just refused to stay on her chair after the 10-15 minutes, so I let her play with the practical life activities I have.

After 3 months, she just told her mother than she thought she could read the sentences we had for dictation. Her mother must have been doubtful, so she wanted to show off to her mother by reading the sentences I wrote on the white board when she came to pick her up. Her mother was really impressed. Her mother also told me that school had aways been a drag but she was a little puzzled what did I do with her daughter that make her so eager to come to my class and was always reminding her in the morning though our session didn’t start till evening.

 Of course I skipped the part that her daughter was “playing” for 45 minutes and only had lessons for 15 minutes.:-)

 Actually, the girl’s concentration has improved a lot as her self esteem was boosted and for the first time, words make sense! Then, she started year 1. So her mother decided to quit this not so relevant class because she wanted to send her to a couple of other tuition classes and time runs out. I felt sad, but there is really nothing I can do to convince these parents that basic skills like spelling and reading are more important than doing the same question 101 ways so that they can score in their tests.

Sandpaper Numerals (0-9)

Materials:
An open box containing:
(1) set of Sandpaper Numerals (your choice of a primary print)

Preparation:
- Cut (10) rectangles out of wood/mat board/cardboard/etc. measuring 4” x 6” (or size you prefer)
- Use green for the background of the numerals.
- Use fine grade of sandpaper for the numerals, trace the reverse of the numerals on the paper back of sheet of sandpaper and then cut them out. Use glue to paste the numerals on the boards.

10.Using your index and middle fingers, trace the numeral in the appropriate direction and say the numeral’s name out loud.
11.Place the numeral face down to the child’s right; introduce two and three numerals at one time if the child is ready (if not return the numerals to the box after Step #4). This is the first lesson of a 3-Period Lesson (continue introducing each of the numerals as the child is ready). Introduce zero last as an “empty set.”
12. Return the numerals to the box.

On Another Day:
Follow the first presentation through Step #3. Have the child use their index and middle fingers to trace the numeral in the appropriate direction. Next you will turn the numeral two face-up and have the child trace it. Last you will turn the numeral three face-up and have the child trace it. Ask the child if they can give you one of the numerals. Repeat until all three numerals have been given to you. This is the second lesson of a 3-Period Lesson (continue this process with each of the numerals as the child is ready).

On Another Day:
Follow the first presentation until the child has traced all three numerals. Pick-up one of the Sandpaper Numerals and ask the child “ what is this numeral’s name?” Repeat until all three numerals been identified by the child in the same way as the first one. This is the third lesson of a 3-Period Lesson (continue this process with each of the numerals as the child is ready).

Variations #1 – Tracing/Writing:

Take the child to where the sand tracing plate is kept. Take the Sand Tracing Plate over to the mat and place it just to the right of the child. Invite the child to choose one of the Numerals that they know and remove it from the box. Return the box to its place and put the Sandpaper Numeral just to the left of the child and to the left of the Sandpaper Numeral. Have the child trace the Sandpaper Numeral in the way they have been shown before and then trace the numeral in the sand tracing plate. Gently shake the sand to erase the numeral. Continue to practice.

Variations #2 – Association to Numeral Cards:

The Sandpaper Numerals may be matched to a different set of numeral cards or to a control strip of paper that has the numerals 0-9.

Variations #3 – Memory #1 – Go Fetch:

Roll out two rugs some distance apart from each other. Carry the box of Sandpaper Numerals over to one of the rugs. Take out the numerals and place them in a horizontal line (left to right) in order. The teacher should stand/sit on the other rug. The child goes to the teacher and is asked to go and fetch a specific numeral. The child places each numeral on the second rug in mixed-order. After all of the numerals have been fetched and placed in the mixed-order line, the child places the numerals in order.

Variations #4 – Memory #2 – Surprise and Go Fetch:

Roll out two rugs some distance apart from each other. Carry the box of Sandpaper
Numerals over to one of the rugs. Take out the numerals and place them in a horizontal line (left to right) in order. Take another set of numeral cards over to the other rug and place them face-down in a stack. Have the child(ren) flip one of the cards over and go to the other rug and fetch the same numeral card.

Points of Interest:
1. How the numerals feel when tracing them
2. Holding the boards with the sub-dominant hand and tracing with the dominant hand

Control of Error:
1. Child does not remember how to trace the Sandpaper Numerals that they have been introduced to

Aims:
Articulation, learning to count from one to ten, preparation for math and writing, etc.

Age:
2½ and up (May start earlier if child is ready)

Language:
Sandpaper, numerals, tracing, etc.

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