A day in the life….of Montessori Fun  

Monday morning, I am so pleased to see the majority of children that are literally running into the playground, so happy to be at school. "Oh yea, bye Mom!!" I am pleased, even if it is just for setting up the environment, even if they do not run to me but, to their friends or the swings, I feel deep personal satisfaction that they are so excited to be at school. Of course, there are the crying days, the "I miss my Mommy days the "I don't want to say good bye" days, but by the second month of school these days are becoming fewer and fewer. The love of school is abundant. When I hear parents frequently tell me of their children asking to go to school on non school days, I feel my job is well done.

We start outside until the bitter cold has Ann and me wearing our gloves and warmest jackets and we can sometimes see our breath. The children love it so, to be outside. But when it is undeniably too cold to start our days outside, I will wait by the classroom door to greet the children and their parents and they say their good byes before going in. Ann greets them from inside. Once inside they change into their cozy inside slippers, put their shoes under their hook, hang up their jackets and go to the shelves to choose some work. We sometimes have an art project waiting for them to take turns with on the big table. The classroom is a peaceful place, a place of working and quiet for concentration, or relative quiet amid the occasional singing and the often endless but pleasant chatting between the children. At around 915 Teacher Ann leads the first circle, which includes the job reporter (the important and coveted job) ringing the music box to alert the children to put away their work. They also get to tell the other children their jobs, make the mark on the day on the calendar and put up the teachers names, and choose the flag that represents the language in which we will sing our lunchtime song (right now the choices are English, Spanish, French or Italian). The children sit very nicely at circle and are usually very intrigued by the lessons, stories, games, and in depth learning presented. They are excused one at a time to find some work on the shelves or to go to the big table to work with the teacher.

The children learn to form good study habits and how to complete a cycle by independently carrying the work from the shelves on its tray, taking it to a table or rug, using the work in a respectful manner, and returning it when finished, ready for the next person. They take turns rather than being forced to share, although they do spontaneously share on their own. They clean up any spills with "drying cloths" available to them and return the cloth to the basket when finished. Practical life exercises, sensorial exercises, math, language, and cultural areas are all part of Montessori Curriculum. They are not toys, but rather are tools for working on themselves, on their small motor coordination, to use various muscles in the arms and hands, visual hand eye coordination, and a concrete basis for later studies in math, reading, academics. We use items found in practical life, such as tongs, pitchers, spoons, clothespins, etc and the children are innately drawn to these common items. They sweep with a real child sized broom, excellent body mind integration and coordination exercise as well as a useful skill. We incorporate many learning tools here, drawing from Montessori's pedagogy and beautiful hands-on materials that she devised herself with careful attention to beauty, order, isolation of skill and self corrective properties. We also incorporate the many other educational materials now available. We do skill oriented art like practice cutting or gluing or tearing paper, drawing with different mediums or placing things in a special way to make a representational object. We do fun art projects. The children eat individual snack when they are hungry and there is room at the table they eat four at a time. They set it up themselves, carrying the placemat, food name stick to the table (one at a time), eating the snack and pouring their own water from the glass pitcher into their little cups. Of course they clean up after themselves. The snack area has been prepared by the "rug rollers" who actually move the table, cooperatively, and the chairs, and set them up. Also they roll up the circle time rug and carry it one on each end to be out of the way so the snack table can be set up. At the end of work time, they reverse this process , again carrying the table, situating the chairs, carrying the rug one child on each end and working together to smooth it out and in the right spot for circle time-not an easy thing to do!!!! It takes some coaching at first, and then pairing oldest with the younger children, but they really get good at this long process. Work time is always bustling with activity there is so much work to do, and also there are potty reminders, shoes back on, redirections, and little situational dramas such as when the littlest baby of the Matruska Doll was missing and then found.

The second circle is called again with the music box by the job reporter. I lead this circle, demonstrating work from the shelves, playing Spanish games and vocabulary, conceptual games, songs, stories, music, dance and creative movement. We do so many different things at our circle times!!! Check the write and wipe board for a hint of what we did that day. Since it is October we are starting to study bones so we know what a skeleton really is before Halloween comes. November is food month where we taste and prepare new foods, usually vegetables. It is also a time to be thankful, for our families, our beautiful world and our community helpers. Later in the year I will do the cultural study and the children will make maps, a time taking process, tracing, coloring, writing names, as we learn not only geography but also how we are all the same we are all different. Ann presents some wonderfully intricate thematic units from insects to windmills to liquids and solids, different each year. We could go on and on about circle time, but when it is over, one at a time, the children are excused to get on jackets (as independently as possible).

Outside we go again, (we go outside almost every day, even in the rain we go to the covered deck) and soon the table setters are getting ready for lunch. They set the placemats, cups, and dishes, spoons or forks and napkins, wearing their little aprons and ring the triangle bells to call the children when ready. In the cold wintery days we eat inside and the table setters get things ready inside the classroom.

We wash hands (again) and the children find their cups that mark their places that the table setters have chosen for them. We wait singing songs, finger plays, or counting (to thirty in English, to 20 in Spanish, to 100 in English by fives and then to 100 by tens) until everyone is ready. We hold hands and sing our "Bon Appétit" song in the language previously chosen by the job reporter. I serve simple whole foods, including organic fruits and vegetables. The lunch and snack menu is posted on the write and wipe board on the classroom door. The vegetable is often the only thing on their plates to start out. We encourage them all to try them, they don't have to eat it but it stays on the plate and "yuck" or "eeuu" are not words that are allowed! We serve the organic veggies steamed and plain, usually room temperature, colorful and beautiful as they are. Broccoli is our favorite and we serve it often! Then we serve the main course, often a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole grain bread, or pasta with grated cheese and olive oil, quesadillas, brown rice and beans, and many variations or basic foods. For most it is a good nutritious meal, for some, it is a chance to watch others enjoy nutritious new foods and to be exposed to something new. I do try to serve a little something even the picky eaters will eat if possible so they may see an apple or some familiar fishy crackers smiling at them from their plate. Eating lunch together is a nice experience, laced by lessons of please and thank you and good table manners with polite and often entertaining conversations between the children often containing jokes that I think you have to be that age to really appreciate, I'm sure you know what I mean if you are a parent of young children. After lunch, they wait their turn to clean up their places carrying the things again one at a time, and then asking to be excused to go read books on the blanket and wait for the others. Then it is out to the yard again to play and explore, climb and swing until they go home!

The last hour, for the children who stay a little extra, is a nice time to enjoy the smaller group. We sometimes play educational games, or catch up on work, Ann does the "logs" (a journal handwritten by the children) with the Pre K kids once a week, and of course they play. One last trip to the bathroom and a little snack and maybe another story, they are ready for home.

There you have an idea of what we do here in a day, but as you well know, the fun part of working with children is that you really never know exactly what is going to happen, they are constantly surprising us and our schedule has to remain flexible for surprises, happy surprises like finding a beautiful spider web or a snail, or time consuming surprises like band aid applications or wet pants. Each child has a chance to find themselves here, to explore who they are without their families, going through the discovery of many strengths and challenges in a school year. Our goals are that the children learn to love school and receive an excellent foundation for a lifetime of learning. They are truly a joy to work with and be around and I look forward year after year to their bright faces in the mornings!

Diane Rose, owner and teacher Montessori Fun