Springtime

🙂 With this change of season, I reflect on growth, how much we have grown this year as a classroom community and as individuals. I have learned so much this year alongside your children. We have grown a lot as a group. The children know each other and me well, which brings calmness and comfortableness to our days.

Everyone’s a little bit older and has a little bit more experience navigating big feelings, controlling their bodies, and living out each day. Our 3-year-old students are now reminding others that we walk in the classroom. 🙂 At this point in the year, everyone has had lots of lessons in activities they can freely choose from. It is lovely to observe them following their inner directives and delighting in their work.

Montessori Connection: Math in Numbers

I wanted to share a little bit about our Math Area. It is so much fun!! The preparations for Math are found in the lessons of Practical Life and the Sensorial Area. Activities with long sequences like washing a table, flower arranging, and polishing give the child experience in following steps in order and speak to the child’s tendency towards exactness and precision. What makes the math area so much fun, (and way better than how I learned math with pencil and paper), is that we use concrete objects (beads) to represent amounts.

When the child is first introduced to addition they are gathering beads, putting them together with another’s, and counting them to discover how much they have. In this way, the child receives a visceral understanding of the operations. From here, we move into abstraction where the child realizes they don’t need the material anymore and can solve problems in their head.

The other track in the Math area is linear counting. This is where the child begins, around the age of 4, with counting from 1-10. The idea is that readiness is there at this age and the child progresses quickly through these initial activities. Once the child has mastered, understanding quantity and symbol, they move into counting teens, then to 100, and finally to 1000. From here, they begin to skip counting.

Housekeeping

  • I am very happy to be meeting our families at the gate now! Please arrive before 8:30 so that we can say hello. 🙂
  • Remember to have your child leave all toys, books, and large jewelry in the car before walking to the classroom.

Song Sharing

Sing to the tune of This Old Man….

♫`Ekahi, is 1, `elua is 2. `A`ohe kama`a, (means) no more shoes!

`Ekolu is three, `eha is 4. Pani ka puka, shut the door!

`Elima is 5, `eono is 6. Honi ia`u, give me a kiss!

`Ehiku is 7, `ewalu is 8. Mai ulolohi, don’t be late!

`Eiwa is 9, `umi is 10. `Olelo hou means, “say it again!” ♫

(Then recite rhythmically) `ekahi, `elua, `ekolu, `eha, `elima, `eono, `ehiku, `ewalu, `eiwa, `umi!