Magical Movement Company: Carolyn's blog

Outdoorsy Montessori: Those First Days of School in The Outdoor Classroom!

Carolyn 1:37 PM

PREPARING FOR LOTS OF MONTESSORI LEARNING CAN BE LOTS OF OUTDOOR FUN FOR ALL, ESPECIALLY IN THE FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOL! A truly authentic Montessori program will have a wonderful Outdoor Classroom set up that the children love to maintain.

Four-yr-old sweeping the walkway in the

Montessori Outdoor Classroom: PRACTICAL LIFE!

All photos in this post are by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

The foundation of the Montessori environment is what is called "Practical Life" and these activities are often the most fun for little children. As the children maintain their own place, they are happy and empowered! This is really easy to see in the Montessori Outdoor Classroom. You can click this link to learn more about the importance of Montessori Practical Life Activities.

As the first days of school are approaching, it is worth the time to plan for the Outdoor Environment as well as the Indoor Environment! The Outdoor Classroom is often one of the first places where the children perform lots of Practical Life maintenance, since the Outdoor Environment is in full bloom this time of year!

Five yr old watering the Children's Garden

at the end of the summer: PRACTICAL LIFE!

At the time of year when school begins, the Children's Garden may be abundantly delivering wonderful fruits, veggies, and flowers!

Here, the sunflowers were growing so tall, that we cut a few for an impressive indoor display. Before putting them into a giant vase, the children began to measure themselves against these amazingly tall flowers! This led to actually measuring the height of the cut flowers and also the actual height of each child with a carpenter's measure from the hardware store. The children love using real tools and this real math experience went on for several days during the first days of school. In fact, we decided to record each child's height (and weight) and included this record with a photo of the child for his/her portfolio. In the months that followed, the children often went back to this first page of their portfolio to compare how much they had grown over the course of the school year.

Children measuring themselves against the height of a freshly cut sunflower at the end of summer: MATH

Harvest time in the Outdoor Classroom: BOTANY!

Since the children were in a "measuring mood" they insisted on measuring all the huge squash that came out of the Children's Garden during the first weeks of school (and the end of summer!)

Montessori Outdoor Classroom "Measuring": MORE MATH & DON'T FORGET ALL THAT BOTANY!

While cleaning out the dying plants in the end-of-summer garden, there are often the remnants of the children's hand written plant labels from the Spring plantings!

Here is a sweet little plant label found in the

Outdoor Classroom Children's Garden: LANGUAGE ARTS!

You can read more about a wonderful Language Arts Outdoor Classroom Activity at my past post by clicking here:
Making Outdoor Signs in the Montessori Outdoor Classroom.

In the first days of school, the birds are happily foraging before the colder winter months ahead. In the Montessori Outdoor Classroom you can often see a wild bird feeding at the bird feeding station. Observing these birds leads children to much learning about the natural environment.

The Montessori Outdoor Classroom Bird Feeding Station is the perfect place to learn about the wild birds: ZOOLOGY!

There's another wonderful post about the benefits of setting up a wild bird habitat in the Outdoor Classroom and all the academic learning that happens for the children. Here's the link: Creating A Wild Bird Habitat in The Montessori Outdoor Classroom.

Animal habitats are very important in the Montessori Outdoor Classroom and they give the children first hand experience with insects and other members of the animal kingdom!

Habitats for the wild creatures in the

Montessori Outdoor Classroom: THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY!

For those lazy afternoons of the summery first days of school, chalk art is a big favorite. Simple, for even the newest children and such a wonderful arty experience!

Even the "cautious new children" love to make art in the Outdoor Classroom with colorful sidewalk chalks: ART!

It's a fun outdoor adventure in art when the children are provided with window paints in the Montessori Outdoor Classroom. Here is a painting activity for the first days of school that keeps the painting messiness outside and is just as fun to clean up as to create! After the children are done with their little masterpieces, they greatly enjoy cleaning the windows with a squeegee and water. You can use washable Tempera Paints from Lakeshore Learning Store, or these fun washable Window Crayons available at this link: Blick Art Supplies.

Outdoor Classroom Painting with Window Paints: MORE ART!

There are plenty of fun stories the children love to act out in their free play in the Outdoors. Providing Firefighter costumes for the Outdoor Classroom has always been a big hit and enticing to even the most cautious of new children! The process of putting on the pants (with suspenders) & jacket (hooks and thumb holes) is another wonderful set of PRACTICAL LIFE exercises, too.
Here's a link for authentic & sturdy children's firefighter costumes: Aeromax Firefighter Suit at Amazon.

Firefighter costumes were just the right incentive for some fun stories to tell in the Outdoor Classroom: DRAMA PLAY!

While teaching in a wonderful little Preschool in a rural village in the Fiji Islands many years ago, I would often dismiss class with "Drum Leaps." I learned this fun musical way to end circle from my first Orff-Schulwerk teacher, Janet Greene. And, I can truthfully say that it is a hit with children all over the world! You can learn more about the Orff-Schulwerk Method of teaching music to children at this link on my website: Magical Movement Company.com VIDEOS.

Here's how the activity goes. The children line up a few yards from the teacher who is holding a large frame drum up at a level that is a little above the children's height. Each child runs to the teacher and then leaps up to tap on the drum head. Lots of musically oriented fun with Physical Education skills thrown in for good measure!

Dismissing class with the "Drum Leaps Game": MUSIC & P.E!

Well, if you've visited my blog before, you know that I am sold on the importance of the Outdoor Classroom for the development of the "whole child." And, you can see here all the many "classic areas" of the Preschool curriculum that are wonderfully featured in the Montessori-style Outdoor Classroom.

You'll find many other Outdoor Classroom posts at this link on this blog: OUTDOORS. It's one of the titles on the header that is found on every page of my blog (just click!) and I hope you will find many more ideas that you can enjoy with your own group. I'd love to hear your experiences, so please feel free to drop me a line or two in the comment section below!

Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!

View Post

Artfully Montessori: The First Days of School Are Filled With The Arts!

Carolyn 1:07 AM

LET'S START THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR WITH AN APPRECIATION OF THE ARTS! Here are a few simple, yet elegant Montessori activities that emphasize the aesthetics of living an artful life.

Below is a photo of a 4 yr old creating an autumn wreath which turned out to be a very popular (and peaceful) first-days-of school activity!

All photos in this post are by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

I found lots of wreath frames at the dollar store or local craft store and then collected an assortment of artificial flowers & leaves that have the colors of Autumn. The children often spend a good while CREATING A DECORATIVE WREATH and they look lovely hanging all around the classroom.

It's nice to set this lovely work up so that children can take the wreaths apart at the end of the morning and have the materials ready for re-creating the next day.

You can also use fresh greenery (like ivy) and garden flowers (like Lavender). I have even set up this activity with pieces of colorful paper, pipe cleaners, ribbons, little miniatures of birds, sea shells...the list goes on and on! Craft shops and second hand stores are great resources for items that can be used to create beautiful wreaths.

During the first days of the new school year, the children are excited, fearful, boisterous, quiet, and oftentimes just trying to figure it all out! It's important to provide simple activities that the children can succeed at while developing their skills both socially and academically. I always look for activities that are inviting, fun, and settling/calming. (Like for example ANYTHING with flowers!)

BEADWORK

The biggest hit is usually the CHEERIOS NECKLACE MAKING WORK. I love this activity because it is fairly easy for even the youngest children, and when they are done...they get to eat their necklace! Sometimes, children get hungry throughout the morning or afternoon when they are adjusting to the school schedule and the Cheerios necklace is a little extra snack that just about every child enjoys! Plus, it's something familiar.

I set this activity up as a work that can be done by 2 (or 3) children at a time and there is a little sign on the tray that says: "wash hands first". There are easy-to-thread beading strings that you can get at Lakeshore Learning Store or you can create your own. Here's the link to purchase these: Lakeshore Lacing Strings.

To add a challenge for the older children, I always have them count the number of Cheerios that they have strung on their necklace. Then, we go over to the MONTESSORI GOLDEN BEAD SHELF and find the beads that correspond to the number of Cheerios on the necklace. The girl in the photo above had 66 Cheerios on her necklace, so she collected 6 ten bars and 6 unit beads.

The boy in this photo had 234 Cheerios on his necklace! He was a very active 4 1/2 yr old and he spent nearly the whole morning working on his necklace, counting, and then fetching the correct quantity of hundred squares, ten bars, and unit beads from the Golden Bead shelf. And, he was very proud of himself, too!

Of course, the fun part is eating your necklace for a special little snack during the busy first days of school. This is often a comfort for the children, as well as a delightful small motor activity.

GLUING WORK

One of the classic Montessori Art Activities is gluing little colored squares or rectangles onto art paper to CREATE A "MOSAIC". This is a beautiful way to make use of the left-over scraps of paper that seem to accumulate in the Preschool classroom. Generally, it is something that the teacher can cut with a paper cutter in a few minutes and have it all ready for the children. That way, the child only has to be able to pick out the little squares and glue them to the art paper in any pattern or design s/he desires. (no scissors needed)

If you set up this activity with glue sticks, then you will need to give a little lesson on how to use a glue stick, but there will be less mess than setting it up with liquid glue and brushes.

To add to the allure of this mosaic activity, I often add special paper like silver or gold card stock. This can attract the more sophisticated older children because it is out of the ordinary.

PAINTING WORK

When it comes to painting in the first days/weeks of school, I like to provide spill-proof containers whenever possible. At the easel, I usually put BINGO DOT MARKERS on the paint tray rather than paints...just so there is an easel experience but with very little to clean up. Eventually, there will be a lesson for painting with paints at the easel that will involve setting up the paint pots, the brushes, the paper, and then putting the artwork to dry and cleaning the easel. But for the first days, I think markers or bingo dot markers work well for creating a successful experience for the newest children to the environment with a less involved process.

As a shelf work, I have found that a SQUEEZE BOTTLE PAINTING ACTIVITY works pretty well for the children in the first days in the classroom. I recommend that the teacher fill the squeeze bottles about 1/4 full with paint and that a variety of colors are provided. That way, children are less likely to squirt too much paint out and they get involved more with creating than with squeezing since there is a beautiful array of colors to use. If you set up this activity with butterfly shaped paper, then the children can actually fold the paper in the middle and squeeze paint colors out on one side, fold, press, and then create a "blot painting." Older children really enjoy showing the younger ones how to do this magic art!

Even though the activities I am suggesting here are less messy than other more involved painting projects, the children will still need to have art smocks and cleaning buckets easily available in the art section of the classroom. How to use these is generally shown (and re-shown!) at a group circle on one of the first days of school. You can read more about scrubbing the art mat or table at my post here: Salad Spinner Art in Montessori.

CUTTING WORK

I have often started the school year with a simple cutting activity that I call "CUTTING A FRINGE." The teacher (or older children) will prepare wide strips of card stock or construction paper by drawing short lines on the edges of the paper so that a child can cut the line with just one stroke. For the child, this is a bit easier than cutting all the way across the paper and I have seen children spontaneously (on their own) cut out little fringes on paper when they are first learning to cut with scissors. So, I think this is a satisfying experience for the less-skilled cutters in the group!

FLOWER ARRANGING WORK

Since school starts during the late summer, there are flowers galore! I try to buy some lovely bouquets at the Farmers Market or if I'm really lucky, there are lots of flowers growing in the Children's Garden in the Montessori Outdoor Classroom. For this FLOWER ARRANGING ACTIVITY, I designate a whole table so that there can be a large bowl of water for dunking the flower stems when cutting them to fit the vases. So, this ends up being a "stationary" work. I tell the children, "This is a stationary work. That means it stays here on this table."

Arranging flowers is a very satisfying activity for children and the bouquets beautify the environment for those first days of getting to know how the classroom works. Part of arranging is to cut the ends of the stems, and this type of cutting with scissors is a little easier than cutting paper...so once again, there is an engaging work that is not TOO challenging.

TABLE SETTING WORK

The art of SETTING A TABLE is going to be one of the first things that children learn in the Montessori classroom, because they have a snack table that is available for most of the work period.

I like to offer quite a process for eating snack at the snack table, and I am sure that every classroom sets this up uniquely. Most classrooms do have a little table that is designated for 2, 3 or 4 children to have snack together. And, there is a nearby shelf with snack plates, napkins, cups, and a pitcher of water. I love to offer the children colorful (and seasonal) table cloths and then some flowers (real or artificial) and a vase so that they can set up a proper table!

If you add little name cards to the snack experience, then the children have a language arts activity to go along with the dining experience. (finding/reading their names) There is also the process of the placement of the name cards, like you might experience at a formal dinner! You can provide little acrylic business card holders (from Office Supply stores) for the child's name card at the table. This just adds a lot of wonderful process to the art of setting up the table for dining together!

Don't forget the FINE ART PRINTS that you will have hanging on the walls at the children's eye level! These will sharpen the aesthetic sense and perhaps give them inspiration in their own art creations. I like to hang some fun pieces that the children can relate to, like the following.

FAMOUS ART WORK

"Orange Face" by Henri Matisse "Three Musicians" by Pablo Picasso

"Cat" by Paul Klee

"Campbell's Soup Can" by Andy Warhol

Ah...Art! Such a fun part of life in the Montessori Early Childhood Environment!

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you can use some of these artful ideas with your own group!

View Post

Musically Montessori:#2 A Little About the "Two Maria-s" & the Montessori Preschool Music Curriculum!

Carolyn 2:12 PM

LITTLE DID WE KNOW THAT OUR "LITTLE PONY NAMED MACARONI" SONG HAS A FUN REFERENCE TO THE ROOTS OF MONTESSORI MUSIC!

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

Maria Montessori collaborated with her esteemed colleague, Maria Maccheroni (pronounced macaroni) to create an amazing music curriculum for young children. While teaching an AMS Music training workshop a few months ago, it dawned on me that the children's favorite ending song (the little pony song) has the name of the true music maestro behind the Montessori Music Curriculum, Maria Maccheroni, which gave my training students and I a sweet little laugh!

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

This popular little song has these words:

I have a little pony,

Her name is Macaroni

She trots and trots

Then she stops!...

My funny little po---ny

Macaroni!

If you are new to Montessori, you can find out a lot about Dr. Maria Montessori and how Montessori schools are set up at this link:
http://amshq.org.

Here, in this post, I will briefly explain a little about Dr. Montessori’s music curriculum, how it came about, and what music education was like in her first schools in Italy that began in 1907.

Dr. Montessori based her method of education on the rationale that movement is integral to a child’s understanding of academic concepts. She also observed that children learned through sensory exploration and so, for the development of music learning, Montessori started with activities for practicing aural discrimination. (listening skills)
Montessori wrote in The Montessori Method :

It is desirable to have didactic materials used for 'auricular education.' These exercises are an introduction to the acquisition of language, and serve in a very special way to center the child's discriminative attention upon the 'modulations of the sound of the human voice.'...Such sense education has a value in that it exercises aesthetic taste, and may be applied in a most noteworthy way to practical discipline.

My favorite Montessori listening activity is “The Silence Game”. This is a lovely activity that is usually done in a group, but can also be set up as an individual work. There are many variations, but basically everyone gets very still and silent. During the silence, the children listen to the sounds around them, or simply focus on the silence itself. I love to keep a window open so that we hear the sounds from outside, especially if the window opens to the garden where the children can hear birds or the breeze. I have had children tell me they heard the wings of a bird flapping!

In the beginning, these exercises in silence may be planned for about half a minute, so that the children don’t get too antsy. However, over the months, the children begin to really appreciate how long they can maintain the silence together and I always comment on how well they use their strong muscles to keep still and quiet! Eventually, you will be able to bring the children into silence and then move away from the group, whisper each child’s name, and have them quietly walk to where you are. This is the classic lesson of “The Silence Game.”

In the Montessori Sensorial apparatus, there are materials called “Sound Cylinders”. These are made up of two wooden boxes, each with a set of 6 wooden cylinders filled with various materials that make sounds when the cylinders are shaken. The sounds range from loud to quiet. The first set has red lids and the other set has blue lids with cylinder sounds that match the first set. The child begins by lining up the two sets in two rows according to color and then s/he matches the cylinders that have the same sounds. Later the child arranges the cylinders of the red set from loudest to quietest and then does the same with the blue set.

Photo from Montessori n Such.com

I have a delightful memory of a 4 yr old with autism who really loved musical activities in our Montessori Classroom. He is pictured below after arranging a Montessori Sensorial material called the Brown Prisms from thickest to thinnest. He then, used the thinnest prism like a musical mallet to “play” a tune on the brown prisms! Because they are made of hardwood, these prisms have a wonderful sound that changes with each prism and you can actually hear the sound changing from low (thickest prism) to high (thinnest prism) when they are arranged in that order.

Photo by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

There are many fun listening games that can be played at circle time to practice focused listening skills. You can learn a few at my upcoming posts in this Musically Montessori Series. Stay tuned by signing up for my posts delivered right to your in-box here: SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES.

The most beautiful and magical Montessori music materials are the Montessori Bells pictured below:

Photo by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

Briefly, the Montessori Bells are brass bells attached to wooden stands in a sort of mushroom shape. They were originally developed by Montessori’s trusted colleague, Maria Maccheroni (the other Maria!). There are 2 sets of 13 bells each and they come with a platform to be placed on the shelf that shows where to position the bells. One set is brown and the other set is black & white to correspond with the black & white keys on the piano. The black & white bells are the control and are not generally removed from the shelf. The brown bells are the working bells and the child first learns the care of the bells and then how to match the tones, how to arrange the bells from low to high, and then how to compose little songs. The older children also learn music notation with the materials that go with the lessons of the Montessori Bells. These bells have a very beautiful tone and are made with amazing precision by a company in Italy that was the maker of the original Montessori bells of the early 1900’s! Here’s that link: http://www.nienhuis.com/product/bells-set/.

If you are a bit insecure about being accurate in your pitch when singing songs with the children in your group, you can greatly increase your ability by working with the Montessori Bells. The authentic (and expensive!) Montessori bells are perfectly pitched and are an excellent guide for matching your pitch to the selected bell. They are pitched at middle C on the piano and go through the scale up to C’(octave higher than middle C). As a classroom teacher, I would always have a child strike the C or the D bell for giving us the pitch to start the song we were about to sing. The children so enjoyed this and we always started on a nice pitch! You can also play a fun game of singing each child’s name up the musical scale (“ascending”) and/or down the scale (“descending”) using the bells.

There are many places to learn more about the Montessori Bells and there are actual formal lessons of these bells that are used in the Montessori Preschool classroom. And, so I will refer you to Montessori training programs for this information, and here is a great one with on-line classes available: Age of Montessori.

I teach Montessori Music in two wonderful AMS training programs in the San Francisco East Bay. My training workshops are offered not only to Montessori student/teachers, but to any interested teachers or parents as well. Here are their links:

Montessori Institute of Advanced Studies and

Fountainhead Montessori Adult Education.
And here is the link to my listing of upcoming workshops I will be teaching: Classes & Workshops Schedule

In the first Montessori school, Casa dei Bambini, in Rome, Italy, Dr. Montessori and Maria Maccheroni offered many music activities to the children as movement on what is called “The Line.” There are many delightful movement activities that children perform on “The Line” and in this first school, the children often moved to music played on the piano by Ms Maccheroni. By listening to the little variations played on the piano, the children adjusted their movements. For example, when marching music was played, the children spontaneously began to march! You can recreate this wonderful movement to piano music using the cd s available from Sanford Jones, a renowned Montessori Music Specialist, at the following link:

http://www.montessoriservices.com/walking-on-the-line-cd-only.

Sanford Jones has many Montessori music resources, including an excellent dvd that shows his delightful one-on-one lessons given with the Montessori bells. Link to his website: http://www.youthoperaintl.com/store.html.

Here is a photo of children moving on “The Line” in the Montessori Classroom:

Photo by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

Of the variety of activities that children performed on “The Line” in the first Casi dei Bambini, many are well-suited to musical accompaniment. Children enjoy marching with miniature flags while listening to any number of cd s of marching songs, including national anthems from around the world.
One of the favorites for my group has been The King's March from Shenanigan's album Dances #1. Here's the link for their wonderful website: Shenanigans Music. You can also download their music from iTunes.
As you can see from this post, the Montessori Music Curriculum is quite well developed and this post is meant to be a little introduction to what can happen in the Montessori environment.
You can read more about the fun music activities I offer to over 750 children each week in my Montessori Preschool & First Grade Music classes at my blog here: Music Posts at Carolyn's Blog.

Also, I will be posting a year long sequential Montessori Music curriculum in this ongoing series: Musically Montessori. Stayed tuned for more!

View Post

Musically Montessori:#1 Let's Start the School Year with Lots of Music!

Carolyn 8:21 PM

ARE YOU DREAMING OF A UNIQUE WAY TO START OFF YOUR NEW SCHOOL YEAR? Here's a lovely set of Montessori Practical Life Activities that are musically oriented!

All photos by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company

Your new school year is right around the corner and you are probably preparing lots of activities for your preschool classroom. If your group is a typical mix of children who are brand new to the school and "veterans" who have been enrolled for a few years (or months), you might dream of adding just a few unique activities for your shelves that are new and simple, yet engaging.

Well, of course, I'm going to encourage lots of music for the children in the first days of school and why not enrich the environment with some "Musically Montessori" Practical Life shelf works for individualized activity. If you are new to Montessori, you can read about this wonderful area of curriculum called Practical Life at this link: Montessori Print Shop Practical Life Activities Overview.

An old stand-by in my Montessori classroom has been this simple scooping work for the Practical Life shelf that has jingle bells for the scooping material. Even the very youngest children will enjoy the sound of the bells as they are scooped. NOT for children under three who are still exploring objects with their mouths...the jingle bells can be a choking hazard & also catch a tiny tongue in the bell's opening, OWCH!

I start out with simple scooping using 2 bowls and one scoop...then I like to add 3 scoops that are measuring spoons and children can explore the differing quantities they are able to transfer with the different scoops. If you provide a variety of sizes of jingle bells, then you could add small, medium & large bowls for transferring and the children can enjoy a seriating experience as well! You can find a variety of jingle bells at Michaels Craft Supply any time of year.

The basic Practical Life Activity of pouring can be really fun for children if you introduce a musical theme. I purchased music-themed tall plastic cups, music note erasers and most of the music related materials you see in this post from a wonderful supply company: https://www.musicmotion.com.

You can see in the photos below that even a 4 yr old is enjoying the tall plastic music note transfer activity.

The children may move to the next challenge with this tray set up with ceramic (breakable!) music-themed mugs and music note pasta. (see supplier mentioned above)

A very popular music-themed Practical Life Activity is a water play experience. I purchased a music note ice tray from Amazon and then set up a tray with a child-size baster (Montessori Services) and a container of colored water.

Later, you can extend this shelf work, by exchanging the baster with an eyedropper...quite challenging!

We all know that the play dough tray is chosen every day, and so I added cookie cutters that have a music theme. (music notes & musical instruments) You can find these on Amazon or at the Music in Motion site mentioned above.

For some fun music oriented Practical Life Activities with tongs, I set up music note erasers with tongs and cute little musical teapot shaped tea bag caddies. Here's the link: Music Treasures.com.

You can create a more challenging extension with this work by exchanging the larger tongs with small sized sugar tongs. I like the tong sets that are offered at Montessori Services. Here's that link: Montessori Services tongs.

Then, there are the children who love to explore tiny miniatures and so you can have a tray with a beautiful and inviting box to open and discover tiny music charms. I set this up on a tray with a piece of velvet fabric and tweezers.

A lovely work for the children who want a more sophisticated challenge. Tiny music charms can be found in many places, including the suppliers I have mentioned earlier in this post.

Don't forget the beautiful and subtle musical reminder on the table cloth for your children's snack table!

Here's a close up of the pattern on this Musically Montessori snack table cloth. I got the material at Jo-Ann's Fabrics.

Once again, I am so happy to have you visiting my site and I hope you got some useful ideas for your group. Please feel free to leave a comment in the section below...I love hearing about your ideas!