Classroom 1 is enjoying the last bit of fall before the weather turns cold. Please remember to send your child with warm clothes that are labeled with their name for outside time. We go outside everyday unless there are storms or the temperature dips below zero.
Classroom 1 has started with our specials classes. We have Hmong with Tia on Mondays, Spanish with Raquel on Tuesdays and Music with Lynn on Fridays. We have also gotten back into the swing of weekly cooking. Thank you to all the parent volunteers we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the open house, it was a fun night watching your children share some of their favorite things from the school day with you.
We are feeling much more settled into our day at this point in the year, we even switched lunch tables this week which is always exciting for the children. We want to give a big thank you to Kathy Kilman, Kit’s Grandmother for making our amazing solar system mat, we have had lots of fun learning the planets and seeing where they are in relation to the sun and earth.
The pictures this month give window into how engaged and focused the children are during our morning work cycle. To be able to learn a skill we must first be able to concentrate. When children are engaged and focused they often have that tongue out look of deep concentration while they master a skill. Montessori classrooms intentionally work on having children learn the skill of concentration. This happens in many ways in the classroom. The first way we foster learning concentration is through the open uninterrupted work cycle. Children are able to choose a work of interest to them and work with it for as long as they need to.
Another way we foster concentration is through repetition. Children can choose to do a work repeatedly until they feel they have mastered it. Once a work is mastered a child can give another child a lesson on that work. The steps and sequence of the many works in the classroom, especially in practical life also help to develop concentration. Painting at the easel involves getting paper on the easel, choosing paint colors, painting, then taking the paper off the easel, washing the paint brushes, washing the easel and returning the cleaning materials to the easel, ready to use for the next person. Steps in a sequence help to develop concentration. Other things we do are modeling how to do the work for the children and providing an environment that is orderly and not over stimulating.
