Montessori Self-Help Skills Part 1

Montessori Self-Help Skills Part 1

     As we begin this new school year and we have some new faces, I thought it would be appropriate to write my welcome back post on self-help skills.  I recently had a teacher ask me for advice on how to teach parents the skills that the kids should be working on and how to help them be successful.  That is a great question and one that has many answers.  To make this more understandable for all I will make a list of skills that they should be working on and how we work with them at our Montessori school based on their planes of development.  Every child is different, so it is also important to take into consideration individualization. 

1.   5 reasons why self-help skills are essential

a.     Children Learn by doing.

Research has shown us time and time again that children learn best through doing not by being told.  For children to learn how to do a task for themselves, we must allow them time to practice it and let them make their mistakes.   

b.     Children need and thrive on small successes

If you are constantly doing everything for your child, you aren’t giving them the opportunity to succeed on their own.  When they accomplish these little tasks, make sure to get excited about what they did.    

c.      Self-help skills are problem-solving skills

Sadly, the world we live in today is fast paced, and everyone wants everything instantly.  Because of this, we are losing our problem-solving skills.  Teaching children to do things themselves at a young age enables them to use problem solving and critical thinking skills.  These skills will be vital to life and will help them have greater executive functioning skills which will assist them in school as well. 

d.     Independence builds self-confidence!

Self-confidence doesn’t happen overnight.  You will notice as children get older their lack of confidence can hinder them in many ways.  It is our job to build them up and give them the skills they need to prepare them.  Once a child becomes for independent they will be more confident and ready to tackle the next task.

e.     Independence teaches them responsibility and breeds good habits.

We all want our children to be responsible and have good practices.  Unfortunately, in our fast and overscheduled lives, we don’t take the time to teach our kids how to become responsible.  This is why it is so important to learn these skills when they are small.  They will thank you, and you will thank yourself. 

    2.   Ages and Stages of Self-help Skills

a.     Self-help Skills for Babies (crawlers) to 12 months

            Tell you when all done eating with sign language

            Put shoes and socks away

            Put own bib in laundry basket

            Wash face and hands with a wipe

            Feed self, finger foods and a snack

            Hold a spoon and toothbrush

b.     Self-help Skills from 12-18 months

Wash hands and begin to make “bubble gloves.”

Start practicing dressing self with practical life lessons

Brush Teeth (with help)

Start brushing hair and doll hair

Drink from a lidless cup

Eat independently with a fork

c.      Self-Care Skills from 18 months- 2-year-olds

Take off pants/shorts with elastic waist

Learn how to put on and take off shirt

Continue washing hands and making bubble gloves almost independently

Put clothes in a drawer

Take off and put away shoes

Brush own hair

Hang up coat and look for name with picture

Begin family style eating with scoops and pouring small amounts

Use a napkin at meal times

Learn how to wipe up spills

After eating scrape plate in trash and put dishes in dish tub or sink

d.     Self-Care Skills for 3-year-olds

Begin dressing boards to practice using Snaps, zippers, and buttons

Dress self without snaps, zippers, and buttons

Put on coat, snow pants, hats and mittens

Put on shoes

Put away some of their own laundry in specified drawers.  (label for more direction)

Learn beginning cooking (measuring, pouring, mixing)

Begin pouring water/milk/juice from a pitcher

Wipe up own spills (keep small squares of shammy or towels within reach)

Family style eating which includes setting the table and serving self.

Learn first and last name and what town they live in

Fold socks and put away

Ask to be excused from table and push chair in

Once fully potty trained learn to wipe bottom correctly without assistance

e.     Self-Care Skills for 4-year-olds

Begin learning to tie shoes

Master the dressing boards

Put sheets on cots and fold blankets

Start learning more advanced cooking skills (cracking eggs alone, spreading butter and jam, cutting banana slices)

Learn to wash dishes

Learn to sweep and mop

Memorize phone number and address

Can wipe bottom correctly

f.      Self-Care Skills for 5-year-olds

 Learn emergency numbers and what to do in case of a fire

 Master dressing independently

                 Brush hair independently

                 Brush teeth independently

      Replace toilet paper roll if finished

      Understand and choose weather appropriate clothing

      Master tying shoes

      Learn the food plate and how to make healthy food choices

      Use the sink to wash fruits, veggies, plates, cups

      Learn how to use microwave (with supervision)

      Learn more cooking skills (peeling vegetables, chopping ingredients with safe knife)

      Learn how to place small items in oven using mitts (with supervision)

This blog post is part one of two.  Part two will go into ideas and tips for teaching self-help skills.  I also want to hear from all of you on what you would like to know.  I have thousands of pictures of works, classroom environments, lessons and parent tips.  The hardest part for me is deciding what to write on. 

Montessori Infant and Toddler Curriculum Part 2: Math and Language

This is part 2 in my Infant and Toddler Montessori Curriculum series.  I talked about sensorial in this post.  http://www.discoverykidzone.blogspot.com/2015/08/montessori-infant-toddler-curriculum.html

We are going to continue the series by discussing Math and Language.  Infants are always learning and it is exciting to watch and facilitate. 

Math

From day one infants are surrounded by math.  We ask what time it is, how old they are, how many ect.  Math is a very abstract and small children can’t understand the concepts.  They need to experience real objects in their environment to make the concept much more concrete.  Math begins with the realization of one and then more than one.  To witness a child evolving in this area is an amazing discovery.  Math activities for infants and toddlers can include:  Stacking and nesting cubes, number and block cubes, sorting and counting materials, matching and grading and sandpaper numbers. 

 

Language

From birth children are completely aware and are learning at an extremely rapid rate all about the human language.  Language is vital to the process of thinking.  The child needs to be spoken to, read to, sung to and listened to often.  Children need a broad exposure to language. 

Here are some song ideas:

Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar Fuzzy, wuzzy caterpillar Into a corner will crawl. (squat and move to a corner) He’ll spin himself a blanket (move head in a spin) And then go fast asleep (pretend to sleep) Fuzzy, wuzzy caterpillar Wakes up by and by ( wake up, slowly move arms) To find he has wings of beauty Changed into a butterfly. (fly with arms)

Jack-in-the-Box Down in a box (squat to ground’ talk softly and slowly) There lives a little man. He waits and he waits, As quiet as he can Until I open the lid – POP!

Johnny Works With One Hammer Johnny works with one hammer, One hammer, one hammer, Johnny works with one hammer, Then he works with two. (repeat with 2, 3, 4) Johnny works with five hammers, Five hammers, five hammers, Johnny works with five hammers, Then he goes to sleep.

To aid the child in his language skill development the Montessori environment needs to be set up with literacy rich and language in mind.  Teachers and parents need to have books, pictures, picture labels, objects and matching pictures all thorough out the environment.

Click on the links below for book ideas for infants and toddlers:

Peek a boo Forest

Where is Baby's Belly Button?

Look! Look!

You can find more infant toddler resources here:

http://www.michaelolaf.net/BirthtoThreeDevelopment.html

http://www.blog.montessoriforeveryone.com/montessori-basics-7-essentials-of-a-toddler-classroom.html

http://www.infomontessori.com/language/introduction.htm



 Thank you for visiting.  Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments. 

Rachel Supalla



Montessori Infant Toddler Curriculum Part one: Sensorial

The ages and stages of children vary greatly between each child.  We are all unique and special individuals.  As teachers and caregivers we play an important role to prepare the environment, follow the child, give simple lessons, observe exploration, foster concentration, document and be mindful of the chosen activities and learning outcomes.  All in all this will result in happiness and compassion towards others as the children have the opportunity to grow and learn in a harmonious environment. 

The question remains as to how do we set up such a desirable environment and how do we implement the activities that are planned?  In order to accomplish our goal we must remain focused on the center of our purpose and that is the child.  Imagine yourself as an infant or toddler.  How would you want your room to look?  What activities and materials would be fascinating to you?

An Infant and Toddler Montessori classroom is planned out by experiences.  Those experiences make up the curriculum and care of the child.  They will also build upon these skills as stepping stones to different developmental levels.  The experiences in an infant/toddler Montessori environment are:  Sensorial, Language, Gross Motor, Art, math and practical life. 

 

 

Sensorial Work

Sensorial is rooted from the words sense or senses.  These activities allow the children to focus on the fine tuning of all his senses.  Using all five senses the children will have a rich and meaningful learning experience. 

The purpose of sensorial work is for the infant and toddler to begin classifying his environment.  Maria Montessori wrote that all sensorial experiences begin at birth.  The young child becomes a sensorial scientist and by exploring his senses begins to understand and appreciate his surroundings. 

As we follow the child and learn their individual likes, dislikes and interests we can set up the environment with a variety of sensorial activities and experiences.  A few examples of sensorial activities for infants are toddlers are:  Water table filled with various liquids mixed with solids and real items (funnels, strainers, scoops, whisks ect), fingerpainting and other squishy activities, texture play and exploring, nature baskets, real item treasure baskets, shiny and crinkle objects such as foil and emergency blankets, sound tubes, animal sounds, food tasting and play, smelling jars, flowers, pine cone activities. 

I hope you are inspired to learn with your infants and toddlers.  I will post more about infant curriculum over the next couple of days.  Please let me know any comments or questions that you may have.

Rachel :)

Montessori Geography: Exploring Africa Part 1

 

There are many different areas in a Montessori Classroom.  This is one of the many reasons why I love the Montessori method.  It appeals to my ADHD, multitasking brain!  One of my favorite areas of the classroom is the Geography and science center.  We basically have a whole room dedicated to Geography and Science at our school.

 

 Over the course of three years we will visit all 7 continents and dive into an exciting theme unit on each continent.  Most of the time when we study a continent the unit goes in many different directions and takes on a life of it's own.  We add math, art and language extensions to our Continent studies and the children transform their works and personalize them to go along with their interests.

  

I often find that by studying geography and social studies the children are able to learn and absorb so much more based on the fact that their interest levels are so high!  It is exciting to be a part of.  Through out the year I will add our various continent studies and extension activities.  Our first continent study of the year is Africa.  We began the year by introducing all of the continents, learning the continent song and what the continents look like.

Here is our Continent map I purchased this map from www.alisonsmontessori.com along with several other Montessori supplies.  Then we studied the shape and landscapes of Africa.  We made a bubble map about Africa and we added more facts daily as we learned more.  We studied the African animals because the landscapes of Africa are so diverse we discussed the different landscapes first and the habitats of different animals that lived in Africa.

 We extended our African animal studies with math works, language works and art.

For language we talked about crocodiles and we had a drawing workshop to label the crocodile.  This is our Crocodile art project.

  Here are our different math works.  We made animal patterns, we sorted animal, we counted animals and we counted coconuts and palm trees.  

In our language center we had three part cards to label African animals.  

In Part 2 of our African Continent study I explain our ancient Egypt unit.  I have missed blogging and I can't promise I will be a regular blogger but I will try to sneak it in as I can!  Thanks for stopping by.

Rachel Supalla :)

Show me the money! Montessori money math!

Sensory math!  Sorting coins that are "hidden" in water beads.  

Show me the money!!  I mean really, who isn't excited about money?  Kids included.  It is natural for children to have a desire to learn about money.  It is a part of our everyday lives.  We should take this opportunity to teach them about something when their interest is high.  I like to introduce money around President’s Day.  We start with a discussion about Washington and Lincoln and that leads into learning about pennies and quarters.  

Another good time to build excitement about money is on St. Patrick’s Day when you can go on a search for the money at the end of the rainbow.  

This is when you can introduce the nickel.  We start with sorting coins, nickel , quarter and penny.  I use clear water beads and hide the coins to sort in the water beads.  After they have mastered that I add in the dime.  The next step after they have mastered coin sorting is to introduce the coin values. 

I do this by making it a Montessori counting work, I use sandpaper numbers to help reinforce the value of the coins and have objects to count to reinforce one to one correspondence.  

At the end of our money unit we celebrate with a PJ day and snack money store.  Each child brings in a snack and I pass out coins for them to count out to buy snacks.  

This was a fantastic learning experience and super fun to top it off!!  Have fun showing the kids the money! 

Back to Montessori School

Back to Montessori School

Going back to school is always an exciting time for teachers, moms and children.  With all the excitement how do teachers plan for phasing in the Montessori curriculum?  This year was especially challenging for me because we have the most new students we have ever had.  We only have 4 2^nd year students and no elders (Kindergarteners) so the remaining students are all brand new to the Montessori Method.  When I am starting out the year my practical life shelves are empty with nothing but trays on them.  This year I am trying a new method of color coding trays and shelves to help with classroom management.  Carrying the trays, walking the line while carrying the tray and returning the empty tray to the correct shelf has all been a part of my phasing in process this year. 

My math shelves start out with basic Montessori materials, sorting, counting and shapes.  Right now we have our back to school sensory box out as well.  

Our science shelves are empty with the exception of a nature tray for exploring. 

Our line activities begin during circle time and then we extend the line to the bathroom and eventually the main flow of the classroom has a line.  While planning walk the line activities I always make sure to incorporate the theme, fun songs and activities to go along with it.  The children do not know that while we are singing fun songs and doing different arm movements or sounds that they are mastering walking the line in the process.  Dr. Jean www.drjean.org and http://www.jackhartmann.com/ are two great artists that I use for line songs.  

It is incredible how valuable these simple phasing in activities are.  Usually around week 4 you can walk into the classroom and see the children working on mats, walking on lines, carefully carrying trays with glass pitchers and bowls on them, and using grace and courteousy with their friends and teachers.  I do not think the Montessori Method can work without proper time for phasing in.  Let me know how you phase in your curriculum or classroom management for back to school.  I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. 

Montessori Inspired Writing Workshop

Hello All!  
It has been too long since I last wrote!  I just wrote a blog post for PreK and K sharing and you can find the post HERE.  I talked about how to start a writing workshop in a Montessori classroom.  The main thing is to instill a love of writing in a child at a very young age.  Writing can be a daunting task for children...and adults!  If you can find a way to make it fun and have meaning it doesn't feel quite so much like work.  

I think that in a preschool class having daily or weekly drawing workshops it teaches the children to draw with purpose.  Draw to tell a story.  This will get the child excited and begin the writing process.  Once the child is comfortable drawing with meaning then you add more complex steps such as labeling, writing a sentence using the labels and eventually a story.

Check out my post at PreK and K sharing and I promise I will write again very soon!  I have missed blogging and I am excited to be back!

Rachel Supalla

Montessori Easter Works

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on it's way!  I am sorry this post is a bit long but I wanted to give you a good visual of all our Easter works.  Most of these works will stay on our shelves until May. 

This is our Easter Sensory box.  It has pots, flowers, eggs and scoops. 

Flower arranging is a work that encourages fine motor development and also teaches grace and courteousy.  It is a foam floral cube inside a pot with silk flowers to arrange.

I made these letter sticks from tongue depressors and foam letters.  These can be uses for fine motor development. tactile learning, abc recognition, spelling. beginning sounds and ABC order.  In this work they choose a letter stick then build the letter with the beads. 

Mystery bag and Basket is a Montessori activity where you describe an object and the child using clues and tactile exploration to guess the object.  In this activity I used Easter grass to hide the objects.  The objects are wooden letters from Melissa and Doug.

This is a medium sized foam ball.  We called it an egg, the kids used the pipe cleaners to stick in the egg. 

These are oval shaped pieces of paper cut out and laminated.  The child grades them from smallest to largest. 

These are foam stickers from the Dollar Store.  The kids make patterns and count with them.

This is my FAVORITE Easter book.  It talks about all the fun things that go along with Easter as well as the BEST thing about Easter.

This is an extension activity I do to reinforce the story above.  The kids sort the Easter objects.  Later in the week we make a craft with these objects. 

Here are the letters from the mystery basket.  This child decided on his own to sort them by colors!  LOVE IT!!!

This  work is also from the Dollar Store.  I uses it as a fine motor activity.  The younger children take the bunny pegs out and place them in the triangle.

This month we are studying birds.  These are pattern block birds.

This is another extension to our story.  The child draws a picture of the best thing about Easter.  When they are finished they can write, label or dictate what the best thing about Easter is!!

Here is the floam again!  I like to use it for different works.  At this work the child makes an egg shape and decorates it with the items in the paper mache egg.

Last but certainly not least is balloon painting bunny ears.  This activity was so much fun I could write an entire post just on it.  We were painting bunny ears and I couldn't find our corks.  I looked through my supply closet and decided it would be fun to paint with balloons.  I blew up balloons in different sizes and we mixed red and white paints.  The kids came to the table and "sponge painted" with the balloons.  I can't wait to paint with balloons again!! 

Have a happy and meaningful Easter!!

Rachel