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. 

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. 

Practical Guide to Practical Life Montessori Monday

Caring for Plants

Practical Life is one of the things that sets Montessori apart from traditional school.  In a Montessori prepared environment the teacher carefully chooses activities to place on the shelves for the children to practice and eventually master.  The practical life shelves consist of “works” that foster independence in practical life skills and fine motor development.  

By teaching a child to serve food by themselves they are learning grace, hospitality and courtesy at a young age. 

A few of these activities may include: 

slicing, chopping, peeling, spooning, transferring, tonging, dusting, polishing, sewing, cleaning, stirring, mixing, sweeping, serving, dressing skills, animal care, hammering, care of self, care of plants, care of animals and pouring. 
The practical life shelves in the classroom can bring the most joy to a child.  All of the practical life shelves in my classroom are theme based and carefully planned to flow into extension activities.  The young child will naturally gravitate to practical life shelves.  It is exciting for children to have meaningful work just like mom and dad. 

As new works are introduced and rotated often it sparks new interest in the child.  Many of the practical life lessons are sequential and build up to mastery.  These activities are not only fun and educational for the child but it also helps develop a great sense of pride in accomplishment.  The practical life skills will stay with them for life. 

Here are some of the works we have out right now in our classroom.  Because most of my practical life works are theme based I am only going to show you a few now and you will see more as they are introduced with new themes. 

This is a slicing work we have out on our shelf right now.  The children slice the banana, then place it the bowl.  They then place toothpicks in the slices and serve the banana pieces.

This is a carrot peeling work.  Usually I have 2 kids working together one is peeling the carrots and one is chopping the carrots.  The one who is chopping the carrots will then serve the children at the snack table a little silicone muffin cup filled with carrot slices.

Carrot chopping fosters hand eye coordination, concentration and fine motor skills. 

Care of plants.  In this work the children are responsible for taking care of the living plants in our class.  I also do this at home with my own children.  They feed the plants just enough water, clean the leaves and remove dead leaves and flowers when necessary.  This produces a great sense of responsibility and care for the environment.  They are very good about noticing when a plant needs care and attention.  I do not even have to remind them!

Sewing.  Sewing is one activity that is definitely sequential and produces fabulous results.  This is step one after the child learns to thread a needle they learn the basic step of lacing and the movement it requires.  After they have mastered this step they move on to the next 4 steps of sewing until they eventually sew their very own doll!!  Even the boys love the sewing works.  It helps with fine motor skills, concentration and self independence.

Care of self.  This is one of our dressing boards found at discount school supply.  Care of self is also another sequential set of activities.  We have several dressing boards that are the basic steps to tying, zippers, lacing, buttons and snaps.  Once they have mastered the boards they move on to dress up items to practice more.  Finally, they practice on them self and have usually mastered the concept at this point.  We have charts to keep track of when a child has mastered a new care of self skill and they children a excited to have their names on those charts. 

Care of animals.  In our classroom we have a guinea pig, fish and tadpoles.  The helpers are responsible for feeding and caring for the animals.  The children love taking care of our animals and watching them grow.  Here is a picture of a little boy feeding "Roxie" a piece of celery.  He is giggling with delight. 

Care for the classroom.  We have trays out on the shelves that allow the kids to clean the classroom.  This one is a table cleaning work with shaving cream and water.  They love this work!

Cooking.  We do many cooking activities.  This is one where the children grind corn to make cornmeal.  We use the cornmeal to make cornbread muffins!

Preparing snack.  We have snack out family style and the children prepare their own snacks.  Here they are practicing spreading by spreading cream cheese on tortillas to make meat and tortilla roll ups.

Sifting flour Click here for this post

Baking a cutting out cookies Click here for our unit on Gingerbread Men

Sequential Pouring excersises Pouring starts with two cups the same size and the children pour beans from one cup to the next.  The pouring items gradually get harder and we add water.  Shown here is a girl pouring from a tea pot into two cups.  This is a more difficult pouring work.  Click here for the link to this post

Sweeping into a dustpan, the childre dump the items in the cup onto a square on the floor.  They use the brush and dustpan to carefully sweep the items into the dustpan.  Click here for the link to this post

Crumbing a table is a fun and purposeful work for the children.  They use this small brush and dustpan to "sweep" all of the crumbs off the table after snacks and lunch.  Click here for the link to this post

Through out the year I will post more about our practical life activities.  I love teaching children how to read and understand math but practical life and social skills in the classroom and at home I believe are equally important! 

Happy Spring

 

Montessori Monday Valentine's Day Fine Motor Skills

Valentine's Sensory Box!!

Spooning water beads into heart trays.

Today I want to share with you some of our Valentine's day "works".  In a Montessori classroom we call the items that we put out on the shelves for children to work on "works".  Many of these activities can be made with common household items.  The kids are given an individual or group lesson and then they may choose them off the shelf to work on. 

These are our practical life shelves. 

Practical life "works" are introduced to kids to build fine motor skills and to work on practical life skills.  Many of the tasks in this area are to practice everyday skills.  The children love working on activities that they see adults work on everyday. 

Card writing basket. 

This has word wall words, Valentine's day words, pens, markers, pencils, and items to decorate a card

Sorting, counting and patterning Valentine's erasers

Valentine's Tangrams

We are working on Pouring into 4 containers. 

Lacing beads extension, making a criss cross on the buttons

Heart lacing

Shape nuts and bolts, sorting, and matching fine motor practice

Letter Pinning and heart pinning

Fine motor practice marbles on a suction cup paddle

Letter writing on white boards

Wikki Stick letter and heart shaping

Fine motor practice heart sticks into a Parmesan cheese container

I found this adorable broom at the Dollar Store and thought it would be perfect for "crumbing" the tables.  The children love doing this work. 

Heart "I spy" box.  I found this box at the Dollar store.  I filled it with rainbow rice, Valentine's shapes, letter number beads.  The children shake the box and find letters and numbers.  The younger ones circle the letters and numbers they find on a control chart.  The older ones write the numbers down. 

Heart shaped links.  I found these at the Dollar store.  The children make patterns and sort them.  This week we will use them for measuring. 

Our Math Shelves

Here is what is on our math shelves right now.  When a new parent asks about Montessori I show them our math shelves as an example.  I tell them you will not see a lot of worksheets come home because everything we do in the classroom is hands on.  We have a "math work time" and a "language work time" everyday.  

Fine motor practice and counting

Shape matching

Pattern Block and unifix cube graphing

Penny sorting, and coin rolling. 

These are a few of the works we have on our shelves right now.  I would love to know what you are working on this month.  Please leave me a comment and let me know how you can use some of these works at home or in your classroom!