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Imagine
Recently, at the Unitarian church I have started to attend, I sat in the pews and listened to a choir composed of older members sing "Imagine," John Lennon's famous song. I had not heard this song in a...
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Toddler Room - My North Star
It was a very busy and at times hectic morning in my classroom today - 13 toddlers (4 of which are 2 sets of twins), a visiting/trying it out 16 month old child, her mother weeping in the corner of the...
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Toddler Room - Sewing 2
I was busy helping another student sew a crooked line up a length of burlap when two other children came to me with the cardboard sewing cards I wrote about in my Sewing 1 post. As my hands were...
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Toddler Engagement in Geography, Mapping, Habitats and The Naming of Animals...
After a fleet of hooves, paws, flippers and more where stamped into salt dough, the suggestion of a landscape with mountains and valleys emerged in the work. I had started with the intention of...
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The Toddler Room - Sewing 1
I introduced sewing to several of my toddlers two weeks ago and it has been such a hit. Initially, it was challenging for them to use both hands - one for holding the piece of burlap and the other for...
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The Toddler Room - The Washing of the Animals
We frequently use our classroom animals - anatomically correct figures of animals - with salt dough to make impressions and such. Often the animals are returned to their special basket with dough...
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Toddler Classroom - Introduction to Printmaking (A Soon to be Tote-Bag Project)
I spied several of my children using the cap of the paint jar to make circles over the past several weeks. Some viewed this as a misuse of materials. I thought perhaps it was the absence of materials...
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Toddler Engagement in Geography, Mapping, Habitats and The Naming of Animals...
Although acquisition of language is a corner stone element to all the work done in the toddler environment, I want to note various other skills the toddlers have been learning via this work.How to use...
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Toddler Engagement in Geography, Mapping, Habitats and The Naming of Animals...
I dreamed this dream where the continent work that I was so familiar with inside the Primary classroom was disassembled and then reassembled in such a way that very young children could roam from one...
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The Toddler Environment. My Field Work Continues...
It's been awhile since I have written a post, yet I am here often. Yes, I frequently return to my blog as it truly is the diary of my Montessori life. Yet, unlike my private diary where I make almost...
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"Nothing goes into the mind that does not first go through the hands."
I was told this quote when I was taking my AMI training at the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota almost 20 years ago. I was told it was a modified version of the Aristotle quote,“There is nothing...
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Building with Blocks - Activities for the Elderly
Every now and then you just have to grab a bucket of blocks and go with it. Last week I did just that. An art activity led by a member of the local Alzheimer's Association had just concluded. I...
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Poetry as an Act Within An Adult Day Center: "It's a great life if we don't...
There are moments at the Bridge that hold me still and in that stillness I dwell in the sacredness of what I am bearing witness to. Poetry is alive at the Bridge. Poetry as an act; as spoken words. It...
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"I heard the laughter. I saw the dancing." - Working with the Elderly
There are days that I wish I could hold out a butterfly net and catch within it the words of wisdom and insight spoken all around me at the Bridge. Instead, I scribble their words on post-it notes and...
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Creative Writing with Seniors
This is another re-post. This one documents the creative writing workshops I lead with the elderly. I truly hope I have the opportunity to work with seniors again in the near future - Susan Y. DyerI...
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The Montessori Bell Game With The Elderly
This is a re-post of one of my favorite experiences using Montessori materials with the elderly.Before I introduced the Montessori bell game to the elderly at The Bridge, I thought long and hard about...
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The Crow and the Pebbles - An Extension Lesson for Sink and Float
The story of the crow and the pebbles is a well known Aesop's fable. A thirsty crow comes across a pitcher of water and seeks to quench his thirst. However, there is only a small amount of water in...
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"All I heard were the deer and the deer told me they were watching over me."
Next week, when I am feeling better, (I was in a bike accident and I am home from school recovering) I am going to approach the administrator at the senior center right next door to Toad Hill...
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April
This post is simply going to be a photo collage of much of the work done in my classroom during the month of April, 2014. It is also a celebration of the amazing community here at Toad Hill Montessori...
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Wind
A few weeks after I started at Toad Hill Montessori, in late January of 2014, I began speaking with my students about wind currents. It was a notoriously cold winter with harsh winds, so it was a topic...
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