Art with Seniors - Symmetry
The prepared materials:I choose a range of materials so as to move from very simple art work to challenging. I knew we had a couple of women who really enjoyed doing art in the group today, so I was...
View ArticleHonoring the Moment: Poetic Inspiration Found Within An Adult Day Center
I was captivated by two scenes which occurred on the same day and at the same time at The Bridge last week. Two women, independent of each other, decided to sit out from the group activities and...
View ArticleI Have Returned to the Primary Classroom
It has been a long time since I have written a post. I have so much to share. I am now a primary teacher at Toad Hill Montessori School in Madison, Wisconsin. So yes, I have moved. I accepted the...
View ArticleLake and Island and so much more. Landforms as Polygons...so much to share.
Island In my classroom, children create landforms with their hands. They do not use plastic molds. This work allows them to carefully craft "land" into specific forms and to then place on these...
View ArticleBirds - Updated
A Post About Birds-------------------My last post included photos of a rocket constructed by one of my students after careful study and frequent use of the geometric solids. Cone + Cylinder = Basic...
View ArticleWind
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...
View ArticleApril
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...
View Article"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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleCreative 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...
View Article"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...
View ArticlePoetry 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...
View ArticleBuilding 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...
View Article"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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleToddler 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...
View ArticleToddler 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...
View ArticleToddler 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...
View ArticleThe 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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