February began with a theme of love and valentines.
I love the heart activities that we have created for the toddlers over the years! Felt heart color matching, heart-shaped posting with golf tees, heart-shaped pegs (to put into small holes), a small wooden tree to hang wooden hearts that say things such as “Be Mine,” and heart-shape boxes with lids to open and close. Art also offers many heart shapes and colors such as red, pink, and purple.
The number six is in the dropbox. In mid-February, we’ll have live ladybugs visit our class. The children usually love to observe them, and the valentine work will make space for ladybug activities, sorting, grading, transfer, gluing and painting. No real ladybugs will be harmed in these activities 🙂 .
Songs
Our favorite Valentine’s songs are:
Love is something, and you give it away,
you give it away, you give it away.
Love is something, and you give it away,
you end up having more!
(To the tune of “Do you know the muffin man”)
Will you be my valentine, my valentine, my valentine?
Will you be my valentine, and hold my big red heart.
(we pass out vinyl hearts)
I will be your valentine, your valentine, your valentine.
I will be your valentine, and hold your big red heart!
(To the tune of “This old man”)
Valentines, valentines, send them out to everyone.
When you do, it’s always lots of fun.
Valentines for everyone.
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… But I won’t say who.
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… Yes I do!
Love somebody… I love you, you, you!
Skidamarink kadink kadink, skidamarink adoo…. I love you….
Skidamarink kadink kadink, skidamarink adoo…. I love you….
I love you in the morning and in the afternoon,
I love you in the evening, and underneath the moon!
Skidamarink kadink kadink, skidamarink adoo…. I love you….
And a ladybug song:
Ladybug, ladybug,
Landed on my thumb,
Crawled onto my palm, and onto my wrist,
Ladybug, ladybug,
Crawled up my arm… And then it flew away!
Montessori: social and academic
Twenty-two years ago, when I was looking for a preschool for my oldest daughter, I happened to call a Montessori school as well, just because it was close to where we lived. I was mainly looking for a social setting, but I was really taken by surprise when the teacher told me about the academics. My daughter was just 3-years-old. I didn’t know that you could teach a 3-year-old academics. Well, you can! And in a most engaging way.
This is because just about all Montessori activities are autodidactic. This means that the child can learn a concept or skill through the materials. The materials teach, and if at all possible, materials are designed to allow the child to self-correct. Children are braced for activity, and inactive “toys” make active children. (Versus inactive children when engaging with things that have buttons and screens.)
Children love to explore, manipulate, to imitate what they’ve seen us do, to put forth sincere effort, to repeat an activity if the challenge was just right (not too hard, nor too easy). Our work is relatively easy once the classroom is prepared. The activities entice the child by its beauty, or function, or novelty. In the toddler class, many activities don’t even need a lesson. They speak for themselves. The ones that do, are simple and don’t take long. Many are taught through modeling, for example, how to wipe a spill.
These Montessori materials that teach also allow us to peek into the child’s understanding. For example: If the child makes a mistake and self-corrects, we can take notice. But we also can find out if the child is not (yet) picking up on a concept for some reason.
In the toddler class, if a child doesn’t do a work the way it was designed, they’re usually just not there yet. The activities are geared to a wide range of skill level, children between 18 and 39 months of age, and the beauty is, we can see when the child matures into new understanding.
Even the way a toddler stacks blocks can give us feedback on how the child is thinking. Last week, one of our toddlers stacked three sets of blocks in almost exactly the same way, sorted by color.
Below is the result of his self-initiated, self-directed, “self-corrected” activity.
Because part of my role is observer, I’m not primed to jump in and “teach,” telling the child what to try and do, and what color this and that is. I watched our toddler take each block, move it along the other blocks and place each one in a certain way, “correcting” himself until they were all about the same, as close to the same as he could get them.
To me, this is fun, and I marvel every day at what the children show me!
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