Ways to Connect with Parents

 

 

I thought I would share with you some of the ways we connect with our families at the Nest. (the Nest is what we affectionately call our toddler classroom)
The first picture is of the coat hooks, conveniently located under the parent board :) The parent board has the snack calendar posted on it as well as the school calendar for quick referencing and other postings that change frequently (to attract attention). Some examples of additional postings:
the local library's children room upcoming events
parent education opportunities

Just across the way (diagonally) from the coat hooks are benches for the children to sit on while taking on and off their shoes/slippers or to wait for other children to be finished getting ready to go outdoors. Above these benches is the dry erase board where I write daily messages for parents, both at the start of the day and the end of the day.

Morning Messages like:
"Welcome All! Today is So & So's 2nd Birthday" or "Have you signed up for your Parent Teacher conference?"
[you get the idea]

Afternoon Messages like:
"Today in the Nest we...."
Then I list out who brought snack and what it was, songs we sung, books we read, and the activities we enjoyed.

Parents have said this helps them reconnect with their children and it's helpful for me when writing in the children's journals each day. Young children can have difficulty communicating what they did during the time they spent apart from their families; providing parents with even a little info (for ex: "snack was water melon slices and pretzels") gives them a conversation starter.

When you haven't seen your little one, reconnecting and sharing about the time apart is special and important. It is our job as caregivers to help families with this process.
Having recently started back to work after summer break, I feel so grateful to my little one's primary room teachers for the the information they share with me about his day. At 3 years old he is only able to tell me about the last 10 minutes of his day. He lives in the moment; and that's all he cares about. I want to know what materials he used, who he played with, if he napped or liked the lunch I packed him? When my son's teachers share with me a funny story from his day, it's like I won the lottery!

I hope you are all having a wonderful school year so far.
Enjoy your kiddos,
Jennifer

Hand Washing Toddler Style

Toddlers LOVE water! In an effort to conserve water and to minimize the interest in the bathroom sink, I came up with this:
I took photos of Little One washing his hands, step by step, and then put them up for a visual guide. I plan to introduce this set up next week. Before lunch set up time, each child will wash hands and then take their lunch box from the lunch box shelf.

The set up is sequenced left to right beginning with:
1.) wet your hands
2.) one squirt of Method soap
3.) rub your hands together to create bubbles (sing the hand washing song)
4.) rinse hands in rinsing bin
5.) dry hands with small cloth
6.) put cloth in basket

Hand washing song:
"This is the way we wash our hands,
wash our hands, wash our hands.
This is the way we wash our hands
before we eat our lunch."

I will also mention that the floor has a non-slip pad and that the water bins are filled only 1 inch high with fresh warm water after every third child is finished cleaning hands. This method is not preferred when a child's hands are especially dirty, the idea is for the young learner to experience the repeated action of following step directions, taking turns and the sensory experience of warm water; not necessarily getting one's hands clean.

Happy Hand Washing!
In PEACE
Montessori Mama

New School Year

 

 

I've been so busy this week with Phase-In etc. that I haven't posted anything. I wanted to share about our classroom pet, Dorothy, the gold fish. Little One, who started PRESCHOOL today, promptly placed a pine cone from the nature shelf in her tank upon being introduced. She has survived and hopefully will continue to survive for years to come. However, because I don't want the children to touch our gold fish, I needed to created something the children could do to become aquainted with Dorothy.

Second picture: Our hand washing station! I'm excited about this...more about it soon.
I hope all of you have had a wonderful first week back to school. I'm ending this week feeling excited about the year ahead. It's such an honor being entrusted to care for these amazing little people.

Little One is off to a good start too. He seems to really enjoy his primary classroom and teachers. So far so good. Fingers crossed :)

In PEACE
Jennifer

17 Again

I can't believe you are seventeen!
I was just seventeen....well okay it's been a while but still. Where does the time go?
I just wanted to tell you and the world, that you make me proud and I love you.
Enjoy your youth, enjoy no commitments, no responsibilities, traveling, becoming, learning, and growing up. Take your time. I love you and happy Birthday.
I am so happy you are my son.
Love Mom

On the Practical Life Shelves...

 

Stringing big beads

 

Apple slicing

 

Open and Shut Them
Well, it's all coming together and it feels just right. Today I will take some photos of the classroom arrangement to share with you.
Short post!
Gotta run, so much to do...
PEACE
Jennifer

More Toddler Curriculum

 

Yoga ~ Movement
body control

 

Classroom Ground Rules
"Be Safe
Be Kind
Be Gentle"

 

Introduction to PEACE Curriculum
community building
silence
waiting
pausing

More to follow.....
In PEACE
Jennifer

Air, Land and Water Mat

 

This is my Air, Land and Water Mat
it's not completely finished yet but it's coming along. I just really wanted to share with you all. I made it by layering felt pieces to create a scene that has all three elements. The idea is to provide the play mat and a basket of animals that live either in the air, on land, or in the water. The children sort the animals on the mat and of course, PLAY! Having an open ended work such as this out in the classroom is especially helpful at the start of the school year. It's a nice tool for nurturing friendships.
What are some of your favorite early in the year activities? Do tell!
PEACE,
Jennifer

Affirmation Cards

To one of the many lovely Montessori teachers I met today at the Maine Montessori Association Workshop:
Email me your mailing address at spirals@gwi.net and I will send you your set of affirmation cards. Thank you for the interest, for inquiring and for reading my blog!

Everyone else reading this:
If YOU are interested in ordering your own set of classroom affirmation cards, you can find them for sale at my Etsy shop.
Probably tomorrow because I have been having a little trouble up-loading images on Etsy tonight.
Thank you!
PEACE
Jennifer

Crayon Exploration

Little One is 3 and 1/2 years old and READY for preschool. This weekend he discovered some loose crayons (I KNOW, why didn't I have those put up and away?) anyway he decided to (and I quote) "decorate our windows".

They are quite lovely decorations, beautiful actually BUT; crayons are really for paper NOT windows. I know I've mentioned this before one or two times since becoming a Mom 16 years ago.
Some things are easier to enforce than others.
And being an artist myself, saying to another artist (even a very young artist) that what they created is well, not acceptable, is heartbreaking. I know I'm a wimp. But honestly, he was so into the process of "decorating the windows"......

So, what did I do?
I left them the way he had decorated them. He was so proud. I was honoring his creative side. But I did collect the crayons, before he moved on to the walls ;)
And one day soon we will practice the 'art of washing the windows' and removing the decorations will become part of that new process.

PEACE to you and your little artists!
Jennifer

Whistling While I Work....

Have I mentioned that over the summer I have been working on writing a toddler curriculum? Well it's coming along, I'm loving every moment. (When I have time to work on it.) Especially arranging the photos I have taken over the years and creating pages to introduce each area of the class room.

For my birthday my husband set up Picasa, a photography program, on our home computer. I LOVE it, it is so much fun!
This curriculum is for my use, all my stuff organized in a usable way. I figured it might help my new assistant get acquainted as well. But I hope to one day propose it to Northeast Montessori Institute. And see if they would want me to share it with their teachers and assistants in training. One day...but right now it's mostly for the toddlers in the Nest.

I am very excited about school starting up again. Can you tell? How is it going for all of you Mamas, Papas and fellow Montessorians following this blog? Where are you at in your preparations?

I've also been lucky to discover some wonderful resources on the web and thought I might share some with you all.
Montessori Materials for Everyone
Montessori Mom.com
Home Schooling site

Happy nesting...
PEACE
Jennifer