Montessori Newsletter 1 Brought to you by flowers and fizzy floats and fruit

Flowers

Summer Potpourri

Summer is still with us (in the US) with the wonderful smells of flowers and herbs. This is a great time to grab a basket and collect wonderful mints, lemon and orange leaves, verbena, geranium, sage, woodruff, magnolia, jasmine, honeysuckle, violets, sweet pea, roses, herbs and lavender. Pick anything that smells good. This is a great olfactory experience for young children. 1.On a sunny day after the morning dew melts off, pick flowers that are freshly bloomed. These flowers have the most fragrant oils. Pick fragrant leaves and herbs as well. 2. Have your child gently pull off the flower petals and leaves from the stems. Spread out on paper towels or in a large wicker basket. Let your child stir gently the mixture every other day until dry. Your child will be able to observe the gradual drying process In the beginning the fresh flowers and leaves are soft and supple by the end of the drying process the petals and leaves will be as dry as corn flakes and will have changed colors. Note the difference with your child. 3. Mix carefully together the dried potpourri. You can add spices from the kitchen spice rack, such as cinnamon, lemon pepper, cloves, allspice, rosemary, and sage. 4. Keep the potpourri in a sealed jar. Have your child smell the mixture at least every week and tell you if the smell has changed. At first the potpourri will smell fresher and will mellow over 3 to 5 weeks. 5. You can use different types of potpourri for the smelling bottle exercise. 6. Use gauze and ribbon to make potpourri balls.

Dried Summer Flowers

Here is an easy recipe to dry flowers.

You will need cornmeal. Flowers An old cardboard box

Drying Mixture: 1.Combine together 5 cups of cornmeal. Your child can help you measure. 2.Spread the drying mixture (about ½ inch thick) on the bottom of the box. 3.Sprinkle the mixture on the flower petals. Lay the flower in the box and cover with the drying mixture. Continue until all the flowers are covered up. 4.Keep the box open to let the air circulate and the moisture evaporate from the flowers. The smaller and thinner the flowers, the faster they will dry. 5. Brush off excess drying mixture with a cotton swab or a small paintbrush. 6.Let your child help arrange the flowers in a vase.

After a nature walk you may want to press the flowers you and your child have collected. Here is a simple way to press your wild flowers and violets. You’ll need: Flowers Paper towels Waxed paper A large book Cardboard or see recycling hint School Glue Toothpicks 1.Fold a paper towel in half. On one side place your flower, single layer. Fold over the top part of the paper towel. Continue with your other flowers. Between each layer of paper towel, fold over a piece of waxed paper. Put the papers between the pages of a heavy book, such as the phone book. Stack heavier books on your book with the pressed flowers and leave for 2 to 3 weeks.

Using a piece of cardboard, let your child glue on a paper doily. On the doily let your child glue and arrange the pressed flowers. You can glue the petals by dabbing glue on a toothpick. Recycling hint: Use the cardboard from an old picture frame. After the glue dries, frame your child’s new creation and hang it up in his or her room. They’ll love it.

Family activity: Get a book at the library or a bookstore and look for wildflowers in your area. You can take pictures of the flowers and identify them.

Fun Food

Fizzy floats-Let your child help with this. You’ll need: Club Soda or seltzer, chilled Sorbet or flavored ice cream (orange and lemon sherbet are great for this) Ice cream scoop Large glass Straw Long spoon

Have your child slowly fill the glass with soda to ¼ full and stir the soda with long spoon to take out most of the fizz.

Let your child scoop out the softened ( let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes) ice cream from container. You can heat the scoop or spoon in warm water to make the job easier. Put the ice cream in glass. (Put in at least on large scoop) Fill the glass with soda until ¾ full. Enjoy!

What is fruit? Fruit is the flower blossom of a plant that has become seed that has sweet (sometimes) sour food next to it. Seeds sometimes are called pits, (like in a peach or a plum) or just a seed (like an apple or a pear). You can eat some seeds, like a strawberry (the seeds are on the outside of the skin.) You can eat blueberry seeds and raspberry seeds too. Next time you eat a piece of fruit look for the seeds. Are the seeds big or small? Can you eat the seeds or not? Fruit Dip You’ll need Cut up fresh fruit (banana, apple or pears) or whole strawberries( veggies, like celery work too) Peanut butter Honey (non-raw for children under 2) A container Spoon In a bowl measure about ¼ cup peanut butter with about 1-tablespoon honey. Hold the spoon firmly in one hand and with the other hand, hold the bowl and slowly stir in circular movements. Let your child do this next. You can take turns stirring. Make the mixture thin enough to dip fruit pieces.

You can even have your toddler help peel and cut a banana for this dip. Here is how you can show your toddler how to peel and cut up a banana. You’ll need: A banana A plastic or butter knife with serrated edge

Method: Sit down, facing your child to demonstrate this task. Place the banana on a cutting board. Cut (with a safe knife) a small notch at the top of the stem. Hold the banana gently in the palm of your hand. Put the curved part of banana towards you. Pull down the first peel. When the first side is finished, turn the banana (with both hands), hold the bottom and peel another section, continue until peeled. Place the peeled banana on a cutting board and cut with the plastic knife chunks of banana. Let your child peel a banana. After you child has cut the banana look for the seeds. Ask can you eat these seeds? (Yes) Cut other fruit. An older child can cut pears and apples. An apple cutter is a fun too to use on pears and apples. Do you have to remove the seeds of an apple or pear? Are they edible? Dip your fruit pieces in the peanut butter honey dip.

Fruity song (sing or rap) “I like to eat eat eat Apples and bananas I like to eat eat eat Apples and bananas Then add each letter of the alphabet Such as (a) A like to aat aat aat Apples and ananas A like to aat aat aat Apples and ananas

B like bat bat bat Bpples and bananas B like bat bat bat Bpples and bananas

It gets really silly and fun.

Montessori philosophy 101 A normalized child, sounds rather strange at first glance, but it is a one of the main building blocks of Montessori education. Here is my interpretation of the definition and philosophy of normalization.

Montessori believed that the right environment normalized children. A prepared environment that allowed children to be independent and learn freely helped achieve this goal. In the Montessori school where I taught, we noticed that the children took about 6 weeks to normalize to the routine of school, the rules, and work. This normalization process helps a child to become himself or herself without the negative influences of the world we sometimes live in. In this process Montessori noticed that the children developed a joy of learning, which motivated normal behavior as well. Because everything was "hands on" in the Montessori classroom, the children learned to use their senses in a cognitive way. In essence, work with the equipment made the child whole and well. By using their hands, Montessori noticed that the children could integrate information better and think more clearly. This process normalized the child.

Egg Number Game Age 4 and up

Purpose: Relate number symbols to appropriate quantity

You’ll need: An egg carton 12 plastic eggs or small containers with lids (same color) that open in the middle 1 large egg or container Counters Marker pen

Method: 1. Number each of the 12 eggs from 1 to 12. (For extra help you can put the number of dots on the other side of the egg, for example the 12 egg has 12 dots on the egg, etc.) 2. Place the 1, 2, and 3 eggs in the egg carton ( Add more if this is too easy). 3. Place the exact amount of counters in the large egg or container. For example, if you are using 1, 2, and 3 eggs have 6 counters in the large egg. 4. Have your child place the correct number of counters in each egg. 5. Error of control-the last egg will not have the right amount of counters. 6. Add more numbers sequentially. You can mix the egg numbers up when your child has a good grasp of the concept.

Advanced lesson Addition: After your child has done all the eggs and counters, leave the counters in the eggs and place in the egg carton. Use 2 eggs for adding. For example, 2 egg +3 egg =? Your child can open the 2 egg and 3 egg and count 5.

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