Montessori Newsletter 5

This newsletter is brought to you by fruit leather, reading tips, family fun, favorite links and the world of art.

November- The Thankful Month I woke up to a beautiful dusting of snow today. The mountains are covered with shimmering white. It always seems to snow by October in Colorado. This is a great month to enjoy each other with food, fun, games and learning. Most of all, it is a great time enjoy life and all that it holds for us. The holidays are quickly descending upon us. If you are looking for toys and gifts that compliment the Montessori method you can look here for some ideas- http://montessorimom.com/toylist.html

Many of you will be celebrating the harvest season with your family traditions. During this time of the year it is a great opportunity to teach your child about your culture and religion. The Native Americans, Hebrews, Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks and Romans all had customs celebrating the fruits of the harvest. Here are some links for thanksgiving and harvest celebrations: The Catholic Culture site has informative articles and dates of feasts and celebrations http://www.catholicculture.org/ Succoth activities, http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/succoth.htm Chinese Moon festivities, http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/augustmoonfest.htm Kwanzaa holiday, http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/kwanzaa.htm Africa Yam Festival, http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/yamfestival.htm Thanksgiving activities for Canada and United States. http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/celthanksgiving.htm

Links This is a great activity for making a leaf turkey- http://www.first-school.ws/activities/crafts/animals/birds/turkeymaple.htm Autumn art and printables-There are lots to choose from- http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/fall/index.html This link has some fun fingerplays and songs for fall. Babies to adults will like this- http://www.geocities.com/soogal99/fallsongs.html

Practical Life for the holidays Setting a festive table for the holidays is a treat for children. My children were so excited to set the table for a holiday or special occasion that we did it a few days early and covered the table with a dust cloth. Here are some easy napkin folding ideas that your child can do with you. http://interiordec.about.com/library/bl_napkfold001.htm This one is a little more difficult- http://interiordec.about.com/library/bl_napkfold002.htm This rolling napkin is fun to make- http://interiordec.about.com/library/bl_napkfold003.htm This knot napkin will help with tying skills- http://interiordec.about.com/library/bl_napkfold005.htm Make a centerpiece with your child from leaves, pinecones, nuts, or dried flowers. You can put the leaves and flowers in a vase. Another idea is to let your child arrange the leaves, pinecones, nuts in a flat basket or shallow serving bowl or plate. I am sure your holiday table will look beautiful and your children will beam with happiness.

This recipe smells wonderful while baking. Your house will smell sweet and feel warm and cozy. Leather you can eat. Cooking is a wonderful way to introduce your child to science. Matter changes when it is cooked. It can go from a liquid state to a solid state and from a solid to a liquid. Simple math can be taught as well. Measuring is a great way to encourage counting. Fractions are fun to teach when you use two 1/2 cups to make one cup. You will need: An oven 2 cups of applesauce or baby food applesauce 1/4 cup of sugar Nutmeg or cinnamon Cling or plastic wrap Cake or cookie pan 1. Mix together the applesauce and spices-you can blend the applesauce in a blender or food processor if the applesauce isn't super fine. 2. Put the plastic wrap on the pan-you can attach it with scotch tape. 3. Spread the applesauce about 1/8 inch thick on the plastic wrap. 4. Bake at low heat-150 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 to 6 hours. 5. Keep the oven door slightly ajar to let the moisture escape. 6. The leather will be dry but tacky to the touch. 7. Remove from plastic wrap and roll. Cut large roll into smaller rolls. 8. Eat and chew! 9. Store in jar with lid or plastic container and refrigerate. Try this: Use other fruit pulp for this recipe. Add 1/2 cup of sugar to 2 cups of fruit. Talk about this: What makes the applesauce wet? (Water) How does the applesauce change after you bake it? (The water evaporates and the applesauce dries out) Which is chewier, the applesauce or the fruit leather?

Art Matters with Montessori Art, since the beginning of time has been an instinct, urge, and a compelling desire for humankind. Ancient lithographs on cave walls attest to this need to draw. We have a connection between art and who we are as a people, culture, and even as unique individuals. Art expresses not only who we are, but also our passion as a people. Early paintings on cave walls show our joy, and need to communicate through our drawings. I do believe in the classical opinion that art should exist for art sake. But also, art is a window into our way of learning, it even shows a child's readiness to learn to read, and his or her eventual abstract journey into learning. Art, drawing, painting, cutting, molding clay, and even needlework are essential elements for Montessori's preparation and readiness for learning. These elements develop hand eye coordination, spatial relationships, and prepare for academic work such as reading and math. Practical life skills can be incorporated in art. Squeezing a tweezers to put small pieces of beads in a collage helps develop muscles and coordination. Sewing helps with hand eye coordination. You can use simple plastic needles, thin foam that you recycle from wrapped packing material, thin colorful yarn, and scissors. You can even show how to tie a knot to secure the sewing. Developmental Stages of Art and Reading Artistic progress and reading readiness go hand in hand. Lowenfeld observed several stages of art development that reflect the cognitive development of a child. Here are 3 basic stages development of drawing from preschool up to age 6 or 7. Lowenfeld observed even more stages for older children. Here is a great link for all his observations: http://www.d.umn.edu/artedu/Lowenf.html

Stage one: A child learns to hold a crayon or pencil. He or she first makes hen scratch marks on a paper. Next they scribble with up and down marks and circular images. If you don't provide paper at this stage your artist will color on his or her cave wall! These children draw for the sake of drawing. Stage two: Shapes, such as a circle, cross, and fairly straight lines are well developed in this child's drawings. Soon it is very easy for this child to make a person with a round head, arms, and legs. Often, eyes, feet or shoes, hair and mouth will also appear. The proportions are varied at first; the portrait could have a big head and small legs and arms. Colors are chosen because the child "likes" the color, not because it is a factual representation of the object drawn. The painting and drawing from this stage are very stylized for the artist. Each time a child draws a tree, it will be very much like the tree he or she has drawn before. Also, the child will sometimes imitate an adult writing. Eventually, they separate writing from drawing. Children at this stage can usually write their name. Letter reversals are common at this stage. Stage Three: Between stage two and three the child begins to include in his or her portraits, fingers, toes, eye lashes, eye brows, finger nails, and other minute details. Dimensions, such as earth and sky are noted with a baseline. The sky is usually colored blue, grass green, hills as bumps on the horizon, yellow sun in the sky, and white fluffy clouds. This child is quite a landscape artist. More importantly, the attention to detail, such as eye lashes, finger nails, rings, articles of clothing etc. in a portrait, and spatial understanding indicates that this child is often ready to read. I usually introduce the sandpaper letters and numbers at the end of stage 2. Along with the introduction of the moveable alphabet, writing and other language activities, a child by stage 3 is usually an early or bridging reader. Lowenfeld's stages of art and drawing development supports Montessori's principle that writing (even drawing) does precede reading. Art and tell me a story: I have been admonished for asking a child, "What did you draw?" How could I not see what the drawing was all about?! So I have changed my question to, "Tell me about your drawing (painting, etc.) You will hear some really interesting stories. It also gives you insight to your child's personality and talents. Art and coloring books It is true that children need to develop their artistic and small motor ability freely. However, Montessori does prewriting skills with older preschool children in which students draw lines (left to right) within a traced outline of a shape. Also, they color inside the lines of these shapes. This, in essence, is a coloring book activity. The exercise promotes spatial control of the hand, which helps a child write with control later on. Coloring books can play an important part in the Montessori method of education. Baby Art- I used to get small pudding snacks for my babies' first finger painting experience. Just let them "paint" in their high chair with the pudding. I always showed my babies how to smear it around with their fingertips. Also, get absorbent construction paper to make a first print of your baby's masterpiece. Just cover the work surface with the paper, rub and you'll have an awesome print. You can even let your baby make a hand print on the paper. It's a good idea to cover the floor with an old towel or newspapers. Also, put a coverall bib on your baby. This is so much fun that it is worth the mess. I did this with my children when they were about 12 to 13 months old. Questions Answered: What are high frequency words? Words that appear repeatedly in reading are called high frequency words. The words can either be phonetic or non phonetic. Here is a list of some high frequency English words. the a in is and you it on to with of me are that I New information added- geometric cabinet, cards, exercises and games http://montessorimom.com/geometry_cabinet.html Also, these cylinders can be used for the knobbed http://montessorimom.com/cylinders.html and knobbless cylinder exercises http://montessorimom.com/knobless.html

Immutable page   [current page size 10452 bytes]   (last edited 2004-05-26 05:16:52 by ThunderBolt) FindPage by browsing, title search , text search or an index Or try one of these actions: DeletePage, LikePages, LocalSiteMap, SpellCheck