This past week we were very excited to have a special guest in the Seedlings classroom. Kate Prideaux (from the Preschool classroom) will be coming to visit our class every Thursday at 10:15am for music time. Kate has been making music with our late care group every Wednesday and because the children love it so much, we are making it a part of our permanent schedule. On Thursday morning, we ate snack and gathered on our carpet, waiting for Kate to come in. She entered with he

“Mmmm. That’s delicious!” exclaimed a very enthusiastic child after taking a sip of his fresh squeezed orange juice. The work was presented at circle that morning. This particular child chose the orange juicing as his first work choice. He approached the work with joy and excitement. First he chose an orange half from the bowl and placed it on the beautiful ceramic juicer. He began to twist the orange. The more he twisted, the more juice he produced. He took the juicer off of

We have been studying China for two months in our Cultural Area. We have read stories, made kites and lanterns and colored our own books about China. The Chinese New Year fell on January 28th which gave us the chance to have a small celebration. The children colored and cut out dragon masks which are a sign of luck for the New Year. They laboriously cut vegetables and helped stir a stir fry of noodles and vegetables for snack. At the end of the morning, we had a feast! T

“Pink is a girl’s color!” “Only boys play with Legos!” “I only play with boys because I’m a boy!” Statements like these can be heard in any preschool/kindergarten classroom as our youngest students become more aware of gender stereotypes in our culture. It is very natural for kids this age to see gender as black and white: Boys like blue, play with cars, and have short hair- Girls wear pink, like dolls, and have long hair. Our society reinforces this by creating toy aisles th

“I’ve been to California, Texas, and North Carolina,” comments one child as he looks over the map of The United States. Another child remarks that they live in Maine and points out that particular puzzle piece. “Where is Wyoming?” the third child wonders aloud. This scene is just business as usual in the Montessori classroom where young children have access to many different puzzle maps of the world. These maps not only help children develop spatial skills as they put a puzzl

If there is one work in the Montessori classroom that is guaranteed to grab any child’s attention; it’s food preparation. We begin food prep early in the school year, starting with wooden food chopping and moving towards soft food items, including bananas, melon, and avocado. The children are first shown a lesson during group time. Once work time begins, one teacher is stationed in the practical life area with the food preparation tray. They learn how to peel bananas, use the

A teacher picked up an acorn off the ground and asked a group of young wide-eyed nature observers, “What is this?” “An acorn,” many of the children exclaimed. “Yes and where do acorns come from?” the teacher asked. “Trees. Acorn trees,” one child announced. “Right and what do we call acorn trees?” the teacher prompted for more information. The children paused to think for a moment until one child recalled, “An oak tree!” The teacher proceeded to prompt the children on where p

Fruits and vegetables are a regular part of the classroom snack each day. Most of the children eat different types of each; bananas are one of the more popular fruits on the menu. However, as we discovered, when children get to slice their bananas with a very cool banana shaped slicer, everyone wants to eat bananas! Luda brought in a wooden, banana shaped banana slicer for a Practical Life work. The children peeled the banana, then laid the banana flat on a plate with the