Extensions are a great way to breathe new life into Montessori materials that the children have mastered. Recently, two six year-old children who have mastered identifying the Geometric Solids from the Sensorial area extended their study by going on a “Geometric Solid scavenger hunt” around our classroom. They discovered that the colored globe from the geography area matched the sphere, that the Brown Prisms matched the rectangular prism, and the Colored Cylinders matched the

We had special visitors in our classroom recently. The fathers of the Pre-Primary class had the opportunity to visit our classroom for a morning and find out what the children do each day. Not only did we have fathers, we had some grandmothers and grandfathers visit as well! The children taught them how to sit at circle while Debbie showed a work. She showed the cube of the trinomial (puzzle cube) one day and letter tracing with a dry erase marker the other day. Then the

The school smelled of crispy home fries and the Preschool children were eager to try a taste of their culinary creation. Days prior to baking this afternoon treat; the children practiced scrubbing and chopping potatoes in the practical life area of our classroom. Once all the potatoes were scrubbed and chopped, we tossed them with a little oil and salt and baked them to perfection. Many of the children were delighted by this tasty snack. Food preparation is always a fun work

Recently we went for a walk in the pine grove with a group of Seedlings. As we walked along the path we noticed several signs of activity in the snow. There were a variety of different tracks; snowshoes, snow poles, boots, dog paw prints and cross country skis. A few children noticed the dog tracks and suggested that there could be bears. The children were excited to see signs of squirrels. We could see tracks in the snow, but also empty pinecone cores. In the fresh snow we c

“Pretend play combines two wondrous and uniquely human characteristics- the capacity for fantasy and capacity for, and need to, make meaning of our experience.” Susan Linn ( The Case for Make Believe) Although pretend play is not a tradition in the Montessori classroom there are opportunities for dramatic play and pretending in our classroom as well as the playground. After the recent snowstorm, we invited the children to join in playing with shaving cream at the big table. T