Jr/Sr Kindergarten: Reading to the Seedlings Class
Recently, some of the senior kindergartners have taken a moment in their busy morning to walk downstairs to read to our youngest classroom, the Seedlings. This is one way we are able to connect our oldest and youngest students here at Pine Grove. In a Montessori school, a multi-age classroom offers many benefits. Older children act as a model for younger children who are so willing to follow the big kids. Teaching fellow classmates also allows the older student to show mastery of an academic or physical skill. While the Seedlings and kindergarteners are not in the same classroom, they do share our school space and by bringing the two ends of the learning spectrum together we see a lot of joy and camaraderie amongst the children. The Seedlings are excited to gather as a group to hear the big kids read a simple story or two and the kindergarteners are proud to show off newly acquired reading skills and they are able to practice public speaking to a relatively unjudgmental audience đ. Best of all, some of the kindergarten readers were once Seedlings themselves so this experience really brings their time at Pine Grove full circle.
âOur care of the children should be governed not by the desire to âmake them learn thingsâ, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within them the light which is called intelligence.â
~ Maria Montessori
