J650 Independent Study

As I wrap up my time at the Montessori school, I am so grateful to have been able to observe there! I have a 100 page notebook full of all my observations and have more than 50 bookmarks on my computer that I have collected in the last 2 months! I also ordered several more (4) books about the Montessori methods that I have been skimming in addition to the 3 I purchased at the beginning of the summer.  It has been absolutely fascinating to watch the methods unfold in front of my eyes and then to be able to read about what I observed.  I have already looked into organizations where I can become accredited and learn how to create my own guidebook and have bookmarked those to come back to when I am ready.   I have been able to get into my classroom already this summer and have made changes to my own spaces as a result of this experience.  One of the big changes I made was to think about the specific kinds of skills that my students might need at the beginning of the school year and pulled

The classroom I am observing this summer consists of children who are aged 3 up to 9 years old. As I completed my observations each day, I wondered how the children knew exactly what to do when they came in each day. I was invited by the classroom teacher/assistant to watch as she shared a lesson with a younger child. This child appeared to be about three and a half years old, and had started to do some work on a practical life skill but had not formally been introduced to the lesson. The assistant noticed that and asked the child if they would like to have a lesson so that they would know how to complete the work.  The work was in mixed media and the conversation for the lesson went like this:  T: This is the mixed media lesson and I see that you already have your paper. show me which material you would like to use first.  The child chose the pom-poms. T:  This is how you glue a pom-pom.  The teacher proceeded to show the child how to brush glue on the bottom of the pom-pom and stick

While in this school, I was able to observe several works that are part of the practical life work.  The skills learned through practical life work help children develop a sense of reality, add to the growth of many developmental skills, help children develop social and emotional skills, motor and coordination, and prepare children to be active participants in their current and future lives.  This article does a nice job giving an overview of practical life work.  I was able to observe  children were engaging in practical life work everyday that I observed at this school. Each day the teachers would set out the laundry that had been washed the previous afternoon and one of the works that the children could do was fold the clean laundry. In the laundry, there were child sized aprons and napkins that were used for snack or for lunch time. The children received a lesson on how to correctly fold the aprons. I was amazed to watch a child demonstrate the folding of an apron for me and even