Montessori Style Toddler Toys

I have posted before about how I organised my toys whilst Childminding but not what those toys were, so thought it was about time I did! I am Montessori trained but rather than using it to the letter, I apply the philosophy to what we do. I get all of my toddler toys from second hand sales and apply a simple set of rules to buying them. They need to be simple, attractive and show clear cause and effect. That is so that the child can understand that something happens because of the action that they do. Many electronic toys are so complex and have a variety of responses of lights and sounds to combinations of buttons, that they are impossible to make sense of to a small child (or often an adult!) and so have little learning value and do not keep a child occupied for very long. I personally find the cacophony of different lights and sounds very irritating and prefer the calmer environment of toddler made noises! The toy collection is about 50% wooden and 50% plastic, I have nothing against plastic, as long as it meets my criteria!

 To start the tour, this Galt toy has a piece of sprung metal inside each of the bases, when the wooden pegs are pressed down and the finger slides off the top, they pop up and out, as you can see the green one doing in the picture.

 This is for hammering the pegs through. I have watched children automatically turning the toy to the next raised peg and they can keep going round and round until they are done.

 This a chicken punch and drop, you can see one of the balls in Idris's hand, but he was experimenting using different implements to push the balls through - a wooden knife from the food basket, the bottle brush that he pinched from the kitchen, his foot and several other things that he found. the balls are pushed through and come rolling out of the front, ringing the little bell on the way.

 This dinosaur pop up is simple to work out for toddlers, each coloured button corresponds with a coloured egg, although they need different actions to make them pop up. The eggs can be bashed back down with a satisfying clump. I used to have an animal version but I quickly realised that because the mouse popped out of a wedge of cheese and it was hinged, it trapped fingers and pinched skin so we upgraded to a safer and less frustrating model!

The click clack track behind is a classic toy, with four small wheeled cars each the colour of one of the slopes and the little cars roll down clicking from slope to slope - endless fascination.

 The chicken stacker is a beautiful version of a stacking toy, I love the harmonious colours and there is a hidden egg under the bottom layer. The roller toy next to it works with a cog movement, when pushed across the floor, the cogs turn and the patterns on the other side turn around. This hasn't been the most popular toy but I'm biding my time until Idris is a bit older to see if he starts using it more, if he doesn't it will probably go back into the next sale!

 This turtle toy, modelled by our lovely one-eyed Poppy dog, is really simple. The child pushed down all five shaped buttons and the head then pings out from the body. Push the head back in and the buttons pop back up again!

 This wooden clock is one of the toys that has never been put away or rotated, children of all ages love taking the numbers in and out, stacking them up with the magnetic buttons in them, trying to swap the shapes around etc.

I also have a wooden peg puzzle which isn't getting much use at the moment but that will come, and some magnetic vehicles that can be pulled apart (these were a gift, not from the sale).

I find that there are usually several permutations of the same toy around, so have a close look and see which you think is most robust, the most well-designed and the most attractive! The only downside to these toys versus electronic ones is that you tend to spend a lot of time collecting pieces back up to return to the box, but I much prefer them and think that the children get so much from them!

Valentines Montessori Activities

I had a sudden explosion of creativity this evening after realising that the little one that I child mind (who has just returned to me after nine months off on maternity leave) needs a boost in fine motor skills. I had great fun putting all these together, some of them with things I have previously collected for the purpose and some cobbled together from crafting and the recycling box!

This is a simple activity sliding paper clips onto the numbered paper hearts. The paper clips are colour co-ordinated with the numbers on the hearts, as you can see in the picture below. I'm not going to mention that to start with to observe two things. Firstly if she can recognise the numbers and secondly if she observes the connection!

This pegging activity is made from an Ikea lamp box with a ribbon strung across it, and pieces of organza ribbon to peg along it.

This activity involves threading wooden beads onto a pipe cleaner in any pattern the child chooses.

I think this is my favourite activity that I put together! I wrapped a ball of play dough in tin foil and pressed it into a coffee jar lid, then gently pushed red golf tees into the dough to make a heart shape. I picked a mixture of fun marbles to be gently placed on top of each golf tee!

This is a slight twist on the standard 'spooning' activity: there are four measuring spoons in the pink rice and four glass candle holders to decant each spoonful into to allow a comparison of the amount.

Ordering by size (we've already used them for play dough and will probably be pinching them back for biscuit making too!!)

This is a fun one - inside the pipette bottle there is water coloured red with food colouring. The idea is to control the pipette to put one or two drops of colour into each of the suckers on the upside down anti-slip shower mat. When finished the child needs to get a piece of tissue and soak up the drops ready for the next child (almost as much fun as the dropping in the first place!

Pouring with sequins - there are three chunky shot glasses to pour the sequins into - again some control is needed as if the child just tips the jug, there are too many sequins for just one glass and they will spill over.

Tweezing - little paper flowers to tuck into each section of the ice cube tray.



This is an opening and closing activity with four different types of opening mechanism - each has a little confetti heart inside (see below!).

A wooden noughts and crosses game that belonged to my parents.

Opening and closing with locks and keys - each key will only fit one padlock. I threaded a bead onto each key as they are tiny and a little magpie that I know will fall in love with them and want to spirit them away!

This jewellery box housed the beautiful cross that my husband gave me three years ago and that I always wear around my neck. I put tiny gems under the necklace plate, the box hinges closed then is tied into another box which is tied into a bag. I put this out for the girls to practise tying bows which is a popular new skill!

As a final activity for building fine motor strength I put out these wooden nuts and bolts.

Just a note to say that Montessori activities of daily living cover more areas than this but this is what I could pull together in one evening! It should also ideally be made up of beautiful objects and be clearly spaced and set out in an ordered fashion to be found in the same place every time the child wants to use it. I do not pretend to have a Montessori class room however and the activities will be packed away for much of the day. I'll try and come back to say how it goes having them out for periods at a time and see if i can troubleshoot it and make it work well. I'd love to flex my Montessori muscles more, expecially as I qualified with MCI this summer as a 3-6 teacher!

A Montessori Mapping Activity

I set this activity up in response to Eve's interest in mapping and contours. The background work to this was a map that Eve drew with her Granny as part of extension activities to go with the Katie Morag books that the girls adore. Eve drew a map of an island that she dreamed up, using symbols to represent the man-made and natural features of the landscape - she made a key to go with it. I designed the components of this activity based on the elements that Eve had included on her map; contoured hills, lakes and rivers, marsh areas and woodland, footpaths and roads, houses and bridges. There was more on her map as it was an island but I simplified slightly to make it work better as a tray based activity. Above is the set-up that I did to play with it!

This picture shows the details of the contours. We explored contours further by running up and down gentle and steep inclines at a local nature reserve developed on an old colliery site. At this stage the girls understand it simply as 'close together lines = steep slope' and 'far apart lines = gentle slope'. I cut rounded shapes from the green felt in decreasing sizes so that the girls can build them up individually to put their creative stamp on their 'map'.

I also cut different shapes of blue to represent various bodies of water. We discussed whether lakes, ponds, reservoirs, rivers and canals were natural or man-made and the girls surprised me with their knowledge! Once again I kept it simple by leaving lakes as natural features, without muddying the water ('scuse the pun!) with man-made lakes! The girls can use whichever one they want when building their map.

This is a close-up of the 'woodland', made from felt with deciduous and evergreen trees stitched on with embroidery floss! All of the components are made with either felt or embroidery floss. I had thought that I would cut the rivers, roads and footpaths from felt also but realised during construction that the floss would be both more malleable to suit the girl's creative wishes, and more 'in scale' with the felt pieces (we're talking English rivers here, not the Amazon!). I hasten to add that the activity is not to scale, the floss just looked more believable scale wise!

This is how I set it up for the girls to use. The tray has a small chunky base on - it came from Ikea originally and I used to use it with purple sand for forming letters and numbers on. I cut the dark green felt to fit snugly, and the black box, filched from my literacy materials contains the mapping pieces!

This is a close up of the key that I made with felt pieces to match the ones that were in the black box. Some reading is required to decode the key, although I am anticipating that Eve will recognise many of the symbols from her map! I am looking forwards to introducing this activity to the girls for them to explore. They are very interested in rivers and landforms at the moment so I hope they find it fun!

Montessori in Action!

This is Faith sitting on my Mum's knee demonstrating the Movable Alphabet to her. The card is one from the CVC set from Sparklebox that I posted about in May. When Mum asked Faith what the ant was, Faith replied "A tarantula" - what an answer, which she then proceeded quite calmly to spell out with the wooden letters as if she was really writing 'ant' after all. I just loved it.... and I think that Maria Montessori would have done too!! I should also point out that Faith only became interested in knowing letter sounds and using the alphabet about ten days before this picture was taken!!

Exploring Shapes with Pattern Blocks

I saw this idea being used on The Homeschool Den, and the printables come from PreKinders. Faith has never been very interested in the pattern blocks but she took a liking to the patterns for animals that I printed out.

Here Eve is combining shapes to build triangles. Faith later worked on this one and found lots of very inventive ways to combine the shapes and it was a learning curve for her. Whereas Eve intuitively knew which shapes would fit, Faith adopted trial and error to find out.

We learned some shape vocabulary along the way..... trapezium and parallelogram (or palallemogram of you are Faith!) were the new ones for the girls.

Adding the Suffix 'ing'

Knowing how Eve responds better to hands-on activities than purely paper based ones, I made this activity for her to practice reading 'ing' as a suffix and adding it onto phonetic words that she can read already. I have been introducing new sounds as we come across them in the read write inc books that we have been reading, fairly systematically but I've got some other reading books for Eve and 'ing' endings are in a few pages time so I thought I'd prepare her to come across them!

I wrote root words on paint sample strips and cut them out, then used the pegs vertically if an additional consonant was needed, and horizontally for the 'ing'. You can see it set up below..... I had Eve look through the box and set up the components as she wanted, and asked her what she thought was on them.

Halfway through she said "thanks mum, this is great!"....... result!!!

There is a similar concept involved for the suffixes 'y' and 'ed' as well and I've got more pegs ready for those!!

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds Montessori Style!

 I love sunflowers as they look so unpromising just the little stripey seed, then they don't grow very tall sometimes (like this year!) but then produce flower heads the size of plates and look absolutely beautiful!  We had ten or so heads and the seeds needed to come out so set Faith at them with a pair of tweezers!! In the picture below you can see more of the tray showing the very simple set up!  For the toddlers, I just put some heads in an empty deep tray and they sat for a long time picking them out by hand.  Faith learned that she really couldn't cut corners and get two or three seeds at once with the tweezers..... she did have to be patient!!

As the toddlers emptied the seed heads I put them on one side as I thought that they might be interesting to print with.  later on I couldn't find them until I looked at the nature table and one of my little ones had very carefully carried all the seed heads in and arranged them there.  I was so touched at her thought and care.... she isn't quite two yet!

The Blue Series Box 5, Picture cards and reading Lists

Box five is the 'mystery box'.  It contains folds of paper with a word written on them that the child is encourage to try and read to themselves.  My MCI tutor said that these should be exciting words that make the child laugh like 'stink' or themes of words such as animals or plants.  By this stage there will be a huge variety of words that you can use as the child will have experienced all of boxes one to four already.  The other option is to have blank pieces of paper and to write a word on to it as you sit with the child.  When I did this with Eve during the pink series, I was surprised by her taking over and writing words for me to decipher!

Picture cards are an A4 sheet with... yes you guessed it.... pictures on them!!!! On the back is fixed an envelope with the words inside it and the child matches them to the correct picture after reading them.  Some new ideas to introduce here could be compound words and the 'schwa vowel'.

Compound words - these are a combination of two words to make one.  Both parts of the word should be phonetically decodable and contain blends that the child can recognise.
windmill
handbag
lipstick
zigzag
cobweb
dustbin
nutmeg
milkman
pumpkin
wigwam
rabbit
lollipop

Schwa vowel  - these are vowels that because of the peculiarities of the English language, all sound like 'u' regardless of what they actually are.  There is no hard and fast grammatical rule for the child to learn, s/he just needs experience in recognising them!
lemon
pedal
signal
petal
camel
metal
sandal
medal
infant
button
panda

reading lists - These can be made up of ten words each. They usually have a picture at the top with the first word on the list corresponding to that picture, but they can just be lists of words.  They can be used to reinforce patterns at first, for example words all beginning with 'cl' or all ending in 'st'.  As the child becomes more experienced, the words can be jumbled up more.  Take words from all of the lists for boxes one to five to make up the reading lists (the ones in blue won't have been used before as there isn't a picture to go with them).

Blue Series Box 4

OK, this is where the blue series seems to explode as my folders reccommend that blue box four contains triple blends, double consonants and consonant digraphs.  In a nursery you could have any number of 'box fours' on the shelf but at home that isn't practical so I am mulling over solutions to this to have on my daughter's literacy shelf! Box four has pictures and words to read and match to them, taking the child a further step towards the abstract.

From the top then, I will tackle consonant digraphs first, followed by double consonants and rounded up with triple blends!

nk 
bank blank blink
clank
dank dunk drank drink
flank
lank
plank plink plonk plunk (love these words!!!!
sink sank skunk
tank trunk
wink

ng
bang
cling
dung
fang
gang gong
hang
king
long lung
pong prong
rang rung
sang song swing
twang

ch
chop chug chum chimp chink chip (these can be introduced first)
check chick chuff chill(added once child has been introduced to 'ck', 'ff' 'll')

sh
dish ash ship shop fish shin shaft shank shed shelf shift brush
shell (added once child introduced to 'll')


th
think thumb thing froth them this that moth thin thank
thick (added once introduced to 'ck')

Double consonants
ck - lock sock frock sack brick truck kick pack duck block rock track flock flick pluck stuck trick
ll - bell bull dell doll dill dull mill sill till well will yell drill frill grill krill smell swell skull spell
ss - bass mass moss pass brass bless bliss cress grass floss dress kiss
ff - cliff sniff stiff bluff cuff buff fluff muff off puff scuff sniff scoff stuff stiff
zz - buzz frizz fizz jazz fuzz

Triple Blends
spr - spring sprig sprint
tch - itch ditch hatch match latch stitch switch catch pitch notch batch
str - strap strip string stretch
spl - splash splosh splat split
scr - scrub scratch scrap

Blue Series Box 3 - Initial and Final Blends

7To my knowledge, the idea of a 'pink, blue and green series' came about in America.  Maria Montessori developed the Movable alphabet and the sandpaper letters.  Some Montessorians use a different scheme of materials to support children to read and write, and there are many many programmes of phonetic learning available the world over.  What is important is that you choose a method and stick to it as they all introduce the different concepts in a slightly different order.  I looked very closely at the 'letters and sounds' programme advocated by the Department for Education here in the UK, but whilst the pre-literacy section is really great, the rest appeared very complicated and I decided that the pink, blue and green series, together with the grammar materials was suitable so here I am!

Box three has objects and words in..... it is the first time that the child will read the words rather than build them her/himself. I have highlighted those that could be represented with an object or picture.  To be honest there will be pictures in this box as I don't think that I can represent enough with objects!  You can of course include any of the words from the box one and two lists in here to mix things up! Words with double blends are:
bland blend blimp blunt
clamp crisp
draft drift
flint frisk frond frost
glint glitz grand
plant plump print
scant swift slump spend stamp stump
twang twist

Blue Series Box 2 - Final Blends

Here is the list of the final blend words that I will rotate through blue box two.  As before, the ones highlighted in orange will be in the box, and the ones in blue can be used in word lists, sentence strips and books. I rotate according to my daughter, usually leaving in one or two familiar ones as I put in some new ones.  I have six objects or pictures in each box. Box two traditionally has just pictures in.  As the child builds the words with the movable alphabet (MA) s/he can see a pattern emerge (you may need to point it out!).  Box one will have the pattern of two pink letters, one blue, one pink. Box two will have the pattern of one pink letter, one blue letter then two pink.  For example crab will be crab and nest will be nest. This helps the child to build up a mental image of the word patterns and build confidence.  The end-goal of all phonetic programmes is for the child to sight read and instinctively 'know' what the word is, as most adults do.  By gradually building difficulty the child builds a structure of written language from which they will eventually read fluently.

band belt bent bend best bump bust
camp cask cast cusp colt cost
daft damp dent dust
fact fast film fist fond
gasp golf gulf gust
hand hasp hemp hilt hint hump hunt husk
jump jest jolt just
kelp
lamp land left lift limp long lost lump
mask mast melt meld mend milk mint minx mist
nest next
pant past pink pond
raft ramp rest rust rump
sand sift silk soft
test tilt tuft tusk
vast vest vent volt
weft west wept wind wilt wisp
zest zinc

Blue series Box 1 - Initial Blends

You may be wondering why I have decided to make the blue series myself as there are quite a few versions available either free or to purchase.  The reasons are twofold; firstly because nearly every one that I've looked at has non-phonetic words in such as st-ar-t, with the sound 'ar' which the children won't be familiar with yet, and secondly because words hold different meanings for different people, and many American versions available contain unsuitable words.

Traditionally 'box one' of the literacy series contains only objects for the child to handle and then word build with the movable alphabet (MA) but it isn't always possible to have a miniature for everything so I will include a mix where needed.  In the following list I have highlighted words in orange that I can find an object or picture for.  The other words I will include on word lists and in reading books later on.

blob brim
clan clam clap clip clog club crib crab crag crux clef
drab drag drop drip drum
flag flex flip flop flan flap flat flax frog 
Glen glum grip grid Gran grab grin grim grit grub
plop plug plum plus pram
scab skid skin skip slab slam slap sled slip smog snap snip step swig stag swim stop slug spin
trot trip trap twig twin trim tram

I will order some miniatures from Montessori Enterprises, whom I have ordered from in the past and are an excellent and reliable company.

Blue Series - Montessori Literacy

I should start by briefly rounding up the pink series for those readers unfamiliar with Montessori.  The pink series is the first step in reading and writing for a child following the literacy curriculum. After the child is familiar with the sandpaper letters and knows perhaps 15-18 letters of the alphabet then s/he can begin working with the movable alphabet (MA) and the pink boxes.  The boxes step up gently to gradually introduce the child to using the MA to build words then to read them, first using visual clues and then just reading letters.  After that come reading lists, phrases, sentences and then books.  Throughout the pink series, all of the words have the same pattern of consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC, such as c-a-t, d-o-g, t-a-p, and so on.  They are all phonetically decodable, meaning that all of the letters used retain their phonetic sound that the child recognises. Once the child has progressed as far as reading phrases and sentences you can consider introducing the blue series.

The blue series is still phonetically decodable but introduces new concepts.  These are:

• Double blends whether initial such as crab cr-a-b or final blends such as ramp r-a-mp.
• Triple blends such as sprig spr-i-g
• Double consonants such as ll, ss.
• Consonant digraphs (ng, ch, sh, th, nk) - these are different to double blends because the sounds of the consonants change when in a digraph.
• Consonant trigraphs such as 'tch'
• Schwa vowel - these are where the vowel sound changes on the end of a word - examples are lemon (pronounced lem-un), infant (pronounced inf-un-t), camel (pronounced cam-ul).

I am training with MCI London and am organising my blue series according to their suggestion:

• Box one - initial double blends.
• Box two - Final blends.
• Box three - assortment of initial blends, final blends and both together (e.g. st-a-mp).
• Box four - introduce triple blends, double consonants and consonant digraphs.
• Box five - themes and exciting words to read like 'stink'!!
• picture cards - reinforce particular blends such as all 'ng' words, reinforce 'schwa' vowel, introduce compound words like 'wigwam' and 'dustbin'.
• Blue lists - reinforce particular blends but bring compound words and schwa vowels in amongst other concepts already introduced.

During the blue series, you should continue to introduce sight words from the 100 most frequent words used in the English language.  I downloaded mine from twinkl, I use cursive with my girls, they have sassoon versions too.  MCI also suggests that you make and use a spelling book with the children where they can  write words that they wish to remember.  My daughter isn't yet at the writing stage in that way so I will hang fire on that one as I want her to discover it for herself when she is ready.

Later will post lists of the words that are suitable to use for each section and describe how I am organising the materials on a practical level.

Trusting in Montessori!

I decided long ago that Montessori would suit my daughter and I in working towards learning to read and write.  The reasons being that I recognised that she needs structure but in a fluid manner where the lessons moulded to her instead of her being required to march to the lessons.  I also needed a structure to make me feel secure in approaching something that I had never done before!  I approach it differently than traditional Montessori methods in that I bring the materials to her rather than waiting for her to approach the materials as would happen in a Montessori classroom.  I do this because we are at home and it isn't set out as a classroom and therefore I draw her attention to them, presenting things in a way that suits her.  Through the last 18 months of my training I have developed the confidence to take the original materials and adapt them to suit our situation and these photos are an example of that!

We have been working on building CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and I thought that it was time to introduce reading the words and matching them to the objects so I combined two of the box ideas and wrote out the words as I sat next to my daughter.  She wanted to try doing it and although I hadn't planned on this, it worked beautifully.  So I couldn't guess what word she was writing she was even sounding them out in her head then writing them for me.  Many of the letters were formed incorrectly and some of the vowel sounds were inaccurate but these two were spot on and I was so thrilled! We don't practice writing the letters out - I placed my trust in Montessori and that she would write when she was ready and here are beautifully written letters learned from following wooden letters with her fingers and memorising the feel and the sound of them!

It is so hard to trust that my daughter will learn to read and write and so hard to back off and not push things along at the pace they would be taken in school.  I have seen the value of little and often, seeing her build upon skills every day, as well as the value of leaving it alone for a few weeks and then being amazed by the leap in her capabilities.  I am gradually becoming more confident in my ability to guide her emerging skills. My goal? For her to read and write with the same joy and pleasure that she has in being read to!

Exploring Friction

I was inspired to make this activity after watching how interested the children are in rolling vehicles down slopes during their block play.  I wanted to extend this further with a science activity that could be returned to over time as understanding and knowledge of friction built up.

In the basket there are two chocks to place the planks against; two because I think the children might then explore how the angle of the planks (i.e. stacking two chocks) affects the movement of the vehicles.  There are also seven planks in all.  one is plain wood, one covered in a carpet sample that I begged from the local carpet fitters, one covered in rough sandpaper, one covered in plastic made from laminating coloured paper, one covered in wool from a jumper, one covered in bubble wrap and the last covered in textured wallpaper!  I chose these as they are a range of different materials and different textures and will challenge the children's assumptions about surfaces and textures.

To make this activity you will need:

• 7 planks of wood cut to the length that you require (offcuts from DIY will do nicely!)
• 6 different materials to fix to the planks (I left one as wood!)
• A glue gun and staple gun (tacks and a hammer would do also!)
• A stanley knife and heavy duty scissors.
• Sandpaper or an orbital/belt sander.
• Two wood 'chocks'.
• One or more small vehicles with freely moving wheels.
• A basket.

Preparation:

• Cut and sand the planks and chocks so that they are smooth to the touch.
• Cut the materials to shape by drawing around the planks and cutting out the sections marked. I had to use a stanley knife for the carpet and scissors for the rest. Leave an extra edge round the wool/fabric to fold under to prevent threads and runs!
• Fix them securely to the planks using the most suitable means - I hot glued the carpet and staple gunned the other materials.
• When dried and ready, arrange in the basket and add to a suitable section of materials in your learning area.... in a Montessori classroom this may be the cultural area but equally alongside the blocks is a valid place to encourage exploration and experimentation!

Introducing it to a child:

• Wait to see if the child/ren notice the basket, if they do and start to ask questions or explore then join them and explain that the planks are to roll the vehicles down and they can be propped up on the chocks (show them if you need to).
• Encourage the child to explore and use all of the planks, talk about what the surface feels like; introduce new descriptive vocabulary such as bumpy, rough, smooth, shiny, bobbly etc. 
• If you feel it is appropriate for that child, draw attention to the effect that the different textures have on the car; you could group the planks according to whether the vehicle goes fast or slow down them, then talk about why the child thinks that happens. Ask the child to predict what they think will happen for a particular plank if they have noticed that some are slower and dome are faster.
• Don't automatically correct the child if they propose an incorrect theory, but talk about it with them and explore why they think that - you might well be surprised at the logic behind something and it isn't always helpful to override that and give instruction on the 'correct' science behind friction.  At this stage it is important to nurture positive tendencies for scientific exploration and the child will eventually when they are older discover and learn all the theories of forces, for now wonder, questioning and testing are enough!

Just so you know what you're talking about....... friction is a force that affects all types of movement on earth. When two surfaces come into contact (here the surface and the vehicle wheels) there is friction between them - the greater the friction, the greater the grip between the surfaces and the more resistance to movement. A real-life example is flat-soled pumps versus ridge-soled walking shoes; on an icy path the ridge soled shoes have the greater friction and therefore resist movement and prevent you slipping!

How do Plants Grow?

I am doing a Montessori Early Years Teaching Qualification and my latest assignment requires that I write a planning web for a topic before choosing one of the 'cultural activities' and doing it with the children.  As it is currently a 'hot topic' with the children here, I decided to plan for 'How do Plants Grow?'I thought of lots of things to extend children's knowledge about plants and their growth and decided to share them here as I'd like to do lots of them and post about them and then you will all know what I am talking about!  I have combined Montessori curriculum headings with EYFS to suit all interested parties!!

Literacy (Communication, Language and Literacy)

• Booklets or spinning books (i-dials) on the life cycles of seeds.
• Sequencing cards on stages of growth.
• Books and stories
• Language tray with initial sounds that relate to seeds and plants (b-bean, p-pot, c-compost, s-sun, w-water, g-grow, l-leaf)
• Word wall - new vocabulary relating

Mathematics (Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy)

• Measuring the plants as they grow.
• Ordering seeds and beans from largest to smallest.
• Making bird cake from seeds - following a recipe card.
• Volumes of compost in pots.
• Measuring rainfall.

Creative (Creative Development)

• Make bean collages.
• Sunflowers - Van Goch painting, pallet of colours mixed to match and paint sunflowers.
• Natural paints using mud, dandelions, other flowers, leaves.
• Maracas with dried beans/rainmakers.
• Music and Movement - growing as plants grow.
• Songs and poems about growing.

Activities of daily living (Physical Development - fine motor)

• Sorting beans.
• Transferring with tweezers or tongs.
• Spooning beans/seeds.
• Pouring dried beans and seeds.
• Matching seed packets to seeds.

Cultural (Knowledge and Understanding of the World)

• Cooking and tasting recipes from around the world that use beans.
• Biology - set up a wormery and put leftovers from the children's fruit into it.
• Botany - parts of a plant/ what parts of a plant do we eat?/ life cycle of a bean
• Science - what plants need to grow/ celery stalks and food colouring/ dark box for plant to grow to the light.
• Leaf shapes/types.

Sensorial (CD, PSRN)

• Paint colour swatches in green to match to leaves of plants as they grow.
• Matching herbs by their smell.
• Leaf skeletons in the nature basket.
• Matching shapes to plant related items - cone (pot) seed(ovoid) etc.

Although Montessori curricula don't specifically have a section for Personal, Social and Emotional Development, by the approach that Montessori setting take, PSED is supported through all other activities, so you can look for aspects of this as the children take part in activities, just as you would normally.  I'm hoping to post about these activities as we go along, and will link them back to this plan as I go to make it easier to find them.  I'm anticipating that we will spend all summer investigating the way things grow though, so don't be disappointed if it isn't all here in the next couple of weeks.... if you want more information about any of these activities now, please leave a comment and ask and i will do my best to help you out!

Montessori in a Minute: Independence

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From the moment a child is born s/he strives to become independent; to crawl, to feed her/himself, to walk. to talk and so on.  If nothing gets in the way, a child can be very independent but many things do get in the way....... tables and chairs too high to get up to and sit at, taps too far to reach, clothes too difficult to put on, utensils and equipment too big for her/his little hands.  It is not only the child's goal to become independent, but the adults task to enable independence.

So how can we support the child the become independent? Well, I see three main ways:

1. Attitude (including the way you see the child and your patience!)
2. Environment- does it allow the child to do things for her/himself?
3. Toolkit - you need to demonstrate and give the child 'tools' to be able to take a task on and become skilled at completing it.

As regards attitude, you really have to believe that the child is strong and capable.  You have to be prepared to slow things down and go at the child's pace and you have to be willing to put in the effort and thought required to make it happen!  Toddlers want to walk, but very often find themselves strapped into buggies or car seats.  It takes longer to walk, holding a hand, yes, but planning for them to have at least some time a day walking on the school run or the shopping trip is invaluable as they see such a different perspective on their own two feet!!  I hope that the days of plonking toddlers in a playpen with a handful of toys are long-gone, but if you still do that, consider how much you are restricting that child's movement, and development of walking, muscles, balance and co-ordination!

Some of the effort and thought goes into the environment. Think about how easy it is for the child to be able to do the things that s/he needs to do every day.  Consider:

• Child-sized coat pegs.
• Small tables and chairs rather than highchairs for toddlers.
• Small jugs and cups for them to pour their own drinks.
• Step for the toilet.
• Press on wall lights where the switch is too high to reach.
• A sink at child height or a hand-washing station.
• Child-sized gardening tools; watering can, hoe, spade, wheelbarrow.
• Child-sized cleaning equipment; broom, dustpan and brush, spray bottle filled with water and cloths/sponges.
• Toys stored in way that helps children to find what they want and return it after use.

Making as many changes to the environment as possible and finding ways around things that cannot be changed helps to make daily tasks achievable for young children - a vital ingredient for them to become self-motivated learners and contributors to the community (community can be the childminding setting, toddler group, home or the wider world eventually!).

Once these changes are in place, you model how to do things to the child and then allow her/him to try it her/himself, providing a 'toolkit'.  The child will make the actions their own and that is great, you are simply introducing them to a way of doing things!  S/he will need lots of practice to master each skill and will delight in repeating the actions over and over, refining and perfecting the skill; once achieved it is really important that the child has opportunity to use that skill in everyday life:

• Put out small jug and cups for the children to pour their own drink.
• Put bread, butter and filling son the table and allow the children to make their own sandwich.
• Encourage them to brush teeth and hair, wash faces and hands after meals.
• Keep cleaning equipment in the same place and children can clean up their own spills and messes (within reason!!).
• Chat with parents to make sure that children come in clothes that they can manage themselves, such as trousers that aren't too tight to pull up after using the toilet!!

Allowing children to take responsibility for themselves in this way builds their self-esteem and confidence which will spill over into building relationships with other children and trying new activities.

If you want to read more about Montessori, try Montessori From the Start by Paula Polk-Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen.  It isn't rated by all Montessorians but I personally have found it clear and understandable and very readable which is worth a lot if you have ever ploughed through Montessori's original writing translated from Italian!