Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Language Arts

Many of the sensorial exercises, by their very nature, are a remote preparation for academic learning.  For example, the child who has learned to listen carefully will be able to perceive subtle differences in the sounds of the letters.  Of equal importance to language, skills are the geometric materials, which help the children to concentrate on different shapes.

Learning to write

To be able to write, a child must develop a two-fold skill.  He must commit to memory the shape of the letters and their corresponding sounds, and he must develop the muscular skill necessary for using the pencil with control.

For a child to try to acquire both aspects of this skill at the same time is often discouraging and frustrating.  It is extremely difficult for him to try to learn the path for making the letters at the same time that he is trying to learn how to move the pencil with control.

The materials which Dr. Montessori designed offer the child the opportunity to learn the shapes and sounds of the letters in a way that is completely independent from his perfection of the motor skill.  The child, therefore, in the Montessori classroom learns to write not by writing, but by performing a number of purposefully structured activities which prepare him both indirectly and directly for facility in handwriting.

Learning the shapes of the letters with the Sandpaper Letters

The child meets the alphabetical symbols by using the Sandpaper Letters.  Each letter of the alphabet is outlined in sandpaper on an individual card, the vowels on blue and consonants on red.  The teacher shows the child how to trace the letters with two fingers following the same direction in which the symbol is normally written.

Use of this material gives the child a three-fold impression.  He sees the shape, he feels the shape, and he hears the sound of the letter which the teacher repeats when introducing it.  The fact that the letters is made of important step in learning to write.  The repetition of this exercise fixes the path of each of the letters in the child's muscular memory.

Learning the sounds of the letters with the sandpaper letters

In a Montessori classroom, the child learns the phonetic sounds of the letters before he learns the alphabetical names in sequence.  The phonetic sounds are given first because these are the sounds he hears in words.  The child first becomes aware of these phonetic sounds when the teacher introduces the consonants with the Sandpaper Letters.

Perfecting the Motor Skills with the Metal Insets

The child in a Montessori Classroom learns to control a pencil by filling in outlines, an activity which does not weary her because she enjoys it.  To make the outline, she uses equipment known as the Metal Insets.  Each inset represents a different geometric shape.  After selecting a figure and tracing it on paper, the child fills in the outline with a colored pencil of her own choosing.

At first her strokes are erratic and often extend beyond the outline.  By degrees they become more accurate and uniform.  Progress in muscular control can be noted by comparing the child's designs from week to week and from month to month.  Eventually she makes more intricate designs by superimposing two or three other shapes on the original figure.  When colored, this effort resembles a stained glass window.  Crayons and paint are not used for this activity because the purpose is always pencil controlled.


Friday, September 20, 2013

Sensorial

A young child can remain unmoved by a myriad of sensory impressions in her everyday environment.  What she needs is not more and more impressions buy the ability to understand what she perceives.  The Montessori Sensorial Materials help the child to distinguish, to categorize, and to relate new information to what she already knows.  Dr. Montessori believed that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge.  It is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impression given by the senses.

Pink Tower:
                       Size in three dimensions is introduced to the child by the use of the Pink Tower.  This is a series of ten pink cubes graded in size to form one centimeter cubed to ten centimeters cubed.  The child builds a tower beginning with the largest cube and ending with the smallest cube on top.

Brown Stairs:
                        The Brown Stairs introduces the child to the difference in size-- two dimensions.  The child must place the blocks in proper graduation forming a stair - like structure.  With this exercise the teacher introduces the concepts of thickness and thinness, using the terms thick, thicker, thickest and thin, thinner, thinnest.

Red Rods:
                  The Red Rods help the child to recognize differences in size in one dimension--length.  The child is introduced to the terms short, shorter, shortest and long, longer, longest.  The equipment gives the child a sensorial basis for learning to count when he begins mathematics.

Smelling Jars:
                         The food is covered by cheesecloth or a perforated top so that the child smell it, but she can't see or feel it.  Each har in the first set has a mate in the second set.  The child combines the pairs by carefully smelling each jar.  The teacher uses this exercise as an opportunity to build the child's vocabulary by teaching her the names of the foods she is smelling.

Color Tablets:
                         The child's first introduction to color is a box containing six tablets--two red, two blue and two yellow.  They differ only in highly contrasting color.  In this exercise, the child pairs the tablets and learns the corresponding names.

Grading the colors:
                                  For the next step the child may use a box containing eight different shades of eight different colors.  The child must distinguish the intensity of the shades and place the tablets in order from the lightest to the darkest shade of each color.  Teaching children to be aware of fine differences in color is giving them remote preparation for all kinds of scientific observations, art, art appreciation, decorating, and many other meaningful activities.

Art Postcards:
                         This exercise enables the child to become familiar with the details of art while refining her visual discrimination.

Baric Tablets:
                         A box containing three sets of little blocks of wood, each set varying slightly from the other two in weight.  The blocks also differ in color, so that the child wears a blindfold while doing the exercise.  This eliminates the visual difference and enables the child to sort the blocks by weighing them on the tips of their fingers.

The Art of Listening:
                                     The art of listening carefully is a quality worth cultivating for a lifetime.  Listening attentively is a vital preparation for reading.  Montessori designed several sensorial games to help the child concentrate on a particular sound.

The Montessori Bells:
                                      Another quality of sound that is interesting to the child is pitch.  To isolate this quality, Montessori designed a set of black and white bells corresponding to the black and white keys on the piano.

The Art of Feeling:
                                  A child loves to touch.  Much of the world comes to him through his hands as he investigates everything in his environment.  He can use the sense of touch in a more meaningful way if he wears a blinfold.  This eliminates recognition of an object and challenges him to recognize something with only his sense of touch.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Bowl America's Rolling Bowling

There is never a dull moment at MSH! This week we had a very special visit from Bowl America's Rolling Bowling truck.  Our students got to enjoy a few games of bowling every day this week. MSH Teachers and Staff orchestrated a "Family Bowling Friday" which was a big hit with all of our families.   We would like to give a big thank you to Mr. John and Mr. Steve who helped make this week such an exciting one for all of us.  Even the Teachers got to enjoy a few friendly games.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Welcome to a new school year!

The 2013 - 2014 School Year has finally arrived!  Welcome new and returning students!  Our students had a wonderful week getting to know their teachers, learning the routines of the classroom, working on lessons and making new friends.  We are so happy that you are all apart of the MSH Family.  We are looking forward to a fun and educational year.