Montessori Writer

Different schools have different methods of acclimating new children to the classroom each year.  I previously mentioned how my school sets up one-on-one meeting times for parents and children who are new to the classroom.  The following day, the phase-in process begins.

We start with just the kindergarteners on that first Wednesday.  Wednesdays are half-days, with options for enrichment in the afternoon, starting the second week of the school year. 

On Thursday, the four year-olds who stay full-day (Extended Day) join the kindergarteners.  Friday is the day for four year-olds who are remaining half day, as well as starting the three year-olds who had been in the toddler program the previous year.

The Monday and Tuesday of the following week usually inclue the three year-olds who are new to the school.  So, each day, there are new children.  After one week, all children have usually started.

There are pros and cons to any method of orientating children to the classroom:

Having returning children be in the classroom first allows them to automatically be role models for the newer children. 

For some three year-olds, it is overwhelming to visit the classroom with no children, only to suddenly have 20 other children with them on their first day.

Parents of multiple children have a great deal of difficulty with children starting on different days, and after school care is not available until your child’s first day.

It can be difficult to adjust as a teacher to starting with children who know what they are doing, then suddenly having new children with different needs each day.

While Montessori lessons should be repeated, it can be difficult to show new works each day to a new group of children coming in each day.  You want to be careful how much you put out at once, yet don’t want them to be bored.

You can better focus on ground rules with small groups at a time.  New children each day force you to go over them and over them and over them, thus allowing for a better chance of the children normalizing.

Other schools have done different methods for orientating children.  I will get into other methods I have tried later. 

What does your school do?

Today is that day that I met my new students, or at least most of them.  One thing our school does is we set aside a special day where new children come in for a one-on-one session in the classroom.  Parents get to come with them for that time.  In my room, I spend time talking to the parents, answering their questions and asking a few of my own.  This year, I had to comfort a lot of moms who were sending their children away to school for the first time.  It was very cute!

Meanwhile, my assistant is bonding with the child.  Honestly, she will be spending more time with that 3 year-old, as she redirects him around the room, reinforces the ground rules, and assists in the inevitable potty runs.

In other classroom, the teachers orchestrate multiple children visiting during one session, so that the child automatically has a familiar face on her first day of school.  To each their own!  Each teacher uses her own system to her advantage and it works well.

The biggest issue encountered today was, of course, the potty-training issue.  To parents who have not yet mastered the art of potty-training, you have 6 weeks to do it, according to our policies! 

How does your school introduce new students?  Do you have a chance to meet with them one-on-one beforehand, or is a blind first day on both sides?

As most schools are doing, we are making adjustments and preparations for the predicted mass outbreak of the swine flu this fall.  Unfortunately, I feel like some of these preparations are going to drastically reduce the effectiveness of our Montessori curriculum.  (And I will welcome any suggestions for activity substitutions, because I haven’t yet come up with any!)

We are, unfortunately, currently located in an old Catholic school building.  Only one of the classrooms is fortunate enough to have running water in a sink.  The rest of us are forced to either send children down the hallway (my girls go around the corner) to the bathroom, or to wash hands the old-fashioned way in a bowl.

To keep my children in the classroom as much as possible, I encourage my children to use the “handwashing station” any time they need to wash their hands.  They put a pitcher of warm water (from the thermal container) into the bowl, scrub their hands with soap, rinse in the water, then empty the dirty water into a bucket of waste water.

Children know to wash their hands every time they want to eat snack or do a food prep activity, any time their hands get dirty while doing a work, or if they become somehow unsanitary from typical kids picking at….well…you know….And my children are pretty well-trained in this aspect.

Snack and food prep are also very big in my classroom.  Along with that comes washing dishes.  So many skills are acquired through these processes, that these activities have become the crux of my Practical Life curriculum. 

The children also use cloth towels (to cut back on paper waste), and they enjoy washing them on the washing board.  (They  are laundered by parent volunteers each week.)

Due to concerns about the H1N1 virus, we are being asked to use solely paper products, and to eliminate the handwashing station from our classroom.  I have to admit that I am not comfortable sending my little ones out of the classroom to wash their hands that frequently.  I don’t like to use that much hand sanitizer (because it doesn’t actually wash your hands, though it kills the germs).  And I have a strong conviction that if we don’t teach the children hygiene skills, how can they prepare themselves for handling sickness?

One activity that we have all decided to implement is washing dishes that are not used for actual eating, so that they can learn the process.  But I haven’t yet figured out how to teach the handwashing, without having to sanitize the bowl every single time it is used.  My assistant can’t quite stand over the bowl to wipe it out every time it is used (like 40+ times per day), and I’m not about to let the children use Lysol wipes.  (Not to mention those are not OSHA-approved).  I still have a few days to figure it all out….

How are you having to change your methods in anticipation of the H1N1 outbreak scare?

On Monday of this week, we returned to school to set up for the return of students next week.  I had stopped in for an hour the previous Friday, because I always require a “Zen” moment of alone time in the room to lay down the rough draft for the year.  And then, we were done on Monday.

I can never set up the classroom the same way twice.  First, I can never remember exactly how it was, anyway! Second, the kids are different every year, requiring different needs.  After all, Montessori is about preparing the environment, right?

With this year being mostly 3 year-olds, I moved more of the shelves back against the walls, creating no real pockets of hiding space, other than under the loft.  I took extra steps to hide the hiding places under the loft, where those little 3 year-olds bodies could fit to hide.  I increased floor space and reduced table space.  I took out one large language shelf and turned it into an extra Practical Life shelf. 

I am starting the year with much fewer Montessori materials out than usual.  The materials for younger children have all been moved to the front of the room; materials for the older children have moved more toward the back of the room.  I close most of the Practical Life in the afternoon and focus on bigger projects for the extended day in the back part of the room.  Lots of simple manipulatives are out to keep the young ones occupied until they are all phased-in and there is more time to give them lessons elsewhere in the room.

How do you set up your classroom each year?  Do you keep it the same, or do you mix it up a bit from year to year?  How many materials do you put out?