Monday at School

Today Grandma had to go home, but first, I took Kevin to school and stayed for about 1.5 hours. I had never observed the Montessori method in action, but was happy to get a glimpse of their system. There are twenty-eight kids in Kevin's class with three teachers.

First, the children choose an activity to do singly or collectively with friends. When the bell rings, everyone is to assume a nameste hand position (I wonder if the kids know what that means or if it is simply a quieting activity to begin group time), all sing a song together; then it is circle time.

They talk about things related to the day including the date. Kevin is returning to his seat from having placed the number 5 on the calendar.

Following circle time, they are to find their portfolio at a table. Kevin is receiving instructions on what he is to do with his portfolio.

He had numbers (85 to 92) to trace, words to copy from a book, and then write something in his journal for the day. I showed him how to draw the number 8 which immeasurably improved his 8 tracing. The book had a picture with each word, but he was unable to read the word even with a picture of the item in many cases -- such as a picture of a vase-type of container with the word j-u-g. The words were all in lower case, but he wrote them in upper case. I wish I could have stayed all day to see how follow up happens!

This is his journal entry for today:

It is a desert, he said. First he drew the mountain, then a camel, the sun, me, and himself with a crescent moon over his head. Then he was to identify what he had drawn. On previous days, the words seemed to be short forms, so I told him to write "mtn" for mountain and "Gma" for grandma (the G is upside down ;-) ).

We forgot to bring his lunch, and he has a huge mosquito bite on his big toe, so I went home and returned later with his lunch and bite meds. Then Grandma had to be on her way with lots of hugs and kisses and an awesome art project! :)