Montessori in Mars

I'm Back

2010-07-19T16:04:00.002+08:00

Whoa! I've been gone for months and I missed being here! But I'm back! And while I still wish I'm still in New York taking pictures with Lady Liberty or still in California strolling along "The Most Magical Place on Earth", I'm glad to be back in my classroom where magic happens everyday, too. Like today, when Dane, 4, could finally read! Or like tomorrow, when I'm sure the children will be thrilled when I show them The Maze with the Red Rods.

And I'm thrilled to be back here, in this blog, too. So hello, hello.

Memory and Reading

2010-03-24T12:05:00.057+08:00

I think I have already mentioned somewhere in this blog that I, admittedly, do not have the best memory, but I do remember quite a few things about Bea when she came to the school last summer. She had lived in New York since birth until then (she was 5); she had a powerful, strong voice that's declamation-ready; and she had, much to my envy, a very good memory. Once, she recited a whole story about Moses and his sister Miriam to me and when I asked her mom about it, the mom said that she read that Moses story to Bea for three consecutive nights; on the fourth night, Bea said that she will tell her mom the story and she went on reciting the whole story, almost word for word, almost in toto, and in the exact same tone and diction her mother used.

While her memory is amazing and amusing, it posed some real issues concerning Bea's reading. What happens is that she relies on her remembering how the words were formed and said (by someone else before) instead of blending the sounds of each individual letter in a phonetic word and discovering for herself what the words say and convey. The tendency is for her to get confused. So, because she has encountered the word "nap" before, she knows how to read n-a-p as nap, but when you give her p-a-n, she'll still say it's nap.

Reading is a skill, and just as any other skill, learning how to read requires a set of sub-skills first. These reading sub-skills were discussed in detail in a book and I want to focus on two here.

One is that we have to know the codes, which are actually the letters. Children first experience sounds, the spoken language through the people around them. Sitting them down and showing them the codes/letters which represent these sounds is an obvious prerequisite. In a Montessori classroom, there is more emphasis on letter sounds (like a in apple, buh as in bat, guh as in gum-- so we don't use ice cream for the letter i) than on letter names (like how we sing the normal alphabet song with the letter a pronounced as 'ey'/long a--and then bee, cee, dee, ee, ef, gee, eych--that's for the letter h--I'm just amusing myself here). In class, we don't usually sing the usual alphabet song (the one that ends with "Now I know my a, b, c..."); we sing SSRW's ABC Song (which focuses on the sounds and goes "A, a, apple. Buh, buh, ball. Cuh, cuh, cat, etc.). Below are the letters and the words that begins with their sounds (these are the ones in the song):

a - apple; b - ball; c - cat; d - doll; e - egg;

f - fan; g - goat; h - hand; i - inchworm; j - jam;

k - kite; l - lamb; m - monkey; n - noodles; o - octopus;

p - poodles; q - quilt; r - rail; s - sun; t - tail;

u - umbrella; v - vase; w - wagon; x - box (ks); y - yarn; z - zoo.

Here's Nigo, 2.5, with the Sandpaper Letter b and the Alphabet Bucket. Inside

the bucket are little replicas of objects that begin with the letter sound b (buh).

The children listen for the buh sound in the beginning of every word. It also helps the

children see that the code/letter b represents a sound, the sound they hear when they

hear ball or boat or butterfly. It helps them connect the symbol and the sound--so the

symbols and the sounds are not taught in isolation. This activity also builds vocabulary.

In this picture of Ram and Javi, both 3, you can really see Ram, making

the sound for the letter a. The children can work in pairs and they can

play a little guessing game. One will hide an object in the bucket, the other

will guess what the hidden object is.

Here's Matteo, 4, working with two buckets and doing a sorting activity.

Any good Montessori material must have a Control of Error. In this case,

auditory discrimination/harmony serves as Control of Error. The teacher

can say,"This is a rock. Can you say rock. Do you hear guh or rrr?"

Here's Micah, 2.5, working with the Sandpaper Letter and making the letter o

on the sandbox. The Sandpaper Letters are made with sandpaper (thus the name)

and they are made that way so the the children can feel the code/letter and establish

a certain muscle memory. Obviously, this is also preparation for writing.

Bea, because she has excellent memory, knew all the letter sounds and their symbols. That's also why dyslexia was thankfully ruled out.

So we go to another sub-skill; and I found, after working more with Bea, that this was where her challenge lied. Another sub-skill is looking at the codes from left to right (at least as far as reading in English is concerned). Training the eyes and the mind to go from left to right is so critical that in fact, beginning Montessori Language presentations involve patterning and sequencing all of which are done from left to right. Practical Life activities such as pouring, spoon or tong transfers are also done from left to right. Most Montessori presentations are precise and purposeful (how they hold the Knobbed Cylinders, with the pincher/three-finger grip, is actually indirect preparation for writing).

This was the reading sub-skill that Bea was not able to master. She got used to and caught up with how they were taught how to read in her old school: They had the children remember ending sound combinations like -ag, -an, -at; and just add and change up beginning sounds to form different words like b + ag = bag; r + ag = rag, and so on.

So here's what I did:

I printed a mat like this, laminated it, and used it with the Movable Alphabets.

Blue letters, which are consonants, go inside the blue boxes; red letters, which

are the vowels, go inside the red box--that's Control of Error. Bea can take any

blue and red letter from the box, and place them over the mats, she will then

blend from left to right (1, 2, and then 3--so they're numbered). Of course, she'll

end up making non-sense words like yiy, wiy, zic, etc. It's fun and funny and I like

it because then I'm certain that she is not just memorizing how the letters were

put together and how they were read. By putting random c-v-c letters together,

Bea would encounter "words" she couldn't have heard before.

Here's Matti, 4, working with the mat and the Movable Alphabet. Some of

the materials I make are grand like The Bead Stairs with Clay or

Ordinal Numbers in the Barn. Some are as simple as this mat. But

regardless of the scale, when you make a material to address a child's

learning need, you will see that if it works, the benefit is profound.

That's why the role of a teacher as an observer is important. As Maria

Montessori said, "The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire,

to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel

her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon."

Also, "One who desires to be a teacher must have an interest in

humanity that connects the observer more closely than that which

joins the biologist or zoologist to nature."

While some issues may be resolved using the traditional Montessori materials,

sometimes, a little variation is necessary. Before I made this mat, I used just

the Movable Alphabets. But Bea was still having some trouble, so there had to be

an Isolation of Difficulty (another Montessori principle). I also wanted her to work

more independently, without me having to point at the letters with my finger or a

pencil, reminding her to go left to right all the time.

After a few sessions, here's Bea, pointing to the letters of the word,

moving from left to right, and blending. Since her memory is good,

sight words (such as the, with, have, etc. and some verbs, adjectives,

and adverbs) were easy for her to remember. Now that the school is over

(for this part of the world), Bea is now reading phonics story books that have

c-v-c, c-v-c-c, s/l/r-blends, and sight words. This is why I never hesitate

to make a material, no matter how small or big, even if it's just for one child.

Oh Away

2010-03-20T18:35:00.009+08:00

Oh my, I have been away, haven't I. My last post was more than a month ago and I had only 1 on February--yes, I was away, alright. But the reason I've been away last month is because I will be away for the whole of April and May. I'm going to New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington State, and Canada!!! I'm TOO excited, but I'll rein that in for a while and just show some of the children's work on paper from the past month.

Anika and Julia used the wooden puzzle from the Zoology Cabinet to make this work

which shows the different parts of the butterfly (compound eye, thorax etc). Weeks would

pass, yet they'd still know the names of these parts.

This time, Parts of a Turtle (though the flat, bottom part of a turtle's shell

is called the plastron).

This just amuses me every time I see it. The children are really keen on

the different animals and their characteristics--at least those that make

them visually distinct. I have children in my class who can name the different

kinds of snakes by looking at their skin color, and marking. One can match countries

to their flags. Often, it is amazing what you can learn from a child.

I just remembered one of the children in my class, Bea, 6, saying this to me one day when we were talking about Transportation, "Teacher Mars, you know when I went to Hong Kong, we rode a train that took us to Disneyland. If you take me to Hong Kong, I can show you." Bea lived 5 out of 6 years of her life in New York and her mom works at the Met--I should ask Bea to teach me a thing or two about the city before I leave for New York this summer (summer in this part of the world). Bea--we went on an educational field trip last February and this science center that we went to had replicas of the different famous building around the world. The tour guide mentioned the Freedom Tower, said it's in New York. Bea raised her hand and said, "I lived in New York, but I've never seen the Freedom Tower there before." Of course Bea made perfect sense (the tour guide realized); the Freedom Tower is due to be completed on 2013.

X Update

2010-02-17T22:54:00.012+08:00

I will just say it simply and outright, X made me very happy this week.

He is now doing more advanced Practical Life work. I wish I can
upload videos here so I can post one of X really concentrating and
enjoying this pouring activity; completing an entire work cycle
without any prompting, including wiping occasional spills.

And he even worked on this puzzle map of South America,
reading the names of the countries (e.g. Brazil, Chile) as
he went along. On another day, he took out the puzzle map
of Asia and worked with it so diligently, stopping only to look
for me around the classroom to ask me how to read some tricky
country names like Kazakhstan and the other -stan countries.

Myriad Math

2010-01-27T22:14:00.027+08:00

Anika's mom was in school today and she told me how surprised she was of her daughter when this happened the other day when they were out shopping:

Mommy had a card from a store wherein they needed to fill in 50 boxes with a sticker each so that they will get a special reward. I assume, you'll see later on why, that this was how their card looked like:

Mommy said, "Anika, can you count how many stickers we already have." So Anika, 5, counted. 37.

Mommy asked, "How many more do you think we need to reach 50?"

Anika knew what to do as she replied, "Well, let's see. I have 3 tens and 7 units. And I need 1 more set of tens and 3 more units. 1 ten and 3 units is thirteen. I need 13 more stickers!"

Mommy was delightfully surprised with Anika's thought process; she had expected that her daughter will simply count the remaining boxes that still didn't have stickers. I was heartily happy for Anika because she was able to logically and concretely apply a-couple-of-weeks' lessons in class (addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers, static meaning no carrying or borrowing) to real albeit random situations.

The 5 and 6's have been enjoying adding and subtracting bigger numbers using the different Math Montessori materials:

Here's Anika and Julia laying out The Bird's Eye View of the Decimal System.
The golden beads/bars/squares/cubes help the children see the quantities
and distinguish families (units, tens, hundreds, thousands) concretely. Note that before
we proceed with doing mathematical operations, we would have had many
activities, such as fetching games, wherein we will just fetch numerals and/or
quantities. We would have also done much work on complex digits (e.g. 27, 727, etc.)
Sometimes we'll tie this work up with a puzzle map from geography and we'll say
I'm going to India and the plane ticket is worth 2727, I would then have to get
that equivalent golden beads/bars/squares/cubes. I enjoy this as much as the children. :)

Ia is working with the Stamp Game. I also found another way of working
with the Stamp Game at The Moveable Alphabet. As an alternative to the
small wooden tiles, you may download this. Dynamic operations (with
carrying or borrowing) are fun to do with this material. You can see that
this is more abstract than the work above since now we are using just
color-coded wooden tiles with 1, 10, 100, 1000 printed on them.

Felipe, who just turned 6, was delighted to see the Bead Frame
out on the shelf and immediately asked me to show it to him.
Since repetition, control of error, isolation of difficulty, and varying levels
are characteristic of Montessori materials, you see that the Bead Frame
is another means to ease the transition to an even more abstract Math,
towards mental Math.

Ordinal Numbers in the Barn

2010-01-25T15:48:00.015+08:00

This is a work I prepared so that we will have a work about ordinal numbers out on the shelf.

The best red barn template for this material I downloaded from McGuire Zone. I cut out some parts so that the windows will be just right for the work; I laminated them; used a cutter to make the window flaps; then glued the barn door and ten windows onto a felt cloth with hot glue. I also printed and laminated labels from 1st to 10th (these are loose though and not glued to the felt).

For the animals in the barn, I used these Critter Counters we purchased from Lakeshore.

I just love these critters!

I also printed out the instructions which I will read to younger children or which will be read by the older ones for themselves or for a little classmate.

The children lay out the labels 1st till 10th (or you may use the words 'first' till 'tenth') above the respective windows. They will then take an instruction card, read it or have someone read it to them, and then the children will place the critter into its proper place/home in the barn.

Guess the Number Game

2010-01-23T07:27:00.000+08:00

We've been doing a lot of guessing games in class. Like in circle, to get the children to calm down and focus on me, I may say, "I'm thinking of a living thing (of course I would have had presented living and non-living things lesson). It flies. It likes to visit flowers. It starts off as a caterpillar." And the children long before this point will already be raising their hand. I call on one and he/she'll say. "You're thinking of a butterfly!" Or we may play a little game at the end of the class when I call them one at a time so they can say goodbye to me. I may say, "I'm thinking of a boy. I'm thinking of a boy whose name starts with the /r/ sound." Or I may add, "He is wearing a green shirt." Then Ram would say, "That's me!"

Another kind of guessing game that we do, in a small group or in pairs, is Guess the Number. One child writes a number on a small chalkboard and tells if his/her number is higher or lower than the number given out by the guesser(s).

Bea and Felipe, both 5, bonded over this work. Before this, Bea
didn't like to work with Felipe just because "he's a boy". After doing
this activity together, Bea said to Felipe, "I will introduce you to my daddy."

Bea has written down her number, Felipe guesses, and Bea says, "It's higher than that", raising the appropriate sign. Felipe uses a laminated sheet with the numbers 1 to 50 written in rows and columns. This serves as his guide. For 5 and 6-year-olds though, start within 1-20. For younger children, start them with 1-10 and see how they progress. Watch out if they're ready for more numbers.

Felipe has guessed Bea's number and she is happy for him as she says, "That's it!"

Now it's Felipe's turn. This is really an exciting work for the children
and I'm proud that they can still keep a certain discipline enough to maintain
non-distracting voices and giggles and to make sure that the things on their
rug are nice and neat.

Felipe's saying, "It's higher than 14." Note that I always encourage the children
to talk in full sentences even if I already know what they're going to say.
If a child approaches me and says, "Open", I may say, "Or you can say,
'Teacher Mars, can you open my water jug please.'" This helps children communicate
preferences and ideas better.

I like guessing games like this one because they also indirectly develop
logical reasoning / multi-step rationalizing. A few turns of guessing after,
the children eventually learn if-then situations like if the number is
higher than 13 and lower than 15, then it must be 14. Of course they may
not formulate the if-then sentences that way, but they get practiced
using the strategy anyway.

The children love this work and I hope the pictures convey that
even if I couldn't get real clear ones because of their merry movements!

From the Past and For the Future

2010-01-22T21:19:00.010+08:00

From the Past
I have mentioned in passing in class before that my favorite animal is the elephant because, among other things, elephants have good memory, something I don't have, much to my dismay. The children though have elephantine memory and one of them made this for me:

Ms Honey's Pet. Anika, 5.

She insists that I'm Ms Honey today, and she's Mathilda;
because she just saw the 1996 movie, Matilda, last night on HBO.

For the Future
The older ones have been conscious of dates and time recently because we just had lessons about the calendar and the clock. Ia, 6, took the date stamp a while ago to mark the date on her work, realized that January was almost ending and made me this:

From Ia, 6.

Heart-warmer.

Namedropping (Part 1, The Lemonade Stand)

2010-01-19T17:29:00.012+08:00

I'm sending out a special thank you to Leptir for giving me a lot of 'firsts' in this blog--my first foreign follower, my first comment, and now MY FIRST AWARD!

The Lemonade Stand Award
This award is given to bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

Put the Lemonade Stand logo on your blog or within your post.
Nominate at least 10 blogs and link them within your post.
Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

And so, without more ado, here are my nominees for The Lemonade Stand Award (I can't help it, I just watched The Golden Globes):

The Honorable Mention
Literacy Launchpad
The Magic Onions
Chasing Cheerios
Itty Bitty Love
Mama-Om
Totally Tots
The Adventures of Bear
Mama Jenn
Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns

For all its worth, again, The Lemonade Stand Award.

Watch out for Part 2 of this post.

Busy as a Beaver

2010-01-14T21:18:00.036+08:00

Sometimes, that's how I picture the children working in a Montessori classroom. As beavers shape their surrounding so that it will be suitable for them, so do children enthusiastically engage in and experience their environment (with the teacher as a bridge between the child and the environment) so that they can make sense of their world.

They enjoy sorting, matching, and arranging in the Sensorial area; quantifying in Math; decoding in Reading; nomenclating in Science and Cultural Arts; and doing some things (polishing, washing, cutting, etc.) that adults around them do in Practical Life. There is so much to do and the children are trusted to make the most out of their learning experience as they choose sufficiently challenging materials and work just when they are ready for and interested with them, just when they are excited to learn about them. "If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things." - Norman Douglas.

And I just love a busy day like this.

In the picture: Ia chose the Parts of the Leaf Wooden Puzzle,
Julia working on Parts of the Flower Wooden Puzzle,
Bea and Calie enjoying the Puzzle Map of Australia,
Javi digesting the Puzzle Map of North America.

Indeed, a busy day is when there is no more space for me to walk on; and so I can just sit in a corner and watch the children work "as if I did not exist".

A Priceless Picture Book

2010-01-07T20:13:00.026+08:00

The First Christmas
A Picture Book by Anika, 5

Illustrated by Anika

and her dad (for the animals and the shepherds)

The Hundred Board That's Worth Trillions To Me

2009-12-14T22:03:00.015+08:00

X, the boy whom I wrote about in a previous post, Persevering with PDD; has been responding more and more to calming by counting. So I thought of introducing the Hundred Board and see if he can muster enough calm and concentration to get him through 1-100.

As expected, at first I had to constantly bring his attention back to his work. But X only needed me to say "Let's do the next one" or "What's next" from 1-30. After that, he made the Hundred Board seem like it's worth trillions to me when he did 31-100 without any prompting from me! The next day, he took the board out again; and this time did the whole work all by himself!

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and
you help them become what they are capable of becoming." - Goethe

Worth more than anything, X was very proud of his work, exclaiming "I did it!" and pointing to what he has accomplished to every person who happened to pass by.

“One test of the correctness of educational procedure
is the happiness of the child.” - Maria Montessori

Playing with the Planisphere or Working with the World (Part 2)

2009-11-26T20:57:00.038+08:00

I've always been a fan of a little alliteration even before Lemony Snicket came out with 'The Bad Beginning', 'The Penultimate Peril', and the rest of A Series of Unfortunate Events. So I thought of two titles for the previous post--Playing with the Planisphere or Working with the World. Having used the words play and work, I thought this should be a good time to segue to what Maria Montessori said about a child's work.

Maria Montessori, in her book, 'The Secret of Childhood', said that "a child is also a worker and a producer... he has its own difficult and important task to perform, that of producing a man."

In a Montessori classroom, we don't "play", we "work". At the beginning of the school year, when we have children who just came in, using the word "work", instead of "play", to refer to what they are doing is one of the things that we introduce and encourage. The purposes of this, I think, is not only philosophical or semiotical; it is also practical. Giving the children a language, a term for what they do in school and distinguishing the work done in the classroom from the play they do after class in the playground helps the children categorize their activities and corollary to that, categorize the behavior and disposition expected of them. I find, though my observation has yet to be backed up by research and statistics, that the children who start saying "work" instead of "I will play with the parquetry blocks" or "I want to play with this" are those who are increasingly becoming more calm and concentrated.

Associating what they do in school, with what their parents do, which is work, seems to instill in them a kind of weight and seriousness so much so that they, too, give their own work (and their classmates') more importance and regard. And rightly so, because there's real hard work everyday:

Here's Julia with her map of North America.

I never thought Felipe will have the patience and perseverance to make
his own map of South America. But there are real surprises everyday, too.

Ia has always been a perfect example of a normalized child.
She loves work and relishes those that are sufficiently challenging for her.
Here is Ia working on the material I talked about in
Part 1 of this post.
* Download templates of the 7 continents at Montessori in a Box.

Playing with the Planisphere or Working with the World (Part 1)

2009-11-25T15:33:00.004+08:00

It's a famous family story that when my aunt, Joan, was just around 2 years old; she had a huge puzzle of the United States of America, the puzzle pieces were the 50 states, and she knew all 50 by name and by shape. So if you do a Montessori three-period lesson (TPL) with her and ask "Where is Delaware" (2nd period of the TPL), she can find it; and when you ask "What is this" (3rd period of the TPL) while holding the shape of Mississippi, she can tell you. Of course she has always been quite smart; 23 years later, she became the valedictorian in the country's most prestigious law school and the topnotcher in the 2005 bar exams. She is now learning and exploring New York's real-life shape and borders as she takes up International Legal Studies at NYU.

I'm reminded of that story because this week I brought out the puzzle maps of the continents.

This is just one of the eight puzzle maps from a Montessori Geography Cabinet. This one shows the 7 continents of the world. The other seven are maps of each of the continents and the puzzle pieces are the countries that belong to the specific continent.

Ia and Julia, both 6, take out the pieces, trace them onto a
big paper, and color and label them accordingly.
Asia - yellow, Europe - red, Africa - green, North America - orange,
South America - pink, Australia - brown, Antarctica - white.

As variation (since repetition is always the key with children), I prepared other activities using these:

You can download the templates of the seven continents from Montessori in a Box.
Do feel free to download and use. I'd appreciate a link back to my site,
but it is not a requirement.

Variation 1: Making a Booklet
You can make the shape of each continent; glue them to a paper; and later compile them into a booklet.

To make the continent shapes: 1) You may opt to use toothpicks or pushpins, 2) you may create a control of error and punch in holes along the outline of the continent shape, like a perforation, so that when the children use the scissors, it will be easier for them, 3) or you may just let the child use the scissors to cut (this may be tricky)--decide which you like to do depending on the readiness of each child.

You can let the child use a toothpick or pushpin to get the shape out.

You can make perforations before you give the sheet to a child,
so that when he uses the scissors, it will be easier.

When the children have made all 7, they can put them
together within a paper cover to make a booklet.

Variation 2: Making a Planisphere

You can download the templates of the seven continents from Montessori in a Box.
Do feel free to download and use. I'd appreciate a link back to my site,
but it is not a requirement.

Watch out for Part 2 of this post, Playing with the Planisphere or Working with the World.

Making a Cloth Bracelet and Headband

2009-11-20T22:16:00.027+08:00

One of the best things about having our parents own a garment factory is that my 8-year-old sister Yam and I always have enough and a variety of fabric, thread, and buttons. We took some out last Wednesday for a little school night activity.

I drew a line along the sides of the fabric so that Yam knows
where to sew. This serves as a control of error.

I give her a little school night activity because I understand that school (she doesn't go to a Montessori school) can be drudgery sometimes, just as John Holt says
in his book, How Children Fail.

After sewing the sides, I turned the cloth over (a trick to make this easier
is to insert a ruler right in and roll the cloth until the printed right side is out).
Yam sewed a button (or you can use velcro) on one end and cut a hole on the other.

Here it is!
It's better to sew that inch of an edge, too.

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.
What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all
day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We also made a headband that matches Yam's dress
which our Mama made.

For younger children, you can make this activity simpler by doing just 3 steps:
1 - Cut a strip of fabric.
2 - Ask the child to sew in the button on one end.
3 - Cut a small hole on the other end.

Notable Notes

2009-11-18T13:26:00.011+08:00

When I was with Nielsen, we had this pat-on-the-shoulder, two-thumbs-up, good-job scheme where you write a Notable Note for a fellow associate who did, well, a good job.

From my boss then, whom, I think, was happy because I was only four months into
the job and yet I was already about to win a major, at least 1 million-worth,
market research project.

Now that I'm teaching, I think this is the equivalent of that:

From Ia, 5, whom, I think, enjoyed the lessons and materials I showed her yesterday
so much that the first thing she did when she came in today was give me this.

Beads, Ballet, Bravo, and Boa Constrictor

2009-11-16T15:55:00.072+08:00

Anika, 5, was like giving the performance of her life as she worked on the Thousand Chain. While Anton Rubinstein's Romance in E flat major was on the background and as she moved gracefully and meticulously, it felt like I was watching ballet.

"Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements." - Maria Montessori

This is something I made for Anika, who wants to be a prima ballerina when she grows up.

Anika said, "This is the hardest work I've ever done in my en-taaa-yerrr life!" The Thousand Chain involves getting rolls and rolls of rug, laying out the chain, counting/skip counting by 10 until you reach 1000, and placing arrow labels/numerals under the corresponding bead as you go along. It took Anika an hour to do this, but children always know when they deserve to be proud of their work.

Here's Anika who asked me to take her picture holding a sign she wrote: I finished my work!

What Anika wrote is interesting. She is happy and confident after her work so much so that she did not need my, or anybody else's affirmation. We don't have star stickers or smiley stamps in a Montessori classroom. Rewards are unnecessary (detrimental, even) because children already essentially have an inherent will, a "guiding instinct" to learn and to work. And their "reward" comes from having done the work, not from having someone say "well done". In effect, just as the children are capable of self-directed learning in a prepared environment, they are also able to determine their own self-worth, without seeking external approval, in a consciously non-judgmental atmosphere.

So what do I do when someone excitedly approaches me and proudly shows me their work? I don't need to say "Bravo! Very good!"; they are already happy with what they have done; they already think it is good! That's precisely why they're showing it around. And if it's an art or a drawing, I dare not say, "What a nice house!" or "That's a pretty rabbit"--I don't want to run the risk of being like the adults in the Little Prince who said the then-future-pilot drew a hat when it was really a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant whole!

So I just say, "Thank you for showing this to me!" Because I am truly grateful that they share with me their obras maestras, their "en-taaa-yerrr" life's hardest work.

Thinking In and Out of the Xbox: Persevering with PDD

2009-11-15T13:58:00.015+08:00

I need to write about Xbox (obviously not his real name; I'm masking him under this name because he would always murmur about games in Xbox or some computer-related phrases like "page loading error" or "download complete"), a 4-year-old boy in my class with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified), which in his case mainly means a marked challenge in communication, social interaction, and in processing stimulus and information. More concretely, that means he doesn't converse with his teachers and classmates--he talks, but his sentences are d-i-s-j-o-i-n-t-e-d and they seem to come from out of no where. Or everywhere! Because X is like a "reading prodigy" who suddenly and inexplicably read at 2, without anyone teaching him; he reads ALOUD just about anything he sees. Stimulus and information come to him in barrages so he's mostly excited, uneasy, confused all at once. Among other things, he doesn't have eye contact; he takes a while to respond to his name; he runs around and laughs aloud indefatigably.

I need to write about him because I need to think more about him; and maybe through writing, just as the way it has worked for me in the past, I can take just the right amount of steps back enough for me to make more sense of him and the world, the box, he is in. And also, maybe, through writing; I can take a c l o s e r, c l o s e r, cl os er, closer and honest look at myself.

What Works:
As a teacher, I have always said that I should be proactive rather than reactive. I must have anticipated different classroom scenarios and must have prepared different classroom/child management strategies based on what works for each and every child. If someone breaks a glass from the Practical Life shelf, I should know better than "AAAHHH! Oh no!". Proactive instead of reactive, for me, also means being able to stop; breathe; rein in reaction; quickly assess a sudden, surprise situation; and act upon it with the usual and necessary respect for the child. So I refuse to just adhere to what X's therapist says to him, "If you don't [insert command/expectation here], I will put you in a corner!" At best, it elicits only a transient pseudo-obedience. These are what works for Xbox so far.

1. Making him aware of his body. When he's been running around, I just stand where I anticipate he will eventually pass, and when he does pass, I catch him in my arms. I do this because if I chase him, he will probably just think I was playing with him. When he's finally with me, I put his hand to his heart and say, "X, feel your heart. It is beating too fast. That means you will get tired, why don't you rest first." We also do some breathing exercises. "Can you put your pointer finger out. Breathe and bring your pointer finger on the tip of your nose (inhale). Now blow slowly and quietly (exhale, move the pointer away from the nose). Let's do it again." X will then be ready for me to introduce a work to him, and recently he has been choosing and getting work out by himself already.

2. Calming him down by counting. In the past, I have helped crying children calm down by counting, I'd say, "Let's count some thing you like. Maybe butterflies? Or cars? 1 car, 2 cars, 3 cars, etc. You have to be a little quiet so you can hear me count." We'll count while I wipe their tears and I usually ask them to wash their hands and their face because water is inherently soothing. I found that this has helped children shift their focus to just my counting and has helped them calm down.

I wondered if this will work with X, too, for focus and calm. I wanted to help X be more ready for circle time. Storytelling has been a challenge because he would usually rush up in front of the book and blurt out whatever he reads there. So I started him with calm counting, "X, let's see if you can be ready (he knows that ready means his sitting on the circle, his legs are crossed, and his hands are on his lap) while I count 1 to 5." In my softest and calmest voice, I counted. 1... 2... By 3 he was already fidgeting with his fingers. I try again. By 5 he was already glancing sideways. Tried again. This would only work if I'm calm, too. A few more tries later, we reached counting up to 10 with X sitting very still. I tried to see how long he can go. 15. 20. 25. 30. 40. 50. A whole minute! X's father came in, saw this, and was very happy. That would be the first time in his entire life that X has sat quiet and still.

Another day, I tried something else. "X, let's see if you can be ready while Teacher Mars reads this story." I read 'Goodnight Moon' by Margaret Wise Brown. And then we moved on to longer stories. And by the time we had our United Nations program last October, X was able to sit and sing for one whole hour!

3. Letting him do things by himself. One distinct and disruptive thing about X when he first came to class last June was that he whines when he needs something and he just waits for someone to notice him and figure out what he needs. Whines and waits, then whines some more. In school, this usually happens when he eats because he couldn't open his snacks. Some would just go ahead and open them for him, just to get it over with. But I wanted X to be more independent. "Teach me how to do it by myself." And using the scissors will help develop his fine motor skills. So I insisted that he open his own snacks by himself. I drew broken black lines on his snack packs so he'll know just where to cut. Pretty soon, I was able to say, "X, today I will not draw black lines. Can you just imagine there are black lines right here and cut?" He did. And he has been eating independently now--even packing away and sweeping right after.

More Work:
With less than five months of this school year to go, X and I have much to work on. One is talking within a topic. I'm starting weekly sharing sessions and we'll see where that goes.

The Wild Wombat

2009-10-29T08:21:00.011+08:00

One thing I enjoy more than reading to children is having one read to me. I think one of the most beautiful sights and sounds in the world is a child reading or one who is just learning to. So you can imagine my delight when one day, Felipe, who's 5 and exploding into reading (it took him a little more time than his other classmates, but at this point I knew that he could read phonetic stories with some simple sight words); uncharacteristically, yet sweetly, came up to me holding up 'The Wild Wombat', a book that I have read to him many times before, and said, "Teacher Mars. Let me read this to you."

You can bet that I wouldn't have cared even if hail and brimstones showered the earth, nothing would have stopped me from sitting down and listening to Felipe. He turned to the first page and I was so excited it was like I was hearing the story for the first time! He breathe in and said, "I will now do my best." I think at this point, I was holding my breath!

Interestingly and amusingly, the words that Felipe stopped and asked for help with were the ones he would have liked such as dreadful, devoured, awful; words that were far from sweet and cuddly, which the future race car driver declared he didn't like.

This is something I made for every child when our theme was People in the Community and What I Want to be When I Grow Up.

After reading the book, Felipe did just as what I do most of the time, he asked me questions.

"So, Teacher Mars. Did you enjoy the story?"

"Yes, very much. Thank you for sharing that with me."

"What did you think about the wild wombat?"

I didn't want to say cute, that would be so close to sweet and cuddly. "He was a surprise! All the animals in the zoo thought he would be scary, maybe because of his name; but when he came, he turned out to be very friendly and the other animals were surprised, I bet they're happy."

"Are you happy I read to you today?"

"It was just like the wild wombat in the story--a pleasant surprise all the way from Australia."

Addition with Dominoes

2009-10-27T14:21:00.009+08:00

This is a material I use to ease the transition from horizontal to vertical addition and to show the commutative property of addition i.e., when two numbers are added, the sum is the same regardless of the order of the addends. Those were quite fancily technical terms, but this work is fairly simple and easily enjoyable (even I enjoy making these!). For some reason, black has magic and the children like using the white chalk/pencil/dermatograph over the black paper. Just make sure your paper is not jet black--choose a lighter shade of black--so that your black ink can be printed on the black paper.

Note: The second equation can be written vertically. Turn the domino tile the other way to illustrate the commutative property of addition.

You may download the template here.

Bead Stairs with Clay

2009-10-27T09:40:00.028+08:00

I developed this work for Micah who at the time, 1) started everyday with the bead stairs because she thinks it looks like a rainbow, and 2) needed particular attention to her fine motor skills so she can write soon.

You will need the Montessori numerical beads. If you don't have these, a quick trip to an arts and crafts or jewelry store should get you the beads and copper wires you need to make your own (this should be fun)! Here are the colors: 1-red, 2-green, 3-pink, 4-yellow, 5-light blue, 6-purple, 7-white, 8-brown, 9-dark blue.

You also need clay in those colors, which are easy to find in toy stores (or if you are feeling do-it-all-yourself, you always can). I found the perfect container for my clay, a 9-compartment drawer in the DIY Store.

I took a shot at a little woodwork / "carpentry" and made a 4x4-inch wooden tablet on which I drilled grooves that were just the size of the beads. I like this because it makes the work more Montessori, but you can always improvise and simply build on a felt cloth or a masonite board instead.

Make sure to emphasize the dominant hand's pincher grip (thumb, pointer, and middle finger). This develops fine motor skills and is an indirect preparation for writing.

This is a popular albeit long work. Just be patient with those bits of clay that can stubbornly stick on soles and socks; you can ask the children to work on a newsprint and sweep after.

A Very Good Place to Start

2009-10-26T21:38:00.017+08:00

It was when I was at my dream (dream, because I thought, at that time, that it was prestigious and impenetrable) company (AC Nielsen, Philippines, a multinational market research agency) that I decided, finally, to be a Montessori preschool teacher. Client calls became parent-teacher conferences; in the place of marketing managers and presidents, even, of top-of-mind companies/brands, I now work with children from 2.5 to 6; in lieu of my monthly rice allowance, I had daily portions of Red Ribbon mamon and occasional bags of Gummy Bears; my untrustworthy and unfortunately clinically depressed boss was replaced by one who gives sincere praises and substantial raises, one who–just as any good teacher does–teaches me and learns from me; I moved, from the new Nielsen building along EDSA to a nice “children’s house” along a tree-lined street on Loyola Heights; from statistics and analysis, I am back to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

I have, since I started teaching three years ago, always declared that becoming a Montessori teacher was the best decision I’ve made so far. I’m in a setting where I am in control, yet at the same time, where there are real surprises everyday. I work with real, honest people (and I sincerely hope that Felipe, 5, was seriously just joking when he said I was fat); I don’t have to survive through the corporate cut-throats and back-stabs. Sure there are times when I thank goodness that I only get the children for 3 hours a day, but the thought of having them leave the school after 3 years of being with us has always been bittersweet because while each year I send them off into the world having high hopes and knowing that I did my best for each of them, chances are I won’t be seeing them again. Still, I have always said that what I do should have an intangible benefit, a good that I could not or would not be able to neither see nor reap. And I think I’m in a very good place to start.