146 Times Around the Sun: Happy Birthday, Dr. Maria Montessori!

146 times around the sun; Happiest of Birthdays, Dr. Maria Montessori!

Today is a day we celebrate the life and legacy of the most important, influential developer of the Montessori pedagogy.

Our Primary community celebrated by participating in a traditional Celebration of Life for Dr. Montessori.A few friends were chosen to walk the earth around the sun, signifying the years of her life. Naturally, we didn’t make it around the sun 146 times, however we did talk about significant milestones in her life after each lap.

Students were asked “What do you like most about Montessori?” One child said they thought she had good ideas about children. Another reflected on how she worked in a hospital. We learned lots of interesting facts today!Following tradition, we baked muffins for the occasion, and shared them as a class.

Happy Birthday Dr. Montessori!

—————————————————————————–

Biography

A physician, scientist, educator, innovator, child rights advocate…

Dr. Maria Montessori spent a lifetime developing an educational method focusing on the way that children learn. This method is still widely known and practiced today.

Dr. Montessori was born on August 31, 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy. She later graduated from the University of Rome in 1896, becoming the first female doctor in Italy. She chose to focus on pediatrics and psychiatry as her specialties.

Maria Montessori became the director for the Orthophrenic School for developmentally disabled children in 1900. It was there that she began her research on early childhood development.

The first Montessori home was developed in 1907, called Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House). This is where Montessori first practiced her pedagogy, preparing each classroom environment to promote creative learning and exploration. Her methods soon became internationally recognized.

Around 1940, the Montessori movement began to fade, and Maria was forced out of Italy. She fled to India, where she developed a program called Education for Peace, which earned her two Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

In the years following, Maria Montessori continued to advance her approaches to education. She lectured all over the world, documenting her theories in books and articles. She developed a program to prepare teachers in the Montessori method; through her efforts, her pedagogy was adopted worldwide.

Summer Camp at HBMH: Gardening

“Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives.” – Thomas Berry

We kicked off summer camp with an exciting and hands-on gardening theme, which of course, went successfully!

Over the past few weeks, we have been studying gardening. Our Apple classroom conducted a lima bean experiment to see how the bean sprouts and grows. Try it at home to see how big your bean will sprout!

We also pin-pricked various flower patterns, placing them on our wall-garden.

 We’ve also been participating in plenty of garden care through watering the soil and harvesting the fresh vegetables and herbs.

Our students officially have green thumbs!

Next week’s summer camp theme “United States of America”, is sure to be just as exciting!

Happy Gardening!

Photo of the Day: Summer Gardening

Baby peppers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, fresh basil and beautiful flowers continue to grow in this tremendous summer heat! Thank you to our young friends for making sure our plants get plenty of water to drink each day!

Photo of the Day: Exploring in the Garden

Busy fingers explore the soil beneath our pepper plants. Our friends enjoy learning about the growth cycle of peppers, amongst many other vegetable, fruits and herbs that adorn our garden beds.

HBMH Summer Camp 6: Natural, Environmentlly-Friendly Art

Our primary friends are thoroughly enjoying this week’s new Summer Camp 6 theme “Discovering and Creating Natural Art Projects: Good Earth Art“. Several friends are using their creativity to make natural art by incorporating items such as rocks, leaves, sticks, and other environmental resources. Our hope is that they will learn to recycle and use natural materials for art, while developing an awareness of the environment and a caring attitude towards the earth.

Our camp themes were designed to feature creative hands-on activities that build skills, bodies, and excitement. We offer an environment that fits the needs and interests of all our children, incorporating Montessori principles that foster independence and freedom with responsibility. I’m hoping to update our blog all summer long to show the children as they progress through the different themes.
Nature collages made with items found in our outdoor environmentHand-made stained glass mobiles created from twigs, leaves, grass, flowers and other items gathered from outside. Of course, these were gathered after they had fallen to the ground and were no longer a part of the plant/tree. Remember, nature stays in nature!
Natural “ice paint” art! We added a few drops of paint to an ice cube tray, placed popsicle sticks into each ice cube and put in the freezer overnight. The results were pretty cool! (pun intended) 
Leaf tracing was a great way to draw and compare leaves to the ones found outside.
Sand was also incorporated into many of our art projects. The children absolutely love working with sand as it stimulates their senses in several different ways; touching the soft grains and manipulating different shapes, they’re able to challenge their visual senses as they dig for shells in the sensorial discovery box, or even just enjoying the sound of the soft grains sifting through their fingers. Using glue and sand, we created nature scenes, including flowers, trees, sunshine, and so forth. 
Next week we will be exploring “art appreciation” and discovering new, great artists…stay tuned for updates!

See What’s Happening in Our Own Backyard!

The latest in our backyard improvements: an awesome new Gravel Works area, complete with a covered tarp to provide much needed shade; blossoming garden beds filled with flowers, fresh lemon balm and basil, strawberries, peppers, and tomatoes, and a few other projects in the making. BIG THANKS to Mr. Monty, our honorary Projects Manager and Head of all backyard renovations and improvements. Donations raised from tomorrow night’s Parent’s Night Out will go towards these and many more renovations in the near future; thank you in advance for your generous donations towards the growth of our school!

Stop by the backyard to see the updates for yourself!

 

Photo of the Day: April Showers Bring May Flowers

Beautiful flowers and fresh herbs adorn our new garden beds. We are grateful for the rain and sunshine today!

Flower Arranging

It’s not uncommon to see small flower arrangements adorning tables in a Montessori classroom. This is a work called “flower arranging”, and is a favorite for any young child. Each week, our families participate in a “flower basket” program, and bring fresh flowers for the classroom on a rotating basis. The flowers are then used for flower arranging. It’s impressive to watch a child carefully engage in this exercise. They start with putting on an apron, and then fetch water in the small pitcher provided. Now, they must control their movement while walking across the room without spilling water. If there is any water left in their small pitcher, they pour it into the tiny funnel placed in a small vase. They repeat this step several times until the vase is full. Once the flowers have been arranged, the child will display them on the shelf.  Sometimes, they change the location of the vases throughout the work cycle.  Now, they must restore the work area in it’s original condition.  Cleaning up is a big job. They must dump and wipe up all extra water on the table, then Swiffer the excess water from the floor which is usually a large area.  It’s not uncommon for a child to be engaged in this work for over an hour.

What are they learning while arranging flowers? They are refining gross and fine motor skills, concentration, self-regulation, control of movement, sequencing, eye-and-hand coordination and practical life skills.

In the toddler community the focus is on “care of self”, “care of environment” and “grace and courtesy”. Activities such as this help the children work with purpose and concentration as they move about the classroom.

“A child who has become master of his acts through long and repeated exercises, and who has been encouraged by the pleasant and interesting activities in which he has been engaged, is a child filled with health and joy and remarkable for his calmness and discipline.” -Dr. Maria Montessori

Easter & Spring in the Montessori Classroom

There are so many different ways to incorporate this spring holiday into the Montessori classroom, the most traditional being egg decorating. I came across a blog provided by the North American Montessori Center, focusing on how to incorporate Ukranian Easter Eggs in your classroom’s culture and science curriculum. Very interesting!

http://montessoritraining.blogspot.com/2013/03/montessori-easter-activities-ukrainian-eggs-pysanky.html#.VRxpevnF9Bg

I would also encourage you to peruse our HBMH Easter-Inspired Montessori board on pinterest for more ideas on how you can introduce this holiday and generally the spring season to your children’s daily routine.

Our primary community is currently enjoying  a variety of spring-themed works such as the life cycle of the butterfly (including parts of the butterfly), tracing flowers, leaves,  and butterflies at the light box, pin-pricking/cutting shapes and outlines of flowers and butterflies and several different weather patterns such as rain, thunderstorms, clouds, etc. There are so many ways that you can introduce the concept of spring. You can even make spring sensorial boxes filled with flowers, branches, and other items from outside, go on nature walks and discuss the many seasonal changes currently taking place outside, plant flowers and vegetables in your gardens, and so forth. There are so many creative things that you can do to help introduce the new season to your students!

Tomorrow, we will be hosting our Annual HBMH Easter Egg Hunt (photos will be shared afterwards, of course). Everyone is busy with excitement as we welcome this new spring month of April!

Happy Easter!