Elementary Grace & Courtesy as Practical Life

I created this list of ideas for grace and courtesy whilst thinking about practical life lessons in the elementary classroom.

We foster grace and courtesy in  the classroom (or home) through the division of labour, recognising strengths and potential contributions, communicating, sharing resources and considering the needs of others.

Let's cultivate respect, care and consideration in our children.

Observing the Child

 

Observing children in an elementary Montessori classroom is crucial for several reasons:

Easter Activities

 

With Easter only a couple of weeks away I thought I would share these activities. These are suitable for stage one and early stage two children.

March Reflections

 

Over the weekend I spent quite a bit of time going through messages on my blog and socials. A lot were from years ago, but I was surprised by how many recent messages there were as well. There were so many kind words, I found it a little overwhelming. 

As for reinstating my old posts, this is a little bit challenging. Around the time I stopped blogging I was half way through the process of creating a subscribers page. This means there are a lot of dead links in my old posts, and a lot of half finished projects that aren't making much sense to me at the moment. 

As I sort my way through it all I will repost what I can, starting with the most requested posts/topics/items. 

Checking In

 

It turned out my "temporary situation" was impacted by a global pandemic. 

As for this blog I am undecided how or if to proceed. I still don't have much spare time, so I don't want to make any promises. I would like to update and create resources at my store but I'm unsure about reinstating the blog. 

In the meantime I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Hope to see you in 2024

Temporary Situation

We are living in extraordinary times at the moment. I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

This time of isolation has provided an opportunity for me to review this little project of mine that has been neglected for so long.

A friend of mine alerted me to a Facebook page that is promoting my free products as their own. While I investigate this and any other fraudulent activity I am shutting down the blog. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause for you lovely people who do the right thing, and I will hopefully be able to make everything available again shortly.

In the meantime you can still access several of my free resources through my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Wishing you all a safe and blessed 2020.

Playing With Prepositions

After introducing the key preposition lesson you may find it useful for some students to have the opportunity to have concrete, hands on experiences to reinforce the concept.

I have created some easy to prepare preposition extensions cards for such occasions. These cards are used in conjunction with items you would find in your classroom (if not they would be easy enough to find at home!).

There are five sets of six cards. Each set has a small graphic in the bottom corner to help keep the sets organised easily

Back to Basics: Being a Prepared Adult

With the overwhelming amount of images on social media it sometimes can be easy to reduce Montessori education and learning to trays, shelves, materials and printables. Whilst these are important aspects of the prepared environment, it is only one aspect of a bigger picture.

Essential Elementary Reading

Whether you are a home-schooler, new teacher or new to elementary Montessori these are the essential books to read to start your journey as a prepared adult.

Early Elementary Research

What does research look like in the elementary classroom? It is something that those new to Montessori sometimes struggle with, but Montessori is the original inquiry method...

Question and Answer games (botany & zoology) - these games are early forms of research for

Grammar Mind Map

Last year I introduced mind maps to some students. After the initial introduction I decided to use the process to revise the parts of speech with some students moving into the upper elementary classroom.

We work-shopped it together as a group and students were then encouraged to make their own in their journals.

I created a completed version (based on our little work shop) to sit next to our traditional grammar chart in our language area.

It was an interesting and fun way to revise the parts of speech.

You can find a copy HERE.

Logical Agreement Games

These games reinforce the relationships between the noun and the adjective and similarly the verb and the adverb. Children have a lot of fun mixing and matching and making silly combinations, it really appeals to the sense of humour of this age group.


Logical Adjective Game

Following the initial introduction of the adjective it's really important the child gets to explore the relationship between the noun and the adjective.

I love taking an object and asking the children to tell me as many qualities about it as possible, it really helps hone their observation skills. You can leave the object and all the words you make in a basket on the shelf so the child can revisit the exercise again.

It is also good to have a set of nouns and adjectives for matching on the shelf for the children to sort through and discuss which ones fit best together. Sometimes they have an adjective left that doesn't really match the remaining noun, so they have to re-think the other pairs - hence the name Logical Adjective Game.

They can also use the set to pick out as many adjectives to describe one noun.

You can find a set of cards HERE

Logical Adverb Game

After introducing the adverb the children should have opportunities to experiment with how it works with the miniature environment.

It is fun to look at the ways the adverb interacts with the verb.

This works the same way as the Logical Adjective Game - seeing which pairs work best, making up silly pairs of words and choosing as many adverbs that can be used with a particular verb.

You can find a set of cards HERE.

Logical Agreement Games

You can play similar games with the other parts of speech as the child's knowledge and understanding grows.

You can find my series of the "parts of speech" cards for free at my TpT Store.

Studying Sharks

There has been some interest in sharks around here lately.

We looked at some shark cards that I found at the Natural Beach Living blog, which you can find HERE - there are some other fun activities to be found on that post as well. You can find more shark picture cards at Every Star Is Different, you can find them HERE.

There was some research and discussion about the parts of the shark and types of sharks.

I have previously shared my parts of the shark nomenclature for free HERE.

I created some great white shark taxonomy cards for an older child, which put all my zoology drawings to good use.

I am offering this file for FREE for a LIMITED TIME - you can find the file HERE. 

We used them with my free taxonomy title cards which you can find HERE.

I also have mute and labelled charts, definition cards and master sheet available HERE. (Note the nomenclature cards are also bundled with this pack)

It was great to see some of my reluctant readers with books open!



Linking to Montessori Monday  and A Little Bird Told Me

Follow Elementary's board Zoology Round-up on Pinterest.

Planning

This post is from September 2015:

As all teachers can appreciate, planning and record keeping are an ever-evolving process.  

This is the latest version of part of my process - weekly lesson planning. I have created a weekly template covering the main learning area's to schedule in lessons.  .

I hope to write a post further discussing planning and record keeping some time soon.

If you are interesting in taking a look you can download a copy from HERE. The file includes two blank page templates as well.

Studying the Solar System {with a Freebie}

How Small the Earth Is & The Sun's family

Children are often fascinated by magnitude of our sun and solar system and by providing them with pictures and activities that reveal the scale of the planets in relation to each other they can appreciate and grasp this concept more clearly.

As an extension of the Sun and Earth chart I have created these cut-outs of the planets to scale. The file has a black and white master set (which can be printed onto whatever coloured card/paper you prefer) as well as set with coloured planets and a control sheet.

We started with the white set which I laminated onto A4 cards - the initial focus being the different sizes of each planet. I put the name of each planet on the reverse side as a control of error. The cards can be ordered by planet sequence as well as ordered by size.

I also created the colour set, that I laminated and cut out, as a way to allow further investigation and comparison of size, by using the control chart it is easier to see which planet is which with the colour coding.

You could also cut a large yellow circle from A2 paper to include the sun to scale. There is plenty of scope to adapt these for yourself.

I also created a set of solar system Who Am I? cards that the children can use in a group, in pairs or independently. These are similar to what you might use for first knowledge of zoology or botany.

For introducing this material I find it is often best to do it in a group with children of various ages, where the older children can help the younger ones read the question cards and work together to find the answers. It is a highly engaging and enjoyable way to spark interest in learning more about the solar system. They also make a good revision exercise for older children.

You can find the Planets to Scale Freebie HERE.

You can find the Solar System Who Am I? cards HERE.

Linked to Montessori Monday



For more idea's and resources visit my Pinterest Board:

Follow Elementary's board Montessori Metaphysics & Astronomy on Pinterest.

Introducing Conjunctions

This was the lesson that made me fall in love with Montessori Grammar. It just stuck with me and it made me realise how powerful the Montessori approach can be.

Tying that pink ribbon around the flowers was such a strong image for me and it made me think back to my own schooling and how the things that stuck with me most were those that captured my imagination.

The lesson requires three flowers of different colours and begins with asking the child/ren to label the flowers, e.g. "the white flower". Once the flowers are labelled write the word "and" on two pieces of paper and place between the flower labels. Then take the flowers and tie them together with the pink ribbon and read all the labels aloud. Tell the children that the word "and" is a conjunction, placing the symbol above the "and" and then symbolising the other words.

Conjunction comes from the Latin word 'conjungere' which means to join together, which is why its symbol is the pink ribbon.

As a continuation of my word cards series for exploration, transposing and logical agreement games, you can find my conjunction word cards for free HERE.



Extensions:

After the initial lesson, children can practice with the miniature environment.

I have also created some extension cards, which are similar to the logical agreement games that the children can play with the word cards. There are four exercises for exploring how conjunctions function.



I would suggest introducing the child to the exercise by choosing two conjunctions for them and using one of the exercises with just two pictures and ask the child to choose one of the conjunctions and place it in the pink box. Then replace it with the second conjunction and ask them how it seems different to the first.

  

You can find these extension cards HERE at my store.





Notes on Spelling

I was recently asked by a reader "What comes after green in the pink/blue/green series?". I will be honest, I was (momentarily) stumped. Mostly because I was not trained in PBG - so trying to wrap my head around that paradigm took a few moments. Also the idea that spelling occurs in a linear fashion did not really compute in my mind, as it is the result of reading and writing. So many experiences contribute to this ability.

So I thought I would expand a little on my answer to that reader here and share my thoughts and ideas with you all.

To me regardless of what type of learning environment - Montessori or otherwise - spelling cannot occur in isolation. My feeling is that spelling for spellings sake is counter-intuitive. When I began my studies what really resonated with me about elementary Montessori was the integrated approach, what we call cosmic education, in which learning is fostered. We, as the guide provide, children with the keys to self learning.

The transition from phonetic to non-phonetic words is developed and supported in many ways, including but not limited to:

• orthography folders
• studying the parts of speech - e.g. noun studies include the spelling rules for plurals and gender
• etymology - which happens across all learning areas
• word study - prefixes, compound words, etc.
• providing individualised strategies based on the needs of each child
• individual spelling dictionaries generated by the child (words of interest, words of difficulty)

Spelling is the natural consequence of reading and writing and should be:

• student driven
• not regimented into a meaningless task
• made interesting through etymology, history and stories
• connected to other learning areas
• connected to the child's interests

Setting arbitrary words for an end of week quiz cultivates competition and impedes  lasting understanding of spelling concepts.

I see and hear of other teachers who implement various spelling programs, something I would be reluctant to do unless I felt it benefitted a particular child and it could be implemented in a Montessori way.


Related posts:

Plural Nouns

Vocabulary Building

More articles:

Spelling in the Montessori Upper Elementary Classroom - NAMC

Elementary Spelling and Research Writing - MTIPS - transcript

Introduction to Prepositions

I shared some photos from a recent prepositions lesson on Facebook
and wow were they popular!

This work is so much fun and you can use any objects at hand.

When writing and working with sentence strips it really appeals to the humour of the elementary children to transpose the subject and the object, reinforcing the importance of correct word usage.

It is also important that the children build their own sentences as follow up to this work.

These cards can be used to build sentences in conjunction with the other parts of speech cards, they can be used as simple single word commands or your children may choose them for spelling words.

You can find my printable file HERE.