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Believing in Growing Montessori Minds

By Alex Chiu

   

Montessori Practical Life – Pouring Exercises

We continuously hear new buzzwords regarding child development, education, and personal growth, and one buzz in recent years has been about “fixed mindsets” vs. “growth mindsets”. In their simplest terms, a ‘fixed mindset’ is the belief that your intelligence and abilities are what they are and can’t be developed or improved, whereas a ‘growth mindset’ is the belief that our intelligence and abilities can grow, change, and be developed with work and effort. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck shares the importance of working towards a growth mindset for better attitudes about ourselves and better success across all areas of our lives. Further work in this field of ‘mindsets’ has unfolded the importance of modeling and facilitating a growth mindset for our children, and what seems to be at the core of promoting growth mindsets in everyone centers around the word ‘belief’.

Not surprisingly, once again the Montessori Method beautifully dovetails with this relatively current idea. After all, Dr. Montessori’s very first Casa dei Bambini was a school created for the poorest, most disadvantaged children. Her expectations of what her students could do and achieve were not limited by their circumstances. She believed in their ability to learn, grow, develop, and achieve within the specially designed environment she provided for them. She believed that with careful observation, she could tune into their needs and develop materials that would allow them to overcome whatever obstacles they might have in their lives. Central to both Montessori education and a growth mindset is that very important aspect of “believing” that work and effort is important and that by putting forth that work and effort, children can learn new things, master many skills, develop a sense of self-worth and confidence, and do so with enthusiasm and satisfaction.

Experts agree that developing a growth mindset requires people to do certain things. A few practices which seem to be required for achieving a growth mindset include:

• Putting Forth Effort
• Responding to Feedback
• Taking Time for Self-Reflection
• Persisting Despite Difficulties
• Embracing Challenges

Many of these things automatically and naturally occur in the Montessori classroom. Children put forth the effort to make their work choices and do the work from start to finish. Children receive immediate feedback because the Montessori materials and lessons have built within them a ‘control of error’. Children know when they’ve completed the work correctly because of this self-correcting aspect created within the materials. For example, in the very basic Practical Life lesson of pouring liquid, if water spills, the child knows that something went wrong. The child engages in self-reflection as he or she thinks about how to do the work differently to solve the problem and do the work without spilling. Should she pour the water more slowly? Should the angle of the pitcher change? Should she concentrate more on her work than looking up at others across the table while pouring? Then, the child can repeat the work and persist despite difficulties. Through this repetition, the child comes to discover just the right way to pour water from one container to another without spilling. He or she learns the appropriate speed to pour, the angle at which the pitcher should be held, and the careful concentration it takes to perform this task. In the Practical Life area and throughout the classroom, the child is constantly invited to embrace challenges, as the Montessori materials are arranged in succession of difficulty and grow with the child, continuously moving the child forward in learning new skills. Even in this very basic Montessori Practical Life pouring exercise, the child works on developing a growth mindset, believing that he or she can do the work without spilling water with more practice and effort.

Perhaps even better is that as children work through various Montessori lessons, they are not reliant on an adult giving them praise for doing a ‘good job’. Instead, they internalize that they are making progress and doing things well because they see it for themselves! The feedback is right there for them as they do their work. And it’s not critical or judgmental—it just is. The process of children choosing their work equally stimulates a growth mindset, as they can return to lessons to refine their skills or seek out new lessons that are intriguing and very likely more difficult or complex.

Additionally, teachers prepare the environment for their students so that challenges and (internal) rewards (such as self-satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment, and feeling a sense of success in doing the work well) are available at every turn and in every activity they choose. This type of environment motivates children to seek out challenges, learn from mistakes, and enjoy the process of learning! Just as Dr. Montessori did with her first students in her first Casa dei Bambini, today’s Montessori teachers believe in their current students and are there to guide them towards a healthy, joyful, educational experience. We believe that Montessori students can grow, persevere, and find delight in learning with their growth mindsets throughout their entire lives. This is why we believe in the Montessori Method.

 

For more information about growth mindset, you might like to explore these resources, some of which were used in creating this article:

Briceño, Eduardo. “Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions.” Mindshift, KQED Inc., 16 November 2015, https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/42769/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions.

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006.

Dweck, Carol S. “Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 11 January 2016, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck.

Eidens, Alexandra. “Top Growth Mindset Resources for Parents and Educators.” Big Life Journal, 8 September 2017, https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/growth-mindset-resources.

Freibrun, Marine. “Maintaining a Teacher Growth Mindset.” Tales from a Very Busy Teacher, 31 December 2016, http://www.talesfromaverybusyteacher.com/2016/12/maintaining-teacher-growth-mindset.

Heggart, Keith. “Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 4 February 2015, https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/developing-growth-mindset-teachers-and-staff.

Whips, Merri. “I Can Do Hard Things.” Montessori Blog, MariaMontessori.com, 7 March 2014, https://www.mariamontessori.com/2014/03/07/i-can-do-hard-things.

Celebrating Montessori Education Week at MCA!

By Alex Chiu

       
A sampling of MCA student projects on display at local libraries for Montessori Education Week

We at The Montessori Children’s Academy celebrate Montessori education each and every day, but for one week out of the year, we join together with schools from around the world to take part in extra special celebrations during a designated Montessori Education Week. This international commemoration of the life and work of Dr. Maria Montessori provides us with additional time to reflect on what makes Montessori education so special and to acknowledge the amazing aspects of this educational philosophy, which we see play out daily in our schools. While Dr. Montessori may have humbly stated that “It is not true that I invented what is called the Montessori Method… I have studied the child; I have taken what the child has given me and expressed it, and that is what is called the Montessori Method”, we must respectfully add that her observations of children and the development of her Montessori materials and philosophy have indeed created a remarkable educational path for children to follow.

For example, we observe how the multi-age classrooms allow children to work and grow together across abilities, levels, and ages, just as family members of varying ages work and grow together at home. We witness the process of discovery, challenge, repetition, determination, and satisfaction as students work on and come to master a spectrum of skills using the unique Montessori materials. We revel in the caring and empathy we see develop within our students as they work together and participate in various charitable endeavors to help those who need help. We take pride in the continuous growth and ongoing successes we see in our students, families, and staff, as we all know that learning never stops, especially when learning is so joyful! As Dr. Montessori herself said, “One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.” We see the joy in Montessori learning every day in our children’s eyes!

Our Montessori Education Week festivities this year included student presentations of Montessori materials, public library displays of student-created projects, individual classroom lessons on Dr. Montessori’s life and legacy, studies about Italy (Dr. Montessori’s home country and the birthplace of the Montessori Method), and extensions of peace activities, including our annual ‘lighting a candle for peace’ tradition. As our students engage in these experiences, they bolster both their intellectual and interpersonal skills. Students continuously build upon their prior learning, finding new nuances to each subject studied, gaining new strengths, and uncovering new ideas. “Development is a series of rebirths,” said Dr. Montessori, and we delight in watching our students evolve and advance personally and academically as they progress and make discoveries in their Montessori classrooms every day.

Although Montessori Education Week has come to a close, our celebration of Montessori continues on among our vibrant MCA community! We are proud to uphold the incredible traditions of Dr. Maria Montessori and welcome all to come learn more about her enduring philosophy and to see what makes our Montessori schools so special!

“An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.” ~Maria Montessori

 

More Than Just a Bake Sale

By Alex Chiu

When is a bake sale more than just a bake sale? When we look at the learning opportunities behind these special fundraisers, we discover that children get more out of them than we might realize! Let’s take a peek behind the scenes of the bake sales hosted by The Montessori Children’s Academy and uncover the ways bake sales can help our children learn to look beyond the sweets with some very sweet and lasting results.

1. Children learn empathy. First, it’s important to be aware that with one exception (the Kindergarten bake sale), the proceeds from MCA bake sales go to charity. This month’s sales will support The Valerie Fund, MCA’s chosen charity for this school year. The students at all three MCA campuses have spent the past several months learning about this organization and how The Valerie Fund helps families whose children are suffering from childhood cancers or other blood diseases. They have come to realize some of the challenges these children and families face, and have learned about the things that this organization does to assist them. The children learn empathy for others, and are introduced to other people’s experiences and struggles. In addition, children are encouraged to see the bake sale as an opportunity to do something kind not only for the individuals associated with the chosen charity. They are inspired to consider who they might like to share a special bake sale treat with as a random act of kindness. Perhaps the local librarian? The crossing guard? A sibling? They might decide that someone they know could use a special ‘pick me up’ and share a treat with that individual as a very sweet gesture.

2. Children learn to plan and organize an event. MCA bake sales are planned and organized together with the children. While the teachers must coordinate the dates for the sales, the children are very involved in other aspects of the preparation. Students are responsible for listing the things that are needed to run the sales, including basic items like tables to display the sale items, decorations and tablecloths to make the sale attractive, money for making change, baskets to hold the baked goods, to name a few. They also create the posters which hang in the school hallways to promote the sales.

3. Children learn appreciation. Our Kindergarteners take the lead on a spring bake sale, which not only raises money for a charity of their choice, but also helps to support their end of the year events. The proceeds are divided between a charity that the students research and vote on, a special memento left on the school grounds representing the graduating Kindergarteners (e.g., wind chimes, a carved stone, etc.), and their special Kindergarten-year celebration. In this way, the Kindergarteners learn that in addition to their charitable contribution, there is work, time, and money involved in being afforded these special year-end activities, and they come to appreciate them even more.

4. Children practice interpersonal communication. Alongside parent helpers, MCA students work at the bake sale tables. They greet their customers and are encouraged to explain the purpose of the sale. They might describe the information they have learned about the charity that will benefit from the sale or share details about the various items being sold. In general, they have the opportunity to practice general grace and courtesy with their interactions.

5. Children use math skills! In addition to developing communication skills, the children who work at the bake sales practice their math skills while taking money for purchases and making change as needed. In their classrooms, the children work on identifying coins and learning the quantities within the different coins. Children who help their parents prepare the baked items at home also have the opportunity to practice math skills as they measure out ingredients for their recipes. And for those who opt to purchase pre-made goods, those children can work together with their parents to determine how many of each item is in the package and how many packages they will need to be able to provide a dozen bags of treats for their sale.

6. Children can express their creativity. When preparing bake sale items or packaging them, consider having your child create labels or decorate stickers to put on each bag. While not necessary, this is just another way to involve children in the process.

7. Children make connections across their learning. When schools work together with families to bridge the learning that takes place both at school and at home, children can see the connections of what they are learning across all areas of their lives. Learning doesn’t just happen at school. Things parents teach at home aren’t just meant for when the children are with their families. Bake sales are just another opportunity where these connections can be made in a very delicious and satisfying way!

So next time that information sheet about an upcoming bake sale comes home, consider the learning opportunities it can offer, and then let the baking and more than baking begin!

Artful Opportunities

By Alex Chiu

Winter is an especially opportune time to delve into the wonderful world of art with children. Time spent outdoors is sometimes more limited than in warmer seasons, and families often look for creative activities to do together at home. While Maria Montessori did not create specific Montessori materials for art activities as she did with the materials she developed for other areas in the curriculum, there are many Montessori-inspired ways to bring art into your child’s life.

Montessori classrooms usually have an inviting Art area with shelves that contain activities where children can focus on one skill at a time, and then gradually move on to other activities that require combining several skills. For example, you might find cutting work on the Art shelf. Children choose strips of paper that they may cut any way they wish, or they might select a strip of paper which has lines (curvy, straight, horizontal, zig zag) where they practice cutting in different ways and at different skill levels. Another work might focus on gluing. Children learn the proper way to squeeze and apply glue to adhere smaller pieces of paper in a variety of shapes and colors (maybe even those which were part of the previously mentioned cutting work) to a larger piece of paper. Here they learn about paper collage, what to do if you squeeze too much glue, and especially about cleaning up thoroughly so there’s not a sticky table left behind after they are done! Color mixing is another favorite art work. You might find children mixing two different paint colors at an easel to discover the surprise of creating a whole new color, or using eye droppers filled with different colors of water to drop onto a coffee filter for the same purpose in a different medium.

These are but a few of the many activities children explore in the Art area of their classrooms. And while each has its own unique purpose of learning a specific skill, they all share the common purpose of helping children learn to follow multiple steps in preparing, performing, and cleaning up their work. In addition, the activities found in the Art area also aid in the development of hand-eye coordination, concentration, and organization. In this way, the art activities promote skill development the children will need in all other areas of the classroom from Language to Math and more.

In addition, many teachers find a way to connect and enhance their curriculum, especially their Cultural studies, with special art activities. For example, when studying Asia, children may have the opportunity to try using a stylus to write symbols in the same manner used by Chinese calligraphers. Or if there is a theme related to Native Americans, the children might have an opportunity to make their own pinch pots with clay or practice threading small beads onto string or wire. Classes often study famous authors and artists, and teachers may supplement art materials so that children can create their own masterpieces in the style of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” with oil paints and swirling motions, Picasso’s cubist portraits with their own faces as the subjects of their work, or illustrate their own stories with tissue paper designs modeled after an Eric Carle book.

The options for art are endless, and these ideas are easily transferred to doing art in your own homes as well. But before you begin, remember that as with all Montessori lessons, it’s all about the preparation and the process. Be sure to have supplies for whatever art activity you engage in complete and ready for use before you begin. Also, consider investing in some better quality art supplies, including paper, scissors, paintbrushes, etc. Artist-quality colored pencils often last longer than the cheaper varieties which easily break and cause frustration. Introduce your child to the materials with enthusiasm, let them know you support their creativity, and then let their inner artists emerge.

It is equally important to have the necessary clean-up supplies on hand and provide instruction on what is expected for the clean-up (keeping in mind what is age appropriate) when they are done. Your children will see the connection with doing art activities at home with what they do at school, as they set up a workspace, have the required materials to do the work, participate in the work, and then clean up the workspace. Keep these same expectations for home art activities, and be impressed by how well your children complete each step!

Here are just a few fun and inspirational art activities you might like to try at home:

• Disappearing Artwork: If you’re hesitant about the mess that is sometimes involved with art, this might be a good one to begin with! Provide your children with a small lap-size chalkboard (often sold at Dollar Stores). Then, using a paintbrush dipped in water, your children can create their masterpieces and watch as they magically disappear before their eyes!
• Recycled Sculptures: Using items that you might normally throw into your recycling bin, allow your child access to tape, paper towel rolls, used dryer sheets, tissue boxes, paper scraps, cereal containers, and more to create their own unique sculptures. They could build cities, robots, doghouses, or anything else their imaginations may think of, as the possibilities are endless.
• Impressive Impressionism: Put a small amount of different colors of paint into the spaces of an empty egg carton. Instead of a paintbrush, have your child use cotton swabs to make a masterpiece of dots in the style of Monet or another Impressionist. Consider using 5×7-sized paper so the work isn’t too overwhelming.
• Collage Creations: Find a use for old buttons, ribbon, or wrapping paper remnants, or even stale cereal, inexpensive lentils, or dried beans by letting your child create a one-of-a-kind collage. You could even allow your child to experiment with which type of glue works better for different types of material. Offer a glue stick and also regular school glue to have your child compare which is more successful for his or her project.
• Observational Drawing: Provide your child with a small notebook and some high quality colored pencils, and then invite him or her to look out the window and focus on one object to draw. Or let your child pick an item from nature—a seashell, pinecone, twig, or leaf, perhaps—and encourage some time observing the object carefully and using the pencils to illustrate what your child sees.
• Crazy Crayons: Together with your child, remove the paper casing from several different colored crayons. Show your child that the color can be made using the tip, the flat top, or even the side of the crayon. Let your child experiment with the different effects each method creates. This is also a good activity for expressing emotions. Your child can use the crayon lightly, frantically, smoothly, strongly, and see that each different way of pressing the crayon on the paper can reflect a different ‘emotion’ of the crayon, and the artist too.

This is just a tiny sampling of the many types of art adventures you could have at home. Whatever you choose to explore, remember that in addition to learning a variety of skills, art can be an incredibly useful outlet for expressing emotions and a way to simply do something that makes your child feel joy.

Also, keep in mind that for most children, art is about the process, not the product. To them, the manipulating of materials and taking the time for exploring them in a variety of ways is the focus. Try to keep activities very open-ended and don’t be discouraged if once the activity is completed, your child simply wants to throw the artwork away! The work has served its purpose for your child—the process of doing and creating. Be careful to keep this in mind, rather than thinking about an ‘end product’ or expecting their creations to look a certain way. You can secretly collect the artwork from the trash to save for yourself without your child even knowing, if you really want to!

Resources for this article include:
https://www.montessoriservices.com/ideas-insights/art-in-the-montessori-environment
https://theartofeducation.edu/content/uploads/2014/12/Montessori-Art-Overview.pdf

Making Sense of It All – The Montessori Sensorial Area


By Alex Chiu

This month, The Montessori Children’s Academy will host the third in its series of Parent Education Workshops on January 9th from 7-8PM at the Short Hills campus. The topic for this upcoming workshop is the Sensorial area of the Montessori classroom, a hallmark of Montessori education. The Sensorial materials were designed by Dr. Montessori as a way for children to be able to explore and then make sense of their environment. Because she believed that sensorial exploration began at birth and that children had a developmental period where they were exceptionally receptive to what they took in through their senses, she created the Sensorial materials.

Dr. Montessori said, “The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world” (The Absorbent Mind). Each material in the Sensorial area isolates a different sense, and Dr. Montessori categorized her Sensorial materials into eight groupings based on which sense was being used: Visual, Tactile, Baric, Thermic, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, and Stereognostic. The Montessori Sensorial materials help children organize, compare, order, and classify things based on how they look, feel, sound, smell, taste, etc. While this may at the surface appear very simple, a child’s discovery of these various qualities helps to build the foundation for learning in other areas.

For example, when children use the Pink Tower, a centerpiece of the Sensorial area, they can discriminate the size of each pink cube from the smallest to the largest. However, if we take a closer look at the depth of the learning behind this simple work, we can recognize that children are gaining so much more. First, as with most Montessori materials, there is only one Pink Tower, so children must either wait for a turn to use it or learn to use it cooperatively with another classmate. Next, the child must go through a multi-step process to prepare to do the work. A work rug must be unrolled. Then, taking one cube at a time, the child must navigate the classroom from where the Pink Tower is stored to his or her work rug. This takes several trips back and forth, as there are 10 cubes!

Once using the material, the child may arrange the cubes in a variety of formations. Horizontally on the rug, the child can see how the cubes compare in size. Vertically, the child can build the tower. Children can be quite creative as they use these materials, sometimes creating beautiful displays in an endless array of patterns and designs. This promotes not only discovery of the size discrimination, but it also provides an outlet for creativity and artistic expression.
As with all Montessori materials, the work is self-correcting, and the child, through the control of error built into the work, will see whether or not he or she has placed the cubes in correct size order. If a larger cube is place on top of a smaller cube, the tower would not look visually accurate, and in some cases, would topple over because it’s not structurally sound. There’s no need for a teacher to intervene in this work, as the child can see for him or herself whether or not the work was completed correctly.

On an even deeper level, the Pink Tower is an introduction to mathematics. Each tower is made with 10 pink wooden cubes that increase in size from 1cm cubed to 10cm cubed and represents the base 10 number system. From the youngest age of 3, children are exposed to the concrete material that later helps them understand more advanced mathematical concepts. As an early introduction to mathematics that can grow with the child as he or she is ready, it leads the child to move on to the cubing of numbers and cubed roots with the Montessori Golden Bead Material in the Math area in a natural and progressive manner.

Each colorful and beautiful Sensorial material, from the Pink Tower to the Red Rods, the Knobless Cylinders to the Color Tablets, the Trinomial Cube to the Geometric Solids, the Sound Cylinders to the Rough and Smooth Boards, has a plan and a purpose behind its creation. While initially the children may simply be intrigued by the materials because they are attractive and colorful, they eventually are drawn into deeper learning as they investigate the many aspects of each work. Their senses are refined and awakened, and they come to make sense of their world in a much greater way. Again, as Dr. Montessori so cleverly understood, the children’s work with the Sensorial materials indeed “open(s) the way to knowledge”.