Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: 2012-10-14

NOTHING CAN BE SO FUN AS WASHINNG USING A SPONGE IN THEIR LITTLE HANDS

THE WASHING DAY AT MY SCHOOL PLAY GROUND

As I promised all my children that we are gonna wash the stuff in the PLAYGROUND, so heres the real fun started with buckets filled with bubbly soapy water and dozens of Sponges of different colours.

And they started it with soaking the sponge in the soapy water as much as they could. Children just loved this activity , i dont know, it seems that it Satisfies their souls.

Look at the amazing concentration of the child, children are real beings ,they know the difference between FAKE and REAL activities....we don't need to teach them,,,,more.

It seems as if the children are having a fun day ,yes it was like that, but amazingly these are the real MOMENT OF LEARNING.,they learn how to soak the sponge, how much Time is needed for a particular size of sponge to absorb the maximum water, how to take the sponge back to the cleaning area in a minimum time to avoid extra spillings, how to hold the sponge so that max. utilization can be possible, and so many things in a single act of WASHING. So no experience is wasted in a life of a child.

When they were cleaning the house, they didnt even missed an inch , moving all around, grabbing every part, even climbing till the top,amazing ,is'nt it?

And when she climbed the top , its good to see the excitement, she shouted,"Look, I'm gonna clean all these areas".AMAZING !

I saw children starting from one play-house, they didnt go to the next one, unless they finished that one from all the sides, top , around ,everywhere, then they came to me,"MISS ERUM, we are done with this house, we are moving to the slides now", Its amazing how much systematic and orderly their Brain works as contrary to what we BELIEVE, I'm speechless....!

So they kept busy for about 50 minutes ,never showed any sign of tiredness, Its we who think that children might get tired, but in realiy ,they seldom do.

After we did the sponging ,we got all the buckets filled with water, each child was Carrying the bucket,and infact they felt proud that they were carrying some heavy objects (they love to carry heavy stuff, as discovered by Maria Montessori).And then we started the washing acivity to end the WASHING DAY FUN.

At that time my camera's battery just finished, so I could'nt get the photos.

THE LIBRARAY IN A MONTESSORI CLASS is like a fun centre for CHILDREN

MY LIBRARY CENTRE WHERE CREATIVITY AND LANGUAGE PROSPER

The Library in my Montessori classroom serves the porpose of LOVE for READING, exploring ,sharing thoughts with friends, vocabulary developement, picture analysis,making one's own stories, and many more life skills.
When one of my student was busy exploring this book, you know what happened?

A JUNIOR came with excitement and curiosity...and as usual ,the senior shares his feelings and showed the book to him.(In a Montessori classrooms, children not only care for their classmates but actually ready to help them at all costs..amazing ).

You can see it yourself, now the knowledge, the curiosity, the wonderness has been transfered to the younger child, all naturally without any any Teacher intervention.

Yet ,theres another story of connection, communication ,picture analysis, and language developement by using story books in the Libraray corner .

If you closely analyse , the child is making a story of his own , by simply analysing the pictures, Children are creative naturally , we cannot teach more about it, but we can make our Environment richer in experience.

And the stories goes on, When I was capturing these moments ,i felt proud that thank God, I'm not a member of the traditional schooling where CREATIVITY is killed by the system itself.

AUTUMN CELEBRATION WITH AN AUTUMN TREE ART

AUTUMN TREE MAKING WITH PLAYDOUGH

I brought some Fresh Autumn flowers in the class just to give my students a messege that they are part of our beautiful life. Yellow is the perfect color I got.

So I got some Orange dried leaves .

I prepared my own Home-made PLAYDOUGH (using flour, cocoa powder, chocolate essence and few coriender pops) knead it waith water. My children loved it every time I made it.

The Green PLAYDOUGH was made by adding Green Food colour and some cinamon powder to add the AUTUMN AROMA.

When we distributed the chocolate Playdough ,you know what was the first reaction? Everybody smelled it and then an applause of appreciation and wonderness filled my classroom,"wow,what a chocolaty smell", "oh, it is so soft", "it looks beautiful with a chocolaty brown color", "it is not sticky, its wonderful".....
Montessori children always 'sense' stuff using all their senses, they are trained in that way right from their infancy.

So as soon as they got their pieces ,they started Rolling ,and rolling and rolling .

He just fnished his Autumn tree ,now putting the dried leaves on them, enjoying every piece of leaf.

She seems to be looking for the right LEAF for her Autumn tree.

YOU can see the immense concentration.

Although it looks like a normal Playdough work,( strengthening children's Fine - Motor Skills) , but actually when they were selecting the leaves ,they were estimating the Ground-figure Relationship, estimating the sizes of leaves to fit it on the tree, getting the mental maths (counting unconsciously), and many more, so Never underestimate a Play full activity ,as Play is the real LEARNING.

The 'matter of choice' matters most for the kids ,and they are just wonderful in sorting out.

After they made their trees, they were writing their names on it, I know children LOVE OWNERSHIP....and only when the SENSE OF OWNERSHIP is strengthened ,they can get the idea of SHARING, not before that.

She was searching for the best piece .

Even the tiniest one in my class wondered the experience .Concentration cannot be taught to children, its in their SOULS, we need to provide a FERTILE environment.

She wanted to give some extra touch ,cause creative minds always looks for the best options.

And thats the end of our AUTUMN CELEBRATION.......FOR THAT DAY ATLEAST.

All my children took it home wrapped in a plastic bag, and everyone was saying, "Miss Erum, we will play with our Autumn tree and show it to our moms".

WELLCOME to the WORLD of CHILDREN

Hello Parents , Teachers , Educationists and Bloggers ,
                                             Its really amzing to see you all here as our concern and goals are same whatsoever ,may be we differ in our approaches towards a healthy childhood.
                          I just want you all to share your stuff , your resaerches, your pictures ,and your Activities with us .I make sure that this blog serves the porpose of AWARENESS COMPAIGN about LEARNING, FREE PLAY, OUTDOORS and everything related to healthychildhood .
                  Soon we 'll start a world wide activity of " I BELONG TO" section,WHICH DEALS WITH each specific country as you people share yr cultural and national photos and stories with us .
Its just like a CONTINENT BAG ,which we use in our MONTESSORI classes to learn about the geography of the world .
       You can even send us a bag of items and photos of yr country so that we can share with each other 's classrooms..I think this is the best way of learning about other continents, countries, mountains, rivers, oceans, people and their lives. Children need Hands -on activities ..to learn,,books at this early stage should not be the only source ....
   I hope we all can make a wonderfull planet with our little efforts....thanx.
                                                   Erum Kamran.

MONTESSORI PRACTICAL LIFE ..is the area of getting INDEPENDENCE

MONTESSORI'S PRACTICAL LIFE IS THE AREA OF GETTING INDEPENDENCE , GAINING CONTROL Of THE ENVIRONMENT and a properly Developed FINE-MOTOR Skill.

Practical life area is full of practical stuff which children face everyday ,but usually are not allowed by parents to do. Opening and locking a key is a wonderful blow to a child's curious mind , and his fine motor skills .

To make bubbles with a soapy water, to get the know how of how to clean up ,ARE ALL LITTLE STUFF CHILDREN can learn in a MONTESSORI school.

Children learn how to take care of plants even when theyr very small, and by the time they start their 6th year, they are an expert in dealing with plants in a Montessori class.

These girls are cleaning the window of the classroom, they discovered that window needed some cleaning, so thye got the water spray, some dusters to start the activity...it took them about 15- 20 minutes to finish the simple activity...Montessori system allows the child to grow in his / her own pace, it never ask for quick fixes,which is the core system nowadays and which is robbing children of their creativity and peaceful mind.

not only they are learning the daily life skills and getting the Independence but theyr getting the messeges of team work and co operating.

this boy is learning to screw and unscrewthe nuts and bolts...Perfect example of geting independence .

the concentration needs not to develope in children, they have it...naturally, allthey need is the fertile environment to blosom.

The Tonging experience demands curiosity and concentration.....

Spooning is an activity kids not only enjoy but they keep doing it until some perfection is reached, so who are we to test children about how much they know, they know it beter than us...we can only estimate while they are in aposition to dominate.

She is watering the plants as they know how to detect the dryness .

And offcourse the eating habits ...and table manners.

This is just a glimpse of a Montessori Practical life activities, it is as vast and varied as a life can be.

Nature Table Of Autumn

CHILDREN LOVE NATURE

Last week i arranged my Nature table in the classroom, things which we collected from the garden, Seashore, and superstore.....after entering the room, children atonce noticed it and gathered around themselves and started discussing each and every stuff in detail....The excitemnet, the curiosity , the wondernes they showed was just amazing ......its all in their SOULS.....already .

I picked some Dried fruits also which is easily available in Autumn , like figs, dried dates, and few plums, so they were tasting .....and wondering how foods are different in the FALL season.