“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.” Richard Louve
AUTUMN PLAY IN OUR GARDEN
Last November we planned to play with the Dried leaves, so I gave them the beautiful Montessori lesson of Botany Cabinet, after which an amazing INTEREST ON LEAVES emerges in all my students. So we came out and DISCOVER the different kinds of Autumn leaves.
for children, NATURE is always a natural motivator to enjoy, to perceive and to make connections with their daily life in a more holistic way. Whether its Botany or Geography, Zoology or Physics, chemistry or Mathematics, Language or Arts , its there in Nature with all its details and beauty.
After discovering the different colours , textures, and shapes of the Autumn leaves , my children decided to Sort out leaves ( according to their sizes), twigs, and other stuff .
So they started their SORTING ACTIVITY and in the process talked about their discoveries .
This group of boys were working like little Botanists and add extra expert advices to other children ,I was wondering "how these little children are BORN MANAGERS" .
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The concentration they showed, the dedication they had was awesome, it taught me that children has all of these life skills already built up in their HARDWARE.
Suddenly a child showed his amazement on how this particular leaf was different from all the other leaves they have seen.
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"Even I found a different leaf", said one of my child, after scrutinizing it scientifically .
And the discoveries goes on.
They wanted to add more to their buckets , but it was full, "Miss Erum, bring us more Buckets", asked one of the child.
this boy was amazing , he asked his friends to show him a pair of leaves and he will tell the difference , so he closed his eyes. I was just wondering ,what great minds they have .
Look at this 3 years old, he also had something to be proud of.
And he was collecting the smallest of pebbles.
He was collecting some long leaves ,and was very particular about that.
This three years old was collecting the brown leaves and then he came to me and said," Miss Erum, there was no more leaves of this shape ,so I 'v covered them with some grass so that nobody can put the other leaves". I was shocked at his reasoning.
Then I saw him collecting something different in another Bucket.
He felt "out of this world" when he discovered a fur from the huge pile of Autumn leaves ,he explained , "I thought a bird was here in that pile searching for something to eat". Wow !
Suddenly a child started covering his Bucket with an empty one, I was wondering what was going on?
I discovered that more and more children were doing so....
A child appeared from the background shouting, "Miss Erum , can you please be on that side and watch me jumping over those Buckets".
Hey , I didn't know about their new plan and a new game, they all took the position and were waiting for that child to Jump over that Bucket .
And here the boy jumped over that Covered Buckets ,ooh , it was been crashed by his jump .He got up, started setting the buckets again and got ready for the second jump.
I could'nt believe how IMAGINATIVE children are ! when they were done with the Collection of leaves , they simply planned something entirely different from what they were doing before, and then enjoyed the whole process.
Are we adults that much CREATIVE? are we really imaginative enough to explore new stuff within a minute? are we really Innovators?
Can we teach these children about Creativity and imagination ,when they themselves are capable of originating NEW IDEAS AND THOUGHTS. We need to think on it.
That day was the perfect day for me to present our MONTESSORI 's Botany material ; THE PARTS OF THE LEAVES.
And we started seperating the different parts ,all in a puzzle way.
we usually starts our presentations with the real objects , and then show the Montessori hands on material.
After the presentation children were given the Real leaf to witness the different Parts of it y using the Magnifying glass.
PARTS OF THE LEAF Booklet was ready to see and then children were allowed to make their own booklets .
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