EDUCATION IS NOT ABOUT THELEARNING OF FACTS BUT IT IS THE DISCOVERY OF RYTHM AROUND YOU.

              MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT DISCOVERING SOUNDS, RYTHM AND DANCE

For the last three weeks we all were busy in our Science Experiment Project.

There were lots of experiments to do, dealing with Physics, chemistry and biology ,and the one which amazed almost everyone throughout the three weeks was our SPECIAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS created by my children under my guidance.

 A STRING TELEPHONE which was made by plastic cups and a string was an awesome addition to our Sound Box, everyone just loved to speak on it and hear the sounds...simple science cannot be taught to children, they already know it ,it is  a matter of discovery provided with the right kind of environment.

 see the excitement of a child with this FRICTIONAL KITCHEN STUFF.

And then an item from my kitchen proved to be a wonderful  Frictional  Sound  Instrument. My kids were delighted to discover the sounds which was actually a Friction ,they produced many RYTHMIC MUSIC  from that .

And then we created a Xylophone using small steel cups which I found in my  kitchen and  a steel Spatula ..it creates an amazing Sound and music .

We were learning many things in our SCIENCE PROJECT, one of them is THE SOLAR SYSTEM, so we started painting the  balls to represent all the planets of the Solar system. .Once we were done , children kept on matching those planets with their respective cards .

To my surprise , one day I played one of our most favourite beat. Few of the children were actually singing the newly learned 'Solar system song', suddenly they all started beating their 'Planet balls' with each other, against the floor,on the table, and with any thing they thought would produce a sound. I was speechless at all these discoveries by my little scientists.

 

Steel cups Xylophone was one of the hit in our Science fair.

Last month a child was playing curiously with some plastic balls , one of the other child just shouted ,"Miss Erum, can we put these balls in a glass with a lid, I'm sure ,it will create some nice music, and we can add that to our SOUND BOX ". As amazed as I always be with my kid's ideas , I brought a jar with a lid and we did it. Soon all my children started making different rythms depending on their moods .

Look at this Three year old, enjoying the music of his own beats.

"The sound of your voice casts a spell on every stone and every thorn". RUMI

If all the harps in the world were burned down,

still inside the heart there will be hidden music playing.
~ Rumi

CREATIVITY CAN BE DETECTED EARLIER IN LIFE IN A CHILD'S FREE - PLAY

IN A FREE PLAY ,A CHILD IS NOT ONLY PLAYING, BUT DISCOVERING HIS TALENTS    HIDDEN  INSIDE.

 

This is our usual 'Work Cycle'  (nearly three hours) in which children are free to explore their environment and where a trained Directress  not only creates the next 'lesson plan' after a 'careful Observation' of each child, but he/she can detect a particular talent or ability in a child .

This child in my class really loves everything related to sound, when we go out in the Sand area , he is the one creating sounds with the use of  sand toys, making drums with buckets , beating them, and then dancing around and  making new tunes out of a flute everyday.

We have created a 'SOUND BOX' with many sound related stuff, and my students keep discovering it everyday.

Last week I was really fascinated to see him experimenting with lots of sound objects . In fact he started with a normal Flute, but then he brought a pipe and insert the flute in it and discovered his new 'SOUND SYSTEM'.

 

He came to me and said," Miss Erum, look, what I'v done, a great sound is coming out from it". Then  he explored few other objects from our 'Sound Box' and found something interesting to cover the Flute with it, he was enjoying his Discoveries.

The next thing was to play with the pipe ,turning from different sides, and checking if there was a different sound coming out with every new curve of a pipe.

 

Now he was testing the Flute ,

I guess that day, my little musician discovered a lot and there were many AH-HA moments for him . I always think that its not us who are teaching kids , its they ,who are in fact giving us the opportunities to discover their 'Learning process'.

“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.”
Dr. Maria Montessori

Climbing Trees is part of Childhood

“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" .

 

 

..

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.

 

 "

"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 .

 

PINK TOWER AND BROWN STAIRS ; THE ESSENCE OF A MONTESSORI CREATIVITY

                       SENSORIAL MATERIALS CREATES CREATIVE MINDS

         "The senses are gateways to the intelligence. There is nothing in the intelligence which did not  first pass through the senses." ~ ARISTOTLE

It was  our usual Montessori day, and few of my little ones kept asking me," whats that Miss Erum? Can we make  more buildings and towers out of the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs?"
I said ,"Yes , why not , lets start making it now".
 In a Montessori system of Education a child is free to choose his lessons, depending on how long he can concentrate happily. There is no limitation for time slot, it caters what each child needs to develop ; his confidence, creativity , problem solving and understanding of the world directly by using his Senses.
  So we started our work and to my surprise a big group gathered around . In a Montessori , everything is  a discovery, every minute is an AH-HA moment for a child.

 I started calling the interested children for different structures .This was our first Extention of the Brown Stairs that day.

and  now there is another structure appearing .

                        every structure is  a discovery for a child and a blow to his imagination.

      you can see this three year old's  immense concentration in making this amazing structure.

a child can be wonderous when he is given the opportunity to work with his hands as this is the only way towards enhancing creativity.

now you can see the the ultimate structure.

she was making a huge structure , every single step of putting the block adds a new pathway in a child's brain which actually creates new  possibilities . 

the amazing thing about the Montessori classroom is that things are same, but everyday a child discovers something new with each new interaction he makes with it.

children are  feeling an ah-ha moment because of the sensation  they have  after each amazing structure. It pulls out the creativity in them which cannot be done unless the environment is there .

 

Brown Stairs and Pink Tower provide the child with some amazing Formulas working beautifully in his mind .

The Pink Tower is a set of ten wooden cubes measured precisely in increasing increments of 1 square centimeter with the smallest cube being 1x1x1cm and the largest 10x10x10. This sensorial work which for 3-6 year olds seems to be simply a block puzzle is translated later into the mathematical concept of the cubes of numbers from 1³ to 10³. The Pink Tower also lays the foundation for the hierarchical decimal system of units, tens, thousands ,etc.

The Brown Stair is a set of ten wooden prisms all the same length of 20cm but graduated thicknesses with width and heighth from 1x1x20cm to 10x10x20cm.

The BROWN STAIR PRISMS show differences in two dimensions - width and height while the length remains constant. When they are arranged they resemble a staircase with the narrowest in the front and the widest at the back. The Brown Stair Prisms sensorially represent the squared numbers 1², 2², 3², 5², 5², 6², 7², 8², 9². 10². If you view the end faces of the prisms you will see the squares of the numbers in the height and width changes.

We all love PINK TOWER and BROWN STAIRS not because of their color but because it lights up every corner of a child's SENSORIAL antennas , giving him the different aspects of Geometrical and Mathematical clues, proving him the simple laws of Physics, and the power of Imagination and creativity when he  start using them differently .

MONTESSORI IN AND OUT

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