Dear Parents,

Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies. We apologise for having to cancel the Mother's Day event but hope you had a wonderful time with your family, nonetheless.

On 29th May, 2009, we welcome Ms. Christine Lulu into our Halifax community. Ms. Christine is the Assistant teacher for Nursery Class. She has a Science Degree with major in Psychology and has been trained in Special Education in the Philippines. Christine is also trained in Montessori teaching. She worked 4 years as a teacher in a Special School and a Montessori pre-school in the Philippines prior to moving to Singapore with her husband in 2007.

Since our appeal in Dec 2008, we have not had much success in getting parents involved in our classrooms. Perhaps we did not make ourselves clear. Please refer to page 2 of this Newsletter where we state the activities which we would like parents or grandparents to demonstrate to our children. These are good activities which we should expose the children to but our teachers lack these skills. If you are able to perform any of the stated activities or have other activities in mind, please come forward and share it with the children.

"Parent education" in Montessori terms is a series of ongoing lectures, discussions and demonstrations, designed for parents to help bridge the child's world of school and home. We all know that what happened at school affects home life and vice versa. Parent education strives to create important home/school and parent/teacher relationships in order to create an optimum environment for the whole child. We have had parent's seminar in the past and our Consulting Principal in her recent seminar demonstrated the use of some materials. From this issue onwards, our principal, Ms. Maria, will highlight some Montessori methods and materials which we used in the school. We trust these features will assist you in understanding what your child does in school, their general behaviour and to better interpret their progress reports.

Yours sincerely,
Yeo Hwee Fung
Director

Principal‛s Message

Many a times, new parents and people outside the Montessori community believe that the array of colourful materials lining the shelves of a typical Montessori classroom is the essence of the Montessori Methodology. The truth is, these materials are NOT the Method.

Picture yourself in a fine dining restaurant with beautiful and adequate table setting, warm light and light music – ambience. In Montessori, we call this “The Prepared Environment”. The Maître d’ patiently assists or guides in your selection of dishes in accordance to your preference; the Sommelier recommends the right wine to match; the well-trained waiter approaches your table only at the right moment and your different courses are served at the right interval.

The Montessori Directress or teacher works in similar ways – she is trained to observe children and introduce them to developmentally challenging activities base on those observations. Her role is to prepare an environment in order to guide and direct the child to purposeful activities. In the restaurant, the diner is left to experience the food at their own pace just as in a Montessori classroom; the children explore the materials and learn at their own pace. Can you imagine having the waiter hurrying you to finish your dishes or interrupting your meal by talking unnecessarily?

In our restaurant analogy, ambience, excellent food and great service together produce a quality product and experience. Likewise, the Environment, the Teachers and the Materials, are all incorporated into the big picture of the Montessori Method.

In this column, we will be featuring some materials and activities which we use and practice in our classrooms so that parents can have a glimpse of what the children do in school and perhaps extend and enhance the practices at home.
Reference : Tomorrow’s Child, a publication of The Montessori Foundation

Practical Life Exercises

Working with the practical life exercises, children learn to work independently in the classroom and develop the concentration necessary to be successful with later work that is more academic in nature. Practical life activities form the foundation for later work. Practical life is not solely designed for the Playgroup and Nursery classrooms but retains its importance at the Kindergarten level and is integrated into the daily activities of the classroom. The Practical life exercises fall into 4 main groups, exercises for:

•The development of motor skills
•The care of the environment
•The care of the self
•Grace & Courtesy

In this issue, let’s look at “Pouring Exercises”, mainly for the development of motor skills. These exercises comprises dry and wet pouring which allow children to master precision as they transfer solids and liquids from one container to another. It sounds simple to adults but to children, this can be a big challenge. Pouring exercises forms a major part of our Playgroup classroom but they are also found in the Nursery and Kindergarten classrooms. Pitchers and containers of varied sizes, forms and texture and a vast variety of pouring content from big marbles to pasta and rice, are used to vary the degree of difficulty in these exercises e.g. big wooden bowls and plastic funnels are used in the Playgroup class whereas glass jugs, glasses, cups and vases are used in the Kindergarten class.

The materials are arranged on the classroom shelves from left to right, top to bottom in ascending degree of difficulty. The toddlers are generally guided to work on the dry pouring materials before progressing to wet pouring. Children are shown the proper way of holding the pitchers and pouring as these exercises aim to develop the whole arm movement, building upper arm muscles and strength. They are shown how to slowly tilt the pitcher to empty its content into another container and in some exercises, there may be more than one container. Children tend to repeat these exercises as the point of interest for them is not to spill or overfill. When spillage occurs which is natural, especially during the first few attempts, children learn to pick up the dropped pieces or clean up spills using sponges or cloth. When they have had enough of the activity, they will return the materials, all placed within a small tray, back to its original spot to complete the work cycle.

When a child is successful in these pouring exercises, the teacher will extend the activities into “care of self” exercises where the child pours milk for himself at breakfast or be assigned as lunch server where he will serve drinks to his classmates etc. At home, there will be plenty of opportunities for the children to demonstrate their skills e.g. place a small jug of water and cups in a tray within reach of your child so that he can serve himself water, help you pour soy sauce into a saucer etc.

Click on the following link to have a glimpse of children doing pouring activity.