#AtoZChallenge The Alphabet

For this year's challenge, my goal is to focus more on the activities, lessons, and materials in the Montessori classroom. What better way to kick off an alphabetical challenge than to talk about the alphabet?

Every year, when new parents come to visit the classroom, they boast about their child's ability to recite the ABCs, especially through song. Okay, that is a start for later learning, but it doesn't mean that the child is a genius who knows all of her letters and sounds. It only means that the ability to memorize and recite is present. She can't necessarily connect those sounds and names to actual letters, yet. Sorry to be blunt, but it's true.

They always want to know what to do at home, to help their child continue to learn the ABCs. It is always so hard to convince them that they need to first focus on the letter SOUNDS and not the names. That is when I show them how we use the sandpaper letters. I give examples about how letter names are more confusing and mess up the intial sounds learning process. For example, the name of the letter C always makes kids say /s/. W always makes them say /d/. Y always makes them say /w/. English is already confusing enough, as it is!

I also then explain the process of how the sandpaper letters lead to sound sorting activities, and then putting together the moveable alphabet to spell words. I adore the moveable alphabet for this reason. It's like all of those spelling games that we like as adults. Take a bunch of scrambled letters and put them together to make words. Scrabble, anyone? Only you have a much more defined path to take with your words. You can have fun taking away one letter and adding a new one to create new words. And how wonderful is it for the environment, to not be writing out sounds on endless worksheets?

I have noticed more of a demand to teach children the letter names, in addition to the phonetic sounds. I was taught to wait to do that until after the child has mastered all of the sounds. Some are doing it simultaneously, especially as more and more children are coming to school knowing their letter names.

So tell me a few things. How do you explain the alphabet to your parents? Do you use a moveable alphabet in one box or that huge one that takes up two boxes? Do you teach the names as well as the sounds? What are your favorite alphabet activities?

Big compliment from a therapist

Sorry I have been slacking. Again. It has been quite busy in the classroom! I have been trying to keep up on these kids' tremendous interest in everything, while simultaneously balancing numerous parent meetings, evaluations, and CPSE meetings. I have a large number of children who are qualifying for OT therapy for sensory processing disorder, and a few other issues. They keep me hopping!

The other day, one of my new therapists pulled me aside on her way out. She is an itinerant special ed teacher, who is helping one of my young guys learn how to communicate (he is nonverbal right now, slowly picking up more expressive language and has difficulty following complicated routines). She has worked in many Montessori programs before, so is quite familiar with the processes. At the end of her fourth visit to the classroom for this child, she said, "You have done an amazing job adapting Montessori for kids with special needs."

I was humbled. Sometimes I feel like we don't do enough. I am battling parents who don't want to acknowledge that their children need more help that I can provide. Some therapists who have no idea about anything with Montessori sometimes ask you to do things that you can't do. The school lawyer is constantly cautioning The Boss about implementing various techniques. Activities that you know would be ever so helpful are not permitted. You can read and research all you want, but never feel like you know enough. You're exhausted at the end of every day. And then a compliment like this comes through.

It isn't the first time. One day, my assistant was out sick. The sub was an older woman, who has been long retired from the Montessori classroom, but helps out on occasion. Before the kids came in, I started to fill her in on a bunch of their quirks and needs, so that she had somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Halfway through the morning, she said to me, "Had you not told me about these kids' issues, I never would have suspected. They are doing quite well."

This doesn't mean that we don't have difficult days. Difficult moments pop up on a daily basis. I get tired and frustrated. I try to cling to those beautiful moments. It's a constant work in progress. I will try to be better about sharing some of the techniques that I use. People have been asking. :-)

'And Winter Came' by Enya on YouTube

If you're looking to change up the music a bit for the month of December, you should check out this holiday collection from Enya. It's called 'And Winter Came' and it is amazingly beautiful. As you already know, I am a big fan of Enya. This holiday collection consists of original and classic holiday music, done in only the way that Enya can do it. As usual, the entire "video" simply consists of the album cover.

Enya's 'Amarantine' on YouTube

When searching for Enya on YouTube, I came across a more recent album that is not in my current CD collection. 'Amarnatine' is one of her most calming and beautiful musical collections to date. I feel like I could listen to this one on a loop for hours on end. It runs about 45 minutes in total length. Again, the only visual is her album cover. The titles of each track do appear at the bottom, but nothing else changes that would distract the children. It's just beautiful. Give it a try.



What do you think of this one?

'The Best of Enya: Paint the Stars' on YouTube

Whenever I listen to Enya, I am transported to a place of sheer calm and tranquility. I remember listening to her often during my Montessori internship year. I have collected her CDs and used her during work time ever since.

Here is another YouTube collection. This one is from her earlier greatest hits CD, called Paint the Stars. The entire soundtrack makes for the perfect background noise while walking on the line or focusing on works. The only video that you see is a stationary picture of the album cover.

The last half of the CD is the most relaxing, I think. Which ones do you like best?

Baking Banana Cookies!

I spent a small fortune this summer collecting items for the classroom that would boost our food preparation area. I also wanted to take more control over doing birthdays, because we have so many food allergies and I want everyone to be able to participate. We hadn't yet tried to bake anything and were just starting to collect baking ingredients. All we had on hand was a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, and vegetable oil for the box of brownie mix that the October birthdays had decided they wanted to bake for next week's monthly celebration.

I noticed that there were still a couple of bananas left on the food prep shelf, that were already rather ripe when they arrived in the snack basket on Monday. They needed to be immediately used or pitched. I quickly went online and started searching out a recipe for something with bananas that didn't use eggs (egg allergy). It took me about ten minutes, but I finally came across a banana cookie recipe that I could adapt to our few ingredients. These are the ingredients that we ended up using:

2 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 very ripe bananas, sliced (ours were about medium-sized)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Children who were interested in helping had to wash their hands and put on an apron.

First, I showed them how to properly measure flour by leveling it at the top of the cup with a knife. They took turns measuring flour into the bowl. Next, they added the sugar and took turns stirring it all together as I added the salt. Meanwhile, another child was slicing our two bananas. Once the bananas were sliced, they took turns mashing the banana with a fork.

I added the oil and the vanilla and they kept taking turns mashing it all together with the banana.

Next, it was time to put it all together in the big bowl and stir until well blended. (At about this point in the process, one boy who was not participating looked at my assistant and said, "This isn't going to end well," as there were some minor difficulties and a little bickering while stirring.)

I love how they helped each other by holding the bowl, because that was tough to stir!

Once it was fully blended, they used the cookie scoop I had found at Savers last year (with four kid-sized spreaders!) to put the cookies onto the baking sheets.

Each batch was baked in the toaster over at 350 degrees for about 13-16 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. We left plenty of space between them, but found that they do not expand while baking.

We gathered together at the end of the morning to share our tasty treat. We practiced grace and courtesy at the same time. I went around with the napkins in one hand and the plate of cookies in the other hand. I asked each child if they would like a cookie. They were to respond "Yes, please," or "No, thank you." I also said to each of them, "You take the one you touch," to avoid that lovely habit of young ones to touch a bunch of them until they find a huge one. They were to place the cookie on their open napkin and then wait until everyone was served prior to eating.

As we sat there eating, the kids spontaneously burst into, "Thank you, Miss Coventry!" My assistant and I both said "Thank you" back to them for making the cookies for us. One of the kids also said, "Okay, on the count of three, we need to say Hip Hip Hooray for Miss Coventry, because she is the best teacher ever for letting us bake cookies!" 

After lunch, I chose two volunteers to visit the other classrooms and the office to share the cookies. One girl carried the napkins and the other one carried the plate of cookies on a tray. I was told that they were very polite as they approached each classroom. They also very matter-of-factly told each adult that they had to "take the one you touch." 

I can't wait to make something else and to back off even more from the process!

'Those Relaxing Ocean Sounds' on YouTube

The ocean is definitely one of my happy places. Unfortunately, it is a minimum of six hours for me to access it. I live in Upstate New York, which provides me with an endless supply of lakes. Sure, you get waves on those, especially up on the Great Lakes, but it just isn't quite the same. Fight the winter blues and relax to ocean waves with this spectacular video I found on YouTube.

It is about an hour long and shows a variety of ocean beaches. The water is clean blue and turquoise, just begging for you to come dive in. Use the sounds for relaxation or watch parts of it as a part of a lesson on oceans. See if you can identify some of the wildlife that also makes its presence known through sound. For example, around the 24:00 mark, you hear birds. Around 43:00 you can hear a dog barking. You could play it during a listening activity at circle.