What I'm learning . . .

I shared in a previous post that I am doing on-line Montessori Training with Karen Tyler from Worldwide Montessori. I am learning so much and am able to incorporate many things into both my work as a children's pastor and my work as an ESL teacher.  I'd like to share a couple of ideas that I used on Sunday at our Family Brunch.

One lesson that we learn in Karen's course is a simple Practical Life activity where children take nuts and bolts and screw the nut onto the bolt.  Little hands like the challenge of turning the nut until it fits all the way onto the bolt or seeing how many nuts will fit onto the bolt.  This exercise develops their fine motor skills and is actually a preparation for learning to write by training the muscles in the hands. I added a twist to Karen's original presentation by painting the nuts and bolts with coordinating colors so that the children could also work on sorting and categorizing skills as well. 

The tray with the color coordinated nuts and bolts.

Another activity was inspired by the Naturkinder.  Here the children have the opportunity to plant cress in egg shells. This activity is wonderful on several levels. It trains the fine motor skills, allows the children to see the wonder of nature in action, and allows them to reap quicky what they have sown.  Cress starts to germinate overnight and tastes great in salads!

The trays with the materials for planting the cress.

Sowing the seeds . . . 

And the harvest!