Montessori Musings: Summer Practical Life Activity

Here is another Practical Life activity that is perfect for summer when everything outside is green and blooming. This is a simple transfer activity where wooden leaves are hidden in a bowl of sand. The child finds the leaves and transfers them to the bowl on the left. 

I have a preschool child who is crazy over sand, so she found this activity to be a lot of fun. 

A closer look at the wooden leaves in the sand.

I didn't come to Godly Play with a background in Montessori.  But after practicing Godly Play for about a year, a strong desire to learn more about the pedagogy that inspired GP began to grow in me. I enrolled in an on-line course from Karen Tyler that taught me the basic principles behind the Montessori Method. Through the course's many wonderful albums (presentation ideas for each subject), I learned to create simple activities like the one above. Though the course is aimed at people working with preschoolers, I have been able to use the principles with all ages. 

Practical Life activities support and complement the other work going on in a Godly Play classroom. The activities teach practical skills as the name suggests, but also train the children to concentrate deeply. My friend, Leslie at Thoughts from the Sheepfold, writes: 

"Concentration, peace and contentment are key attributes of prayer and meditation, and practical life builds up these attributes in the children better than anything else."

I'm so glad that I can be a part of helping children in this process!

Godly Play: The Great Family

Two new children have joined our Sunday Godly Play group, and I am helping to prepare them for baptism. From now until their baptism in October, I will be presenting some of the "core" Godly Play stories that explain deep truths of the Christian faith.

We began with "The Great Family", a story that I never get tired of telling. This is the story of childless Abraham and Sarah who discover not only that God is always with them, but that he brings amazing things out of barrenness. In this story, the children learn how the Jewish people came to be and that Jesus himself was born into this Great Family; that the Christian Church was born from this family, and that the children themselves are now a part of this Great Family.

The Great Family: this is the point in the story where Isaac is born.

Once again, my kitchen has become my Godly Play room. (For more on adapting GP to different situations see, Chameleon Godly Play and Godly Play on the Go.) Here is a quick view of my focus table and story "shelf".

This are my art shelves for the creative phase. I have three simple options: paint, colored pencils, and modeling clay.

To my delight, the children seem to be playing more with the materials this year instead of always rushing immediately for the art supplies. (Not that this is bad, but I do enjoy seeing a variety of things going on.) This is my "door person", Melinda, playing with a child during the creative phase. 

Two children playing with the materials from "The Ten Best Ways to Live".

I managed to snap a picture of some of the work with clay. The pink thing in the middle is a boat, perhaps a reminder of Paul's Discovery which this child heard a few weeks ago. 

One of the children in our group is a younger, special needs child, so I prepared a Practical Life activity for her. This is a simple transfer exercise where the child places a small wooden bird (left in the bowl) into each apple. My door person explained to the child that "the birds were hungry and wanted to eat an apple". Not only is this great fun for younger children, it trains their fine motor skills as well as developing mathematical skills.