Hello, Toddler Families!
As we have watched your children learn and grow, we have seen incredible progress in so many areas- concentration, focus, hand eye coordination, fine motor strength, patience, and impulse control. It is amazing how beautifully your children engage in the morning work cycle.
Almost all of the work with which they engage each day incorporates math and language skills. We explore numbers in one to one correspondence when they scoop and transfer, in color matching work, when they glue and tear paper, in stacking, magnetiles, and so many other works. Numbers and counting can be a hidden part of your time at home, as well. Baking with your toddler allows them not only the bonding time and sensory experience but the measuring cups while they pour, the ratios when cracking eggs, and the heat setting and timers all offer math and number opportunities. If you've started cutting with your toddler, they can count the strawberries as they cut off the greens or how many green beans you snap in half before roasting! At the grocery store, have them count the number of items in the cart or even better, sort by color and count each category. They can count birds on the telephone wires from a window, blooming daffodils on a walk, or even steps it takes to get to the car each morning.
We know it can feel strange that our walls don't have numbers and letters on the walls and the older children aren't coming home with worksheets, but the way children absorb math and language in a Montessori environment is truly in the most natural way possible. And the added bonus is that they will have stronger executive functioning skills that allow for far better learning when they transition into the Gimmel classroom.
We are beginning preparations to welcome Pesach into the classroom! We will be reading the story of Passover, creating art, and transition works to incorporate Pesach in all areas. There will be pyramids, desert sensory bins, baby Moshe baskets with dolls, stories and books about Miriam, and more.
Hopefully (for some) we've seen the last snow of Spring and are looking forward to warmer days head,
Morahs Megan, Sarah, and K