February and March with Mr. Och and Mrs. Kalesse

We’ve seen every kind of weather lately, and the children in our class have enjoyed every snowflake and ray of sunshine that has showed up at recess, movement, or on the Kindergarten walk to the Franklin Institute. And of course, it goes without saying, we are busy inside the classroom too! 

One of the best things about the Montessori environment is the mixed-age classroom and how it serves every child’s developmental needs. As children independently navigate the environment and find work that interests them, their choices inspire one another. Younger children, of course, learn from watching older ones succeed with work that might otherwise feel intimidating, but it goes both ways. Older children can also be reminded of work they haven’t tried in a while by watching younger friends. They rediscover things they want to practice and learn new ways of using it thanks to the younger students. This year, we’ve seen waves of inspiration as they flow through the classroom and children follow each other into new exciting territory.  

Valentine’s Day was a great opportunity for children to express their love and find ways to bring joy to one another. Of course, children brought valentines from home and passed them out to the class – which was a great time. Beyond that, some children independently chose to use Metal Insets or stencils to create gifts for all of the other students in the class. This activity often included borrowing each others’ namestones to label each gift. Again, this was yet another activity that inspired so many students to venture into using the Metal Insets as well as just doing something nice for someone else! On a much larger scale, this spirit of love and caring for one another was recently echoed when the Kindergartners helped sort food to donate to Project Share with Mrs. Erika.