Hello Everyone, 

Where did July go?! It seems as though this summer is flying by, but perhaps it lines up with the phrase, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” We have certainly been having a fun summer at Greene Towne. The children are enjoying water play whether it’s running or dancing through or on the splash pads, being misted by the hose, watering plants, or transferring water. They also love the bubble machine that we bring outside, usually accompanied by some fun movement songs. I will have to say my most favorite encounter in the courtyard has been the children’s reaction to the birds that join us each morning around 10:45 am. It’s such a magical moment when they fly away and then return, almost as though the children are encountering birds for the first time. Sounds and facial expressions of joy, awe, and wonder!

Enhance Learning Through Movement

Movement In the Curriculum

Through intentional observation, Maria Montessori discovered that movement is a catalyst to children’s learning. As she highlights the importance of movement in learning, she emphasizes that the two are not separate. There is the freedom to move within the environment, but more importantly, movement is embedded in the curriculum. Each material requires muscular movement that sends signals to the brain, which builds neurotransmitter connections leading to a more orderly, disciplined, and regulated child. The children are constantly in motion during their day, whether it is carrying a tray to a table, pushing in a chair, rolling a rug, walking to get a towel, mixing ingredients, transferring objects via tongs, building with the magnetic tiles, walking to get water, switching their shoes, cutting an apple, sweeping up crumbs, or scrubbing the table– they are always moving, always refining and strengthening their skills. 

In the photos below, imagine the movements needed to complete each task. You will see a math work that includes number plates with the associated amount of divots, so number 1 has one divot and number 6 has six divots. The child traces the number and then transfers a ball to each divot. By doing so, the child is able to feel how many 1 is, and so forth. They are building an understanding that it takes a longer time to fill the number 10 plate than it does to fill 2, essentially 10 is more than 2. 

Maria Montessori quotes on movement:

“Movement is therefore an essential part of life, and education cannot be conceived as moderating, or what is worse, inhibiting it. Rather it should permit a child’s energies to develop normally and assist him to exert them more profitably.” – The Discovery of the Child

“It is the functional incarnation of the creative energy which brings man to the perfection of his species. Through movement, he sets upon his external environment and thus carries out his own personal mission in the world.” –The Secret of Childhood

“The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity, as often happens in old-time discipline… A room in which all the children move about usefully, intelligently, and voluntarily, without committing any rough or rude act, would seem to me a classroom very well disciplined indeed.” –The Montessori Method

“The child, if left without guidance, is disorderly in his movement, and these disorderly movements are the special characteristic of the little child. In fact, he ‘never keeps still,’ and ‘touches everything.’ This is what forms the child’s so-called “unruliness” and ‘naughtiness.’ The adult would deal with him by checking these movements, with the monotonous and useless repetition of ‘keep still.’ As a matter of fact, in these movements, the little one is seeking the very exercise which will organize and coordinate the movements useful to man. We must, therefore, desist from the useless attempt to reduce the child to a state of immobility. We should rather give ‘order’ to his movement, leading them to those actions towards which his efforts are actually tending.” – Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“What the hand does, the mind remembers.”  – The Absorbent Mind

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Muffin Baking Work

We have introduced the children to our independent baking work. This is a one-person work, and we only have one baker a day. The children have been so excited about this new work. Even if it is not their day to bake, the children have been supportive of their friends and observing as they work. Each morning an adult sets up the work with premeasured ingredients in containers. The steps of this work are: 

• Put on an apron
• Wash hands
• Grease the muffin pan
• Place 1 or two chocolate chips into each spot
• Open a container, pour the ingredients into the bowl, and then place the container into the basin in the sink
• Once all of the ingredients are in the bowl, whisk them together
• When the batter is ready, use the ladle to “scoop and pour” the batter into the pan
• Wash the dishes
• Scrub the counter

An adult will preheat the oven and then place the pan in to bake for 11-12 minutes. The children eat their muffins at lunch. 

*Note: we have been using oat milk instead of milk

We have been calling our baker of the day the “muffin child” and have been changing the lyrics of muffin man to:

“Do you know the muffin child, 

the muffin child, the muffin child?

Do you know the muffin child 

at Greene Towne Montessori School?

Oh yes, I know the muffin child, 

the muffin child, the muffin child!

Oh yes, I know the muffin child, 

their name is __________ !”

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Thank you so much. We hope you are having a wonderful summer!!

Best, 

Ms. Michelle and Ms. Dominique