The Solar System Unit (Practical Life)

Practical life

Pouring Stars (star shapped pasta)

helps the child develop co-ordination, self-sufficiency and the following Manipulative Skills; carrying a tray with objects on it, pouring with either hand, and lifting and placing down a delicate object. To enable the child to pour drinks and to become involve in cooking and mealtime activities.

Spooning Planets (marbles)

Great for motor skills, children also strengthen their finger grip and can transfer their new skill to the dinner table!

Lacing Earth and a Rocket

It helps develop your child's 'pincer grip' which can help with writing it also does wonders in working on patience, and mutli-tasking as lacing can be a complicated concept at first. The child has to concentrate on guiding the lace while also thinking about patterning (in & out, up & down), direction, and shapes/colors..

Sweeping Cosmic Rocks

it teaches kids to care of their environment. it is easier for the child if you give them a limited space where they will sweep the 'dust'.

Montessori Principles (Sensorial Activities)

The primary purpose of the sensorial activities is to help the child in his/her effort to sort out the many and varied impressions given by the senses. They help to do this in four ways: they are specifically designed to develop, order, broaden and refine sense perception. The activities identify a single quality, reveal a range of small differences in the quality and explore patterns in those differences. The child's understanding of the world is "broadened" when the sensorial activities awaken certain sense experiences that were previously unexplored, such as the feel of shapes or the smell of spices. They allow the child to experience and concentrate on particular qualities in perfect clarity and isolation. David Gettman, Basic Montessori Learning Activities for Under Fives

Something that fascinates me about the sensorial aspect of Montessori is the structured sense perception. Instead of merely teaching that one object is red and another is pink- Montessori students can sort color tablets according to the degree of red. Instead of teaching that one object is heavier than another, Montessori students can compare and sort weighted objects. They look, smell, touch, taste materials with a wider understanding of how it compares and contrasts to similar objects in their environment.
David Gettman states that "the Sensorial Activities isolate a single perceptual quality by making each object in a set identical in all respects except one." So instead of showing your child 10 different things that are blue, Montessori's approach is to show blue in relation to other colors- with the only difference in the materials being the color itself. The home teacher

SIGHT

• 1. cylinder blocks (develop visual discrimination of size)
• 2. pink tower (develop visual discrimination of differences in three dimensions)
• 3. brown stair (develop visual discrimination of differences in two dimensions)
• 4. red rods(develop visual discrimination of difference in one dimension)
• 5. color tablets (develop perception of colors, hues, and intensities)
• 6. geometric cabinet (develop child's visual and tactile perception of the shapes of 2 dimensional figures)
• 7. constructive triangles (visual images may be combined to create different images)
• 8. square of pythagoras (reinforce concept of combining visual images to create new images)
• 9. binomial and trinomial cubes (develop visual perception of three dimensional patterns)

TOUCH

• 1. touch boards (aid the child's fine motor control)
• 2. touch tablets (refine child's tactile sense)
• 3. fabrics (further refinement of tactile sense)
• 4. thermic bottles (develop/refine thermic sense)
• 5. thermic tablets
• 6. geometric solids (develop stereognostic sense, which creates mental picture through touch)
• 7. stereognostic bags (refine stereognostic sense)
• 8. mystery bag (apply stereognostic sense to the exploration of unknown)
• 9. sorting grains (refinement of stereognostic sense)
• 10. visual work with blindfold (apply stereognostic sense to familiar activities guided primarily by sight)
• 11. baric tablets (develop baric sense)

HEARING

• 1. sound boxes (develop child's ability to perceive loudness and softness of sounds)-.
• 2. bells-(develop perception of tones)

TASTE

• tasting cups (teach bitter, salty, sweet, sour)

SMELL

• smelling boxes (refine sense of smell)

MONTESORI PRINCIPLES (practical activities)

Right now i'm reading 'basic montessori' by david gettman. a really good book if you wanna explore the principles of montessori system.

'the organization of man has 3 parts; brain senses and muscles ' And usually the curriculum is divided into 'sensorial' practical life, 'language' 'math' 'science/geography' 'art/music'

If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them to advance on the way to independence. It must initiate them into those kinds of activities, which they can perform themselves. We must help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down the stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express their needs, and to attempt to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All this is part of an education for independence."

- Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

practical activities are the first acctivities the child is introduced in the montessori environment. This is because they can immediately being to satisfy the young child's inner and hitherto frustrated desire for skills and sefl-suffieciency. As in Montessori noticed that children seemed most satisfied by their 'play' when it enabled them to progress in thei specially apointed work.

The purpose and aim of Practical Life is to help the child gain control in the coordination of his movement, and help the child to gain independence and adapt to his society. It is therefore important to “Teach teaching, not correcting” (Montessori) in order to allow the child to be a fully functionional member in hios own society. Practical Life Exercises also aid the growth and development of the child’s intellect and concentration and will in turn also help the child develop an orderly way of thinking.

Exercice Groups

Practical Life Exercises can be categorized into four different groups: Manipulative Skills, Self Development and care of the environment.

Manipulative skils, such as pouring, opening containers, handling books and carrying delicate items, are relatively simple tasks that dults commontly do for a young child for convinience

• dusting
• sweeping with a small broom and dust pan
• washing a table surface
• cleaning up spills with a sponge
• mopping the floor
• preparing food- washing, cutting bread, grating cheese, coring apples, peeling carrots & bananas
• cooking skills- using an egg beater, using a wire whisk, etc
• polishing furniture
• polishing brass objects
• polishing windows and mirrors
• ironing (AUGH that scares me!!!)
• putting dirty clothes in laundry basket
• washing doll clothes on washboard
• setting a table
• folding napkins
• using knives with good control
• cracking nuts
• making a bed
• washing and drying dishes and utensils
• stacking dishes and sorting utensils
• drawing and opening curtains and blinds
• watering plants
• arranging flowers in a vase
• caring for animals
• putting materials away neatly
• simple use of needle and thread
• opening and closing boxes
• opening and closing lids of jars and biscuit tins
• opening and closing various types of doors and cupboards
• pouring beans,rice, etc. between two jugs, pouring water, and pouring water through a funnel
• sponge transfer activities
• using a spoon to transfer objects
• pincer grip activities with tongs, tweezers, turkey baster, eyedroppers, and syringes
• folding and unfolding clothes
• lifting, carrying, and putting down a delicate object or liquid
• 1lifting, carrying, and putting down a tray with objects on it
• carrying a floor mat
• unrolling and rolling up a floor mat
• sitting on the edge of an unrolled floor mat
• lifting, carrying, and putting down a chair
• sitting down, getting up, and tucking in a chair at the table
• using scissors and handing them to someone
• handling a book
• handling and playing a CD
• opening a lock with a key
• nuts and bolts
• using stickers, stamps, glue, paintbrushes, markers, play dough, crayons, and other art equipment appropriately
• threading beads on a necklace
• sorting
• puzzles
• winding and unwinding yarn
• walking on the line, without knocking into furniture or people
• dancing without knocking into furniture or people
• the silence game

Self -Development includes, grace, wich describes how to behave socially and personal care, such as dressing and cleaning oneself

• 1. washing hands and face
• 2. blowing nose and throwing tissue away correctly
• 3. coughing into elbow
• 4. drying hands with a paper towel and throwing it away
• 5. care of fingernails, teeth and hair
• 6. toilet training
• 7. braiding yarn or ribbon
• 8. braiding hair
• 9. dressing frames (buttoning, buckling, lacing, zipper, presss studs, bows) DIY
• 10. tying a tie
• 11. putting on clothes, coats, shoes
• 12. polishing shoes
• 13. putting clothes in washer and dryer
• 14. brushing lint from clothes
• 15. folding clothes
• 16. folding socks
• 17. hanging clothes on a hook
• 18. hanging clothes on a hanger
• 19. fastening clothes on a line with clothespins
• 20. saying please and thank you
• 21. drawing a person's attention before speaking
• 22. gracefully climbing and descending stairs
• 23. giving way to others at the doorway
• 24. asking permission to get past in a small space
• 25. greeting friends and greeting strangers
• 26. offering a seat to a visitor
• 27. offering refreshments to a visitor
• 28. answering the phone
• 29. apologizing
• 30. introduce oneself
• 31. table manners and using utensils
• learning address and phone number

Care of environement is a fancy name for house work. The children realise that they are responsible for their own environment, which enhances their respct for other and for themselfs.

• 
  
• 1. dusting
• 2. sweeping with a small broom and dust pan
• 3. washing a table surface
• 4. cleaning up spills with a sponge
• 5. mopping the floor
• 6. preparing food- washing, cutting bread, grating cheese, coring apples, peeling carrots & bananas
• 7. cooking skills- using an egg beater, using a wire whisk, etc
• 8. polishing furniture
• 9. polishing brass objects
• 10. polishing windows and mirrors
• 11. ironing (AUGH that scares me!!!)
• 12. putting dirty clothes in laundry basket
• 13. washing doll clothes on washboard
• 14. setting a table
• 15. folding napkins
• 16. using knives with good control
• 17. cracking nuts
• 18. making a bed
• 19. washing and drying dishes and utensils
• 20. stacking dishes and sorting utensils
• 21. drawing and opening curtains and blinds
• 22. watering plants
• 23. arranging flowers in a vase
• 24. caring for animals
• 25. putting materials away neatly
• simple use of needle and thread