The children are happily humming along, going about their day, doing their good work and taking cooking breaks! Exploring different aromas and tasting just a crumb of something new helps our little ones be brave in their own little ways. October is the month of courage! Halloween offers us an opportunity to be strong and brave; we are not afraid of ghosts! Skeletons are wonderful for learning about bones, and it’s exciting to know we have them along with lots of other creatures called vertebrates. Acting out these animals is a great way to have fun while strengthening our bodies. Using our shoulders and upper arms is particularly helpful in preparing the body so that it is able to hold a pencil properly along with other fine motor skills.
Planting seeds and little plants offers an opportunity for the children to care for all things big and small. To see the wonder of life and discover what it takes to keep a plant happy and growing can help us to remember how to take good care of ourselves. Our organic, GMO free garden is a perfect opportunity for children to enjoy digging in the dirt as well as getting a bit muddy! Baking from our garden has been particularly fun. From cleaning the pumpkin to counting the seeds, the garden has an important role. You can now bring your pennies, nickels and dimes to school on Friday afternoon, for a little bake sale! It is a fun opportunity for the children to practice counting and skip counting with the money they collect. We will then be donating the money to a local charity. We will write a letter, address the envelop and mail it off with a stamp! I love this opportunity for the little children to be community helpers while having fun with practicing all the important skills they are learning each day. Sharing and helping each other and those in our community feels good and makes a big difference. Looking at community helpers like firemen, nurses, and policemen can inspire great costume ideas and are great fodder for role play in the classroom. Higher level thinking is possible while children are engaged in guided play and it is such a fun way to learn!
Exploring seeds and discovering there are different parts to the fruit helps the children to understand that there are also different parts to our planet Earth. The center of our Earth is special; it is a magnet. We love magnets at this age! How fun to feel the pull of attraction between two metals and to feel how they can also repel. We are living on a gigantic magnet! This giant magnet protects us, keeping us safe by repelling that which is not good for us. How sweet to know that the earth takes such good care of us in so many ways.
Happy October!
Love,
Ms. Marzia
Little Acorn Montessori Preschool 