Friday, September 19, 2008

Just another school day

Today Elijah was invited to start attending the extended day at his school, meaning he would be there from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm instead of picking him up at noon. This is a very special invitation, as not all children are invited to stay for the longer days. They have to show certain signs of readiness first. I just wanted to post this picture of him with his teacher Amber.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Pink Tower



This picture was taken by the director of Elijah's school, which she decided was a great moment to capture the quintessential Montessori exercise. She liked it so much that she put it on the school newsletter :) I was just going to post the picture so everyone could see him in action- and get a peek at the school, but I decided to write a little something to explain what he is doing. The lesson is called "The pink tower" for obvious reasons, it being pink and also...a tower :) In this case, it had toppled over and Elijah volunteered to put it back up. Sooooo, why is he stacking stuff? I looked into it a little and found that he is actually doing alot more than stacking.

The purpose: Build blocks of graduated 3 dimensional sizes in order to understand sequence and order.

When building the tower, the children grasp each cube with one hand to get the muscular impression of the size (Again the connection- the hand is visually measuring the cubes for the mind to process). As the teacher is giving the initial lesson (these are done on-on-one), they introduce the concept of large and small, large, larger, largest, small, smaller, smallest. This is very basic, and would probably be used for smaller children initially....but when they are older or ready for more, you can add the counting of the cubes. The concrete difference between 1 and 10 is the first step in understanding addition. Later, they teach the child to count backwards, using the tower again. Count backwards from 10 as the largest cube down to the smallest cube. This visual aid is invaluable to understanding subtraction. Basically, it makes numbers mean something.

When the child can build the tower easily they are taught to build the tower with one corner exactly above the other all the way up, the two edges exactly even. The smallest cube can fit on each ledge on each level. This shows the size and difference between each of the cubes.

Develops -
1.Visual and small muscular perception of dimensions.
2. This awareness of dimensions leads to observation of the child’s environment.
3. Helps to make smoother and more coordinated movement.
4. Math readiness by introducing concepts of smaller, larger, prepares for the decimal and number system.

Eventually, this same lesson is used to help to prepare for the cube root. 1000 smallest cubes make the largest 10th cube. 8 of the smallest cubes make the second cube, 27 of the smallest cube make the third cube, 64 of the smallest cubes make the fourth cube, 124 cubes make the fifth cube, and so on.

I dunno about you, but I had to read that cube root part a couple times...maybe I need to build a tower.

Pretty cool!