my grown up baby bear

I had the opportunity to do one of our observations in Caitlyn's Montessori class yesterday.  I got to stay for 2.5 hours and I was absolutely amazed.  Caitlyn has three works she is responsible for daily.  Math, Reading and Writing.  Once she has completed those she can choose other works or go to the outside environment to work with other materials.  

Math-The first thing I got to see was the "bank game".  She has been so excited about this work and now I see why.  She and her friend Jack did it together.  They both chose a thousands number and went to the "bank" to get the cubes that represent thousands, the squares that represent hundreds, the ten chains that represent tens and the unit beads that represent ones.  They came back together to add their numbers together.  As they did so, Ms. Reggie monitored their work, making sure they went to the "bank" to exchange if needed.  She reminded them that each number family only has room for 9 and if there are 10 they move to the next family.  I think C's favorite part was when Ms. Reggie said "toot a loo, off to the bank".  She was off to exchange 10 units for 1 ten chain.  It is just amazing yet so simple and concrete to see this concept of place value and addition being taught.  Next, she will begin the number chains.   

Writing- fine motor control/handwriting training is taught through metal insets.  The first step is tracing the frame and the matching shape with colored pencils, once that is mastered the next step is adding vertical lines from the bottom to the top inside each shape.  Next, student go from vertical lines to one continuous line (which you see here).  C passed this off yesterday and is now working on one frame and a different (non-matching) shape, overlapping and shading in (vertical) one shape only.  I have a huge pile of her metal inset papers from last year till now and you can see so much progress.     

Reading- One side of the cards have pictures and one has the printed word.  Caitlyn spelled these words using the movable alphabet.  C passed off a,e,i,o,u words and is moving to blends.  

Ms. Reggie is an amazing Montessori teacher, she does not miss a beat.  She has encouraged Caitlyn and has set high expectations for her over the past year and a half.  I will be reading this post when I feel worn out because of the drive and know that MIS is the right place for C and our family.  If it weren't in North Mesa I would have sent the girls to K there.  I jokingly tell Ms. Reggie that I want to go back to Montessori.  My Mom always wanted me to teach Montessori, you never know...maybe when I grow up.  The  teaching methods, materials and concepts make so much sense and support error less learning because of the controls built into the work for students to check their answers.  I am a huge supporter of AMI Montessori and am so thankful that my girls have gotten to attend.     

Keep up the hard work SIS !