* D found someone's silence rug out, and much in his style of not working with anything unless it belongs to someone else, he took off his shoes and sat and did silence independently for about 2 minutes. Then he got up, put his shoes back on, and left the rug just in time for the work's original owner to return to their work from the bathroom.
* At lunch T realized as the three year old's lined up to wash their plates that the scraps trash can was not out, he went to the snack table, got it, went to the kitchen, emptied it, and brought it to the lunch area.
* C set up the snack are all by herself this morning. Read and sorted all the snack cups and drinking cups. Brought the water jugs and waste basket. (I love it when children do the real practical life stuff with total autonomy.)
* T started an independent project of writing a song book. She phonetically wrote the lyrics of 5 songs in Hindi, one in Dutch, and two in English.
* S didn't hit anyone in the afternoon.
* A was scrubbing the floor and got so into it that he accidentally tipped over his water container. D and M pitched in to help him clean up the spill with buckets and sponges. When they'd dried the original spill, D tipped the rest of the water onto the floor so that they could clean up some more. And did it once more when they were done with that.
4 comments:
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step", right? So, it's the small stuff that will make them into amazing men and women one day! And it's the small stuff which keeps us going as teachers... :)
What is a silence rug, exactly? It sounds like a great addition to our classroom!
This reminded me of many happy moments in my Montessori classroom. I really miss it
Hello Ruth,
The silence rug is just like doing the silence game individually. I think the idea came from Aline Wolf's book "Nurturing the Spirit"... but I don't remember now. We have a special rug and a tray with the word silence on it (and sometimes a sand timer on it as well). The child can choose it, take their shoes off, and do silence individually for as long as the want (or the duration of the sand timer). The rule with it is that when you choose it, no one can disturb you. The children use it a lot. I present it early on in the year and it never gets forgotten on the shelf.
Good luck!
Susanne
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