From Sandpaper Letter to Zoology

Today was the second day of Primary Class which only meets two days a week from 9-12 pm.  I was awe struck by a child that I had only met once before. He wasn't really interested in anything else but the Montessori materials, particularly the language materials. It was amazing how he navigated his way in the environment and took full advantage of every. single. second. of his time. We ended up doing three language lessons and a zoology lesson on his very first day.

It went something like this......

Child: Can you tell me what this is (holding the sandpaper letter "t")?
                                             
Me: Sure!  Let's go dip our fingers into our special bowl that helps sensitize our fingers.

Child: O.K.

Me: These are our Sandpaper Letters and we use these to help us learn our letter sounds. This letter makes the sound "t" (as I demonstrate how to trace the sandpaper letter with my fingers).
                                                                 

    Your turn.

Child: "t" (while tracing the sandpaper letter)

Me: Can you tell me the name of this? (I asked the child while pointing to the sandpaper letter)

Child: That  is "t'.

We return the Sandpaper Letter.

Child: Can I play with this?(as he is picking up the entire set of phonetic sound drawers:)

                                                                       

I then precede to show him that there are many different drawers and I can show him what is inside one the drawers.

Me: Can you point to the "t" drawer?

Child: Here it is! ( he is totally excited that he recognized "t")

We named the objects first, and then he became mesmerized by the tadpole. Our initial sound lesson was put aside to discuss more about tadpoles. Which led us to the zoology area, discussing the life cycle of a frog.

                                                                           

I was able to capture the photos because I am cool like that (just kidding). LOL. Really though, I have mastered the art of using the camera to document work in the classroom. But it still wouldn't of happened if he didn't repeat all of the works three times, and loves to have his picture taken which could easily be another post in which I share how we learned about my camera that I wear during our morning line time. Digital Photography is on everyone's to do list at the Studio!

                                                                         

He also worked with the salt tray, and told everyone a story about a caterpillar while putting on a show. I also learned that his favorite color is red, and he explained to his friends that the red mat is the only mat he would like to use.