Peace Garden Montessori

The Peace Gardeners and I had a very meaningful and engaging day together to mark The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. We began by reading Phyllis’ Orange Shirt—a story we read every year, and at each stage of the children’s lives, they take away new insights and understanding. This story offers a beautiful lesson in empathy.

We chose to spend time in nature to express ourselves, in honour of the indigenous children and people.

The children created orange paint using flowers from the garden, and berry paint from a variety of berries. Both paints were wonderfully fragrant. They also participated in some harvesting, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The children tried their paints with delight and were so pleased with the results—using nature as a form of artistic expression.

The weather was beautiful today, allowing the children to fully enjoy the outdoors in nature.

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At Peace Garden Montessori, we offer a unique hands-on educational experience with an indoor and outdoor classroom. With over 15 years of teaching experience using the Montessori method, I offer a curriculum that not only is educational but instills the joys of learning. At Peace Garden Montessori, your child will learn in an environment that helps them become who they are capable of becoming.

Happy New Year from all of us at Peace Garden Montessori! We wish you a peaceful 2023 full of wonderful gardening activities!

From all of us at Peace Garden Montessori, we wish you a peaceful and happy holiday season!

“Seeing with the Hands”: the Stereognostic Sense

“I see with my hands, I no longer need my eyes!” The Discovery of the Child by Dr. Maria Montessori

A very young child can see what is in front of them, however, it is only when they touch it, that it becomes stored in what Dr. Maria Montessori coined as the child’s “sixth sense”: the muscular memory. With both their visual and tactile senses working together, a child is storing these snapshots in their mind. This child is using her whole hand and fingers to distinguish between objects that are somewhat related, here being coins and flower shaped marbles. This is called the stereognostic sense. These objects become closer in their shape and size as the children progress with this exercise (for example: small seeds and lentils). This child is closing her eyes to heighten the sense of touch and that sense alone. Why is it important for children to not see what they are touching? It is so that they can exercise and develop their muscular memory to attain the ability to distinguish between objects in their environment—even minute differences with ease. In the future, the impressions created by heightening the sense of touch will help children with writing, drawing and painting. Mathematically, children will be able to distinguish between dimensions, shapes effortlessly and will be able to make clear connections with the natural world and sciences. All Montessori sensorial materials have a futuristic goal for the child.

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! There’s something strange but wonderful happening at Peace Garden Montessori today! As I walk around during work cycle today I see:

A doctor examining a skeleton 🩻🩺
Iron Man doing the division board 🦹‍♀️
Marvel Girl learning the Presentation Tray quantities 💯
A Canadian Special Operations cop working on the digraph, “oo” 🇨🇦
And Spider Man 🕸🕷doing some “generalizing”- finding different things in his environment that are the same as the Geometric Solids.

Have a great Halloween!

The Peace Gardener’s Pumpkin Farm trip was amazing. The air was crisp with the sweet chill of pumpkin. The
Leaves frolicked in the wind. The patch was scattered with straw inviting the children to play. The sunflowers were standing tall and persevering through the season and were a radiant hue of yellow against the pale giant corn stalks. It was a day not to be forgotten!

To commiserate with the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Peace Garden Montessori wanted to step into the shoes of an indigenous child’s cultural practices. We learned about how indigenous people had a deep respect for and used their natural environment to live.

We first read, “Phyllis’s Orange Shirt” that is the most simply and beautifully explained story, that evoked feelings of empathy from the children. Some even had tears in their eyes. We had a discussion about the book —the children explained their sadness for Phyllis and that they felt blessed and happy they came to a school that made them feel secure and loved. Compassion and empathy are feelings that are first develop in childhood - so that they grow to be compassionate and feeling adults.

The children learned that the First Nations People used different coloured dyes derived from flowers, berries, fruits and roots. A few days ago, the children collected flower petals to use to make a “dye” for fabric that we wanted to use to make a banner for our special memorial on this day. So we experimented. We put these petals in a jar of hot water with our fabric for a couple of days. We also added saffron (a natural pigmented spice) to help the colour hold onto the fabric. What resulted was fabric that wasn’t a dark orange - but still had a natural orange hue to it. We left some of the petals on our fabric and then hung it to dry at our “meeting place” - under the “Giving Tree” (which is what the children named the white pine). The children painted river rocks orange and then fastened golden paper feathers to them. These rocks represented all the children that suffered during this dark time in Canadian history.

This is our small and sincere memorial for and it meant so much to the Peacegardeners!

What a perfect fall day to go apple picking! The air was so sweet you could drink it. The painted sky was so blue it looked as if the ocean was above us. Leaves beginning to turn enchanted us with their beauty. The Montessori nature lessons on apples and everything fall came to life before the children’s eyes. Nature gave us a huge gift today and the Peace Gardeners enjoyed every minute of it!

September is the month dedicated to the remembrance our Canadian hero, Terry Fox. I wanted to share one art piece that the children worked on. The Peace Gardeners were mesmerized and touched by his story. We wanted to commemorate Terry Fox with a piece of art work to signify his unwavering determination. The Peace Gardeners called it, “Terry Fox in the Sunset”. Using tracing paper, the children outlined the silhouette of Terry Fox running. They cut it out and filled it in with black coloured pencil. Next, they glued the outline on water colour paper. After observing a few photographs of the sunset, and having noticed themselves some of the beautiful sunsets these late summer and autumn days have blessed us with - they used these colours to freely capture its beauty with water colour paints. Some gold specs were added here and there and also a hazy water colour road. There you have it - Terry Fox running in the sunset into a world perhaps more beautiful than here? I think they turned out beautifully. Don’t you agree?

In the process of making this screwdriver activity. The last screwdriver activity was worn down and didn’t have the resistance to work the children’s hand muscles. This one will give them the right amount of challenge. I thought it would be interesting to make this activity on a natural tree disk. I’m always a fan of bringing nature indoors.

Montessori Jug-ology

Def: The study, attraction to, and collection of various vessels for pouring practiced by Montessori enthusiasts.

Now that the first day back at school is around the bend, it's time to take
out all the beautiful Montessori materials to prepare the classroom for our lovely children! I wanted to share with you my love for pouring vessels.

I practice Jug-ology. Some vessels are suitable for only certain activities. The object is to find the jug that best fits the activity.

When I find a jug I like, I hold it and pretend to pour it in the air and all the while this is going through my mind:

Will this work for pouring jug to jug? Or is it better suited for a more delicate activity like pouring liquids into tiny glasses? How does the liquid flow? Slowly? Smoothly? Too quickly? Is the spout narrow and sharp to assist the child in mastering their first pouring activity? Perhaps a wider and more curved spout would work with larger activities like whisking? These questions pour from the vessel of my mind. I’m sure many Montessorians can relate.

Finally, Jugologists like you and I, look for beautiful jugs. We want our children to use beautiful things and enjoy and appreciate the materials in their classroom. We want them to hold pretty delicate glass objects and learn how to be careful to not to break or mishandle them. We know that trusting them with these will only nurture their self confidence and esteem. Using fine materials also develops their fine motor control.

Also, we as Jugologists, are looking to enhance the beauty of our classrooms - thus, we collect them and at the opportune moment, we take them out to use at the perfect opportunity.

Can you relate? Which practical life materials do you find beauty in the most?