All You Need to Know about Beautiful & Easy Montessori Art

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori, STEAM Tagged With: Art Lesson, Sequence This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Although there is no specific Montessori writing on art in a Montessori classroom, we can only imagine the appreciate Dr. Montessori must have had for this approach to learning. Her emphasis on order, neatness, and love of nature gives further indication that she would support artworks within a Montessori classroom.

In addition to the general appreciation of art, activities within a Montessori early childhood classroom involve fine motor development, math, science, language, and sensorial. Integrating art into other learning areas is key to introducing art to children.

Montessori Art focuses on the process and allowing the child to truly experience art on his own terms. Children are born naturally inclined to art. So, then, our job is to nurture that natural tendency towards creativity. I think you will agree that art is about the experience the child has with the materials, the mediums, and the textures that ultimately create the art. This idea is known as process art.

Montessori Art Activities, Materials, & Shelf Ideas

You won't find crafts or step by step art projects in a Montessori environment. More often than not, an art project is integrated into another area of the classroom such as language (storytelling), history (visual representations of time), math (beadwork), and geography (tracing & coloring maps).

Montessori Art Theory in a Few Words

So, what is behind Montessori art? Here are a few words used to describe Montessori art.

Exploration
Creativity
Unique
Thoughtful
Mindful
Patient
Child Led
Process Not Product
Appreciation
Time
Flexibility
Sensory

Ways Art is Beneficial to Children

I am likely preaching to the choir here but here are a few of the myriad of reasons art is beneficial to children. The research comes out, again and again, affirming this belief. Art studies help child's developing brains in more ways than we can see tangibly. This article on PBS.org describes the importance of art in a young child's life.

Fine motor development
Sensory development
Whole brain development
Emotional regulation
Encourages expression
Brings joy and happiness
Develops vocabulary
Introduces math and science concepts
Develops attention to detail and awareness of the environment
Concentration & focus
Encourages an appreciation of creative expression of others

Check out: Montessori Art for Continent Studies

How to Support Creativity in a Child

Be open-minded about messes, mediums, and the direction of the child
Learn about art processes and materials
Understand what it means to be creative and the myriad of definitions that exist
Read about the impact of creativity on brain development
Embrace the idea of “failure” as an opportunity
Prepare the environment for the creative art process
Prepare yourself with appropriate responses to a child's work
Read this post from the Artful Parent How to Talk to Kids about their Art

How to Prepare the Environment

Create ground rules with the children for the art space and maybe even assign jobs to help keep the space clean
Aprons
A variety of mediums with which to do art such as tissue paper, card stock, watercolor paper, paper towels, coffee filters, and so on
A designated spot for artwork to dry
Splat mats and plastic table coverings
Vinyl table mats
Storage for art supplies and finished artwork
Liquid Water Color
Containers and baskets for various beads, gems, crafts sticks, pom poms, and other supplies
Variety of brushes and painting tools
Various types of glue

Art Supplies for the Montessori Classroom

Cotton Balls (your home)
Q-Tips (your home)
Brush Assortment
Tempera Cakes
Liquid Watercolor
Water Color Paper
Washable Tempera
Dropper Glass Bottles
Small bowls (Goodwill)
Coffee Filters
Work Mat or Trays
Craft Sand
Apron
Finger Paint Paper
Crayons
Salt (from your home)
Tissue Paper
Small glass jars for water (from your home or Goodwill)
Squeeze Dispensing Bottles
Sponges
Glue
Small Storage Trays
Paint Tray

Steps to Creating Your Own Art Lesson

Observe Your Child & Determine a Need
Determine the Prerequisites
Determine the Aim
Gather Materials
Structure the Exercise
Create the Exercise
Practice the Exercise
Present the Exercise

Learn the Montessori Life Science Lesson Sequence

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori Tagged With: Life Science, Sequence This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Life Science learning is an exciting time for children and adults. Below is a Montessori approach to bringing life sciences into your learning environment.

Montessori Life Science Sequence & Approach

Big Picture Life Science Approach

Beginning with a BIG picture approach, we have three main areas of life sciences learning:

Living/Non-Living
Plant/Animal
Vertebrates/Invertebrates

Representation Presentation

Introduce the next sequence by using a real animal or plant. For example, if you have a fish or a plant, bring it to a work table along with a figurine/fake plant and a picture of the animal or plant.

First, introduce the real plant or animal
Ask the children a series of questions about what they see as they observed the representation. Write down the observations.
Then put aside the real plant or animal and bring out the figure and ask the same types of questions. Cross out any observation or descriptive word that can no longer be used to describe the plant or animal.
Finally, put the figure aside and pull out an image of the plant or animal. Cross out any observation or descriptive word that can no longer be used to describe the plant or animal.

The message is a powerful one.

Montessori Life Science Lesson Sequence

Once we establish the definitions of each life science area, we move forward with this three-step sequence:

Observations of / How to Care for
Parts of the Plant/Animal
Simple Nomenclature Cards

Observation

Observing is perhaps my favorite part of these exercises. Observation is a great skill to instill in children and to cultivate in ourselves. Plus, with observation, we often have the opportunity to spend time outdoors in nature, which children generally enjoy. Within the conversation, work in ways to care for the plant or animal. Maybe even demonstrate to the child.

With observation, ask many questions. Examples include:

How does it sound?
What does it feel like? (Be careful with this one for obvious reasons such as damage and getting our oils on a small insect.)
Does it have a smell?
How does it grow?
How does it communicate?
From where does it get its nutrients?
Why do you think this plant/animal likes living in our yard? what does it like?
What do you think this plant/animal does during the colder months to survive?
What is the purpose of this plant/animal?
How does it help our earth?

Other important points to consider emphasizing to a child:

Every plant and animal has a purpose and helps our earth in some way
Our job is to find a way to co-exist with that particular plant or animal.
Try to keep any squirminess to myself, especially in front of kids.
Do whatever possible to nurture a child’s sense of awe and wonder. A child is born with an innate sense of curiosity. Our job is to make sure that sense of awe and wonder does not leave the child.

After observation, integrate life sciences puzzles to begin introducing a child to the parts of the plant or animal. You will be amazed at the power of education. Once a child learns about the parts of a plant or animal, he seems to gain even more respect for that plant or animal. So, caring for the plant or animal becomes second nature.

I hope you found this Montessori life science overview useful!

Marnie

Do You Know the Montessori Food Preparation Sequence?

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori Tagged With: Practical Life, Sequence This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Would you hand a three-year-old a knife?

Okay, to be fair, we're talking a blunt knife, not a sharp one, to prepare food.

Sequence of Food Preparation Activities

#1 – Slicing

Children learn to slice bananas (with blunt knife), cucumbers, strawberries, apple (with corer), celery, hard boiled eggs, carrots (peeling & slicing)

#2 – Spreading

Using a child sized spreader, children spread warm butter, cream cheese, peanut butter onto toast, raw bread, crackers, and vegetables.

#3 – Make food that doesn't require heat

Butter in a bag, bread, peanut butter with a food grinder, cracking peanuts, hammering nuts, vegetable dip, cheese & meat snack, slicing hard boiled eggs or making deviled eggs, making a smoothie, drying foods, making salads, using a melon baller to prepare a melon snack, grate cheese, squeeze lemon, crush herbs with mortar & pestle.

#4 – Making food that does require heat

Apple sauce, bread, vegetable soup, pizza, sweet treats like brownies or cookies, scones, foods from other countries such as dumplings, tea, pasta

#5 – Re-create recipes using measurement

Use step by step visual recipe cards to allow children to complete a recipe work cycle. This work is great pre-math work!

#6 – Create new recipes

This last part of the sequence requires some preparation of mindset and environment. Allow the children to create their own recipes, observe, and experience the results. Ask inquiry questions along the way. Document the recipe to complete the work cycle. This work is a wonderful pre-science activity!

Bringing kids into the kitchen is fun and simple to do. Being patient with the experience is key. Your mindset needs to embrace the fact that there might be a bigger mess and the prep may take a bit longer. That is the name of the game. Think about the long term rather than the short term.

You'll find loads of resources for bringing kids into the kitchen on Montessori Services site!

Have fun!

Marnie