Children begin arriving and are greeted by the teacher at 8:30 am. At 8:40am, we start our morning circle with a morning greeting song and we go over the calendar. We usually take a few minutes to check in with everyone, to see how they’re feeling and if there’s anything they’d like to share with their friends. I then introduce a new activity and invite each child to choose a job. From 9:00am to ll:00am, children are either working/playing individually or in small groups. Self-served healthy, organic snack is also available during this time from 9:15 to 10:15. My record keeping allows me to see at a glance which activities the child has mastered and what material should be introduced next, especially in our math and language curriculum.

We have a nice reading area with a variety of library books relevant to our subject of study. Subjects may include North America, Native American Indians, trees, and water. For each subject, multiple mediums (movements through music and dance) are used to reinforce the subject matter at hand.

There is great flexibility in our small classroom to follow the interests of each child, as well as to guide them in their desired achievements. So, one child may be doing some concrete addition or subtraction, another may be using the sensorial apparatus to gain an understanding of shape, size or color, two children may be working together on counting the number rods from one to ten, one reading a library book, another building words with our moveable alphabet, or doing one of our varied art projects. Some of the younger children may be immersed in our practical life activities, spooning or pouring, or in the pre-language area sorting and matching in preparation for recognizing letters.

There is a quiet hum of activity as children focus on the activity of their choice, respecting the needs of the whole group as they return their job to it’s proper place so another child knows where to find it. At 11:00am, a small, quiet bell is rung and the children finish what they were doing and come to circle. This circle is primarily dedicated to music, rhythym activities, and dance, but is also a time when a visitor may come to share something special with the children. As I have a strong background in international song and dance, I delight in sharing music and dance from many countries.

At 11:20 we wash for lunch, after which the children clean up after themselves, and then go outside at about 12:15. We come back in around 1:00 for a closing circle of either finger-plays or a story, until parents arrive from 1:25-1:35 Thus ends a joyful, busy, enriching day at Growing Minds Montessori.