Montessori in Redlands


8:00 a.m.
Savannah and Brandon pull into the parking lot at the same time. Their parents park and walk up to the childcare room together. Savannah immediately spots a friend drawing a picture and sits down with her to draw. They begin an excited conversation about a play they started writing the day before. Brandon joins a group of children in watching a game of chess. Both parents sign their children in, say good-bye from across the room and depart.
8:15 a.m.
The children clean up their activities and prepare to go to their respective classrooms. Savannah and Brandon join their classmates in line and walk across the campus to their classroom. Their teacher greets them as they enter. They hang up their jackets and put their lunches in their cubbies. Savannah and a friend help take down some chairs, then get their Work Diaries and pencil cases out and take them to a work spot. After recording the day and date, they check the classroom animals' cages for food, water and bedding. The rabbit cage is quite soiled, so Savannah and her friend take the cage outside where they clean it out and replace the bedding. Brandon helps in the classroom preparation this morning by emptying the dishwasher
8:20 a.m.
The teacher's assistant greets Nate as his dad drops him off at the curb. Nate greets a couple of friends as he walks to class. He hangs his jacket and joins Brandon and another friend in the kitchen. One child is sorting the dishes into piles of like dishes and the others are putting them away in cupboards
8:30 a.m.
The children join the teacher at morning group, checking to see the list of planned lessons on the whiteboard. The students are eager to see which lessons are being given that day. The teacher makes some general announcements and then excuses children to choose their first work. Savannah, Brandon and Nate are all scheduled to have lessons this morning: Savannah on equivalence, Brandon on pronouns, and Nate on parts of the circle.
8:40 a.m.
	Nate and a friend resume work on The Clock of Eras from the day before. They are making a pie chart drawing of time periods in the creation of the earth and the appearance of life and relating it to the 24 hours in a day. Savannah and three other children are invited to join the teacher for a lesson on equivalence. They collect the materials needed for the lesson from the shelf and meet the teacher at a large table. Brandon has chosen to read about early humans in the reading area.
9:00 a.m.
Nate and his friend continue to be focused on the Clock of Eras work. They are discussing the length of time it took to form the earth. Nate argues that it must have been much longer than what is represented on the material and his friend disagrees. They have gotten out several reference books to find the answer. Savannah and her friends are finished with the lesson and are now doing follow-up work exploring equivalence using geometric shapes. They are using construction paper to trace and then cut out different equivalent figures. A friend joins Brandon in the reading area. They are almost finished reading the entire Chronicles of Narnia series and debating some of the finer points of the stories.
9:30 a.m.
	Two of the children from the equivalence lesson decide to go on to other work. They clean up the materials they were using and update their Work Diaries. They get out a poetry book for two voices and select a poem to memorize. Savannah and her friend continue to work. They have cut out three pairs of equivalent figures and are gluing them to a larger piece of paper to make a chart. The boys' discussion of The Chronicles of Narnia has become rather heated, which is disrupting their neighbors' work, so the teacher joins the two boys. Brandon is visibly upset that he is unable to persuade his friend to agree with him. They follow steps for conflict resolution: both children have an opportunity to speak and listen. After a few minutes, both children appear calmer and able to move on. The teacher suggests they choose different work.
9:45 a.m.
	Nate and his friend are not able to fully resolve the mystery of the creation of the earth with the materials in the classroom. They ask the teacher if they can arrange a "going-out" (independent research trip) to find more information. They set a time to meet with the teacher in the afternoon because she is about to begin a lesson. Brandon chooses to do some multiplication problems with the Large Bead Frame. This is primarily independent work. He sits at a large table with several other children to do this work.
10:15 a.m.
Nate and his friend decide to take a snack break. They update their Work Diaries and put their work away. They take their snack outside and eat at a picnic table with students from the class next door.
10:30 a.m.
After snack, Nate chooses preposition work with the grammar boxes. He retrieves the necessary materials from the shelf and reads the first short sentence: Place the cone upon the cylinder. Nate acts out the directive in the sentence by collecting the cone and the cylinder and placing one upon the other. After doing several cards in this manner, Nate symbolizes the sentence with small, colored shapes which identify the various parts of speech.
11:00 a.m.
	Savannah and her friend had taken a short snack break and have returned to their work with equivalence. Brandon has finished several multiplication problems on the large bead frame and has put the frame away. He and a friend select a pin map of South America and use an atlas to determine its countries and capitals.
11:20 a.m.
A child rings a small bell. When all the children are paying attention the child announces that it is time to clean up and prepare for yoga.
11:30 a.m.
The entire class walks to the "yoga room" and is greeted by the yoga teacher. Everyone removes their shoes and prepares for class. Savannah, Brandon and Nate are working hard to perfect their form for the series of movements the teacher demonstrates.
12:00 p.m.
The children of Hope's class are called to line up for lunch. They walk in line to the door. Hope waves good-bye to her new friend Gwen who is lining up with her class. The children brush and clean their shoes and enter the classroom. The children wash their hands and gather their lunchboxes and sit at the tables which have been prepared by two Elementary service students who have washed the tables, set out the tablecloths, and put plates down.
12:40 p.m.
Savannah and Nate have finished their lunches and have cleaned up. They get a sponge and wash their table. They talk quietly until they are dismissed and go outside to play. Several classes share the playground at this time. Savannah and her friends choose to play on the swings. They time the duration each child has to swing so that everyone gets an equal opportunity. When Brandon comes out from lunch, he joins a game of soccer that Nate and his friends have started.
1:00 p.m.
The entire class is called to line up. Inside they get a drink of water and settle in for Read Aloud time. The book they are listening to now is The Little Prince. While the teacher reads, Nate draws, Brandon finishes finding the capitals of South America (work left out from the morning work period). He starts placing the flag pins onto the map. Savannah is stretched out in front of the teacher, just listening.
1:30 p.m.
At the end of the daily reading, the children are asked to choose some work. Children that do not have work from the morning to complete are asked to choose some skill building work. Nate decides to work on his math facts with a friend using addition flash cards and a stopwatch. He and his friend are trying to beat their "personal best" times from earlier this week. Savannah practices spelling with a friend. They practice the words independently until they feel they are ready to be tested, and then they quiz one another.
2:00 p.m.
Brandon and his friend begin to label the countries and capitals on a paper map. As they had agreed, the teacher meets with Nate and his friend regarding a "going-out" to a local museum. The students use a book that has ideas of various things to do with kids in Southern California. They make a list of possible destinations on a dry-erase board and then discuss the practicality of each idea. The boys finally decide on the Museum of History as the best option. They write down their questions and a script for the call. Next they locate the telephone number in the phone book and call the museum for hours of operation, costs, etc. When they complete the call, the teacher reminds them about arranging transportation, so the boys go to the computer and get onto the Metrolink website to start researching routes and times.
2:30 p.m.
The Spanish teacher comes in quietly and sits at a table. She observes several children who seem to be between pieces of work and invites them to join her for a lesson. Savannah and her friend are invited. Today they are learning the days of the week. They practice orally, then make a weekly calendar and label the days in Spanish. Next they start brainstorming activities to go onto the calendar. The Spanish teacher guides them in looking up words in a Spanish/English dictionary.
3:00 p.m.
Brandon and his friend have completed the map of South America. Their teacher suggests they mount their maps on construction paper and hang them on the wall. After they do this, the boys put their work away, update their Work Diaries and decide to read together for a while. They agree to disagree on their opinions about The Chronicles of Narnia, and not fight about it anymore.
3:15 p.m.
A child rings a small bell and announces that work time has ended. "Please clean up your work area, and then do your cleaning jobs." Nate and his friend clean up the materials they had been using for scheduling their going-out. Nate's job is to clean the supply shelf. He straightens all the materials on this shelf and sharpens some of the pencils. Brandon puts his book away and begins dusting the math shelves. Savannah stacks her Spanish work into a tidy stack. She plans to return to this work first thing in the morning. She then begins sweeping the outside patio.
3:30 p.m.
The class lines up and walks to the childcare door. Here, the children going to childcare say good-bye to their friends getting picked up at the curb. Brandon stays later than 3:45 today, so he goes to childcare. Savannah and Nate will be picked up at the curb. At the curbside pick-up, the teacher greets parents as they sign out their children. Nate's father is first in line. Nate greets his father and lets himself into the car. Savannah's mother is third in line. Savannah is excited to tell her mother about her Spanish work and starts talking as she is getting into the car.
3:45 p.m.
Brandon has already started a game of chess. He greets students from another class that have just come into the childcare room.
4:30 p.m.
Brandon's mother comes to pick him up. He is glad to see her, but disappointed to have to leave. He immediately begins to tell her about the going-out trip they have scheduled for next week. She listens as he relates the entire story.