I was only at school for a few minutes this morning but there was lots happening. In the elementary the little tiny preying mantis nymphs were emerging from their egg sack. And in the early childhood class a third butterfly was just coming out of its chrysalis.

What a buzz of excitement there was. I was really sad to have to leave, but I had to catch a flight to Florida to visit a teacher education program. One of my many trips! I have been in and out of the classroom quite a bit lately, and that does not make me a happy camper. I will have to miss a day next week and the week after, but then, I’ll be able to be a regular teacher for the rest of the year.

One of the parents at school was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport after arrivals this morning. The timing worked out perfectly for the flight and I was able to help out a bit before leaving. I always worry about the extra work that the rest of the staff must do while I am gone, but I know that they are very capable! Thank goodness!

I really regret missing today, though. The elementary and kindergarten students have been working on learning the May Pole dance for Monday. It is really lots of hard work for the children and I love to share that with them. Then I worry, too, that it may rain on Monday! We have not had to postpone the dance for a long, long time. There will be even more to celebrate this year because by Monday all the butterflies will be ready to be set free!

At this time of year the outside is a biomass of entertainment. The tent caterpillars have erupted and are crawling all over the place. Children catch them and let them tickle their hands and arms. They even try to sneak them home with them! Although we are not overly excited about the prospect of propagating tent caterpillars, it is a no kill zone. And they do provide the children with a close hand examination of living things.

Add to the caterpillars the abundance of large and small maple seeds (helicopters) falling from above. The younger children actually gather a whole bucket of them and then threw handfuls into the air to watch the aerodynamics of their fall.

We are on a quest to extend our indoor environment into the outdoors. Yesterday we paced off too potential patios directly out the classroom doors where hopefully children will be able to work even in their slippers on nice days. It will be so delightful to have that very Montessori capability. Then the children will be able to share their lessons with helicopters and worms!

Today was Earth Day and several of the area Montessori Schools got together at the Earth Fest celebration in Knoxville. When I got up this morning I thought for sure Earth Fest would be postponed. It was raining – hard. I checked my e-mail right up until 10:30, and then we went ahead and packed up the things that we were supposed to provide for the booth.

We had forgotten to bring the computer home from school for the PowerPoint presentation on Montessori, so we stopped there on the way. It wasn’t charged up, so I charged it in the car on the way into Knoxville. I had actually stayed up late last night getting the last of the photographs added to the presentation.

By the time we arrived at the World’s Fair site, it had stopped raining, but the ground was soupy wet. Briggita had arranged for tables to be brought to serve as a floor for our mini classroom. Carl and I provided a “rug” and there were shelves and books from Valerie, a great sign from Mary and many other things from Carrie and Jan and Robin. Susan had prepared a pamphlet. It was great to be coming together as a community of Montessori schools.

The sun came out and the crowds arrived. One of the things we had in our booth was the pot-making lesson along with soil and seeds so children could plant their own sunflowers just like they have been doing at school. It was a really fun day. The battery finally died on the computer around 3:00, so we packed it up and took it back to the car.

Then we headed to the Ben and Jerry’s booth for some ice cream. I got the very last serving of chocolate! Just then I heard the fellow behind the counter tell a very disappointed customer that they had just served the last of the chocolate. But when I turned happily with my prize, the disappointed customer was one of my own students. I shared with her, and I think that brightened her day a bit.

After packing everything up at the end of the day, we headed to Sam’s to get some supplies for school. It was an exhausting day, but so much fun. I think I’ll sleep well tonight!

We had a wonderful group today. The weather actually cooperated perfectly. It had started to sprinkle a bit, so we were looking at the possibility of staying in. It was my day to “do” group, and I had planned on transferring the butterfly chrysalids from the small cup with the food for the caterpillars into the butterfly garden. This morning the last of the caterpillars shed its last skin (or exoskeleton) to reveal the chrysalis, so it was time to make that transfer.

After reading a short but informative book about the development of butterflies, we talked some about what we had observed so far with the caterpillars. We talked about the difference between butterfly and moth pupal stages. Then I opened the cup and carefully detached the paper on which all the chrysalids hung. They did not like being moved! The children were thrilled to see them shake! It was a good demonstration that even though they could not move from one place to another in their present form, they were still living things.

Now we can watch the transformation (metamorphosis) of the chrysalids. The outer membrane is thin enough that we can see the butterflies developing inside. This is so exciting.

During the morning work cycle we also shared some new lessons on the life cycle and parts of butterflies. I’m sure that will be a popular lesson. When the models arrive, we can add those to the life cycle lesson!

We finished group a little later than usual, but by that time it had stopped raining and the children were able to go outside! Perfect timing!

In the Early childhood class the caterpillars have grown phenomenally. I checked on them today before leaving and they were all at the top of the container. That is a good sign that they will be attached and will have shed their skin for the last time to reveal the chrysalids!

But a wonderful catalog arrived today. It is called Acorn Naturalists. When I was thumbing through it I found models of the painted lady butterfly life cycle. Ooh! How exciting. I knew the children would love using them. I had just gotten the frog life cycle models ready for the classroom with Carl’s help. Those will be waiting for the children when they arrive in the morning. I hope to catch some tadpoles from my fishponds at home to bring to school. It is so much fun to have the classroom teaming with life.

We have some butterfly models, but they aren’t painted lady butterflies. I got online and ordered them as soon as I got home. And I found some ladybug models and ant models, too. I do so enjoy getting things that I know the children will appreciate and use for learning. Now I can hardly wait for them to arrive.

In the meantime, our chrysalids will take about 21 days to finish their metamorphosis. I hope the models arrive before then.

In the elementary, the preying mantids nymphs are developing invisibly inside their egg sac. One of these days, we will have hundreds of them!

There is a difference in the feel of EC classrooms depending on whether the children have an elementary classroom into which to move on. When a school has an elementary program and the teachers in the early childhood are familiar with the curriculum, the adults will be preparing the children for a long-term Montessori experience. This especially manifests itself in things like the binomial and trinomial materials and fractions. It is also more likely that the children will be learning to write in cursive with the sandpaper letters, too.

When there is no elementary program for children to attend, teachers will not place as much emphasis on teaching the binomial and trinomial in the concrete from because there will not be the opportunity for abstraction of the concepts.

Children who are going to continue in Montessori will simply continue writing in cursive, but if they are going into a traditional classroom, they will be expected to learn their manuscript first. Most often they are “not allowed” to write in cursive, so teaching cursive to children who are definitely going into traditional schools may be seen as a “waste of time.”

I visited a wonderful school today, but there was not an elementary program to follow this thriving early childhood class. In fact, the mid-sized town I visited had no elementary Montessori programs at all. The children were happy and learning wonderful things, but I was very aware of the missing sense of being able to move on with higher levels. Instead there was a sense of “graduating out” of Montessori.

I would love to see more Montessori available for more children and more Montessori available for older children. I dream of the day when Montessori elementary, middle, and high schools are taken for granted!

Some exciting materials arrived at school yesterday. Some caterpillars that will grow into painted lady butterflies came in for the early childhood class. They will grow for a while before shedding their skins one last time to reveal the beautiful chrysalids beneath. Inside the butterflies will develop.

Later in the day, FedEx arrived at school again with the praying mantis egg sack for the elementary class. Along with it there was a tube of fruit flies! Once the praying mantis nymphs emerge, they will be hungry! We will be able to watch the nymphs grow into praying mantids before releasing them onto the playground. It is going to be very buggy!

During our early childhood group this morning we talked about how the caterpillars will grow. They shed their skins in order to grow. This happens several times before that final time that the chrysalis is left. Caterpillars that change into butterflies do not weave a cocoon as written in Eric Carle’s “Very Hungry Caterpillar.” That is what moth caterpillars do! I hope the early childhood class learns that difference through this real life experience!

I also ordered some ladybugs. They will not come in until next school year, though. That way we can spread out the bugginess!

There were several children absent today, so instead of having too many adults in the classroom, I spent a good part of the morning straightening up in the office and catching up on some of my other work.

When it was time for the snack dishes to be done, I returned to the classroom and checked the contact list. All the children but one had had new lessons. That child was having snack so I kept an eye on her and as soon as she was finished, I invited her to learn how to use the special paper we have for writing one-word stories.

She seemed to enjoy the lesson and chose to do it right away. While that student was writing her word and drawing her picture, another student observed her working and wanted to know if only one person could do that lesson at a time. So I asked back whether there were additional writing boards and pencil trays. Then she realized that indeed, more than one could be doing the lesson (If there is only one set of materials the children must wait until a person doing the lesson has completed it and returned it to the shelf. The patience that develops might be a good topic to expand later!)

With happiness bubbling from her, the second child collected her materials and began writing. And writing, and writing. If she stumbled over the way to make some of the non-phonetic sounds, she looked at the phonogram materials. Such industry. It was quite a story.

When I visited another school recently, I saw a really nice lesson that I wanted to bring into my classroom. The lesson had a selection of paint samples and some paints to mix in order to match them. But the really nice thing was that the paint samples were all various skin tones from very light to very dark. Children doing the lesson found the color closest to their personal skin tone.

I went to the local home improvement store and collected a whole range of samples recently. Today, I cut the labels off of them and punched holes in the corners in preparation for laminating them. I am eager to get this lesson into the classroom because I think the children will have a blast with it. And if it opens up the discussion about all the different colors of skin we have in our classroom, that is all the better.

We had an explosion of Constructive Triangle use today. It was a good example of the power of horizontal learning is. One student was waiting for a presentation with the planting lesson I mentioned in my last post, so we were looking at other things that she could learn while another student was finishing planting seeds.

I checked the lessons marked to present to her and saw that both the fifth box of the constructive triangles and an advanced lesson with the geometric were on tap for this student. I asked her which she would like. She chose the constructive triangles. This box has a variety of triangles in two configurations – equilateral and obtuse angled isosceles. The areas are equivalent, though. During the presentation we experimented with some of concepts imbedded in the triangles for a while. Another student sat across from us watching intently. While I was giving this lesson with the fifth box, a third student chose the second box.

As soon as I finished the presentation, the student who had been watching informed me that she had only learned up to the third box. I asked her if she would like to learn the fourth box and she simply beamed. Constructive triangles take up a big space. With three boxes in use at one time, most of the bigger workspaces were in use! Geometry really comes alive with the Montessori materials. It is no wonder that constructive triangles were so popular today.

We have an interesting little lesson that allows children to make planting pots out of newspaper. It is not an easy lesson to do successfully, but newspaper doesn’t cost anything so it is fine for children to keep practicing until they are successful.

Every so often we go through the container of completed pots and pull out the “duds” because these pots become part of the supplies for the next gardening lesson. That is planting seeds!

How the children love to get themselves into the potting soil and the seeds. It is really exciting to be involved in growing things. We have a selection of different kinds of seeds for the children to choose, too. Hopefully we will have a high rate of germination!

Spring is such a great time to be teaching. There are so many things to share.

I am on a Montessori Listserv that has members from around the world. There was a recent post from a teacher who found that her students were reluctant to use the materials for vocabulary development, what we call nomenclature cards. I really found that astounding. At any time during any day there are students using the nomenclature cards. I cannot imagine it any other way.

Today a student was doing the parts of the butterfly (note to self – order the butterfly growing kit!). He announced proudly that he knew them all except this one (proboscis). So we went over it until I was sure he remembered it. Then I asked if he wanted to make a book. That is a silly question. They ALWAYS want to make a book. That is, once they reach the level that they are introduced to making them. Until then, the children match the cards and learn the vocabulary without any product at all.

And the books actually get harder as the children get older, but they love them from day one. When they start making the books, we provide pictures that allow the children to color in the part they are naming. They always have to tell us how many pictures they need (slip in a bit of counting there!). Then we staple the books together for them. Another step is learning to staple the books themselves. Next they learn how to use a special hole punch and tie the pages together. Later, when they have greater facility with a pencil, they trace the pictures on plain paper. Eventually they add definitions to the terms.

I remember a student who was working on animals of the biomes of the world a few years ago. There were so many, that he made chapters in his book. What was really interesting was the title page he made for each chapter. He drew a door opening on the title page with “Enter” on it. The book eventually was about two inches thick. Nobody had to tell him to work on this task. He was simply following his interests.

We don’t have any problem at all keeping children interested in learning new vocabulary. We have difficulty sometimes keeping up with their voracious appetite for new nomenclature, though! Even today, a student wanted to learn the parts of the spider. Oh, oh! I don't have the parts of the spider. I guess I better get busy!

The children (and parents) were certainly dragging in this morning after such a violent storm last night. To add to the sleepiness, we were dealing with the time change, too. I truly expected that the students would be grumpy and lethargic today.

But no! We had a very smooth morning. And the skies cleared early enough to dry out the playground sufficiently for the children to go outside after all.

We did not see much difference in the day until after lunch, when nap time rolled around. The younger children who take naps were “out” very quickly. I certainly wish I could have joined them.

All in all, though, the dark and stormy night turned into a bright and cheerful day.