This year’s pumpkin auction is over. And the pumpkins have all gone home. But the sweet memories will linger for a long time.

I stopped during the auction for a moment to try to give parents a sense of what the morning is like when 20 something children are busy carving pumpkins, scoping out the guts, designing the carvings or paintings, and executing their visions. I could tell by some of the looks that these wonderful parents really didn’t have a clue.

Imagine it, though. What would you think a room full of knife-wielding kids would look like? Well, most of them were concentrating on getting their own pumpkin to work the way they wanted to. And keep in mind that between helping the children, I have to get my own “big” pumpkin carved.

One boy was truly a speed demon. I could not believe how quickly he finished his carving. And cleaning up all the goo. And getting the newspapers folded up and thrown away. Then, with “nothing” to do while the others were still working away, he scouted the classroom for errant pumpkin seeds to sweep up (We will be finding them in odd places for weeks!).

Was it loud? Yes, and no. It was louder than our normal classroom, but no one coming to visit would have thought it especially loud. Children were talking with one another at times, or giving encouragement, or expressing admiration. There was an excited undercurrent that kept the classroom somewhat charged, but it was a good charge.

It is hard for me to really describe my deep appreciation of this wonderful group of children. I am so fortunate to be here in this place with these children at this time. The pumpkins are all gone. The glow of a wonderful day will warm my heart for a long, long time.

We had a wonderful surprise today. It was even a surprise for me, even though I had arranged it with a former teacher from the school. A few weeks ago he had e-mailed me from his home in Hawai’i that he would be visiting in town and wanted to know if he could stop by the school to give a presentation on his state. Of course I was thrilled at the prospect, but since I was at home when I received the e-mail, I forgot to put it on the calendar at school!

Carl stuck his head into the classroom this morning to alert me to the fact that there was an unknown someone in the parking lot. It wasn’t until they were in the office and I went to welcome them that I remembered this special event! (I think I may have been too busy these past few weeks!)

Lee and his wife Linda brought so many wonderful things to excite all the senses. In addition to the books, magazines, and post cards from Hawai’i, he brought leis (fresh from the island) and edible treats and even a CD of music. He kept both classrooms enthralled as he shared all sorts on information about the state. It was like taking a mini trip, something the children will not soon forget.

I wore my lei all day. The lovely aroma uplifted my spirits several times. It was like being transported to another place. Welcome to Hawai’i.

The October Issue of Montessori Leadership Online arrived in my in box today and as I was scanning through the articles I came across one on Communication Etiquette. I though to myself that I surely wanted to flag that for future reading and then noticed that I had written it! That had been a few months back and how easily we forget the many tasks we do!

But it was a wonderful little article about some of the processes that we use in helping children (and parents) with their communication skills. I looked for an easy way to link to the article with no success. So, for those of you who are part of Montessori Leadership through the International Montessori Council <www.montessori.edu> look in your in boxes.

For parents in our school, you’ll be getting your own handout of the article. The rest of my readers may e-mail me at <aletaledendecker@earthlink.net>. I’ll be happy to send along my own copy. But most of all, just communicate.

At the end of the morning work cycle we gradually reduce the number of students working in the multipurpose room in order to get the tables sanitized and ready to be set for lunch. Today our Apple Corps student from the University had spent part of her time observing the students in the multipurpose room. As they drifted back into the main classroom, she and I discussed some of the qualities of the Montessori classroom.

I commented that we Montessori adults get “spoiled” by the low noise level in our classrooms. It is a result of the emphasis on practicing respect for the work of others and takes effort to acquire. The end result is amazing, though.

The Apple Corps student spends time in a more traditional school, too. Her comment in regards to her time with us is that she always leaves calm and happy.

Yesterday we had two observers from another Montessori school. They wanted to know if our students always get along as well as what they had seen. Well…

They do have disagreements, but we help them learn how to communicate in compassionate, non-violent ways. It shows. These are normal kids. But they seem unusual to the outside observer. Calm and happy. Why should that be so unusual? Isn’t that the way we should all feel?

It struck me today how odd it is to hear that phrase in Montessori. When the children are learning from a wide range of interesting topics of their own choice, why would they need to ask that? It is only when we adults begin to impose our own ideas of what the children “should” be doing that we start hearing them resist with the plaintive question, “Do I have to?”

Today I taught two first grade students how to do multiplication with changing. “How many can we do? As many as they want. One boy said, “I want to do the whole booklet. I’ll need more than one paper for that.” Did he have to?

I showed two girls how to parse sentences. “I’m going to do all the cards in my box,” said one. The other replied, “Me, too.” After lunch I noticed that one had even completed all the cards in the next two boxes! Did she have to?

Compound multiplication with an older child: “I’ve only done two problems, but my paper is full. Should I get another paper?” Did he have to?

Division board: “I got two fair and square answers. This is cool. I’m going to do another one.” Did he have to?

The first chart of sentence analysis for dividing sentences into subjects and predicates: “Could I do all of these?” Did she have to?

Division with golden beads: I’m going to keep going until my whole page is full.” Did he have to?

Biomes puzzle maps: “I am going to try to do all the continents in one day.” Did he have to?

I heard no comment after teaching the first packet of the US government series, but noticed 20 minutes later that the student was engrossed in the control booklet for checking his work. It was the first packet of about 25 increasingly difficult packets. “I can do any of these?” Does he have to?

Elements and their pictures: “I can’t find carbon. I think we are missing carbon. Oh, it looks like charcoal. How many elements are there? Can we match pictures for all of them?” Do they have to?

Telling time to minutes: “I made a book of the whole thing.” Did she have to?

Why do we assume we have to make the children want to learn? It’s what they naturally want. We simply need to provide a rich and encouraging environment where the joy and enthusiasm will flourish. Do we have to? You bet.

Coming to school today there was little evidence that we had been on break for a week. The children came in happily, ready to go to work. There was some sharing of special things that had happened during the break, but for the most part the children just went about their normal activities. Smooth sailing.

Today I was in the multipurpose room, our art/music room. One student wanted to learn about the art history cards and chose set after set. Another student was intent on the music notation materials. It was delightful to see the interest and concentration these students exhibited.

Several students chose to play chess throughout the morning. And there was painting and drawing, musical scales and practicing the recorder. And many of the children checked out books from the library. The joys of reading!

The chairperson of the Fall Festival planning committee wanted to have a meeting and we went over how to make tissue paper flowers to sell. Once the meeting adjourned, I got busy cutting some tissue paper circles so the committee could teach the rest of the students the process.

By the end of the morning every child from the elementary had spent some time in the multipurpose room. It was good to be back with them.

What a pleasant day I had today. I was able to do all day what Montessori teachers are taught to do – observe. To make matters even better, I was observing in my daughter’s and son-in-law’s classrooms in their school, The Montessori School of the Berkshires.

In the early childhood classroom I saw lessons with using a drill, laying out models of dinosaurs on a timeline, tweezers use, soap grating, nouns in the classroom, and land and water forms, to name a few. Children were busily choosing lessons all around me. There was art, science, language (two kindergarten girls working on a letter even), math, history and geography, all in the space a couple hours.

When I moved into the elementary I saw two boys working diligently at organizing all the elements on the periodic table. They were thrilled with their eventual success. Someone was practicing with a sewing machine. A boy was learning how to finger knit. Two girls learned multiplication in separate lessons. The highlight of my observation time was being offered tea by a first grade girl. She heated the water, steeped the tea and added a generous amount of sugar before bringing me my wonderfully warm beverage. How sweet.

The whole day was sweet. During dinner my granddaughter chose each of the adults to reflect on the best, worst and silliest parts of our days (a normal dinner-time ritual). I truly had a hard time choosing the best part of the day since I had enjoyed all of my visit. Oh, the joys of observing.

We had our first parent sharing day for this year today. This is a new opportunity for parents. We have had open houses in the evenings, but not all parents can come to school at that time, so I wanted to provide an alternative to allow parents a chance to experience the classrooms in some small measure.

We had not done any preparation with the children. After lunch we just went about our business as normal and parents started arriving. In fact, I had even failed to tell Rebecca about this event, so she sent the first parent to arrive off into the early childhood class. More and more parents arrived while the children kept doing the lessons they enjoyed.

I looked around the classroom and was nearly moved to tears. Not all of the parents came, but children were busy anyway. And the room had its normal quiet air about it. Among the activities I noticed children doing were: imaginary island, counting bead chains, biome puzzle maps, regular puzzle maps, averages, multiples, food chains, building the Roman arch, writing letters to friends, fractions, clock work, pin maps, and many other things that I cannot remember. The classroom remained calm and even after the time that the sharing was supposed to be over there were still parents simply hanging out in the room.

It was time for me to read to the class, so I just went ahead and carried out the normal routine. And still parents stayed. And after reading the children did the afternoon jobs. And still the parents stayed. Some even went outside with us and stayed until dismissals.

It was lovely! So pleasant to see the children sharing an authentic Montessori afternoon with there parents. We will do this again. I liked it even more than the evening open houses.

Today at lunch while I was cleaning up my own lunch, I noticed that a student had filled the mop bucket at the sink and was trying to lift it out. The faucet was in the way so I showed her how to tip the bucket slightly in order to get it out without any trouble.

While doing this I asked her if she needed some help and she said that it was a pretty big spill. Yes, indeed. Her entire yogurt had landed upside down under the chair of another student.

What impressed me most about this incident was the calm acceptance of the responsibility of cleaning up one’s own mistakes. We all make them. Students in Montessori learn that it isn’t cause for anger or blame, just an opportunity to use all those wonderful practical life skills that they have been learning along the way.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all of life unfolded as easily?

The elementary has been filled with heads lately. On Friday the children built their heads from balloons and papier mache. They dried over the weekend and I went in to school a couple of times to turn them so they would dry on all sides.

Yesterday the kids painted them the skin colors of their historical people. It was kind of funny to look into the multipurpose room and see all those heads sitting on the big table. I thought I had come out of that process unscathed, but when I got home I discovered that I had been wearing a patch of flesh-colored paint on my sweater all day! Ho, ho!

Today we painted the features on the faces. Those heads look so great now. The expressions on some of them are priceless. I can hardly wait to see them with their wigs (and some even with facial hair!)

We printed out the Limericks that the children had written today. That will give them a couple of evenings to practice them before the big “Dinner” on Thursday. I’m getting really excited about it. We have some pretty good Limericks this year (as always) and I think the parents are going to have a blast.

Nicole, the new middle school teacher will be there. She will be attending as many parent functions as possible so everyone will have a chance to get to know her before the middle school opens its doors next fall. Heads up! Lots of things are happening!