Inspired Materials: Phonetic Sentence Cards

When I took my Montessori training, my language instructor had a beautiful set of handmade phonetic sentence cards. The sentences were composed of mostly phonetic words ('the' and 'a' were the only sight/puzzle words used); the child would read the sentence and match it to the corresponding picture.

Unfortunately, my exceedingly limited artistic skills prevented me from duplicating the lesson, and I have not found a set commercially available, despite the fact that I have several nascent phonetic readers who could benefit from such a work. So, you can imagine my delight when I off-handedly mentioned the work I had admired and my very talented assistant, Katie, surprised me with this set:

She illustrated 25 sentences (so we can rotate them out to keep the work fresh) with these adorable colored pencil illustrations.

Aren't they perfect?

Needless to say, the children already love them! It is a great extension of phonetic reading; it is not quite as tiring for the new reader as attempting a phonetic book and it encourages them to process/comprehend what they have read (for new readers, the act of decoding can be so challenging that when they get to the end of the sentence, they have a hard time comprehending what they have read).

As an extension, the children can copywrite their favorite sentences and illustrate them.

If you're interested in having a set of your own, you can contact her at kate@bloommontessori.com

I'm not Mrs. McGregor

"Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were- Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a den in a sandbank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree.

"Now my dear," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your Father had an accident there. He was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

-The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

Today, the children's garden was received an unexpected visitor- a very funny, friendly bunny. To the great amusement of the children, the rabbit that we had seen occasionally frequenting the garden in the morning to munch on the melon leaves, decided that it wanted to become our garden's first resident rabbit.

All morning long, the rabbit ignored the throng of gleeful children less than eight feet away and busied itself with digging a large rabbit hole in the middle of the garden's mulch pile. I must say, I was quite pleased when one little two year old girl correctly applied a concept we had learned in our arthropod unit and stated "It's camouflaged!"

After the rabbit seemed satisfied with it's hole, it busied itself with hopping around the yard, collecting mouthfuls of fresh grass and returning to the hole to line its den. It seemed completely oblivious to the din of the children playing in the yard, and even when it was briefly given chase by the elated children, it remained undeterred from its relocation efforts.

During lunch, the bunny decided to keep the children company. She found a shady spot under the tree (right in the middle of the yard, 25 feet from the patio where the children were eating) and munched on some fresh grass while the children finished their lunches. Afterwards, she returned to her den in the mulch pile, climbed inside, and has not been seen since.

Perhaps our little garden is destined to become the pantry of a little bunny brood. Good thing I'm not Mrs. McGregor!

Fava Beans

The Fava Beans were finally ready for harvesting (this proverbial spring delight came a little later than normal as we held off due to unfavorable planting conditions). Fava Beans are undoubtedly one of the best plants to grow in a children's garden; these ancient beans are incredibly hardy, prolific, and resilient. Most children absolutely adore gathering their large floppy pods and appreciate their buttery texture and sweet, nutty flavor.

Fava Beans are one of the oldest cultivated plants; they are also full of fiber, iron, and so much protein that they have been called "the meat of the poor" and credited with saving Sicillians from starvation during times of famine. Additionally, they happen to be quite good for the soil (they fix nitrogen and fertilize the soil).

Today was the perfect afternoon to wander out to the garden and fill a small basket with these bumpy string beans.

Then the fun began! The labor intensive process of shelling Fava Beans, which happens to be the main downside to Fava Beans from an adult perspective is one of the most appealing aspects for children in this plane of development. The children began by stringing and shucking the beans in order to free them from the spongy batting of the pod.

Then, they were briefly parboiled, making it possible for the children to remove the glistening beans from their waxy membranes.

The children were completely happy to eat the Fava Beans raw, as they would with shelled edemame; however, they also prepared a special snack of Afghan Fava Bean Spread.

We combined the Fava Beans, some olive oil, garlic, and zahtar in a food processor (a Middle Eastern spice consisting of sumac, toasted sesame seeds, thyme, marjoram, savory, and salt that had been muddled together in a mortar and pestle).

We served our Afghan Fava Bean spread on grilled flat bread for a yummy special snack straight from the garden.

The Lottery

I wanted to let everyone know about an amazing film which will be opening at the Starz Film Festival in Denver next Friday. The Lottery is a cinema verite which follows four families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a small charter school lottery with the hope of bettering their lives. Although I would definately argue that a Montessori model offers a preferable approach, the film offers an insightful and intensely personal perspective on the need for educational reform in this country and racial inequality within the educational system.
It also clearly articulates the need for a critical pedagogy, or educational institutions which offer alternatives to the traditional dynamic between teacher, student, and society.

Against the heartbreaking images of beautiful children growing up destitute in American ghettos, horrible statistics about the probable outcome of children who do not win a spot (58% of African American fourth graders are functionally illiterate, a majority will drop out before graduating high school contributing to high rates of drug use, incarceration, and poverty) and families staking their hopes for their child's future on something as absurd as a lottery, the message of the film is ultimately a hopeful one.

In the words of the film's director, Madeline Sackler (a recent Duke graduate), when discussing her motivation for making the film: "A lot of people in my generation are profoundly affected by moral incongruities. I felt this is a fixable problem. How often does it happen that there is something that devastates lives that is fixable? It's not over there. It's not far away. It's here. It's in our backyard. What's surprising is the resistance that you get. That's the real world lesson. The lottery is a terrible, tragic event, but it's hopeful because people feel like the reason kids do better at a certain school is because they have a supportive family situation, or they have parents who help them do their homework, or they don't live in a poverty stricken area. They think the problem is at home or that certain parents don't value education, or realize the importance of education, or the problem is drugs, or gangs, or all these things. The real problem is much simpler- the fact that the public education system is under-delivering in certain communities."

For more information about the film, or to purchase tickets (or a copy of the movie), please visit their website at: http://www.thelotteryfilm.com/

Broccoli Rabe Loving Children... and caterpillars!

"I used to think that food came out of boxes bags and jars

but then I learned it really comes from gardens and from farms.

It also comes from water like the oceans and the seas

and journeys to our tables where we say bon appetit."

- Bon Appetit by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer

Last week, the children went out to the garden to harvest their Broccoli Rabe. Broccoli Rabe is a relative of the turnip; a nutty, pungent herb with spiked green leaves, small broccoli buds, and pretty yellow flowers that are edible. It is also a great source of vitamins C, A, K, and fiber. Sound like an unlikely favorite vegetable for preschooler noshing? Perhaps...

but there is a simple solution for broccoli's bad rap... empenadas!

The children began by going out to the garden and harvesting the broccoli rabe. Then, during the independent work period, many of them helped with the mise en place...

They love carefully washing any vegetables which can benefit from drying off with a twirl in the salad spinner. However, cleaning the broccoli rabe proved to be a particularly interesting task when one of the children discovered this tiny caterpillar feasting upon our fresh produce.


I must admit that the children's love and concern for arthropods won out over their gardening accumen... after the children gathered around to excitedly look at the caterpillar and allow it to crawl across their hands and an extended chorus of "Isn't he cute," they immediately rushed out to the garden with the skill and urgency of a surgeon to carefully relocate their ravenous visitor back into their garden where they actually hoped he would continue devouring more broccoli rabe! Perhaps we have Eric Carle to thank for this? Somewhere in our garden crawls both a very hungry, and a rather lucky, caterpillar!


Other children busied themselves with scrubbing potatoes,

and carefully peeling potatoes.

We steamed the potatoes and sauteed them with onions, broccoli from our CSA share, and the broccoli rabe from the garden. When the vegetables were ready, they children prepared a simple pate brisee and carefully rolled out their dough until it was about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut it into rounds.

Then they spooned in the potatoes, broccoli, and broccoli rabe filling and sealed the edges until they had created their own beautiful little vegetable pockets.

Empanadas are particularly great to make with children because there are multiple jobs involved (rolling out the dough, preparing the filling, cleaning, peeling and chopping the ingredients) and everyone has to cooperate to produce a delicious final product. They are also very easy to make and once children get the idea of how to assemble/seal them, they are able to do it independently. Additionally, they are extremely versatile- you can make them with whatever happens to be on hand from your farm share or growing in your garden.

And, most importantly, they are delicious! The children recommend enjoying them al fresco and in the company of good friends.

Children's Garden Empanadas

Pate Brisee:

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 T melted butter

2-2 1/2 T water

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Stir in butter and water until it forms a soft dough; knead briefly and allow to rest at room temperature.

Filling:

4 medium potatoes

1/2 red onion

1 large head of broccoli

5 bunches broccoli rabe

1 tsp cumin seed

1/2 tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Steam the potatoes until tender; saute vegetables and mix in spices. To assemble, roll dough to 1/8 an inch thick and cut into rounds. Place a spoonful of filling onto each round, dampen the edges and fold dough in half. Seal the edges with your fingers or the tines of a fork. Place them on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy with friends!

Bees, Beeswax, and Honeyed Delights

"As a genius of construction, man raises himself above the bee in the following way: whereas the bee builds with wax that he gathers from nature, man builds with the far more delicate conceptual material which he first has to manufacture from himself."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

To accompany the units on arthropods, parts of a flower, and our gardening unit, the children have been learning about pollination and honeybees. In addition to making honey and beeswax, bees are entrusted with an incredibly important task: pollinating plants. Nearly 1/3 of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and nearly 80% of this pollination is due to busy bees, adding nearly $15 billion dollars annually in value to the nation's food supply. In preparation for the unit, I found myself reading E.O. Wilson's The Superorganism, and marvelling at how these eusocial insects are able to create such incredibly sophisticated and complex societies, demonstrating apparent group intelligence, using a small number of of chemical signals, stereotyped behaviors, and simple decision making processes that are hard-wired into the colony members.

Honeybees have been declining dramatically since 2006, a phenomenon that has been referred to as "Colony Collapse Disorder." In 2009, it was estimated that nearly 1/3 of the bees in North America did not survive the winter.

In addition to reinforcing our botany and life science curriculum, teaching young children about bees is important because they are at an age where their attitudes and beliefs about these creatures will be formed. Hopefully our unit will arouse their interest in these fascinating creatures and their important role in pollination, while minimizing any anxiety they have of bees, and teaching them common sense precautions for interacting with them. Additionally, tropes and metaphors about bees figure prominently in literature and art; we hope to provide children with the opportunity to interpret literature and artwork that integrates the motifs of bees and beehives.

We began our unit by learning about the life cycle of a honeybee and examining some preserved specimens of bees, bee hives, and bee products.

The children seemed very interested in the specimens, but they were even more interested in bee products. After reading books about honey production, the children were treated to a tasting of honeycomb. For the vast majority of the children, this was their first experience with honeycomb. If you have never tried tasting honeycomb, you place the entire comb (wax and all) in your mouth. Your first bite crushes the comb, releasing a burst of the luscious honeyed serum from it's cells. Each subsequent bite becomes increasingly more mellow, until you are left chewing a soft, juicy, bit of beeswax with a flavor that is only vaguely reminiscent of honey. To say that the children enjoyed their introduction to this antiquated delicacy, is an understatement.

The children were also treated to a tasting of wildflower honey from a local apiary.

Finally, to ensure that our unit would begin with a sentiment of nothing less than absolute benevolence toward these hardworking little beasts, I borrowed a lesson (and a great recipe!) from Alice Waters' book The Kitchen Companion: Inside the Edible Schoolyard and assisted the children in using the remaining honey to make a special snack of baklava.

If you ever consider doing a cooking project with young children, this is one that I highly recommend. Despite the obvious stickiness factor involved, it is one of those rare cooking projects that children can accomplish completely independently- it isn't like baking, if they over or under measure the recipe is not dramatically affected, all of the tasks are simple to accomplish, and the main object of interest is folding the filo dough into triangles. The mise en place for this activity consists of chopping pistachios (the children did this by hand with a hand crank nut grinder, which I put out in the practical life area in the morning -very popular!).

By the end of work period, the school was filled with the intoxicating aroma of cinnamon and honey. Honestly, I ask you, is there a better to treat with which to christen the official first day of summer?

The children were delighted with their treat (comments made by the children ranged from "Wasn't it nice of the bees to make us honey?" to "Finally, we get to make cookies!")- but I guess the clean plates and sticky fingers speak for themselves.