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Local Voices

Montessori Preschool Fun! Practical Life

Our practical life area in the classroom provides the children with work that enables them to increase their coordination, concentration, sense of order, and independence. In this collection of pictures, you can see children practicing spooning, tweezing, and pouring. There is currently a work on the shelf where they can choose to cut bread and then offer it to their friends in the classroom. They also have water work available where they can practice squeezing a sponge and cleaning up a wet spill, as well as practicing pouring water into small cups. As I have written before, they are responsible for getting their own snack from the snack table and pouring their water into their cup for snack. Of all areas in the classroom, practical life is the area that visiting parents are most interested in. And the fact that the children are responsible for serving and cleaning up their snack is many times a source of amazement.

One question I am often asked is “don’t they make a mess with…spilling water, spilling the little things they are spooning or pouring, dropping the trays and breaking the containers on the trays, etc.” And the answer is yes all of these things happen sometimes. Yes they spill water, but they have practiced how to clean up a wet spill and squeeze a sponge. Yes they spill and drop trays and yes all the objects go all over the floor but they have friends who help them clean up (when they need help). Yes, the glass and ceramic containers break if they are dropped but that helps them improve their coordination, balance, concentration and control of their movement.

One work we have on the shelf currently is using a strainer to sift through a big bowl of rice to find colorful gems. Has that big bowl of rice spilled? Yes, so far it has spilled two times and rice went everywhere! Did I remove it from the classroom because “it’s messy”? No, it is still here and now every child knows they have to be slow and careful when they take that big bowl of rice to the table. And if it spills again, we’ll just clean it up and know that mistakes and accidents are how we all learn.

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As you look at these pictures remember that the children in the classroom range in age from 2.7 through 4.11.   MCHLG.com

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