Oak Farm Montessori June 2021
Maria Montessori discovered the importance of order for young children and designed her classrooms and materials to reflect this roadmap to independence. While the child is free to choose the activities that they are drawn to most, they are also expected to respectfully complete the work and return it; restored and ready for the next person. If you have ever gone to retrieve a tool or utensil and found it missing, you know the level of frustration that can occur... even for an adult! This sense of order in the classroom, materials and routine of the day, leads to a development of order in the child’s mind. Perhaps you watched in awe as your child lined up matchbox cars or peas on their plate without any prompting on your part. Over and over again, Jack would line his dominoes by color and become giddy with excitement as he watched them fall. Montessori is set up to not only prepare the child for academic success, but to encourage freedom of movement and self discipline that comes intrinsically from within. Our teachers prepare an appealing, structured environment that promotes this sense of order in the classroom and in the mind. Enjoy reading how this principle is applied across our various levels.
Candice 2
HEAD OF SCHOOL
Why is it so peaceful to walk into a library, museum or Montessori classroom? Order! Areas of interest are clearly indicated and organized in an appealing manner. You can easily find what you are looking for and feel confident that it will be available to you.
, r e d or e s a e pl
Nikole Albright, Community Relations Liaison
This is the season for graduations; young adults making their way in the world and celebrating their academic successes. But…did you know that a child’s brain grows most rapidly and the most learning takes place in the stage of development from birth to age three? Maria Montessori taught that education began at birth. Her research led her to develop the curriculum that is still used across the world today in classrooms from Infants through high school. Children in the Infant and Toddler classrooms are encouraged to explore and experience the world around them. Many of the ‘work’ choices include care of self: washing hands, toileting, cleaning up spills or using a dustpan and brush. The children learn that maintaining order in the classroom (indoors and outside) is paramount for their success in achieving independence. During this tremendous growth of learning, they are experiencing cause and effect, respect and compassion, coordination of movement, and autonomy as their confidence in the environment grows. The ‘guides’ in the classroom provide structure and assistance as needed, but their primary role is to observe and help maintain the order these young children crave. #supportourschool
Building routine Stacia Diggins, Primary 4 Teacher
In a Montessori classroom, four senses of order are focused on in the prepared environment to help children become successful in learning: temporal order, spatial order, noise and crowding, and sensory input. Temporal order refers to schedules and routines. In the Montessori environment these levels vary. At the macro level, the student comes in at the same time, leaves at the same time and has lunch at a set time. Children do not have a set schedule for their work period. They are all working on different materials and are being given different lessons than another peer. At the micro level, each lesson has a series of steps to go through to complete. This blend of order at the micro, routine level and freedom at the macro, and daily schedule level are optimal for children’s development. Households that are orderly have been shown to have positive outcomes and a more successful micro routine. Order and routines are associated with better cognitive and psychosocial outcomes for young children as well. Montessori education puts together freedom of choice at the macro level and ordered routines at the micro level. In regard to spatial organization with the human memory, information that is presented in a conceptually organized way, as opposed to randomly, is going to be remembered and learned better. Students that are given words to memorize are more successful when they are organized and listed in order, rather than in multiple classification lists. Physical order in a space shows to influence development levels of each child. In the Montessori classroom, walls are neutral and clean from a 4
lot of posters and artwork. The room itself is neat, clean and organized and has light colored wood furniture. The furniture is child height, and all materials are easily accessible. Teachers organize the room into sections, focusing on: Math, Language, Sensorial, Cultural/Science and Practical Life. An orderly environment is associated with better functioning skills and habits. Montessori classrooms are often very quiet because the children are concentrating on their activities. Maria Montessori describes a classroom as having “an atmosphere of quiet activity” and “peaceful surroundings”. Lessons are given quietly and children work peacefully. Teachers are next to the individual child when giving the lesson and talk softly to the child in a calm and respectful way. Music plays quietly in the background to provide a soothing tone for the children and to help with their focus and stamina. Montessori education involves a very orderly education of the senses. In our classrooms, sequence is important to the primary use of each material. Sensorial materials teach the child to identify particular types of material and to match pairs. The student learns to put materials in sequence. You will find materials that relate to your sense of smell, like smelling jars with different scents. Children learn their perception of color through the color tablets and grade them lightest to darkest. Montessori education systematically trains sensory discrimination, an activity that might be related to patterns of neural organization that speeds environmental processing, freeing cognitive resources for other activities. #supportourschool
All in a ROW ABBY ROUGHIA, LE4 TEACHER
Can you imagine being dropped off in a remote location with little to no instruction on how to survive? The first thing you would begin to do is orient yourself to your new surroundings. You would be rapidly taking in all of the new information. You would try to learn everything; from what types of plant life are surrounding you so that you could eat, possibly build a shelter to protect yourself from the animals, locate water sources, and determine other life in the area. You would want to know the ‘lay of the land’. How would you use the bathroom? All of the information you would be seeking would be to orient yourself, as well as create inner order. All of this information is what a child goes through when they enter the world, and again... each time they enter a new environment.
This is similar to the process that infants go through as well. Dr. Maria Montessori recognized this quest in young children for inner order: they seek it, they crave it, and they try to recreate it. You may notice that once a child understands the patterns of this world, our habits and routines, they prefer to stick to them. Does your young child bring you the same book night after night? This is all pointing to their cravings for order. Young children naturally practice ordering their environment and enjoy creating order themselves. Many children order their cars in a nice straight line. They do this because they have observed that cars drive in straight lines down the road and park in straight lines in parking lots. We also set up our Montessori environments to provide order, we call this a prepared environment. Most of the work is set up in an area that makes sense. For example, any food preparation work is set up in, or very near, the kitchen and the like. We try to keep ‘like’ things together, and many works are designed to help children order things from largest to smallest (think pink tower). We also make sure that the materials are located on the same shelf every day. Do you remember the disposition of a young child who missed their routine nap or who is frantically trying to locate their ballet shoes as they prepare for dance class? A prepared environment takes the guesswork out of the equation and reduces the stress for everyone by meeting the developmental need 6
of order. The lower elementary child, usually by age 7, has their inner order solidified. They are familiar with the organization of the environment; such as knowing that the shelves are set up from left to right and top to bottom. All of these details are also preparing the brain for the order of reading, they are ready to move on! They are ready to apply all of the ‘order’ that they have been consuming and practicing for the last several years. Schedule is something that the vast majority of humans thrive on. We assimilate to day and night and prefer that schedule most of our lives. Ask adults that work third shift what that adjustment is like when they break the routine, and you will find out how grueling that break in schedule can be. In the classroom, we create order by providing the routine children crave. Every day they can count on a morning work cycle with lessons, playtime and lunch, and it is now much easier to adjust to afternoons not being quite as rigid as they once needed. Thus, the schedule and our students can flex with a variety of special area classes in the afternoon. However, there is even still order built-in with these activities. Each Thursday afternoon students can count on art and PE, or whichever classes might be on that given day.
Each Monday is routine, and Tuesday, and so on. As parents, one way we can help create inner order is through routine. If the ‘getting ready for school’ routine and the ‘after school routine’ is consistent, this helps a child be more successful throughout their day. A child who is left to wonder what will happen that day after school may be found fretting throughout their day at school because of that lack of order; knowing what comes next and finding comfort and power in knowing. One way students create order in the lower elementary classroom is through their daily work plan. They have the power to choose which works they will need to do, plan them out, and can stick to their plans. Having the control over that information allows them to sit in the space of contentment; because they know exactly what will come next. The most respectful thing we can do is to honor a child’s need for order and support them as they grow away from that physically. You may notice that your school age child struggles to keep their bedrooms or backpacks as tidy. Knowing that this type of orderliness is no longer as present as it was in the previous developmental plane will help you be ready when you see this shift. #supportourschool
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Moving from concrete to abstract Courtney Pillars, Upper 1 Teacher
Order in the environment leads to order in the mind. At the upper elementary level, the child is in a stage of development where he is working from concrete to abstract. The environment is set up beautifully to engage the child as he gravitates towards his passions and gains the deeper understanding necessary to move from the concrete to abstract. The best visual example of this work is through the math curriculum. Students in upper elementary are still working with concrete materials (beads, test tubes, manipulatives they can feel and touch) and are eager to move to abstract (calculating on paper or in their mind without a physical construct). The materials build on each other, so students maintain familiarity while moving into new concepts. Students discover things such as: rules for multiplying with a multi digit multiplier, algorithms in long division, or formulas for area and volume in geometry. As students work, they are precise and orderly with the materials. This provides the order in the mind necessary to conquer new concepts and move to the abstract. The environment reflects the same sense of order and is strategically navigated by each child throughout his planned work cycle each day. #supportourschool
Grow S pac e to
Crystal Leu, MS Farm manager
Spring is a time for exponential growth! This is also true of the middle school years. Early adolescence is a time when young adults need an environment where they can have freedom of movement, learn from nature, and have opportunities to apply learned concepts to practical life situations. Oak Farm Montessori’s middle school farm facilities provide a highly unique learning environment primed for endless learning opportunities! Students are able to apply their skills daily in a real world setting rich with hands-on tasks and situations that require teamwork and collaboration. Problem solving is naturally embedded in everything we do on the farm. How can we get our hens to lay more eggs? What do we do if a goat rejects one of her kids? How can we keep the baby alpaca alive and healthy? Many students are stepping 10
outside of their comfort zone when they enter the learning environment on the farm at the middle school. Working with animals is new to most of them and it provides opportunities to practice not just academic skills, but also develop life skills that are essential for success in the future. Providing those challenging experiences gives students the chance to develop empathy, initiative, work ethic, teamwork, problem solving skills and more. The middle school students at OFMS are blessed with a learning environment that is extremely rare in most schools! One of the basic elements of a strong Montessori classroom is creating a prepared environment that supports student learning and independence. The farm spaces at the middle school inherently and naturally provide those experiences, but can be enhanced by intentional thought and preparation by the
educator. I have spent many hours this past year looking at how I can organize not just the barn, but outbuildings and outside spaces in a way to best facilitate the experiences that our young adults need to learn and grow as individuals and also as members of a collaborative community. Each day brings an endless variety of tasks on the farm that naturally provide chances for our young adults to practice freedom of movement and build strength in their growing bodies. Muscles are stretched and used on a daily basis in Erdkinder as they feed and water animals, clean pens and work with animals. Restoring order in the barn also requires sweeping and returning tools to their spots. Part of my responsibility as the educator is to set up the environment with simplicity and order so that they can accomplish their tasks and work as a team to maintain an
organized learning environment. Often, this also means revising the prepared environment to adapt to the changing needs of students, activities, animals, and seasons. The barn is an ever changing learning environment, balanced with some constants that help provide consistency and stability. Those constants include designated areas for tools, feed and animals. There are also areas for work and spaces to gather as a community to interact with peers. Areas of our farm classroom are generally organized by species and the feed is stored nearby to help simplify feeding and also to help with weekend chores. Students are assigned to species with a partner and become “experts” in their field as they learn about the animals during Erdkinder and farm pull-out days. Often these “experts” help fine tune the prepared environment in their area as they work to problem solve issues and apply concepts learned to practical life situations. For example, some of our students have helped imagine and build additional pens as needed this year. These partnerships support adolescents with peer teaching and collaboration. This work also prepares them to confidently teach and mentor younger students. Proper preparation of this environment provides scaffolding for these young adults to work largely independently to care for the livestock on the farm. It is rewarding to see them grow in their knowledge and confidence in the skills needed to do this important work! Another area designated in the barn is our gathering area. We gather in our meeting space as a community at the end of Erdkinder to touch base on animal health and answer questions. This also is an important time for us to discuss our Cowboy Ethics principles and how we are applying them in our work in the barn as well as in our lives. The ten principles are an integral part of our community. We concentrate on a different principle each week and find ways to relate them to everyday life. Work on the farm provides students with an education from the natural environment itself. Nature is an unparalleled teacher and provides lessons that will be remembered for life. Part of preparing the farm learning environment is simply being ready to follow the lead that nature takes on any given day. They learn to adapt to the weather, practice flexibility, and develop resilience while running a working farm. No day is ever the same! But the learning environment that is the foundation of this type of learning remains the same. Prepared and ready for growth like a freshly plowed field in the spring!
COWBOY ETHICS 1. Live each day with courage. 2. Take pride in your work. 3. Always finish what you start. 4. Do what has to be done. 5. Be tough, but fair. 6. When you make a promise, keep it. 7. Ride for the brand. 8. Talk less and say more. 9. Remember that some things aren’t for sale. 10. Know where to draw the line. #supportourschool
The road to independence Jenn Jorday, HS Humanities Teacher
High school students are working hard to continue to develop their organizational skills with increasingly complex academic and community work. To support this work, in a way that builds student independence, our high school team has created a program that integrates these skills into the environment in a way that is both explicit and continually reinforced. Drawing from the Portrait of a Graduate, our weekly, quarterly and yearly work cycles are designed around a set of 10 core dispositions, divided into three categories (see table). High school students are given a planner on day one of the school year that is specifically designed not only to fit with the organization of our school year and class schedule, but to reinforce goal-setting, action, and reflection across the dispositions on a weekly basis. This is accompanied by regular meetings with a faculty advisor, activities focused on a different disposition each quarter, and regular connections made to the dispositions in classes. This framework provides a starting point for student organization. But, even more importantly, it provides a system for students to explore, talk about and learn about their own style of organization, their own organizational goals and their own growth. As students progress towards their graduation, they are given more and more independence in organizing their time with a continued emphasis on reflection. Whatever our students’ next steps in life will be, they leave Oak Farm Montessori with greater knowledge of themselves and confidence in their ability to take on complex tasks with the organizational skills they need to be successful. 12
Potential realized through
movement Kim Green, Primary PE Teacher
The “prepared environment” is Maria Montessori’s concept that the environment can be designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child. In the prepared environment, there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of movement. A prepared environment gives every child the freedom to fully develop their unique potential through developmentally appropriate materials. The materials range from simple to complex, catering toward every child’s age and ability. In the Primary P.E. environment, the choice of materials gradually increases in complexity as the year progresses. Stations that focus on balance and coordination lead to opportunities to climb and conquer fears of going up and over the tall climbing apparatus. Students learn to wait patiently for their turn, observe their classmates successes and failures and then independently practice the skills that most interest them.
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2021 Graduates
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Field Day
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Messy
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Games
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Toddler Trip
Infants
Mark your OFMS
Summer Camps
School Closed Parent
calendars
June 14th - August 6th, 2021
4th of July
july 5th - 9th, 2021
Orientation
Classroom All School
August 19th, 2021
Visits
August 20th, 2021
Picture Day
August 20th, 2021
TALL OAK FUND
SGO
VOLUNTEER
DAY OF GIVING
SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL
“To provide a Montessori environment that inspires children to reach their potential through meaningful work.”
Oak Farm Montessori School | 502 Lemper Road | Avilla, IN 46710 | 260.897.4270 | www.oakfarm.org