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Every autumn term as the days begin to draw in and the weather begins to turn conkers fall to the ground. They do so silently and sparingly at first and their numbers begin to steadily increase till the bounty is plenty and all the children enjoy filling their pockets! I am delighted to report that the children are no exception to this. On our outings to the park they have developed keen eyes and are great at scanning the ground for any conker they can find. For those that walk they pick up conkers, and also pine cones en-route and small rivalries develop as they show-off their finds as they get into the classroom. What has also been cute is that the squirrels have also got in on the act. We deposited our conkers in our ‘secret garden’ and the children were using them in the mud kitchen and for various games. We realised that they gradually began disappearing and all was made clear when we had various sightings of squirrels going in and out of the garden ferrying the conkers away to some secret hiding! I guess by stealth, the squirrels get the prize! 
So week two done and all goes well in the land of Albany! Our lovely new children are settling in well and getting used to the routines, and the returning children are adjusting to the new class with some of their old friends having flown our nest. There are always interesting patterns in settling in and returning, and over the years, they have established themselves. It is something that I feel may help in sharing.
First our new starters: some dive in head first, are beautifully curious and, initially, there is no looking back. Then it becomes routine and there are some tears and a little protesting at coming in being a regular occurrence. From there on in, there is a little tunnel to go through and when they emerge the other side, nursery becomes the bees-knees and there is no looking back…Until there is a break! So now we come to the returning children, who are settled until they have a break. Here it must be emphasised that not all share this sentiment - many are so happy to see us after a holiday and are desperate to get through our doors! However when some of their peers return, and they witness that some of the new children are not having a bar of it, they have a little re-think too and some, not all, decide that they will join in! This can create a little domino effect and for a few moments, at drop off, it sometimes seems like we are in a maelstrom of woe! This soon passes and peace and happiness ensues. So even the returning children can go through small tunnels of their own. I think the message here is that tears and reluctance is normal particularly at the beginning nursery and also returning after a break. I know how they feel; many is the time I have returned from holiday to Monday morning blues! 
photo: Emma Collins Excitingly for the children this first week was the discovery of our new garden which runs down the side of our building. In reality the garden space has always been there however there were restrictions on using it. That all changed following a conversation with our landlord earlier this summer when he said something along the lines of, ‘Oh Fawzia if you would like to then you can.’ Hooray! Wonderfully he gave us carte blanche to do as we wished as his sea cadets no longer camped there - really they have not camped there for many years and the space has been overgrown with brambles and long grass, and also became a bit of a dumping ground for stuff to take to the dump but didn’t quite make it! The move to action came a week into the summer holidays when Tim and I loaded his car up and finally made that overdue dump trip! I then enlisted a friend’s son, Tom, who was back from uni to do most of the graft with me (I had to take time out as I then managed our summer school for the last part of the holiday). Tom was great and cleared the brambles, cut back the very long grass and then took a mower to it. It all finally took shape when we put the logs into place for an outdoor circle and Tim fixed a tarpaulin at one end. Then the children arrived! All our efforts were instantly and massively rewarded as they filled the space and properly brought it to life. One child exclaimed, ’this is the secret nursery garden!’ I smiled when she said that, ‘It actually is’ I replied. And it’s only the beginning - Im looking forward to lots of activity, outdoor learning and forest school activities. We have just had some wooden pallets arrive so the possibilities are enormous! Watch this space...
Childcare, day-care, pre-schools, nursery schools, all have one thing that is central to their being – to look after children! From there on in they can vary in what they do, how they do it, the culture, the ethos, the routines, the discipline, the character of their classrooms and the backdrop of their settings.
In Montessori classrooms, the founding lady herself, Maria Montessori, made it quite clear that children were best taught in mixed age groups. The reasoning behind she felt was integral to the children developing a sense of ‘community’ and ‘cooperation.’ I love that the emphasis was on the personal, social and emotional development. It has to be said that a sense of belonging is at the heart of the Montessori classroom and underpins the children’s’ ability to be creative and confident. 
At Albany Montessori School having mixed age groups has always been practised and it has been wonderful. We always see it the whole group as one big family gathering where everyone is together, seeing what each other is doing, being observers, joining in and creating their own learning pathways. Teachers are akin to ‘favourite aunties’ (said Emma our lovely photographer) and we all get such a sense of joy and purpose in working with children of all ages in one room. What is lovely is how the younger children look up to the older ones, and how the older children become sensitive and understanding of the needs and behaviour of the younger ones. The older ones understand when a two-year-old comes charging in and knocks over their tower that this is part and parcel of two year olds' impulsive nature; in turn the two year olds seeing the dismay and outrage of the older children learn that knocking over a tower can meet with disproval and after repeating the same actions, and having it always been met with irritation, the little ones learn to respect the older children’s work and adjust their behaviour – they build and knock down their own towers instead or they watch for when the tower naturally tips over.
The children learn to cooperate from getting to understand one another and in doing so they also develop empathy and, as they get older they look to help. This was demonstrated beautifully just last week when after coming in from outside play, one of our four-year-old children helped one of our two-year-olds take their shoes off, and subsequently the four-year-old went and found the two-year-old’s slippers and helped the two-year-old put them on. Kindness, understanding, cooperation and empathy ensure that the children develop foundations of being lovely people, and it all happens when children of different ages are all chucked into the same classroom! There is so much more that takes place, but I will leave that for another time! Or as they say in the world of TV ‘To be continued…’! When I was younger, and even to this day, I have always placed Shrove Tuesday into the context of raiding and emptying the cupboards of flour, milk, sugar and eggs and feasting on pancakes ahead of a period (for some) of fasting and abstinence which is Lent. I didn’t really think too much about how the association of pancakes with this religious observance was a later date add-on, as really I was just being swept along by the food! However in pausing for thought what you get is that it is highly unlikely that Jesus and the disciples had pancakes in their repertoire of foods. So having done a bit of research to pique my curiosity this is what I have discovered: Shrove Tuesday has always been part of the Christian calendar; it represents a time of confessing sins, asking forgiveness and undertaking penance. ‘Shriven’ is a word with Latin/Germanic origin which is used to refer and encompass the confession and commitment to penance. Hence ‘Shrove’ Tuesday. Now for the pancakes! From further rummaging and googling various sites (so I cannot vouch for authenticity) what seems to be the consensus is that it was not until 1445 that pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday. This is what happened: one poor woman in England was running late for confession as she was in the midst of making a pancake . Ever the multi-tasker, she decided to take it with her, so embarked upon running down the road with her frying pan, tossing the pancake, to cool it down whilst she ran , and suddenly, hey presto! A new tradition was born and ever since we have all been making and tossing pancakes and celebrating ‘ Shrove Tuesday Pancake day!’ As far as the nursery goes Pancake Day is always a big hit. The joy comes in the making and the eating. We substituted banana for eggs, added in oats and oat milk and feasted on dairy- free pancakes! Yumminess reigned!
Happy New Year of the tiger! This past week we have enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year and this has brought with it some lovely moments. We learned about the race to establish how the new year became named after each animals and then read and discussed how chinese new year is celebrated. After reading the story of all the animals arguing, and subsequently having a race across the river to decide upon which animal would have the new year named after them, one child told me, ‘Well Fawzia, my sisters and I argue and then we all had a race and splashed in the bath, and the order is mummy, daddy, my sisters and then me, and I have the trophy.’ And then that opened the conversation up to other children telling me of their families having races and the order of finishers. It was very cute and lovely to hear how many of the children were champion swimmers. :-) We talked about the year of the tiger and we tried to work out the animals for the years the children were born in; the children were born from 2017 to 2020 which means that we have roosters (2017), dogs (2018), pigs (2019) and rats (2020) in our midst. The beauty of it in seeing how different all the roosters, dogs, pigs and rats can be; even in the animal world there is uniqueness and individuality However some children insisted that they were not dogs, roosters etc and they were intact rabbits born in Africa. We also spoke about lucky red envelopes and how children receive money in them. At this point, one child chipped in that they got a red envelope full of sweets and that when it is dark they go round to people's homes and get more sweets for their red envelopes. Hmmm... ’that sounds a bit like Halloween’ I commented. ‘Yes!’ And so began plenty of chat about what else the children would like in their red envelopes; at one point I had to intervene and ask how big these envelopes were as I think there had been mention of a bike in an envelope! Everyone admired our vibrant red lanterns. One parent commented how joyful they were to see.  This week we delved into a consideration of physical geography. As is the way with Montessori lessons the concrete is presented before the abstract. This is a far more meaningful method of learning as it makes concepts more easily understood and accessible. ‘How exactly does this work?’ I vaguely hear that question spring to mind. In a nutshell this means that you start with a tangible reality, and, therefore, concrete model of learning. For example, if we were teaching about a musical instrument, the ideal way to introduce the instrument would be to bring it into the classroom. Now with the world that can be a bit more problematic! However, the children will readily accept a representation if the real physical example presents a challenge. Hence in the case of the world we start with the Land and Water globe. It is aptly named as its only features are land and water. For our purposes in the Montessori classroom this is ideal, as the world is made up of land and water… but also air! In introducing the land and water globe we also discuss air and when we talk about it we ensure that we really take in some deep breaths and fill our lungs. The children love this whole activity as it gets them thinking and working out why land, water and air are so important. And they are so smart and beautifully imaginative. They worked out that if we had to give up one of those it would be land as one child said, ‘ We can live on a boat’ and another added, ‘and swim.’ It made me think of Noah’s ark!  |
Albany Montessori Blog
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October 2023
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