Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: In this article, the author presents the 12 benefits of playing as a reference and guide for teachers in helping young children develop their cognitive skills, motor ability, socio-emotional, and academic development during play time. The following 12 benefits are described: (1) Play Enhances Bodily Gracefulness; (2) Play Promotes Social Skills; (3) Play Sharpens Cognitive and Language Skills; (4) Play Teaches Gender Roles; (5) Play Develops Understanding of Number and Time Concepts; (6) Play Promotes Spatial Understanding; (7) Play Prompts Causality Reasoning; (8) Sociodramatic Play Clarifies the World of Pretend Versus Real; (9) Play Enriches Sensory and Aesthetic Appreciation; (10) Play Extends Attention Span, Persistence, and Sense of Mastery; (11) Children Express Emotions through Play; and (12) Play Deepens a Child?s Sense of Serenity and Joy.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Just as Montessori teachers carefully prepare the classroom, as parents, you can provide a safe home environment, inside and outside, so that your child can explore and play for periods of time on his own, without your help or direction. Sometimes conscientious parents believe that they must provide learning opportunities no matter the situation, forgetting that intelligence can develop without adult input. If you don't have to spend every day chauffeuring or cheering for your children at the latest event or game, there might be less stress for your whole family-and you'll find yourself with more time to relax and play.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Kelly Johnson introduces a series of lessons that incorporate literacy, observation, botany, history, place studies, writing, and art, with a long-term eco-literacy goal of connectedness and a conservation ethic. Johnson's initial idea to use Beatrix Potter as a model in the Lower Elementary classroom came after extensively researching Potter's life as part of her graduate studies. Johnson begins the series of lessons by presenting "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," asking the students if they remember the story. The stories are amazingly versatile, and, by analyzing the writing, the students begin to see the tales as far more than nursery stories--they are animal character glimpses, human nature vignettes, pieces of visual art, and works of literary art. Johnson concludes that when children are allowed free time in nature, as Beatrix Potter was during her childhood summers, they build unbreakable bonds that influence their adult lifestyle choices.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Like good government, thoughtful care of children requires those in power, whether teachers or parents, to recognize when it is appropriate for them to step back from day-to-day decision-making while still working behind the scenes to ensure an organizational structure that supports the independence and equitable development of those they serve. The research of Barrie Thorne and others into the school lives of elementary age children suggests that when classrooms are formed on the basis of narrow age groupings, children tend to further separate themselves into even more homogeneous groupings, first by gender and then, if at all further, by race or ethnicity. The homogeneity of traditional classroom groups is very different from the natural diversity by age and gender of extended family and neighborhood playgroups. The Montessori classroom is organized in a way that naturally promotes cooperation rather than competition, and the appreciation of diversity and difference rather than a heightened interest in homogeneity (Powell, 2001). But it does not automatically ensure these outcomes. In a Montessori classroom, children generally live in the same room with some of their peers for a year, others for 2 years, and those closest in age for 3 or perhaps even 4 years. And having been with their closest peers for up to three years, Montessori children are more likely to feel safe enough to take risks, make mistakes, and share parts of themselves that would, in a more traditional setting, probably go unnoticed or be left at home. Casual cross-gender conversations and cooperation in learning, as well as cross-gender friendships, are commonplace in the many Montessori classrooms. Montessori children also bring with them an unpredictable swirl of influences from outside their classrooms, which they continually rehearse on one another. Media, literature, neighbors, older siblings and other relatives, and child or adult acquaintances sometimes reinforce and sometimes contradict the influences of the Montessori classroom as they are soaked up by the undiscriminating and thirsty sponge that is the 6-to-9-year-old's social mind. As Maria Montessori understood so long ago, it is one of the developmental necessities of the 6-to- 9-year-old child to try to figure out the "rules" of their classroom's social order, whether the adults around them are part of this discussion or not. Thus, teachers should offer closeness to boys as well as to girls, and physical and academic challenge to girls as well as to boys. Never let gender used as a means for separating or excluding go without comment. Sometimes the effects of such unplanned, student-driven lessons can be more important to the psyches of children than the ones they have rehearsed.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Recess beckons well before it actually arrives. Its allure can be heard in children's lunchtime conversations as they discuss imaginary roles, plans, alliances and teams, with an obvious appetite for play and its unbounded possibility. For some children, recess provides the most important reasons to come to school. In team sports, games of chase and tag, clique-bound conversations, solitary wandering and exploration, pretend and war play, recess offers reliable access to a scarce resource of immense value in the lives of children: spontaneous self-direction. Although watched over by the protective though generally unobtrusive gaze of supervising teachers, children at recess interact with their natural environment and with each other as they choose--a freedom denied them at other times while at school, and increasingly in their homes and neighborhood. As a lower elementary teacher at Lexington Montessori School (LMS) in Lexington, MA, from 1994 through 2002, the author witnessed for eight years the development of an extraordinary child-centered and spontaneous world of recess play (Powell, 2007). As children entered the elementary program at LMS, their peers initiated them into a culture of fort building. The forts, built entirely from sticks, leaves, and found objects from the surrounding woods, were the sites of considerable experimentation with different forms and rules of social organization and various styles of construction. They were also the vehicles for much of the conflict that occurred at the school. Children negotiated and clashed over ownership of land and resources and argued about the rules and roles of fort play and whether the rights of those already identified with a structure outweighed the rights of outsiders to be included. In doing so, they developed and influenced each other's reasoning about such moral principles as benevolence, justice, and reciprocity. Fort play was unpredictable, immediate, exciting, and fun, a brief window of opportunity,among hours of mostly adult-inspired activities and expectations, in which these children were free to manage their own lives and interact with each other on their own terms. As in the case of other schools where fort play has flourished, the LMS forts were in no way a programmed activity but rather a spontaneous one that simply wasn't stopped.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: Imaginary play activities are not only enjoyable in their own right, but also offer clear intellectual, social, and emotional benefits to children who participate in them. This article describes the nature of imaginary play as observed in some Montessori classrooms and lays the groundwork for developing a position statement on imaginary play for the early childhood years. In view of prevailing research supporting the importance of pretend play in the child's overall development, the stage is set for an interchange of ideas on whether Montessori's original proposal to align imagination with the elementary curriculum still holds true, or if the time has come to realize that pretend play has something to offer early childhood classrooms.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: This action research investigated the effectiveness of roleplay and reflection among four teachers guiding twenty-four students in a Primary Montessori environment. The teachers have limited Montessori training. They differ in age, teaching philosophy, cultural and educational backgrounds. This study asked teachers to roleplay strategies that felt counter to traditional practices. The 7-week intervention consisted of ten 15-minute scripted roleplay sessions, five 15- minute unscripted roleplay, and oral and written reflections. I gathered data using pre- mid- and post-self-assessment surveys, written reflection with prompts, and a reflection survey containing predetermined questions. The surveys showed an increase in the teachers’ awareness of their thinking-feeling-deciding processes. Teachers also expressed having access to the thinking-feeling-deciding processes of the child during challenging situations. Limitations lie in the facilitator’s ability to establish safe spaces for roleplay and reflection. This research can be shared with professional development entities and school administration to produce lasting change in adult learners.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2022