A fun-filled Montessori week

Montessori Week was celebrated at GIIS, Indore campus from 02/02/15 to 07/02/15 with joy and enthusiasm. A range of interesting and fun-filled activities was lined up for the whole week. While learning was reinforced through repetition of old activities, new activities were fun and children were allowed to explore.

Activities were woven around the use of practical life skills to help each child gain control over coordination of his or her movements. Students rolled mats and prepared jam and vegetable sandwiches, chocolate and coconut cookies, pani-puris. In the process the little chefs peeled, mashed, crushed, mixed and stuffed potatoes. This engaged use of pincer and motor skills.

Linguistic activities encouraged children to participate enthusiastically in sorting pictures to corresponding letters, floor alphabet games, vowel games and LMA BOX, games on blends and reading wall, which allowed them to explore and learn new words and letters. This exercise aimed at developing interest of children in reading and vocabulary.

To teach the child the symbol of the numbers he knows and to provide him with a key to the world of written numbers, the activity was a combination of spindle boxes, associated numerals and quantity, with number rods and number cards. Other than making a sequence using spindle box, the children also presented the decimal system using golden beads and gained familiarity to decimal categories; units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Children also enjoyed parking game, which introduced them to the concept of before and after numbers.

Children were introduced to different modes of transport, fruits, parts of plants, life cycle of a butterfly, different seasons and mother Earth through models and puzzles. The aim of activities was to develop awareness and improve understanding of their immediate environment that they are living in. Exposure to models and wide variety of activities ignited their interest and they participated with enthusiasm.

The activities were designed keeping in mind that each activity should inspire creativity and innovation in children. The objective was to embark the students on a journey of self-exploration and discovery, which would ultimately lead them to independence and develop skills that would last a lifetime.