What About the Preschoolers?

By Charlotte Ostermann

 

        What do your preschoolers do while you’re teaching the older kids, or grading papers?  Maria Montessori’s ideas about providing work for the little ones have helped me deal with this issue.  Laying out an assortment of materials and teaching them to take one thing at a time, work with it and put it away before choosing another, and not disturb the work of others helps get them ready for their own ‘real’ lessons later.  Materials should be neatly arranged in or on containers (I’ve used zip lock bags, baskets, coffee cans, jars, clear salad bar boxes, magazine storage boxes, oatmeal boxes, old lunch boxes, cookie sheets, etc…) so the child can see and select from the materials and return them to their place.  I am not a Montessori purist, but have modified her ideas for materials to keep things simple and inexpensive.  We’ve put materials out on picnic benches (nice height), tables, low shelves, or the floor – just so it is clear where they ‘belong’ now.

        Montessori suggests that you formally present each material, naming the parts or objects and demonstrating how to use them.  (This is a broom.  This is a dustpan.  Here are some beans you can pour out all over the tray.  Then you can sweep them into the dustpan and return them to the basket.  Make sure all the beans are back in the basket before you carry the tray carefully back to its place on the shelf.)  For non-yet-verbal kidlets, this can be done with fewer words and more example. Here are a few of the things our 2-4 year olds have enjoyed working with. If they are misusing materials, we mention that, if they aren’t ready for this work yet, we can put them up and away until they get older and better able to use them.  Here are a few examples:

Pouring Tray - pitchers with dry beans/rice, later…with water, sponge/towel

Sweeping Tray - basket of beans to pour out onto tray, then sweep up with small broom into dustpan

Fasteners - collection of fabric pieces that zip, button, hook, snap together

Dressing Doll - large doll, toddler clothes – container could be a mini-backpack on the doll, or a basket clothes and doll sit in together

Wood puzzles - large shapes, knobs

Stacking/Nesting Boxes, or a Set of Cans – (sharp edges filed smooth): Huge can from restaurant,  5 lb.coffee can, big pork ‘n beans can, regular 15 oz. tomato sauce or vegetable can, little 8 oz. can, tomato paste can, film canister

Cutting Tray - pieces of construction paper with shapes drawn in wide marker to cut out, safe scissors, basket for trash

Jumbo Cusennaire Rods with Activity Book pages

Sandpaper letters and numbers

Clay Tray - play dough, tools, vinyl table cloth

Fabric Matching - 2 each of a variety of fabric swatches to match - different textures

Art Postcards - sets of duplicates to match

Basket of Books

Beads & Tweezers - to help develop fine motor coordination – on a tray: container of ½” beads, or kidney beans, plus an empty container and a pair of tweezers – tweeze from one to the other

Corrugated Cardboard 'blocks' – glue together a stack of corrugated cardboard scraps, lay out on a tray with a hammer and nails to pound in

Alphabet Blocks, Beads and Large Buttons to String, Lacing Shapes

Flannel Objects to Count and arrange on a flannel board

Feel & Find - objects to match to outline drawings, bag to reach in without looking

Nuts & Bolts - sets of different sizes to match up, screw and unscrew

Folding Basket - towels, napkins to fold neatly

Nesting Dolls - Russian 'matrushka' dolls

Finger Puppets

Water Dropping Tray - container of water, eyedropper, empty container, sponge

Sound Cylinders - permanently sealed film canisters with objects - 2 each - shake/match

Collage Tray - construction paper, glue stick, pre-cut shapes & pictures or old magazines to cut up, sometimes other materials like alphabet pasta or tissue paper

Tracing Tray - line-drawing shapes to trace, paper, pencils, clipboard

Numbers and Counters - set of wood numerals, plus counters to match

Magnet Tray - magnets, metal & non-metal objects

Phonics Pictures - set of pictures to sort by beginning sounds

Optics Tray - binoculars, magnifying glass, mirror, kaleidoscope, telescope

Geometry Cards - solid and outline shapes to match

Geometric Solids - wood cube, sphere, etc… to handle & name

Flower Arranging Tray - bucket of cut flowers in water, small jars/vases, sponge

Color Matching Set - duplicate color swatches to match up, sort (see the paint ‘swatches’ in WalMart , Payless, Sherwin Williams)

Stencils - with paper, pencils, clipboard

Music Basket – (If you can tolerate some noise!) – kazoo, penny whistle, rhythm blocks, tambourine, triangle, etc…

Dress-up Bag – (An old, small suitcase; a gym bag, a backpack) – stuff with tunics, hats, masks, Dad’s old ties, shoes, plastic knight shield, garage sale fancy dresses, etc…

 

Little children love to touch things, manipulate materials, work with ‘real’ things and can get deeply absorbed in work of their own. I like this ‘everyone doing their work together’ approach.  You set the boundaries by your choice of space and materials, then the child is free within those limits to make his own choices of what materials to work with.  I would caution you to increase gradually the total number of ‘projects’ or materials available at one time by rotating all the possibilities now and then.  Watch for signs that your little one is becoming overwhelmed by too many choices (clutter can be mental, or visual, too!) and cut back to a comfortable number.