Montessori Radmoor

Sardar_Archana at Montessori Radmoor

It’s February and everyone in P1 is talking about Valentine’s Day. But what does that mean for our classroom community? We have been talking about friendship and kindness towards everyone in our community. But how do we foster that in our classroom?

 

Once of the ways is through grace and courtesy lessons. Grace and Courtesy Lessons are simple games that allow the children to practice making and maintaining relationships. These activities are designed to promote harmony within the community. They range from individual actions that have an indirect social purpose, like moving a chair or opening a door, to small group activities where the children can practice using specific words or phrases in a given social situation. The child at this age is developmentally self-centered but aware of those around him. He might not anticipate the needs of the people he interacts with, but he has a need to communicate with and relate to others. These grace and courtesy lessons give him the tools to understand how his community works and become a harmonious part of it.

 

All grace and courtesy lessons are presented formally, some individually and some in small groups. In the small group lessons, the children are given a situation and then given the words to use in that situation. The children can then each take turns being in different roles and re-enacting the scenario. Once they are comfortable, they are able to use those words when a similar situation arises in the community. The words, of course, are just suggestions. The children can use those and adapt them to their particular situation. These lessons allow the children to navigate social circumstances independently and confidently.

 

Another thing we have been doing in our classroom is calling attention to ‘acts of kindness’. An act of kindness is something that we do for others in order to help them. It could be something as simple as helping a younger child zip their coat or hang up their belongings, or even assisting another friend with a lesson they were working on. The idea behind it is to give the children the chance to become aware of the needs of others around them.  A multi-age classroom offers the children ample opportunities to engage in acts of kindness. The older children are always available to help the younger children with their belongings and lessons. The younger children know that one day it will be their turn to help those who are new to the classroom with those same tasks. The younger and older children also collaborate in taking care of the classroom environment by setting up lunch and cleaning up at the end of the day.

 

The ability to practice the everyday graces and courtesies and acts of kindness in the safe classroom environment will give the children the confidence to carry these into their social interactions beyond the primary environment.

 

Take care…

Archana

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