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This is a hallmark of a Montessori classroom.  It’s an intention.  Teaching grace and courtesy is a deliberate way of helping children build community in their peer group by learning the means of being kind, helpful, supportive and inclusive to all.   Teachers in the classroom begin by modeling grace and courtesy in many ways throughout the morning.  We speak respectfully to children and each other.   We demonstrate good manners.  Then we talk about these behaviors in very overt ways.  

The children practice manners and kindness every day.  Children greet one another every morning…Saying good morning.  How are you? They are encouraged to help one another throughout the day.  Some examples are: the older children model helpful ways of giving younger children lessons.  If a child spills something, we encourage other children to help them clean it up.  

Children only need permission to act on their natural impulses to help, comfort, or guide another child.  It usually starts with one act of kindness and it catches on like wildfire.  Children can be great emotional support to each other when needed.  They can also solve many social problems that arise better than we adults can. They have a level of understanding of the problem, and with simple guidance from an adult, they can reconcile any differences in a much more satisfactory way for all parties involved. 

We love watching the children become a cohesive group throughout the year.   Learning grace and courtesy brings a very civilized and calm feel to the classroom. Each child knows they can make a positive difference in their classmates’ day.  And that feels good to them. 

It feels good to the teachers as well to witness it unfolding! 

Capturing grace and courtesy in a picture is hard. It’s all in the words they choose and what they are saying.  But here is a peak at a few things we see each day.

Greeting on another at circle time each morning.

Taking care to help a child clean up the spilled beans.

Comforting a sad friend on the playground.

Telling her friend, “You are so cute!”

Kindergartners celebrating with each other at the end of the year.

Helping a younger child get her indoor shoes on.

What is this? Well. It comes under many names: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Godly Play, or just Good Shepherd. It is a wonderful Christian education program that brings the stories from the Bible (Old and New Testament) alive in a child friendly manner, using manipulatives to tell a story or parable. This program seeks to instill a natural wondering about the stories of the Bible in children in a very age appropriate manner. Each lesson is designed to tell the story for children aged 3-6, then to ask some questions, such as “I wonder how the Good Samaritan felt when he helped the man?” “I wonder what other seeds can grow like a mustard seed?” It helps to deepen the children’s understanding of the mysteries of God and the parables. These presentations work across the borders of most religions making it applicable for all forms of Christianity. The children enjoy hearing the story told by the adult, then they have materials (or a work) that they use back at school to re-tell the story and strengthen their awareness and interest.

At FM, the children go next door to St. Patrick’s Church where Jill Lane and Mary Lasher (who have taught a formal Good Shepherd program for years) tell the story in the sanctuary. We start with a simple song called, “Be Still and Know that I Am God”. Then the story is told to the children. The children will interact asking questions afterward.

Good Shepherd was first brought to St. Patrick’s Church by my mother, Eugenie Campbell, who was a Montessori teacher for years. Because Good Shepherd aligns so well with Montessori, she was able to blend her skills of teaching and Christian education. That program was well received and for about 15 years ran out of the church. We feel very lucky to be able to instill the Good Shepherd program into our curriculum at FM, and we thank Jill and Mary for making that happen for us!

The Moveable Alphabet is a classic Montessori material and one that is used often in our classroom. You might hear your child call it the “Musical Alphabet”. 🙂 I think that is charming mispronunciation.

The Movable Alphabet is a box consisting of 26 letters. The vowels are blue and the consonants are red. The children at FM learn their first 5 letters (typically a, m, s, b, t, c) with use of Sandpaper Letters and sorting objects. By learn I mean they learn the letter sound, not letter name, and they know which symbol represents the letter sound. Once the child is fairly confident in pointing out the correct letter sound, we introduce the Moveable Alphabet. First let me explain why, before I explain how.

Montessori was one of the early believers that children learn to read by writing. She also believed in strong phonetic foundation for reading. (Which mirrors current research labelled, the Science of Reading). At the age of 3 and 4, holding a pencil and constructing a letter symbol is a challenge. But children are ready to work with letters and symbols before their hands can catch up to this precise, fine motor work. Thus the Moveable Alphabet was developed. The children would not have to know how to write a letter, they would just have to find a wooden cut out letter in a box in order to “write” a word. Brilliant! So how is it used?

With 5 letter sounds learned, the child is able to “write” a word. The teacher will give them a word such as mat and by helping the child hear each individual sound, the child can find the correct symbols and “write” the word. This process is called decoding. Decoding the word is finding correct letters to put together to make a work. It is the first and most important step in beginning to learn to read. Children remain in this decoding phase for a long time. Through repetitive use of MA and other supporting phonics materials, the entirety of the alphabet is learned by the child. (We usually put sounds in 5 letter “chunks” – thereby having sound boxes with 5 unique letters to learn and we slowly incorporate those into the words with MA.).

What is that paper that comes home with words written in red and blue? This list of words that your child might be bringing home is the end result of the long work with Movable Alphabet. Once the child has “written” 6 words with the MA, we write them down (or they write their own if they wish). They take great pride in having a list of words they have “written” to show their parents. Can the child read these words to you yet? Mostly – no. Please don’t ask them to. The process of decoding is not the same as reading, but it is critical foundation work.

Eventually during the process of learning all the letters sounds and building words, children start to pick up on the idea of saying each letter sound out loud and blending them together to actually say a word. This process is called encoding. We model this process each time we do the work. This is a much harder step for the child. This is where the child will sound out the word and read it back to you. And so the excitement of becoming a reader begins! More on that in the next blog!!

Please see the attached video that Everett and his parents have given consent to share! It will show you this process at school. He, and many children, ask us each day to do the Movable (Musical) Alphabet with them!

Everett doing Movable Alphabet with Ms. Tina. Thanks, Everett

Child writing the words.