In a Montessori Classroom, observation is a crucial part of teaching. In Under 3, we observe the interests, curiosities, knowledge, and abilities of each child and the children as a group.
An excellent example of how observations inform our practice occurred recently. A child in our classroom told a story about going on a picnic with his family. This piqued the interest of the other children in the classroom who listened to the story, asked questions, and told their own stories of picnics and eating with their families. Another child asked if we could have a picnic on our playground at school, which other children echoed. These observations were used to create a week themed around The Picnic.
For a week, we read books about picnics, food, and families. We expressed our interest through art, such as painting with a potato masher and gluing tissue paper to semi-circles to represent watermelon. Towards the end of the week, all of the children took part in washing vegetables, peeling carrots, and slicing cucumber in preparation for The Picnic. The Picnic on our playground was a great success! Everyone enjoyed the vegetables the children had prepared, as well as the hot dogs our cook (Simone) had prepared.
