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- Hello everybody,
it's Simone Davis here from JA
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around Tree Montessori for
the Monte Montessori notebook.
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And I thought it would be fun to show you
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around my classroom as I've made a few
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changes in the last six months.
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So a little update for those
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of you who've seen a tour before.
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And so this is us coming
into our classroom
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and you can see uh, straight
away very low shelves.
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This is for a toddler
classroom from 16 months
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and we actually have
some kids in the class
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who are three years old waiting
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to start school here in
the Netherlands at four.
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So I've got a little area of the classroom
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that I've blocked off that I'll show you
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later for them as well.
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So these are all
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of the I hand coordination
activities along here.
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So you can see on the top
puzzles going from easiest
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to hardest along the
shelf down the bottom.
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This is like an opening and closing row.
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So purses to find little objects inside.
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Um, the very famous lockbox, the kids love
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to open up the locks and
find little objects inside.
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And there's a, a Russian
doll have a table here
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that they can bring their work to.
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One of the objectives of changing
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around the classroom a little bit was
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to free up some floor space
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so the children can also roll out a mat
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and work anywhere in the classroom.
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I'll come and show you
around this side first.
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So here we have some I hang
coordination activities,
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things like the coin box
where they post the coins,
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building a tower with
pegs, a balance beam.
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And then down here I have a
series of threading activities.
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So wooden pieces on the left,
smaller pieces in the middle,
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and then in the two ones
on the right are very small
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beads and shoelaces.
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Hello everybody. Thanks for joining.
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Super fun to show you around
my classroom in Amsterdam.
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These are some more Han
coordination activities.
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You're welcome Anna. She
said thanks for this.
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Um, on the left they're posting little
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tiny pegs into the hole.
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Um, it's gonna be hard
for me to open up any
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of the baskets when I've
got a camera in my hand.
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Sorry about that. And then
this is one of the GA boards
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for stretching elastics across.
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This is a wedges activity.
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It's not specifically Montessori
but it's always in use.
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It's really good for sequencing.
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Again, geo shapes,
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- I love these. These are different
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- Screwing activities and it comes also
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- With Allen keys that you can use.
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And this inside has got nuts and
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- Bolts so
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- That they can grade them in
order from bigger to smallest
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and learn to screw the
nuts onto the bolts.
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- And this is our basket of rugs
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that they can lay out on the floor.
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There's also little chairs
and tables with plants around.
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And then we come around to our
art and craft activity area.
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So you can see the activities
laid out beautifully on the
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shelf and area where they
can dry their paintings.
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And these two little green
boxes to the right of
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where we store the supplies.
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And we have a round table
at the moment for our area,
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which is very nice
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for if they wanna collaborate a little bit
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with clay and things like that.
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Hi Elizabeth. Thanks for joining.
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So let's have a look at exactly
what's out at the moment.
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In the little box, on the
top left is some nice pencils
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for drawing really thick,
chunky ones for little hands.
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This is our box for clay.
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I really like this box
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because you can open it
with one hand actually
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and then it seals airtight, which is great
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for homemade Play-Doh.
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This is the cutting activity.
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So a simple sturdy strip for them
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to be able to snip through.
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And if they wanna repeat, then these are
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where the supplies are And
they can put the little cutting
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strips into the envelopes here
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and close it with stickers in this one.
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And then underneath here
is paper for drawing.
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And in this one is our gluing
activity supplies paper
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for gluing and the sewing cart supplies.
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And this is extra paper for watercolor.
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So those activities that I mentioned
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are down on the bottom shelf here.
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There's the watercolor
activity, so there's just
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- One color here, a brush
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and a little bit of water at the ready
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- Or they can go refill it
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and a cloth, a paper
underneath ready to go.
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- This is a gluing box which
I made in my Montessori
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training only 15 years ago
and it's still going strong.
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I've had to glue it back
together a couple of times.
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It'll glue brush in there.
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They use this lid as actually
a surface to glue on.
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Sorry, excuse the bumpy filming here.
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Hope you don't get seasick.
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And in this is the little sewing box.
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- Okay, - It's very hard to
do these things one handed,
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I think I'll come back to that .
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- Okay, so over here we
always have chalk as well
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and and eraser.
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Hi Carolina, thanks for joining.
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And this is where they do their painting.
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So you can see the aprons on the left.
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There's clips that they can use.
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These ones I found at Muji,
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not here in Amsterdam but in France.
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And they have them around the world, These
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wet cloths to wipe their hands
or the floor or the board.
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And then two choices of color here.
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And then when they're finished
they can take it over here
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and they can practice pegging head up
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and there's more paper
for them to continue here.
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Okay, so that's this side.
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Over here I have a little baby's area
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'cause we often have some
younger siblings coming to class
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or for the babies who've just
moved up from the older group
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so that they can get straight
on with where they're up to.
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They like these pop-up
toys on the top shelf,
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posting the little pegs
in this one's got a ball
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in the drawer and then coins
in a drawer. Big coins,
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- These are big discs.
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Yeah, so perfect.
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Then there's just for really
young babies grasping toys,
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it's posting onto the different three
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sticks, there we go. And then
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- Always beautiful flowers
down low for our youngest kids.
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And there's a mirror as well.
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I have a rug that they can
lay out in this corner here.
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I have our self-care area
where they can blow their nose
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and use the little clips,
the little low mirror.
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And there's also a felt board there,
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which I change from time to time.
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At the moment. There's some sea animals
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- And
- Then our language corner is here.
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So we start with objects on the top.
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So in this suitcase is everything
that they might like to do
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to go to the beach.
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They can look at all the
objects around the house.
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Then we have a basket of
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- Musical instruments with
exactly the same pictures.
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At the moment we have office supplies
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with exactly the same pictures.
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Construction vehicles
with similar pictures
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and Australian animals
with similar pictures.
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And then we have just
cards over this side.
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You can see little roll mats
that they can roll out as well.
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At the moment we have fruits and birds.
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And then in these bags
they're stereo agnostic
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bags, which are like mystery bags.
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You can put your hands
in and feel around them.
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So they're not specifically language,
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but that's where they
just are located in our
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classroom. And the
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- Same for
- These up here.
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This is our dressing frames, a zipper
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- Buttons and a
- Clasp out at the moment.
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- So the reason for this big change is
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because I wanted to make this area
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for our older kids a bit more off limits.
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So you can see you shouldn't have any
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of these materials in a toddler class.
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Normally you can see the pink
tower and the brown stair
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and the cylinder blocks
and the metal insets
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getting ready for school.
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But those materials are
really for older children.
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And it's only because we
have children in our class
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who are waiting to start school at four.
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So we have a very small area
that's just for the older kids.
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This here is our farm
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and the ball track is great
just by the front door
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where the children come in.
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It's nice to ease 'em into the classroom.
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Okay, so now I'll take one
pick back so you can see
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where all layer fits together.
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So you can see again the
eye hand coordination
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activities along the right,
the iron craft to the back.
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There's a nice big
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construction going
outside, sorry about that.
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The language corner.
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And then through here we
go to our book corner.
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Hi Bonnie, thanks for
joining Big heart eyes.
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I know I love our little
classroom so much.
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This is our cozy book corner.
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We have a lovely mat that
we can lie on some beanbags,
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a selection of Dutch and
English books and low artwork.
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And there's always armchair
around here as well for them
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to cozy up.
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So this is a class for
parents and toddlers.
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So they like to curl up
together, read books in here.
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There are books that are based
often in reality like there's
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a house inside my mommy's
about having a new baby, Fred,
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the firefighter, about what he's doing.
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Books with beautiful
pictures of under the ocean.
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Mid in the is a night picture
with lots of things for them
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to spot and lots of vehicle books,
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simple stories and always really
beautiful engaging pictures
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that you're happy to read
again and again and again
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and again because we know
that toddlers like repetition.
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Okay, so then we come through
this look corner into,
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I won't Mind the tree, into our
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music and movement area.
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So yes, we have a beautiful
climbing wall, which is 1.2
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by 2.4 for those who
are wanting to build it.
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It's a piece of um, plywood.
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And then you can buy the
grips from places like Amazon.
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Okay, and then we have
a pickler triangle here,
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which I originally just
had for the baby class,
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but the toddlers love practicing on it.
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You can see that there's some
tape on the second bottom rung
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and that shows them where
they can put their feet
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to climb over without
toppling over the top.
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Hi Monica, thanks for joining.
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And over here is musical instruments.
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I have this inherited,
this beautiful melophone,
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which is gorgeous, a music
puzzle, different shakers
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and all types of instruments.
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I also have a block corner here
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for some more relaxing kind of play.
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So that's good for gross motor movements.
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And then these little
steps are great for babies
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to practice walking, but the
toddlers also love them too
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and they try to climb up there
with a jug in their hands
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or look out the window
when they get to the top.
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You can see some Dutch
houses across the way there.
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So then if I spin back this way,
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you can see we are now moving
into the practical life area
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where they have the flower
ranging and hand washing
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and our food preparation area
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and all of the things for cleaning.
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Oh, and I nearly forgot
our very famous cozy cube.
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So the kids love exploring in here.
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There's a hole there I've got inside.
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So you can see, see
there's different levels
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and then at the top
there's a hole as well.
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Cool. Okay,
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so let me show you first
over here the flower
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ranging, they love this.
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So if your children
like playing with water,
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get a little jug of funnel, little vases
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and then some doilies
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and they can arrange 'em around the room.
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There's lots of plants and a
watering can at the ready so
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that they can water the plants.
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This is our hand washing activities.
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So for a young child who wants
to practice carrying water,
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making bubbles, emptying
it into the bucket,
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that's a great activity.
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And then our food preparation activity.
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So we moved it over this
side about six months ago
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because we've moved to a group snack.
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So this is around 10 30, which
is halfway through the class.
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I get out these trays
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and I sit on the little
chair in the U-shape
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and children come and
help me prepare the snack
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and we put it on the
plate for our friends.
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And then at 11 o'clock
we sit down together.
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So you can see that they help
me with the banana cutting
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and cracker spreading
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orange juicing.
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The brand of this one is Metro Keen
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'cause I'm sure people will ask .
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It's a great solid orange juicer.
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And this is for apple peeling and cutting.
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And then you can see the
washing up activity over here,
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a little menu and some
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lovely art again at their low level.
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And this is where we set the table.
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So you can see the place
mats, it shows 'em exactly how
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to set our materials.
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And then there's always water
available if they wanna pour a
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glass of water, face cloths
and table wiping cloths.
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And then on the bottom
row we have real glasses.
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'cause in Montessori we
like to use real glass.
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It's much easier to pour into real
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glass and tastes much better.
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There's some cutlery, some
forks and spoons and the bowls
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and there's some aprons
at the ready as well.
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This is where they can
put any dirty cloths.
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And we have a low sink down
here, which was actually amazing
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'cause it was in the space when we got it.
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But I changed the tap to one
that automatically cuts off
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as well for obvious reasons.
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When you have toddlers and water together,
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this is the garbage bin
where they bring their peels
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to when they're preparing
the food at a trolley
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where they put the glasses on the
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top, bowls in the middle.
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And this is the window washing activity,
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which we wash the windows of the doors.
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And if I spin around this
way, you can see the lovely
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dustpan mop at the ready
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and there's a hanging mat there,
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which is actually just a resting space.
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So I um, I have got high
shelves here just for myself,
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but I make them attractive with
plants and things like this.
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So I'll just give you a
little overview of this room
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from this side and this
bench in the middle is
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for the parents to sit while
we are having the snack.
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So that's the tour of the classroom.
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Thank you everyone for joining me.
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I hope that you found it useful
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and may you have a
peaceful and lovely day.
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Goodbye. .