Maria Montessori believed that practical life skills were an important part of school. We try to include practical life work in our classroom by having students clean and care for our environment, having animals for students to care for, providing materials for students to crochet, knit, make kumihimo, and scheduling in healthy cooking.
For homework this week, please learn a new practical life skill.
Some ideas include:
- Cooking something new (use a new technique like grilling, julienne, or folding dumplings)
- Learning to crochet or knit (or a new skill within these like knitting in a round, double crochet, or amigurumi)
- Learning a new type of stitch in sewing or how to use a new type of pattern
- Cleaning out the vacuum (figure out how to take it apart, clean it, put it back together)
- Polish your family’s silverware
- Do your family’s laundry, folding and putting it away
- Make something from scratch that you usually buy, like noodles, brownies, applesauce bread, or ice cream
- Help a younger person with their homework, chores, or work
- Sweep and mop or polish floors in your house
- Learn to braid hair
- Learn to clean and oil a sewing machine, then use it to sew
- Clean and polish a pair of nice shoes
Write about your experience. Things to include might be what you liked or disliked about the task you learned, why you think it is important to know such things, what was challenging about your learning experience, or photos of what you made. You must write about why you think Montessori thought practical life skills were so important for students to learn and work on throughout their time in school. What might she have seen as valuable, useful, or important about practical life skills? Hint: it’s not just about learning how to clean things for when you’re an adult!
4th graders should write at least TWO paragraphs.
5th graders should write at least THREE paragraphs.
6th graders should write at least FOUR paragraphs.
No comments:
Post a Comment