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By Stefanie Graper At birth, humans are born with a limited number of reflexes which disappear in the first few months of life. Movement is not inherited, but is a learned behavior that involves the senses, the brain, and the muscles. It is through repeated effort and practice that movements become automatic.  In the above picture, the child is working on a 'Dressing Frame.' These frames are in the Primary and Toddler environments and give the child the opportunity to practice dressing him or herself. The buckle frame is pictured here, other frames include button, snap, zipper, lacing, and tying. We often underestimate what our children are capable of. By simply showing them how and giving them the opportunity, they are often able to do much more than we think.   Each of our movements is a learned skill perfected though practice. It takes thousands of tries before a baby learns to lift her head, crawl, walk, then jump, balance, etc...We must give our children the time it takes to learn how to move. Once they have mastered a movement, we should give them the opportunity to do it on their own. Even after 13 years in the classroom I am always astounded to see children fold a whole load of towels. The concentration, persistence, and exactness of movement this takes is impressive!   The same qualities necessary for folding laundry carry over into the later language and math work. This girl, age 5, is drawing a picture of different leaves in her journal and writing the name of the plant it came from. The development of movement in the human being is completely and inseparably tied in with the development of the intellect and personality. The way we move creates our relationship with the world and our view of the world. What a privilege it is for our teachers to work with children in an environment that meets their needs so beautifully!  "To overlook movement is to overlook its close connection with the developing mind" - Maria Montessori
The children were happy to return to school after Christmas break. It is always nice to see them settle back into their routine. Many of them knew exactly which activity they wanted to do first! Here are some photos of what they are working on. 
Toddlers perfecting fine motor skills with home made play-doh, creating art, and playing sound games.
Transferring water using a baster. This activity builds strength in the hands and concentration.
Toddlers working on food preparation - a favorite of both classes! This is one of the first activities with a longer cycle of work.
Here, a boy who has been in class for over a year is helping a new friend with stickers.
Baking banana bread is a new activity in the Primary Casa. This activity combines math, reading, and practical life for a delicious result!
L, age 3, slicing strawberries
B, age 3, painting
Both of these girls are in their third year in the Primary Casa. They are working on embroidery, which helps develop handwriting skills. It is also a beautiful form of art expression. With practice, the stitches become very small and intricate.
R, age 4, receiving a lesson about place value. This lesson is given first with beads so the child has a concrete experience of the difference between 1, 10, 100 and 1000. Next, he learns the written numbers as pictured. Finally, the two are combined and he will begin working on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using the beads and cards.
Above, to the left shows 1,000 (cube), 100 (square), 10 (bar), and 1 (unit) using a concrete material called Golden Beads. The picture on the right shows the material and corresponding symbol, or number. The unit is on the right because when preforming math operations, the unit is written on the right. Below is a 3 minute video showing how addition is done using the golden beads. At our school we usually have 3 children working together for this activity. 
V, age 4 completing the map of Europe. Did you know each puzzle knob is the location of each countries capitol?
B, age 4, working with the bells. The brown set acts as the control and the white set can be moved. The bells are tuned from low C - high C and can be used for a variety of activities, including matching, grading and even composing!
Remember that 1,000 cube from the above picture? This is the 1,000 chain - or what 1,000 looks like in a straight line! A, age 5 1/2, is counting and labeling the beads on the chain. Every 10 beads she places a 'ticket', 10, 20, 30, 40,...all the way to 1,000!
L, age 3, working with play-doh
E, age 4 working with the map of Europe.
S., age 3 1/2, working with the continent map.
A, age 5 1/2, practicing handwriting by copying a poem and illustrating it.
These girls, both 5 1/2, are using a language game that helps them understand the parts of a sentence. After writing a sentence they symbolize it using special symbols that represent the different parts of language. As you can see below, The small blue triangle represents the article, the dark blue triangle the adjective, and the large black triangle the noun. The pink line represents the conjunction. This is a visual representation of the pattern in our language.
Thanks for checking out what we've been working on. If you would like to learn more about our school, please call to schedule a tour 770-475-3812 or email us. We hope your year is off to a wonderful start!
With cold winter weather on the way, we wanted to quickly share with you how the children put on their own jackets here at school. 1. Lay the jacket on the ground, with the 'toes by the tag.' 
2. Place hands in the arm holes 
3. Now is the big moment - count 1,2,3....FLIP the coat up and over the head! 
4. 'I did it!' - Her smile says it all! 
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