Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources How-to Stations? Montessori source book?

Does anybody have a book to recommend on how to create Montessori stations or Montessori work centers?

DC4 is moving to kindergarten next year at a private school, but the experienced dream of a teacher of 30 years is retiring to a p/t position at another school (that doesn't allow early entrance) and the new teacher is not very experienced.

One of the problems is that the previous teacher is taking all of her stations with her and the new teacher doesn't have any Montessori training to make or facilitate new ones. But she's eager to do her best to fill the shoes of the former teacher.

My mom told me that 30 odd years ago when she was working for Headstart they had a Montessori source book with lots of suggestions for stations to make for different ability groups. She suggested we get one for the new teacher, possibly with a small monetary grant to help her outfit her new classroom this summer. (We were thinking maybe $500.)

Does anybody know where I could find a book like that? On how to make stations/work centers appropriate for bright kindergartners?

"Real" Montessori training takes at least 1-2 years for teachers. The equipment is also expensive. It would cost alot more than $500.
Many schools say they are "Montessori," but very few have the real AMI-credential that is required, for that reason.
If you want to pick up a few Montessori items, just google Montessori equipment or something like that and you can buy things.

Craigslist is a great resource for used Montessori. I sold all of my stuff on there in just a few days. Look often because it goes quick!

Sorry for being unclear...

We're not trying to turn her into a Montessori teacher or her classroom into a Montessori classroom-- just interested in giving her a book with ideas for how to set up work stations to replace some of the ones that are leaving with the former teacher.

I know some of these are very cheap and just require poster-board, paper, and index cards, for example. They were very popular in regular classrooms in the 1970s... also called learning centers, work centers etc. There's a few talked about in Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom, as they're standard for differentiated learning environments, but we were hoping for something more detailed and age-appropriate. This: http://www.ehow.com/info_7858713_ideas-1st-grade-learning-centers.html looks helpful, but a dedicated book that we could just give her would be nice. My mom says they had one decades ago at Headstart (and they didn't have much money), and I was hoping someone knew the title of one that we could get.

You might google "handmade Montessori Materials". There are many pdf files (probably less than $1 each) that can be printed out and laminated for the children to work on independently. Some of them will be particular to Montessori, but some will probably lend themselves to "learning centers". You won't get the beauty of some of the traditional montessori manipulatives, but I can see how something structured like this would be helpful to a new teacher/teacher working with bright to gifted students. Anything to keep them motivated and learning!

http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/Picture-Cards_c150.htm might be a good place to start.

or google Montessori Workjobs

and file folder games are good too.

Oh ho! I bet those Montessori Workjobs books from the 1970s that Amazon is showing me are exactly what my mother was talking about. Too bad they're out of print! I wonder if she'd be receptive to a used copy or if I should try one of the more modern books on learning centers. I've checked out a bunch from the uni library to see if any look good before purchasing. It's funny how they keep renaming what is essentially the same concept. Thanks!

Hopefully this will be a good year-- there's 3 kids starting early including DS and at least one other kid we know is gifted in the class. I'm hoping if we help lower the hurdle she'll feel more comfortable with this kind of less structured learning since she hasn't been doing any differentiation in her Pre-K class. She's been shadowing the former teacher and is receptive to stations, we just want to make it easier on her so she'll be more likely to actually do them! (We're not totally worried because DS is getting single subject acceleration in math and reading as well, but he's so naturally regimented a little organized chaos does him some good.)

That link for picture cards is neat. I wonder if collecting links will be too overbearing.

As a teacher, I would have found it much more helpful to have someone make up the materials for me. It was really hard to just find time to sit there and laminate things etc. I often ended up doing it at home, which wasn't too bad, but still there is only a certain number of hours in the day! I wouldn't easily be able to do it now that I have children either. All the differentation needs to be documented and all that as well, and often I found I had tme for one but not the other. If she isn't highly experienced, the time required is about double!

It depends how she is, but if you went to here with a postive attitude that you want to make it easier for her, it might help.

That would be nice, but it isn't really compatible with me getting my tenure packet in this summer or spending any time with own son.

Oh I get that! Unfortunately, it might be the same for the teacher. Teachers do often spend an awful lot of out of school time on prep work.

I wonder if maybe some of the money could go towards a teacher's aide or assistant to help set it up? I know it isn't much...