How Rugs & Place Mats Can Teach Children Order & Personal Space

In educational settings where children are learning with individual & small-group based material, particularly in Montessori learning environments, you may find children utilizing small roll-up rugs, carpets and sometimes placemats.  So what do we use them for?  Here are some benefits I have seen while working in Montessori settings for ages 1.5 through 6:

Help keep the Learning Environment Tidy by Defining Personal Space

Offering roll-up rugs for the floors and placemats on the tables for children to place their work on can help the room stay neat and tidy.  This also helps a young child define personal space as other children learn not to grab from other's work space or walk on someone's rug.  I've also seen less children tripping or getting hurt as they begin to recognize where it is safe to walk, instead walking through an obstacle of scattered toys and materials on the floor.  Once a storage location in the room is determined, the child is taught to return the rug or placemat just the way they found it (after given a lesson on how to do so).  We keep our rugs in a floor basket and  placemats in a basket on a shelf that the children can reach.  The placemats and rugs below were rolled by ages 1.5-2.5.  We just started the school year two weeks ago and our students have adapted quite well to this approach.  

Placemats are offered to children to place their work on when they choose to work at a table.

Small roll-up rugs are offered for children to place their work on if they choose to work on the floor.

Build Fine Motor Skills

Lessons are given to the children on how to carry mats and rugs, how to roll them out, roll them back up, and return them to the bin.  When lessons are given carefully and thoughtfully, you give the child time to process and notice details.  This can really be a challenge for young children and it is okay if they do not perfect it right away.  Just let them do it the best they can at first and don't discourage them or point it out so much if they aren't rolling them perfectly.  Lessons during circle times or small groups may need to be given multiple times throughout the school year to help remind children the best way to care for them.  Your students will have plenty of opportunities to practice throughout the day as they choose different material to work with.  If you are interested in how a lesson like this might be presented, I found this video where a woman is showing a student how to roll a rug.  It's a little bigger than the kind of rugs we use in our room, but it gives the child time to notice the woman's careful finger work:

How to Roll a Rug

There are some additional details you can point out when rolling a rug, for example, take note of what happens when a rug is not rolled evenly.  Sometimes you can simply pat either end of the rolled up rug if it is not too uneven.  

Learn to Create Order & Build Organizational Skills
In our Montessori Studio, the teachers show the children lessons on a variety of work material that they may take from the shelves and bring to their table mat or rug to work on.  They begin to learn order as we typically show them how to lay out material from left to right, or by taking out the items that we will be using first.  For example, if there are matching cards, they might be shown to place the first set of cards, one at a time from left to right, in a straight order.  When the children are shown how to carefully utilize the work from left to right or by placing the work in the order that you would use the material, they are learning organization and order, which will also begin to help them when it comes to reading and writing (as in most countries we learn to read and write from left to right).

A child using a placemat to keep her work on at the table

A child using a rug to lay out matching cards from (her) left to right

Thanks for reading.  Please feel free to comment & ask questions!

~Angelique

Simple Activities for Kids Offer Opportunities for Growth

Expensive material and excessive amounts of toys can be good for motor skills and sometimes for learning, but it's not the only answer to educating young children.  Besides, not every school, daycare program and educator can afford to offer abundant amounts of toys.  But that does not mean we educators cannot offer children opportunities to have fun with education.  Sometimes a child can show more appreciation for simple material and activities that are not necessarily considered toys.  There are so many life-skill activities out there that offer endless opportunities for children to learn and grow.  And say you do work at a school that has a large budget-- It can actually be worth spending money on more intricate and unique material than the popular tinker toys and the latest plastic cubby system to keep them in.  Sometimes offering smaller proportions of individual based work can really help a child to focus on exploring, focusing on and perfecting the activity.  For example, there is no need to offer hundreds of Legos or blocks to one child when they can be just as absorbed when given a handful.  Of course, children need to work on social skills too, so be sure to offer a number of activities for 2 or more children in addition to individual activities.  I have posted just a few activities that I have used in my classrooms below.  These are mostly ideas that have already been presented through the Montessori Method of teaching, but they are universal activities that many other educators have adopted.  If you are interested in actual Montessori lessons and presenting material in this method, there is information all over the web (if you just Google Montessori lessons or search on Pinterest!).  Below are some basic ways that anyone can use and create material in nearly any educational setting.  

Geometric Solids Activities

Here, we offered just a small bag full of geometric solid shapes for one child to work on.  Present items like this in a pretty bag or nice basket to draw interest to the material.  Depending on what you want the child to learn, you could allow the child to build constructively with the material, and/or offer them matching cards of each geometric shape.  If you have the opportunity to sit with the child, you could start teaching them the names of each geometric solid.  You could photograph the shapes and make your own matching cards by laminating them.  If you are interested in purchasing Montessori cards, this website shows examples of what a Montessori educator might use:  3 Part Geometric Solid Cards.  If you are interested in purchasing the actual Montessori geometric solids, here is a link (just scroll down and you will see them in the color blue): Montessori Material

Sifting Activities

This activity is always a hit with ages 2-6.  Here a child is sifting through the sand, trying to remove the larger objects in the mix.  You could add beans, seeds, corn kernels, or beads, but be sure to follow your program policies as some of this material may be considered a choking hazard and not acceptable.  Give a lesson first, slowly, quietly and carefully.  To present this material, place two bowls on a tray, the first bowl filled with sand mixed with the larger objects. In the second bowl, the sifter can be placed.  Carefully demonstrate how to scoop with the sifter, shake out all of the sand and then dump the remaining objects into the empty bowl.  Once all of the objects are removed, pour them back into the dish with the sand (while using both hands to pour if you want to emphasize on being careful not to spill).  A spoon could be added to the tray for the child to mix up the objects in the sand, preparing it for the next child, or they can simply repeat the activity.  You can make your own variations of any of the work presented here.  In the Montessori Method, this would be considered a "practical life activity" as it is helping build fine motor skills, order, as well as the multiple uses of a sifter.  We find that the more carefully, slowly and thoughtfully you present the lesson, the less likely the child will use it improperly (like putting objects in their mouth).  

Magnet activities

Offer a dish of magnets for a child to explore on their own just how magnets work.  You could demonstrate a simple lesson on how to use them, showing the child how magnets can push away or pull toward each other.  However, a lesson may not be completely necessary if you would rather have your students discover these things on their own.  You don't need to explain the science just yet, but feel free to make extensions of this lesson if a child is ready to learn more.  A fun extension we use in the Montessori Classroom is to have a variety of magnetic and non-magnetic objects in a container. For example, you might have a paperclip, wooden cube, rubber duck, refrigerator magnet, sea shell, and a large bolt or screw. Offer one large magnet and two dishes so that the child may sort through the material by placing nonmagnetic materials in one dish and magnetic materials in the other dish.  You could also extend this activity with name cards to label the items as magnetic and non-magnetic, depending on what the children seem ready for.  Here is a website I found on the magnetic/non-magnetic activity I just explained: magnetic & nonmagnetic activity

World Map Books & Traveling Maps

Even our toddler class loves a good book of maps.  Kids love to pretend to be navigators and offering them maps is a great way to explore.  If you have any old National Geographic magazines laying around, flip through them for maps that the children can unfold and lay out on the floor. Young children don't need to understand the details of the map right away, but you might want to point out just a couple details like roads, rivers and mountains to help them to start noticing all of the different symbols.  Magnifying glasses can be offered so that the children can take a closer look.  I have especially noticed that children in my classes have enjoyed this activity while working groups of 2 or 3.  We have a small globe in addition that the kids also enjoy.

Peg Board Activities

There are all sorts of activities a child can do with a peg board.  Depending on what kind of peg board you can find (sometimes found at craft shops or you could make your own with a board and nails), you could have the child put beads and rings on the pegs, or elastic hair bands (like the child in the above photo).  Kids in my previous classes have really enjoyed the elastic bands as they work to stretch the bands across the board in different ways.  This is a great activity to work their fine motor skills.  Again, please check with your program policies before offering this material and give a lesson as it will help discourage poor behavior

Hand Broom & Dust Pan Activities

Oops!  A child accidentally spilled the sand sifting work, but it's no big deal, because he can help clean the mess with a hand broom and dust pan.  This is certainly not an easy task, but if you just offer the material for the child to try, it will likely help the child to feel helpful and more responsible.  If the child does not sweep everything up, encourage them that it's okay as this takes lots of practice and children could easily be discouraged with too much pressure.  This is a great lesson for caring for one's environment and there are some simple extensions you can offer a child to help with their coordination.  If you are interested in a Montessori extension, I found a great blog that shows the steps on how to prepare for an activity:  http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2011/08/montessori-acitivity-swiping-with-brush.html

In our studio, we also have a child-sized broom and mop.  The kids especially love to clean their own water spills with the mop.  

Thank you for tuning in to learn new ways to help educate today's young pupils.  

~Angelique