國立臺北護理健康大學人類發展與健康學院
嬰幼兒保育系-國際蒙特梭利碩士專班 International Montessori Master Degree Program
Department of Infant and Child Care College of Human Development and Health
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
碩士技術報告 Technical Report
指導教授：張孝筠
Adviser：Hsiao Yun Chang, Ed. D.
蒙特梭利學前教材的設計與運用-以水果為例 Montessori Materials Design and Implementation for
Three to Six Year old Children- Fruits
研究生： 劉雅瀅 撰 Name： Lau, Nga-Ying
May 2019
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of real life experience, interaction with real tools may stimulate the language on toddlers. The age of participants in this study were 3 to 6 years old. A quasi-experimental design was adopted. Ten participants in this study age from 3 to 6 years old were selected in a private kindergarten in Hong Kong. For the pre- and post-test I show the same 10 pictures of different kind of fruits and asked them two questions, “Do you know the name of this fruit?’ and then I asked,
“Did you ever try that fruit before?”, after that I asked “Do you know where the fruits come from?”. The same method in the pre-test is used to do the post-test. After 2 months followed-up the experiment, the results proved that the project has expand children’s experience and language of different fruits. The results proved that the project has expand children’s experience. By the end of the project, 100% of the children (10 of 10) knew the name of grapes, banana, lemon, apple and mango. 7 of 10 children can name all the ten pictures of fruit correctly. Besides, all the children know that we need to plant to have fruits. 8 of the children are able to mention that we need seed to plant, 6 of the children even use the keywords of the lifecycle to describe where the fruits come from, including seeds, tree, bud, flower and fruit. The present study has shown evidence that real life experience, interaction with real tools has positive effects on the language development on toddlers in Hong Kong.
Keywords: real life experience, toddlers, fruits, language development, real tools
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Contents
Abstract --- -P.2 Contents --- -P.3 Second cover ---P.4 Introduction ---P.5-6 Method ---P. 7-8 Four Activities ---P.9 Fruit Cutting ---P.10-11 Initial Sound of Fruits ---P.12-13 The Mystery Bag ---P. 14-15 The life cycle of Apple ---P.16-17 Results--- P.18-25 Extensions Activities ---P.26 The Pattern Cards ---P.27-29 Spell with Movable Alphabet ---P.30 Invented Spelling Activity ---P.31 Sorting Activity with Fruits ---P.32 Using a Bamboo Stick ---P.33 Preparing Orange Juice ---P.34-35 Three Part Cards ---P.36 Counting (0-15) ---P. 37 Cross Section of Fruits ---P. 38 Graduation Party --- P. 29-51 Conclusion ---P.52-53 References ---P.54
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Fruits
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Introduction
I decided to do my project on fruits when I saw the need for real life experience in the classroom for interaction with real tools and a variety of fruit, and stimulation of their five senses. As I observed, these children would have a set of meal provided by the school canteen every day. They usually have a bowl of soup, and a plate of main course served with rice, vegetable and meat, there are also fruit for dessert. They enjoy their meal very much and they love to have apples as the taste of apples always sweet and crispy. As there are different kind of fruit imported in Hong Kong, I would like to provide an opportunity for children to taste different fruit and try to use the tools for serving fruit.
The goal of the project was to support children in trying different types of fruits, learning the name of the fruits and recognizing them by the shapes, texture and the taste of them. Moreover, using the real tools is also one of the most important aim of the project. It may enrich children’s real-life experience.
I am going to share four of the exercises in my project, they were Fruit Cutting, Initial Sound of fruit, The Mystery Bag and The Life Cycle of Fruits. Extension Activities included The Pattern Cards, Spell with Movable Alphabet, Invented Spelling Activity, Sorting Activity with Fruits, Using a Bamboo Stick, Preparing Orange Juice, Three Part Cards, Counting (0-15), Cross Section of Fruits. At the end of the project, children held a Graduation Party, they decorated the classroom and
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used all their skills from the activities to prepare food and drinks, they also invite guest teacher to join their party and they served them by their own.
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Method
I. Pre-test and Post-test Question
There are 10 children in my intern classroom, and I started to plan the activities with children in April and the whole process of the project is about one and a half months.
For the pre- and post-test I show pictures of different kind of fruits. I chose grapes, bananas, dragon fruit, lemon, blueberry, pineapple, watermelon and kiwi. I showed each child the photo of different fruit and asked them two questions, “Do you know the name of this fruit?’ and then I asked, “Did you ever try that fruit before?”, after that I asked “Do you know where the fruits come from?” I collected the data about children’s experience and created pre-test and post-test data charts to record the children’s responses for fruits.
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II. Pictures use for pre-test and post-test
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Four Activities
• Fruit Cutting
• Initial Sound of Fruits
• The Mystery Bag
• The life cycle of Apple
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Fruit Cutting
Materials
• A tray
• A knife and a chopper
• A towel
• Bananas
• Bowls
• Container for the banana skin
Subjects
• Children from 3 to 6 years of age.
No Prerequisites Presentation
Presentation
1. Invite the child to do the exercise.
2. Put on apron.
3. Go to the work table with the child.
4. Seat the child next to your subdominant side.
5. Indicate the banana, knife and chopper.
6. Take a banana and peel off the skin of the banana. Put them in another container.
7. Holding the end of the banana under your subdominant hand, cut pieces one at a time with the knife.
8. Place the slides of the banana into the bowl.
9. Return the materials to the tray.
10. Invite the children to repeat the exercise and taste them at the snack table.
Points of Interest
• Using a real knife
• Tasting the banana after children cut by themselves
Controls of Error
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• Seeing the same size of the banana Aims
• Order
• Co-ordination
• Concentration
• Independence
Variations and Extensions
• Using different types of fruits (e.g. dragon fruits)
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Initial Sound of Fruits
Materials
• Picture cards with different pictures of fruit, one of the initial sound symbol should be shown
• Rocks in a small container
• A tray for all the picture cards and rocks
Subjects
• Children from 3 to 6 years of age.
Prerequisites
• Hearing initial sounds, initial sound object boxes, phonic strips with pictures, sandpaper letters
Presentation
1. Invite the child to do the exercise. Place mat on floor and sit around mat.
2. Ask the child to follow you to the materials on the shelf.
3. Carry the materials with two hands from the shelf and place on mat.
4. Lay out the pictures on the mat.
5. Stressing the initial sound symbol of the card. Name the pictures shown in the card.
6. Place the rock on the fruit picture that share the same initial sound with the symbol.
7. Encourage the child to continue with the next picture cards.
8. Return the rocks to the container. Return the materials to the shelf. Invite the children to repeat the exercise.
Points of Interest
• Seeing the shape of rocks
• Hearing the stressing of the initial sound Controls of Error
• Seeing and hearing the initial sound match the picture
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Aims
• Order
• Co-ordination
• Concentration • Independence
• Need to learn to associate sounds with their written letter symbols.
• Understanding that speech sounds can be written down, and that speech sounds can be written in phonetic ways.
Variations
• Using different types of fruits
• Using different letters
• Using different rocks
• Using movable alphabet Extensions
• Using different fruits
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The Mystery Bag
Materials
• 4-6 different fruit that a child can identify easily, such as lemon, kiwi, dragon fruit, apple, and an orange
• A tray for all fruits
• A small container with picture cards of fruits and the name
• A “Mystery bag”
Subjects
• Children from 3 to 6 years of age.
Prerequisites
• Basic knowledge of the fruits
Presentation
1. Invite the child to do the exercise. Place mat on floor and sit around mat.
2. Ask the child to follow you to the materials on the shelf.
3. Carry the materials with two hands from the shelf and place on mat.
4. Ask the child, “Do you know what a mystery is?” (Listen to each child’s response and modify as needed, or provide a description.) “A mystery is like a problem or a puzzle, but you have to search for the answer to the puzzle. Sometimes cues help us find the answer to the puzzle or mystery.”
5. Pick up a fruit and ask the child, “Do you know what this is?” Show the real fruit and the picture, give the name of the fruit if known.
6. Ask the child to feel the fruit, saying the name again or letting the child repeat the name, then put the fruit into the Mystery Bag.
7. Present the next fruit and say the name, ask the child to feel it and put it into the Mystery Bag. Continue naming, seeing the words and feeling the fruit and place them all into the bag.
8. Ask the child to take a card and, “Search for something in the bag that match with this picture, then bring it out of the bag.” Match the real fruit with the picture name card.
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9. Empty the Mystery Bag and return all materials to the materials to the shelf. Invite the children to repeat the exercise.
Points of Interest
• Seeing the color of the Mystery Bag
• Use their sense to feel the texture of different fruit
• Matching the real fruits with the pictures Controls of Error
• Visual recognition of the picture and real fruits
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Aims
• Order
• Co-ordination
• Concentration
• Independence
• Need to master basic spoken language. Understanding that people and things have names, and that words stand for people, things, and ideas
Variations
• Using different types of fruits
• The child can describe how the objects feel
• Objects may be increase in number
• Play a guessing game, ask the child to find a certain object from a verbal description only. The child can then have a turn to give clues to search for an item of choice
• Bring out each object one at a time, the child guesses which objects are still inside
Extensions
• Using different types of fruit
• Matching the real fruits with figure Matching the real fruits with the word card
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Life Cycle of Apple
Materials
• The wheel showing the life cycle of apple
• Picture cards showing the steps of the life cycle of apple
• A tray for the picture cards
Subjects
• Children from 3 to 6 years of age.
Prerequisites
• Picture Sequence Story Card
Presentation
1. Invite the child to do the exercise. Place mat on floor and sit around mat.
2. Ask the child to follow you to the materials on the shelf.
3. Carry the materials with two hands from the shelf and place on mat.
4. Showing the wheel of the life cycle of apple. Use the wheel to tell the story of apple life cycle.
5. Lay out the pictures and discuss what is happening in each picture.
6. Ask the child to select the card that starts the sequence and place the pictures in order of happenings.
7. Encourage the child to verbalize the story.
8. Place the pictures in the container and return materials to the shelf.
9. Invite the children to repeat the exercise.
Points of Interest
• Using the wheel to tell the story of apple life cycle
Controls of Error
• The wheel showing the life cycle of apple
• Seeing that the pictures are in a logical order
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Aims
• Order
• Co-ordination
• Concentration • Independence
• Understanding that there is a sequence of order in life cycle.
Variations and Extensions
• Using different types of fruits life cycle
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Results
1. Pre-Test
1.1 Table 1 – Fruits - “Do you know the name of this fruit?”
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1.2 Table 2 – Fruits - “Did you ever try that fruit before?”
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1.3 Table 3 – Fruits “Where are the fruits come from?”
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1.4 Findings from the Pre-test questions
As I want to know how do children know about fruit, I show them pictures of different fruits, and ask them the first two pre-test questions. The questions I asked are
“Do you know the name of this fruit?” and “Did you try that fruit before?”. I discovered that all of the 10 children know the name of apple. There are 9 out of 10 children know the name of lemon, and 7 children know the name of banana. There are 3 children know the name of grapes, pineapple and watermelon. There are 2 children know the name of blueberry and mango. One children know the name of kiwi, and none of the children know the name of dragon fruit. For the fruit tasting experience, I discovered that all of the children have the experience for eating apple, banana and watermelon. 7 children ate grapes before, 4 children tasted lemon, 3 children have the experience of eating mango and pineapple. 2 children ate blueberries, and 1 child tasted dragon fruit and kiwi. There are also I child who is allergy to dragon fruit.
After the first two questions, I asked them “Where are the fruits come from?” and the answer of the children are interesting. One of the children who use the color of the fruit to guess the outlook of the seeds, he said “If we plant some red beans, we will have apple and tomato. If we plant some green beans, we will have leaves.” there are 3 children know their parents would buy the fruit. There are 2 children said their maid gave them and 1 of them do not know where are the fruit come from. 1 of the child said someone plant it, and 1 of the child said “If we plant some peanut shells in mud, with water and sun, we will have fruits.“
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2 Post-Test
2.1 Table 1 – Fruits - “Do you know the name of this fruit?’
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2.2 Table 2 – Fruits - “Did you ever try that fruit before?”
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2.3 Table 3 – Fruits - “Where are the fruits come from?”
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2.4 Findings from the Post-test Results
After the whole process of learning about fruit, I used the same method as doing the pre-test to do the post-test. The results proved that the project has expand children’s experience. By the end of the project, 100% of the children (10 of 10) knew the name of grapes, banana, lemon, apple and mango. 7 of 10 children can name all the ten pictures of fruit correctly, including grapes, banana, dragon fruit, lemon, blueberry, pineapple, watermelon, kiwi, apple and mango.
During the project, all children are willing to taste all kinds of fruits, therefore, expect the child who allergy to dragon fruit, all children tasted all the specific types of fruits.
It is so glad to know that there are 1 child who is the first time to taste mango and she said she loves mango after the activity. There are also 2 boy said he never ate kiwi before, but he found that it is tasty and he loves kiwi. There are also 1 girl and 1 boy who loves dragon fruit after the activities.
Children know the life cycle of fruit, therefore, all the children know that we need to plant to have fruits. 8 of the children are able to mention that we need seed to plant, 6 of the children even use the keywords of the lifecycle to describe where the fruits come from, including seeds, tree, bud, flower and fruit.
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Extensions Activities
• The Pattern Cards
• Spell with Movable Alphabet
• Invented Spelling Activity
• Sorting Activity with Fruits
• Using a Bamboo Stick
• Preparing Orange Juice
• Three Part Cards
• Counting (0-15)
• Cross Section of Fruits
• Graduation Party
• Fruit Preparation and Serving with
Fruits
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The Pattern Cards
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Spell with Movable Alphabet
The child is trying to spell the name of fruit with the Movable Alphabet.
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Invented Spelling Activity
Children found a seed after doing the fruit cutting activity, they were trying to guess the fruit of that seed come from. Then, they are trying to invent the spelling of the fruit.
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Sorting Activity with Fruits
The child is doing the Sorting Activity with fruits. This is a logical mathematical activity.
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Using a Bamboo Stick
Children are using bamboo stick to place the grapes together. This activity is practicing children’s eye-hand coordination.
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Preparing Orange Juice (Squeezing)
Children are using a squeezer to squeeze orange juice. They are practicing their hand muscle.
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Preparing Orange Juice (Pouring)
Children are pouring the orange juice from the squeezer to their cup. They are practicing their eye-hand coordination.
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Three Part Cards
Children match the pictures with the name of fruit.
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Counting (0-15)
Children placed the watermelon in a correct sequence, and then place the amount of seeds according to the numerals.
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Cross Section of Fruits
The child is trying to match the fruit and their cross section.
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Graduation Party –
Decorating the classroom
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Children are using
their pictures to
decorate the outside
of the classroom.
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Graduation Party - Preparation of Fruits
Children bring fruits for sharing
and wash them by themselves.
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Graduation Party -
Preparation of Fruits: Pattern cards with real fruits
Since children have the pre-requisite of using pattern cards, this time, they use the pattern cards with real fruits.
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Graduation Party –
Preparation of Fruits: Prepare lemon and orange juice
Children have pre-requisite of using a squeezer, now they are using the squeezer to prepare orange juice and honey lemon water.
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Graduation Party –
Preparation of Fruits: Fruit Cutting
Children have pre-requisite of using real tools for fruit cutting, they are now using the skills to cut different fruits, including strawberries, dragon fruits, melon and watermelon.
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Graduation Party –
Preparation of Fruits: Making Sandwiches
Children spread jam across the bread and use a cookie cutter to cut them into different shapes.
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Graduation Party –
Graduation Party –Serving with Fruits
The child is serving and introducing the fruits to a guest teacher.
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Conclusion
During the process to start and to run a project in classroom, I learnt to think for the children, I needed to observe the interests and needs of the children and I found that those children loves eating fruits but they always have apples only, they also always serve by others, therefore, I would like to expand their experience by tasting different fruits and aim to help them to recognize the fruits through stimulating their five senses. In addition, I provide real tools for them to serve themselves. Since children loves to use real tools to prepare juice and cutting fruit into small pieces. The preparation of fruits motivate children to taste different kind of fruits. After finishing different activities with fruits, children’s experience are expanded and the goal of the project are also achieved.
Many of the children did their first time trying kiwi, dragon fruit, blueberry or mango, and after they prepared the fruit by themselves, they used real knife to cut them into small pieces and served themselves, they did the fruit tasting and most of them love the taste of the fruit which they never tried before.
They are also able to name the fruits and recognize them by the shapes, texture and the taste of different fruits as they experiences different activities
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in the project. Children also enjoyed the activities and actively return to the materials for many times. The activities could enrich children’s reallife experience and it was a great success.
In reflection, I think there are some amendment in the project to improve children’s learning and make it better next time. There are an activity I planned
for children but it has been cancelled because of the limitation of time. This activity is Fruit Tasting with Blindfold, children’s sensorial impression must be
stimulated by the activity. The other amendment would be the food preparation for the party. Since there are no sink in the classroom, children need more time to go out of the classroom to wash their hands and fruits. Moreover, there are no freezer in the classroom, therefore, in order to keep the fruit in a good quality to taste, children did all the preparation and the party in one afternoon, it is a bit rush as there are too many steps for them to do. If it is possible, some of the preparation work should be done in the day before will be better.
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References
Carol Garhart Mooney. (2000). Theories of Childhood. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Constance Kamii. (1995). Number in Preschool and Kindergarten: Education Implications of Piaget’s Theory. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of young Children
Judy R. Jablon, Amy Laura Dombro, Margo L. Dichetelmiler. (2013). The Power of Observation: Birth to age 8. Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies, Inc.
