A favorite work has been in Primary the last few weeks—the pumpkin pound! Working one at a time, children first don safety glasses, and then use a hammer to pound in wooden tees. Each child may pound in as many tees as they’d like. When their work is done, the child takes out those tees. Taking the tees back out adds fine motor practice to the work and prepares it for the next student.
In a Montessori classroom real tools are used wherever possible. The pumpkin pound is no different, using real, not toy, safety glasses and hammer. Under close observation, students are relied upon to always keep safety in mind, and they rise to that expectation.
When our pumpkin has quite a few holes, we put it outside our window so that we can watch it decompose. However, we’re wondering how much we’ll be able to watch it decompose, as some furry visitors have been enjoying it for lunch!
