Montessori Handwork

I have tried to find activities that can be presented to children without very much expert input and with materials they might already have

Last week we took our three 9-12 classes on our annual Fundamental Human Needs Camp and it was EPIC! As our school year begins at the end of January, we spen...

As we slide into the New Year and start to look at fresh ideas and new things, I’d like to tell you about a way my students have rekindled their love of the ...

Spring has most definitely sprung down here in the Southern Hemisphere and all our attention has turned to the garden. We use the produce from our garden for...

I have a new love in my life. Indigo is one of nature's most incredible dyes. it is also one of humanity's oldest dyes and one of only two natural sources of...

Wherever we go, we take out love of textiles with us, so it didn't take us long to notice that many of the fabrics in the markets were print

It's been a couple of months since our students built their own shelters to sleep in on our school camp, but this week something caused one of those little s...

But nature can be a bit of a trickster. Sometimes we find a flower or leaf that is full of beautiful colour but we just can’t get the colour

Over the last few months my class has be really into dyeing. We have mostly been working with natural dyes, like the turmeric we used for out beeswax wraps, ...

My students use sharp knives a lot. They have been chopping food since the casa and as we cook community lunch every week, they are very used to handling kit...

Last week we went on our 9-12 community camp. Our camp is a huge deal to us as, for one week each year, we try to meet all of our own fundamental human need...

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions for me and everyone around me. I have not managed to post for a while as a parent in our community and c...

Recently I had a student teacher observing in my class. We had a hectic day and the clean up at the end did not go well at all. When the children had left ...

One of that many wonderful things about the Montessori method is that it celebrates the interconnections of life, nature and the universe. When my friend An...

I'm getting ready to start the new school year and will be telling The Story of the History of Wool to my new children next week. The story mentions removin...

It's still the summer holidays down here in New Zealand. It's been a scorcher and I have been off enjoying life with my family and neglecting to write blog ...

One of my students is working on a project on the history of writing implements. She plans to write up each piece of research using the tool that it is abou...

There is so much curriculum-centred handwork going on in my class at the moment, it feels like there has been some kind of explosion! Looking around this mo...

We made soap! This has caused great excitement in our class this week. Soap is one of those things that we rarely stop to think about but has a rich histor...

Whenever I am working with a new fibre with my students, I get them to think about the science and history that goes with it. Wool holds a myriad of opportu...