Sea Shells and learning

We have had a bumpy transition to our new school this year.  The change from schools and levels was harder on Keeley than I think any of us expected.  Slowly (too slowly for this momma!) she has found her niche and started to have friends she talks about when she comes home.  Then one day she came home and told me a student had punched her.  I was obviously more than a little upset and promptly got myself back up to school the next day to investigate the situation.  After speaking with the acting head of school, I then spoke with the lead elementary teacher.  I love, love the lead teacher.  She has truly found her gift and my child is getting to experience her passion and skill at guiding young people.  After a long conversation with her, I found out the issue.  Keeley had been taunting a student.  She had been getting really close to touching his rock collection that he was working with  (not actually touching it, mind you, just getting close....like big sisters do so well...).  It was the same kid that she has had problems with all year.  I expressed my concern about how it had escalated to a physical altercation.  The teacher agreed and she came up with a great plan for the kids to work through their issues.  I love how she let the kids be involved in the solving of their problem.  Keeley now refers to this kid as her friend and went so far as wanting to recreate his project with her shells.

She gathered up all the sea shells we had from our beach trip last year and set about identifying and categorizing them.  This project took several weeks and several trips to our public libraries.  Every time I asked her about her project, she would tell me about all the kids she had working with her.  She had delegated tasks to her classmates.  All of this culminated in a presentation and question answer session in front of her class.  She again coordinated all of this and then even went so far as to hand out shells as a "reward" for her helpers and those kids that had been paying attention during the presentation.  Each shell had a value and she allowed the kids to trade out shells for others if they had the right combination of shells.  

I'm so amazed at how she's grown this year and all the life skills she's learned in her classroom.  I don't know how long it will work for us, but the Montessori environment is such a great fit for her right now.

Here are a few pictures of her searching through some books at the library with me.