This day was involved heavily around Montessori activities. I was sat on a small table with four children. One child was focused on different sized blocks, which he (X) had to stack from biggest to smallest. He had just turned three. He did not need any help as he had already known what to do. “Don’t help me. I can do all myself” He said.

Another child (A) next to me was arranging numbers in the correct order (aged four). She had small laminated cards with numbers from 1-30. She sat next to me and I just watched her place the numbers in the correct order, she was pleased to have got it all correct and wanted to do it again!

In the pre-school phase, play is likely to be a leading form of activity in which children choose how and what they would like to play with. This can therefore lead to children learning whilst playing (Wood and Attfield, 2003:99)

Throughout the day, the focus was widening the children’s learning and knowledge. It was almost like a classroom setting. However, it had a more relaxed and open approach to the children. This made me want to pursue a career in Montessori’s or a nursery setting more.

Today at the setting was a good day. The children had already gotten used to me and were comfortable around me. As well as teaching the children, I was learning a fair amount myself too.
Most of the day involved me being an extra pair of hands when needed.

A child (A – aged four) had gotten up during circle time, to simply walk around the room. I walked up to him asking him to come and sit back down because one of the other practitioners was about to read a book. He responded and said “But miss I don’t want to sit down anymore, it is boring!”

The practitioners mainly wanted to see how I worked with the children without being told what to do by them. I used my initiative and did what I thought was necessary. For example, I helped the children that I could see needed help. One of the main goals that one of the ladies had set me was to help the children without stopping their individual learning.

I quickly got the hang of this, as many of the children had been showing me where items should go as they knew more than me at this stage.

It was my second time at the setting, the first time I had done a complete day (9am – 5pm). It felt like I had been working there for a long time already. I had met the children and practitioners briefly when I had my induction at the setting, but I had not worked with anyone just yet.

The day started off a little slow and included introducing myself to both the staff and children. The staff asked me questions such as: where I had done work experience before, why I wanted to study early childhood and so on.

The day nursery and Montessori made me realise how important it is for small children to learn basics before they start school. We as adults are such important role models for these children and should take great pride in showing them the norms and values needed in life. During lunch time, O (child aged 3) sat next to me and I started to pour her some spaghetti into her bowl. She stopped me and said “No I do it myself, I know how” I hadn’t known this as I was not expecting the children to be serving themselves.

We completed many activities as a group (usually of about 22 children) in the nursery. Today we did activities including: colouring, painting, drawing, counting. When it came to lunchtime, most of the children were learning how to pour themselves sour and turn taking.