Montessori Great Lessons

Dr. Maria Montessori was a devout Catholic and while she wrote her stories in a time when evolution was the cutting edge scientific discovery and a theory with growing evidence, she did also write with a deep abiding Faith.

There are those of us who prefer to hear the stories from a properly cosmic world view, for any or a combination of many reasons.

To that end, I have adapted the stories with the following criteria in mind: the promotion of full Truth while still utilizing the children's intense imaginations at this second plane of development (age 6-12), allowing God to be seen as the prime mover that He is, cutting out the concept of time to allow for the great unknown of how God did all the great work He did before placing us upon the earth, and others. My formation as a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd catechist at all three levels and my experiences in the atrium with children and adults of all ages, as well as my experiences in the public and private school sectors are all contributing factors towards the choices I have made.

Some of you will notice that specific changes include the lack of reference to the length of time of pre-historical events as well as the lack of explicit references to evolution. I do not wish to debate the reasons for this changes on this blog. They are simply the changes I have chosen to make, among others. You are always free to use whatever version you prefer :)

Please leave comments or e-mail me privately with any feedback or *respectful* disagreements, along with suggestions. The remaining Great Lessons are still in progress. At some point, I will post them as they are and get everyone else's insight.

In the meantime, I have not been able to upload the charts for the Story. I will upload these as soon as I get pictures taken of my own charts.
God bless!

Additional Notes for God with No Hands

Experiments for ‘God With No Hands’

 

EXPERIMENT 1: Three States of Matter 

Materials: small tray, 3 small identical clear glasses (ice, water, air), small thermos with ice cubes

Procedure: Hold up the glasses or place them forward one at a time, beginning with the ice. Identify each state: solid, liquid, gas.

Purpose: Show the three states of matter.

 

EXPERIMENT 2: Forces of Attraction 

Materials: large tray, large clear bowl half filled with water, smaller bowl with hole-punches

Procedure: slowly drop the punches one at a time, working first around the outside then into the middle; end when they start to come together.

Purpose: Show the attraction of objects; the coming together of particles.
EXPERIMENT 3: Model of a Liquid 

Materials: small tray, one small clear glass ¼ filled with be-bes or iron shot

Procedure: hold the glass up and tilt it slowly from side to side

Purpose: Show how particles of liquid will roll over each other.

 

EXPERIMENT 4: State of Matter and Heat

Materials: heat-proof pad, a heat source (i.e. hot plate, sterno-stove, Bunsen burner), pie plate with 3 smaller identical heat-proof (metal) cups each containing a solid (non-descript piece of iron, lead solder, wax or paraffin – as identical in appearance as possible), glass stirring rod on a small tray, hot pads just in case

Procedure: Place pie plate with contents on the heat-source and apply the heat evenly. Use the stirring rod and hot pads as needed to demonstrate changes or lack thereof and for emergencies. First turn the heat to the highest setting. When the wax has completely melted, turn the heat halfway down.

Purpose: Show how different substances respond to heat.

 

EXPERIMENT 5: Liquids Settle According to Their Weight

Materials: test tube rack, 3 test tubes, water (1/3 full), cooking/vegetable oil (1/2 inch), molasses (inch or so deep)
Procedure: Lift up the tube of water. Pour the molasses into the water, as much in the middle as possible so doesn’t stick to the side – watch for its action; repeat with the oil and watch its action.

Purpose: Demonstrate the separation and settling of liquids and other substances by density.

 

EXPERIMENT 6: Volcano

Materials: decent-sized volcano of neutral dark color (i.e. chicken wire and paper-mache; reasonably light, likely hollow underneath for ease of movement), the mouth made of a heat-proof material (i.e. insert a metal cup during the construction, about an inch deep (fill in with sand before adding chemical if needed), glossy paint makes cleaning up easier; ammonium dichromate (filling the mouth about half-full, covered with a PINCH of sulfur, with another thin layer of ammonium dichromate); long match (fireplace match)
Procedure: Light the match and ignite the chemicals.

Purpose: Demonstrate how heated particles burst out of the earth.

NOTE: The ash is slightly poisonous (absorbed through the skin): wear rubber gloves when cleaning up and dispose with hazardous waste. The children will use vinegar and baking soda in their own work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on The Creation Story

            God with No Hands is a slightly modified version of Mario Montessori’s publication in Communications in 1958, originally told by Maria Montessori. The story is not meant to give just one idea of how creation came about; it’s meant to contain some tidbits of factual information in a story format. One important aspect to think about is the language of the story. The language should not be the same as used in day-to-day speech. The descriptive language should be more dramatic, a bit more extraordinary. The tone of the story should arouse more than just the children’s interest but also his admiration and wonder if the idea of the universe has been presented properly to the children. The story can be told in one’s own words and the guide must be comfortable with the version of the story told; the children are sensitive to hypocrisy. The guide must love the story that is told; make the story the guide’s own; much practice allows for comfort in the telling.

            The story can be either told or read as the guide needs, but the tone needs to maintain enthusiasm and other aspects noted above. In the environment with children, the guide can return to the story and recount specific sections, or fill in forgotten pieces.

            Important points to keep in mind in learning, re-wording, and telling:

• The idea of the immensity of the universe, in which the earth is set, incorporated in the story through appeals to the imagination.

            Up to this point, the child has been the center of the world, but now the elementary child is turning outwards and is ready to use his imagination. “The light from the nearest star takes 4 light-years to reach us.” “In the galaxy in which we are situated, it takes 100 million years for the light from outside the galaxy to get to us.”

• Analogies should have particular meaning to the children: i.e. European children will not readily understand the size of Alabama and this detail may be adjusted according to the children’s experiences.


• Everything we know started as tiny little particles; this matter has been constant throughout time: present at the beginning of time and rearranged but still present today and into the future. Leave out scientific terms such as protons, electrons, etc. for now.


• Each little particle is given a set of laws to obey; every particle has to follow these laws: attraction to other particles, states of matter and their basic properties. The earth came together in its manner because of these laws. “In the beginning everything was very, very hot, but as things began to cool, particles came together according to their likes and dislikes and formed different substances. Some of those substances took on the solid state, others the liquid states, and still others became gases.” These laws must be in the story.[1]


• Even without the word God, the idea of everything having its own nature must be included. The nature of each substance is inherent in its being.

 

When and How to Tell the Story

            The story sets the framework for all of their work in the elementary, so the children should ideally hear it on the very first day of school. All the children need to know how to do is to sit and listen; they do not need to read and write or know their math facts. New elementary guides with limited experience may want a day or two to get to know the children a little bit before telling the story, allowing for learning their individual personalities (who needs to sit next to the guide, rather than in the back causing problems).

 

            The story should be announced ahead of time, as with all the Great Lessons and some particular lessons, in order to build anticipation within the children. In the environment, the announcement should be made in such a way that the new children know they are expected to be there (they have no choice in the matter) and the older children are invited but have an option.

 

            The entire story should be told at one time, with all of the charts and the demonstrations. The guide herself must feel a sense of wonder in order to pass this sense of wonder onto the children.[2]

 

            The story should not be told on a day the guide is not feeling well; distractions and illness create a more intensely accident-prone environment. Best to wait until the guide is feeling better.

Follow-ups to The Creation Story

What not to do:

• If the primary purpose is to stir up interest and rouse their awe and wonder, then the children should not be asked to write the story in their own words.


• The guide should also not ask the children to copy the charts or to do the experiments.

What to do:

• If the guide has stirred them up, you want to leave them stirred up, giving them time to think and reflect.


• Generally when a story such as this one is told, the children are invited to return to their work or choose some work to do, and tell them that another day there will be another story.

 

            The children may ask you or an older child to re-tell the story or a part of the story. The guide can then pick up on the story or that part of the story, filling it in with more details. Focus on the aspects that seem to more greatly interest the child(ren) involved.

 

            Another possibility is to tell the entire story again, but thinking of it as a review of the important points listed above. Different words can be used, as well as different amounts of information in different places.             Sometimes the children do not ask for another telling, so the guide must take the initiative.[3] In either case, discussion can be entered into with the children on various pieces of interest.

 

            Additional demonstrations can be formed – remember that all of the following are just impressions brought in to take the children a little bit further:

• the concept of “colder than ice”[4]


• comparison of the sun to the earth.[5]


• how long it takes light from the sun to reach us;


• how far away is the sun;


• are there are other planets in the universe (chart 2a)?


• All the planets go around the sun (piece of heavy metal on a string, stretching it to various lengths as spinning it overhead)


• Centripetal force (between sun/planets and planets/moons): the pull on the string


• Why don’t the planets fall into the sun? (crumbled up paper; the planets have momentum of their own, as well as rotation, preventing them from succumbing the sun’s gravity in such a manner) – personal motion and centrifugal force


• Continue to add others as interests of the children lead.

 

Potential Resources:

• My First Book of Space, developed in conjunction with NASA: 0671602624


• Other Creation stories for 9-12[6],[7]

 

 

 

 

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[1] Adults tend to think of laws as prohibitions and limits, however, true laws give order to the world, to the universe, and positively define a creation’s identity, purpose and proper end.

[2] Get up to see the sunrise; go out to watch the stars. Rachel Carlson’s book, A Sense of Wonder, is an excellent tool to heighten one’s sense of nature and the world around.

[3] Most particularly in new environments without older ones to lead the younger ones, the guide must be more initiating with recalling the stories to the children.

[4] 2 glasses, both with crushed ice. Take their temperatures; add salt to one; retake temperatures. Which one is colder?

[5] Let the children mention the wooden hierarchical material.

[6] It is appropriate for 9-12 to hear other creation stories – the 6-9 year olds need just one so that they can focus on the scientific concepts at hand

[7] Among many others:  In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton (Native American)

The Story of God With No Hands

God With No Hands

 

            From the very beginning people have been aware of God. They could feel Him though they could not see Him, and they were always asking in their different languages who He was and where He was to be found. "Who is God?" they asked their wise men.

            "He's the most perfect of beings," was the answer.

                        "But what does He look like? Does He have a body like us?"

            "No, He has not got a body. He has no eyes to see with, no hands to work with and no feet to walk with, but He sees everything and knows everything, even our most secret thoughts."

                        "And where is He?"

            “He is in heaven and on this earth. He is everywhere."

                        "What can He do?"

            "Whatever He wishes."

                        "But what has God actually done?"

 

            "What He has done is all that has ever happened. He is the Creator and Master Who has made everything, and all things He has made obey His will. He cares and provides for them all, and keeps the whole of His creation in the most wonderful harmony and order.

 

            In the beginning there was only God. Since He was completely perfect and completely happy, there was nothing He needed. Yet out of His goodness He chose to create and all that He willed came into being; the heavens and the earth, all that is visible, and all that is invisible. One after another He made the light, the stars, the sky, and the earth with its plants and animals. Last of all He made man. Man, like the animals, was made out of particles of the earth, but God made him different from the animals and like Himself, for into his body which would die He breathed a soul which would never die."

 

            Many people thought this was just a tale. How could someone with no eyes and no hands make things? If God is a spirit who cannot be seen or touched or heard, how could He have made the stars that sparkle overhead, the sea which is always astir, the sun, the mountains, and the wind? How could a spirit make the birds and fishes and trees, the flowers and the scent they shed around them? Perhaps He could make invisible things, but how could He make the visible world? It is all very well, they thought, to say that God is everywhere, but who has set their eyes on Him? How can we be sure He is everywhere? They tell He is the Master whom everybody and everything obeys, but why on earth should we believe that?

 

            And it really does seem impossible. We who have hands could not do these things, so how could someone who has no hands do them? And can we imagine animals and plants and rocks obeying God? The animals do not understand when we talk to them, so how could they be obedient? Or the winds and the sea and the mountains? You can shout and scream and wave your arms at them, but they cannot hear you for they are not even alive, and they certainly won't obey you.

 

            Yes, that is how it seems to us. But, as you will see, everything that exists, whether it has life or not, in all that it does and by the very fact of its being there, actually obeys the will of God.

 

            God's creatures do not know that they are obeying. Those that are inanimate just go on existing. Those that have life move and go on living. Yet every time a cool wind brushes your cheek, its voice, if we could hear it, is saying: 'Lord, I obey.' When the sun rises in the morning and colors the glittering sea, the sun and the sunbeams are whispering, 'My Lord, I obey.' And when you see a bird on the wing, or fruit falling from a tree, or a butterfly hovering over a flower, the birds and their flight, the tree and the fruit and its fall to the ground, the butterfly and the flower and its fragrance are all repeating the same words: 'I hear, my Lord, and I obey.'

 

            At first there was chaos and darkness was on the face of the deep. God said: 'Let there be light', and there was light. Before that there was only the deep, an immensity of space with no beginning and no end, indescribably dark and cold. Who can imagine that immensity, that dark and coldness?

 

            When we think of dark, we think of night; but our night would be like brilliant sunshine in comparison with that darkness. When we think of cold, we think of ice. But ice is positively hot if you compare it with the coldness of space, the space that separates the stars: as hot, you might say, as a blazing furnace from which no heat can escape. In this measureless void of cold and darkness light was created. There appeared something like a vast, fiery cloud which included all the stars that are in the sky. The whole universe was in that cloud, and among the tiniest of stars was our own world; but they were not stars then; as yet there was nothing except light and heat. So intense was the heat that all the substances we know - iron, gold, earth, rocks, water - existed as gasses, as insubstantial as the air. All these substances, all the materials of which the earth and the stars are composed, were fused together in one vast, flaming intensity of light and heat - a heat which would make our sun today feel like a piece of ice.

 

            This raging fiery cloud of nothingness, too huge to imagine, moved in the immensity of freezing space, which was also nothingness, but infinitely vaster. The fiery mass was no bigger that a drop of water in the ocean of space, but that drop contained the earth and all the stars.

 

            As this cloud of light and heat moved through empty space little drops fell from it. If you swing the water out of a glass, some of it holds together and the rest breaks up into separate drops. The countless hosts of stars are like these little drops, only instead of falling they are constantly moving round in space, in such a way that they can never meet. They are millions of miles from each other.

 

            Indeed, some stars are so far away from us that it takes millions of years for their light to reach us. Do you know how fast light travels? (the children might answer: 100 mph, 200mph...?) No, much faster. It travels 186,000 - not per hour, but per SECOND. Imagine how fast that is! It means that in one second it can travel 7 times around the whole world. And do you know how big the world is? If we were to drive at 100 mph continuously, all day long and all night long, without stopping, it would take us more than 10 days to cover that distance. And yet the light covers it 7 times in one second! You 'click' with your fingertips, and it has gone around the earth 7 times already!

 

            You can imagine how far some of these stars are that it takes their light one million years to reach us!?

 

            Then there are so many stars that scientists have calculated that if each of them were a grain of sand, all the stars together would cover up the entire state of Indiana up to the height of 200 meters! One of these stars, one of these grains of sand among those thousands of billions of grains of sand, is our sun, and one millionth part of this grain is our earth: an invisible speck of nothingness.

 

            One wouldn't think so. The sun doesn't look so big. But that is because it is so far away. The light from it takes about 8 minutes to reach us and if we were to travel the same distance at 100 mph it would take us a little more than 106 years to reach the sun. In fact, the sun is one million times bigger than the earth. The sun is so big that just one of its flames could contain 22 earths.

CHART 1A:

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Earth Compared to the Sun"][/caption]
 

            When God's will called the stars into being, there was no detail He had not planned. Every scrap of the universe, every speck which we might think too tiny to matter, was given a set of rules to follow. To the little particles which were like smoke, like vapor - which could only be distinguished as light and heat – and were moving at a fantastic speed, He said: 'As you become cold you shall come closer and become smaller.'

 

            And so, as they cooled they moved more and more slowly, clinging closer and closer to each other and occupying less and less space. The particles assumed different states which man called the solid, the liquid, or the gaseous state.

(DEMONSTRATION 1: Three States of Matter)

 

 

 

 

            Everything we know is either a gas, a liquid, or a solid, and which of the three states it is at the moment depends on how hot or cold it is.

 

            Then God gave some other instructions. Each of the tiny little particles was given a special love for certain particles and a special dislike for certain others. Some were attracted to each other and some were not. Just like human beings, they like some, and refuse to have anything to do with others. So they form themselves into different groups.

(DEMONSTRATION 2: Forces of Attraction)

 

 

 

 

            In this way, the particles combined and formed themselves into different groups.

 

            In the solid state, God has made the particles cling so closely together that they are almost impossible to separate. They form a body which will not alter its shape unless one applies force. If a piece is broken off, the particles will still cling together. If, for instance, you start chipping a flint, the flint and the chips still remain solid pieces of stone.

 

            When it came to liquids, God said: 'You shall hold together also, but not so very closely, so that you will have no shape of your own and will roll over each other.'

(DEMONSTRATION 3: Model of a Liquid)

 

 

 

 

            'Thus you shall flow and spread, filling every hollow, every crevice in your path. You will push downward and sideways, but never upwards.' That is why, though we can put our hands in water, we cannot put them inside a rock.

 

            And to the gasses He said: 'Your particles shall not cling together at all. They can move freely in all directions.'

 

            But as the particles were all such different individuals, they did not become solid or liquid or gas all at the same time. At certain temperature some remained solid, others became liquid and still others became gaseous.

(DEMONSTRATION 4: State of Matter and Heat)

 

 

 

 

            And so, while obeying these laws, the little drop of nothingness that was to become our world, the blazing mass, went on spinning and spinning around itself and around the sun in the tremendous cold of space.

 

            And as time went on, the outer ring of this mass began a dance, the dance of the elements. The particles that were at the outermost edge became cold and shrank. Huddling together they hurried to the earth, but as soon as they approached the hotter part, they became hot and up they went again. Like little angels, they carried a bucket of hot, burning coal into space, and returned with some ice.

CHART 3A:

 

[caption id="attachment_91" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Dance of the Elements"][/caption]

            How marvelous it is! And how simple! If you become hot you expand and as you expand, you become lighter and soar upwards, like a bubble of air in the water. But, if you become cold, you shrink and fall as a grain of sand sinks to the bottom of a pond.

 

            Because of this law the earth gradually changed from a ball of fire to the earth we know. This was the law that the tiny radiant particles obeyed as they danced their dance; particles too minute to be seen or even imagined, yet numerous enough to have produced the world.

 

            In fully obeying God’s will, this dance went on. Finally, the particles settled down, like tired dancers, and one after the other, they became first liquid and then solid and as they became liquid or solid some of them joined others to which they were attracted, forming new substances. The heavier ones went nearer to the heart of the earth and the lighter ones floated above them like oil floating on the water.

(DEMONSTRATION 5: Liquids Settle According to Their Weight)

 

 

 

 

            A thin scum was formed, like the skin which forms on milk when it is boiled and left to cool. It seemed as though the earth had taken some shape. But the elements inside this skin were still very hot. They felt trapped. They wanted to get out. What could they do otherwise? They had to follow the law of God: 'If you are hot, you expand.' There was no place to expand and so they burst out. They broke the skin and it was like a terrible fight.

(DEMONSTRATION 6: Volcano)

 

 

 

 

            The water that formed on the surface turned immediately into vapor and went up as the hot stuff came out from inside the earth.

CHART 4A: Volcanoes and Cloud

 

[caption id="attachment_90" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Veil Covering the Earth"][/caption]

      There were also ashes. A veil of clouds was drawn to cover the earth so that nobody could see what was going on. The sun could not yet shine on the wonder of what was taking place! Even the sun could not witness God’s work happening in the creation of the earth.

 

            Eventually, the fighting ceased. As everybody cooled down, more and more gasses became liquid, more and more liquids became solids. The earth itself shrank and became wrinkled like an old apple that has been left in a cupboard. The wrinkles are mountains and the hollows are the oceans.

 

            For, as the rocks had cooled down, water was able to return to the earth and it rained and rained. And the water, being liquid, filled every hollow and crevice found in its path. Thus the oceans were formed. Above them was the air, the air that we breathe. The cloud had disappeared.

CHART 5A: Volcanoes and Water

 

 

            The veil had withdrawn and the sun could once again smile upon its beautiful daughter, the earth.

 

            Rocks, water, air: solids, liquids, gasses. Today, as it was yesterday and in the beginning, God's laws are obeyed in the self-same way. The world spins round itself and round and round the sun. And today, as it was in the beginning, the earth and all the elements and compounds it is made of, as they fulfill their task, whisper with one voice:

 

"Lord, Thy will be done; we obey."