Process Over Product

Why isn’t there more work in the parent folders? What DOES my child do all day? These are a few frequent questions that we see parents asking during the first month of school. These questions bring me to an important aspect of the Montessori philosophy that we follow at our school: We value process over product.

Children occasionally have drawings, paintings or stamping work to take home. However, especially for our younger friends, we encourage them to practice skills and notice their own improvement of their skills rather than make something to take home. One of the most basic works in our “Practical Life” curriculum is a type of transfer work. Children work to transfer a material (sand, shells, pom poms, water) from one container to another. The method of transfer may be pouring, tonging, spooning, or using a funnel. The children are taught how to carefully hold the materials with their fingers, how to transfer the materials without spilling, and how to check (and clean up) any spills that may happen. I’ve included some of the transfer works from the East and West classroom below. As you may imagine, water is usually included a bit later in the year.

We also have more traditional works, such as drawing, painting and card making, in the classrooms. However, even these works are multi-step. The children have to move around the classroom and remember the various steps before they complete the work. Through this “process over product” mentality, we also encourage children to be mindful of the resources they use every day, particularly paper. An example of the drawing work in the east classroom:

• Get a piece of paper.
• Put the date stamp on it.
• Find your name card.
• Bring your name card to the pencils.
• Write your name on the paper.
• Put your name card away
• In a green pencil holder, gather the colors that you need.
• Take your paper and the pencil holder to an empty table to draw

As you can imagine, these steps require movement and memorization of the classroom. We also help instill a sense of pride in their work by having them write their name! The date stamp helps them get a sense of how they have progressed, both in writing their name and their drawing skills.

Even our artwork progresses through the year. We start off with family book drawings to keep at school. The children are now working on color wheels and learning primary/secondary colors. During the months of November and December, we talk about the concept of being grateful and giving gifts. Then, the children make beautiful gifts to take home to their families. More traditional “art projects” are accompanied by lessons on famous artists and styles, usually related to the continents we are focusing on that year.

So if your child talks about how they played with pompoms all day and they don’t seem to have a lot in their folders, they have probably been practicing their fine motor skills in other ways. On the other hand, if they have made a special drawing or card that day, they will remember!