Diamond Montessori Blog

Purim! Beloved by Jewish children around the world, Purim is a loud, raucous, straight up fun celebration. And this, the next up in our Jewish holiday set, with illustrations by queer Jewish artist @naph_thecreator features 8 symbols of the holiday. As always, they come with definition cards so you have background info to share with your students- or elementary kids can use as a starting point for research. Purim this year starts the evening of the 25th! What questions do yo...u have about this holiday? Purchase your set here https://www.teacherspayteachers.com//Jewish-Holidays-Monte

My best friend is an immigrant from Hong Kong. I love her child as intensely as I love my own. More than half my students are Asian. I have never taught a majority white class. I have spent countless hours in Vancouver’s Chinese night markets and malls. I have spent my life in a city that is incredibly Asian, and my daughter’s first restaurant experience literally involved miso in her sippy cup. But you know what? None of that matters. I don’t need to love Chinese folks or te...ach Korean children or have a Filipino auntie to be worried about rising anti-Asian sentiment. It shouldn’t take any of us having a personal attachment to give a shit about elders being attacked in the streets, or Asians being targeted and harassed. My challenge for you today is to look up the history of Asian immigration to your country, province or state. Anti-Asian racism did not start with COVID-19. It’s pernicious and has shaped Canada, and the US, in ways not often talked about. It has existed for hundreds of years before 2020 and acting like this is new is a slap in the face to generations of immigrants, workers, activists. Speak up when you hear anti-Asian jokes or slurs or rants. Disrupt the idea of the model minority. Affirm the identities and heritages of your students and families. And buy this book, that features beautiful, wholesome photos of the fashionable gong gongs and popos that live in Chinatowns across North America. (Fun fact, I know one of the grandmas in the Vancouver section!) Remember to amplify Asian joy and resilience and love, as well.

I don’t know about y’all, but as vaccinations ramp up here, a lot of my students are talking about the shot as they come in to exclaim their parents got theirs. As my goal with everything confusing or different or new is to make it understandable to children, of course I was going to make a card set about vaccines. Antibodies, bandaids, vaccination, nurse, and more are all covered in this little, adorable set illustrated by clove bird creations to help demystify this whole ...process to small kids. As always, the set comes with labels, image cards, control cards and a definition for each word. And we included two versions of vaccine- one Covid specific, one general, to use as you see fit. Teach your kids science. Teach them that getting vaccinated is an act of love. And remember- there’s a light at the end of this. We got this. Link to purchase https://www.teacherspayteachers.com//Vaccines-Montessori-F