Montessori Areas

Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work.
Characteristics of the prepared environment include:

• Beauty, order, reality, simplicity and accessibility.

• Children must be given freedom to work and move around within suitable guidelines that enable them to act as part of a social group.

• Children should be provided with specifically designed materials which help them to explore their world and enable them to develop essential cognitive skills.

• Mixed age groups (eg. three to six, six to nine, nine to twelve) encourage all children to develop their personalities socially and intellectually at their own pace.

“Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and discipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent in Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully assume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit.”

There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow children to take responsibility for their own education, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.

Practical: means basic, useful, purposeful
Life: means the way of living.

Practical life Exercises are just that, they are Exercises so the child can learn how to do living activities in a purposeful way.
The purpose and aim of Practical Life is to help the child gain control in the coordination of his movement, and help the child to gain independence and adapt to his society. It is therefore important to “Teach teaching, not correcting” (Montessori) in order to allow the child to be a fully functional member in his own society. Practical Life Exercises also aid the growth and development of the child’s intellect and concentration and will in turn also help the child develop an orderly way of thinking.

Sensorial comes from the words sense or senses. As there are no new experiences for the child to take from the Sensorial work, the child is able to concentrate on the refinement of all his senses, from visual to stereognostic.

The purpose and aim of Sensorial work is for the child to acquire clear, conscious, information and to be able to then make classifications in his environment. Montessori believed that sensorial experiences began at birth. Through his senses, the child studies his environment. Through this study, the child then begins to understand his environment. The child, to Montessori, is a “sensorial explorer”.Through work with the sensorial materials, the child is given the keys to classifying the things around him, which leads to the child making his own experiences in his environment. Through the classification, the child is also offered the first steps in organizing his intelligence, which then leads to his adapting to his environment.

Math is all around the young child from day one. How old are you? In one hour you will go to school. You were born on the 2nd.
Montessori materials represent all types of quantities. In the Montessori environment, children not only see the symbols 1;10;100;1000; or (?), but they can also hold each of the corresponding quantities in their hands. Later, by combining various pieces of Montessori materials, they can demonstrate to themselves the basic operation of arithmetic and go from the concrete to the abstract. These activities give them the satisfaction of learning by discovery, rather than being told. Eventually, they develop an enthusiasm for the world of numbers.

Geography is the study of the life of man, the way humans live, and the way of life that has been established by a human society to sustain life. It is the study of the features of the earth, and the cultures that were developed in the various parts of the world by human beings. The needs of man are universal, but the way these needs have been met, differ. So we have many different peoples around the world who live differently, who have adapted differently to what the world has offered them in different locations.We begin our study with the child with the home culture. We give the child a rich experience of the culture in which he lives. Then we expand from the home culture to other cultures and other places. This helps the child to understand that all humans need to make a way of lie that will support not only life but a good way to live.

Science is an integral element of the Montessori curriculum. Among other things, it represents a way of life: a clear thinking approach to gathering information and problem solving. The scope of the Montessori science curriculum includes a sound introduction to botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, geology and astronomy. The Montessori approach to science cultivates children’s fascination with the universe and helps them develop a lifelong interest in observing nature and discovering more about the world in which we live.

Art, like language or music, is a means of expression. Opportunities for art should always be a part of the classroom environment and not a special event. When children are able to choose art materials freely, they feel respected and satisfied with their abilities.
Montessori believed that the child would only produce art when he had a need to and should something more interesting come along he would be distracted & abandon it.

Dr. Montessori believed that the first step in music is to arouse the child’s love and appreciation. Therefore the child must be surrounded by good music in his/her environment. The child first develops rhythm. The body naturally moves to rhythm, fostering the development of balance. The child then hears the harmony and the melody. For this the child begins with simple instruments that are appropriate to the child’s size and which the child uses freely.