Montessori   Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was a twentieth century pioneer in education. After becoming Italy’s first female doctor, her interests turned to the education of children and she began her lifelong study of human development. Based on a profound respect for the potential of the individual and the discovery that children learn best when they are able to follow their individual interests, Montessori created carefully prepared materials for the classroom that allow freedom of choice and movement. Practical Life The practical life activities meet the internal need a child has for organization. At every level, the practical life area helps the child to learn more about the environment and how to interact with the environment. Life skills, grace and courtesy, care of self, and care of the environment are examined in practical life.   Examples of practical life activities include:   • Life skills: pouring, sorting, cooking, bead stringing, paper cutting. • Grace and courtesy: offering food to a friend, asking for help, setting a table, hanging up a coat or backpack. • Care of self: blowing the nose, clipping nails, using dressing frames to learn how to zipper, button, lace and tie… • Care of the environment: table scrubbing, polishing (silver, shoe, wood)

Sensorial Activities in the sensorial area include the pink tower (cubes), brown stair (rectangular prisms), knobbed cylinders (shown above), red rods, color tablets, weight tablets, smelling jars, tasting jars, Montessori bells, and geometry. In this area of the classroom the child works independently or with a friend to explore the relationship of items in the environment. The child is shown the material and then has many opportunities to repeat the exercises themselves. The child is introduced to concepts such as weight, height, heaviest, lightest, darkest, sweet, sour, smooth, and rough.   Language The language area of the classroom provides opportunities for the child to learn how language functions. Children begin by matching pictures (flowers, animals…) to increase their skill of discrimination. Eventually the child begins to discriminate letter shapes and letter sounds. Reading is taught phonetically, starting with objects and pictures. The child begins to learn what sound they hear at the beginning of the words. The child likes to manipulate the objects or pictures.  Children begin sound lessons which are individual. The teacher shows the child how to trace a letter made of sandpaper while hearing the sound the letter makes. From sound work the child builds words using a moveable alphabet. Individual alphabet pieces allow the child to create phonetic words readily (mat, cut, sit…). Phonetic reading books are introduced when the child is ready and the students also listen to stories read by the teacher. The child also learns sight words in a variety of lessons. Almost all children leave the 3-6 year old program knowing how to read.   Writing (mechanical and creative) is taught in the language area. Metal insets increase the child’s small motor coordination and prepare the hand for writing. Mechanical writing is taught by grouping like letters together. For example, letters like o and a are taught together because o is the basic handwriting shape and you make the same shape, but add a connected line to make the letter a.     Mathematics The mathematics area of the classroom covers numeration, math operations and facts. The child is introduced to concepts in math, such as addition. Then through a series of different exercises using manipulatives, the child practices and masters each mathematical concept or skill. After introducing a concept, the child works on memorizing facts. The child is exposed to many different pieces of material including golden beads, stamp game, small and large bead frame. With each successive material and lesson, the child moves from very concrete (hands on) work to more abstract work. A kindergarten child can often add large operation problems (2361 + 1423) because they have materials that help them solve the problem. Receiving individual lessons allows the child to work at their own pace and progress as they are ready. Independent work follows lessons and students have an opportunity to practice until the concept is understood. There is a large variety of fact work for the child to practice. Dr. Montessori created a series of fact charts for each operation (addition, multiplication, subtraction and division) to assist the child in memorizing their facts.    Montessori Mathematics comprises the following:                                          • Operation work: introducing the child to concepts such as addition using a variety of Montessori materials. The material gets progressively less manipulative as the children learn to solve more problems in their heads. • Factual work: materials (like the addition chart shown below) provide an opportunity for the child to practice their facts quickly. Fact work is typically performed with one digit numbers (4 + 5). Like operation work, the fact work starts out with material that the child can move and progresses toward material that is non-moveable. • Numeration: the study of numbers and their meaning. In the Montessori environment we have a beautiful bead cabinet. The children are shown the bead chains initially and learn to count. Later, the child learns how square numbers and cubes are created by manipulating the chains. Children also learn about numbers and their value from the red and blue rods, the spindle box, cards and counters and more. • Geometry: at the 3-6 age level, geometry is part of the sensorial area of the classroom. In the elementary classroom, geometry joins the math area. The child is introduced to solid and plane geometric shapes, the names of shapes, and to the study of geometry.

Cultural Montessori classrooms include a cultural area where the children study cultures (how and where people live) around the world. The children use beautiful globes and maps to learn geography and the location of capitols, rivers, and mountains and then associate culture with the various geographic areas. Children study landforms and how those landforms originated, and how the landforms impact daily living. As children acquire the geography skills necessary to understand the Earth, they want to know what everything is. We use this natural curiosity to introduce the child to a plethora of new vocabulary. The young child also learns concepts of the whole and then the parts. For example, we introduce a bird to the child. We typically have a bird in the classroom so the child can observe the bird, and then we introduce the parts (beak, eyes, wing…) of a bird.  Eventually the child will progress from external parts of animals to internal parts of animals. At the elementary level the child is curious about how they fit in the global scheme. The cultural studies seek to help the child answer their own questions about the world and their place in the world.