The following areas of activity cultivate the children's adaptation and ability to express and think with clarity.
Practical life activities are basic, vital and continuous though they take different forms and different ages. They appeal to the sensitive periods for the control and perfection of movement.
The children practice putting on clothes and help to prepare fruit snacks. It is a wondrous sight to see a child carefully setting a table for snack, and then adding a bouquet of fresh flowers.
In the primary classroom, much of practical life has to do with adapting to one's own culture.
Children learn to snap, button, tie bows, shine shoes, scrub tables, dust, polish, sweep, sew and cook. They also learn forms of manners common in culture such as shaking hands, saying excuse me and waiting ones turn. These activities are designed in a sequence of steps, through which the child comes to realize order and logical activity.
Some of the qualities that grow through this work are:
The Sensorial material appears only in the primary class, where the children are passing through sensitive periods related to perception.
Texture, color, weight, sound, smell, taste and temperature are the ways in which we take in information about the world.
The materials are not intended to give new impressions, but to order, classify, refine, explore and realize the sense impressions the child has perceived.
Each piece of material isolates a single quality; for example, the pink tower only shows variations in mass, the color, texture and shape of each piece are the same. The sensorial materials serve as keys to other areas of learning. The sound exercises lead into music and composition. Texture is used by giving shapes of alphabet letters. Discrimination of forms extends into geometry, botany, geography and so on.
The language of the material is usually given after the child has explored it (the words crystallize the concept):
The Sensorial material also provides indirect preparations for algebra, geometry, the decimal system and handwriting.
In the primary class, enrichment of vocabulary continues through the use of classified cards, sensorial materials and games.
Stories, poems, plays and ordinary conversation are important in the environment, but no one is ever pressed to perform.
The aim is to increase the children's knowledge, organization of thought, and confidence in the ability to use and express their minds.
Fine distinctions between words (broom/brush, string/thread) and long words (rectangular prism, seven spotted lady bug) delight the children
With the sandpaper letters, children learn sensorially the cursive letters and phonetic sounds of the alphabet. They make words with a special moveable alphabet in cursive form and write the words in this way for a while before they realize that the words can also be read.
After the great discovery, various material and games lead the children through:
Our aim is to delight the children with the magic of language not pressure them.
Perhaps the two most important differences between the Montessori math curriculum and other manipulative approaches are the depth and complexity of the materials, and Montessori's concept of concrete verses the abstract.
The materials lead the child step by step from the concrete to the abstract. Through this the child spontaneously moves into the process of the memorization of tables (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).
Dr. Montessori proposed that all humans are born with a "mathematical mind".
In the primary class, the children are given mathematical concepts in concrete form. The objects represent abstract ideas. The objects can be felt and moved about so that the hand is always involved in the learning process.
This is the case with all Montessori material. The children are introduced to counting and arithmetical processes with numbers into the thousands, and even the millions, or as high as they feel like counting.
In Montessori math materials, arithmetic, algebra and geometry are integrated into a system in which each illuminates the other.
Many sciences are first presented to the children through sensorial materials and stories:
Various cultures are presented respectfully, through stories and collections of pictures, music and celebrations.
Geography is an extensive part of the Montessori classroom. Each month a new Country is celebrated by the children. They learn about the culture, facts and the flags of the country, they even learn a little of the language while enjoying its most popular cuisine's, which are cooked and prepared by themselves!
In Botany, for example, the children analyze a real plant into basic parts: corolla, calyx, stem, leaf and root. With pictures and games each part is broken into more parts: types of leaves, venation of leaves and margin of leaves, enabling the child to observe by classifying.
The Montessori environment is aesthetically pleasing and enriched with fine art, crafts and music.
A child's ability to create is essentially realized from what he knows and understands. The child's own creative energy is used everywhere in the program as he discovers and teaches himself.
The teacher is merely a guide.
Painting, writing stories and music appreciation, all begin in the primary class. In the environment that is ordered, beautiful and rich in possibilities, the child acquires something to paint about, dance about and write poems about.
The comprehensive art and music programs give children every opportunity to enjoy a variety of creative activities, as well as gain knowledge of the great masters.
In the primary class, children are interested in refining the skills they acquired during their first years.
Materials and activities encourage precision and control. Movement games and activities are often played as well.
Children spend time outdoors each morning and afternoon.
The Montessori program nurtures self-discipline, which develops over a period of many years.
The basis of discipline is respect. Respect for oneself, for others and for the environment. The adults and children in the prepared environment set limits for behavior based on the group's need for a safe and mutually respectful community.
If a student has difficulty following the rules of the community, the response will be age appropriate. Personal attention, distraction, substitution and/or removal from the situation are typical approaches.
