Classroom & Materials
In a Montessori classroom the child experiences the joy and excitement of learning through his/her own choice. Dr. Montessori called the mind of a young child "the absorbent mind" because of each child's unique aptitude for learning. She observed that there are periods in a child's development when a child is drawn and selects materials that match his/her interests. A child in a Montessori classroom Is taught through hands on activities that help develop the "total child" not just specific skill sets.
Within the Montessori classroom the directress prepares the environment, guides activities, presents lessons and encourages the individual development of each child. The materials used are designed to develop concentration, coordination, and the necessary self-discipline and working habits needed for more advanced exercises in motor and sensory education, linguistic, and mathematical concepts.
There are three main groups of materials:
- The Practical Life Exercises, which are the beginning activities for children between the ages of 18 months and 4 years old.
- The Sensorial Materials, which can be used by all ages in the class.
- The Academic Materials, which await each child's moments of interest In reading, arithmetic, and geography.
Areas of the classroom:
Sensorial | Practical Life | Library | Computers | Blocks
The Prepared Environment -An Open Classroom:
Montessori environment has been carefully prepared so as to allow your child to learn at all times. It encourages the child to make choices, and to learn self-motivation, concentration, and ignore distractions. Most importantly, it teaches the child to follow through to completion any task the child attempts, and the inner rewards of accomplishment.
The activities are repetitive to allow the child to master the skill being performed. By mastering each skill, the child becomes more competent, confidence is reinforced, and self-esteem is developed. All of the lessons are manipulative, based on the fact that a child learns by doing.
Montessori & Mixed Aged Groups:
If classroom equipment is to be challenging enough to provoke a learning response, it must be properly matched to the standard which an individual child has already developed in his/her past experience. This experience is so varied that the most satisfying choice can only usually be made by them. The Montessori classroom offers him/her the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of graded materials. The child can grow as his/her interests lead them from one level of complexity to another. Having children 18 months through 6 together permits the younger children a graded series of models for imitation, and the older ones an opportunity to reinforce their own knowledge by helping the younger ones.
Non-Competitive Atmosphere:
In a Montessori classroom each child relates only to his/her own previous work, and his/her progress is not compared to the achievements of other youngsters. Dr. Montessori believed that competition in education should only be introduced after the child has gained confidence in the use of the basic skills. "Never let a child risk failure " she wrote, "until he/she has a reasonable chance of success." Therefore competition is with self. The child constantly competes to increase his/her knowledge and ability at his/her own pace.
AII young children meet the world around him/her through the constant use of all their senses. To examine a new object, a baby will look at it, hold it in their hands to feel the texture and weight, shake it, lick it, or even try to bite it. Since he/she quite naturally uses all their powers of observation during their early years, Dr. Montessori felt that this was the Ideal time to give the child equipment which would sharpen their senses and enable them to understand the many impressions they receive through them.
Each of the sensorial materials isolates one defining quality such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, smell, etc... The equipment emphasizes this one particular quality by eliminating or minimizing other differences. Thus, the sound boxes are all the same size, same shape, same color, and same texture. They differ only in sounds which are made when the child shakes them.
When a child plays in the practical life area, he/she:
- Learns what the roles of mothers, fathers, and children are.
- Understands what it feels like to play at being someone else.
- Learns how to use their imagination.
- Increases his/her ability to communicate with others about personally meaningful experiences.
- Initiates and describes sounds from the environment.
- Role plays and engages in household activities such as cooking and vacuuming.
When Children Do This:
Dress-up
Pretend to be grown-ups
Separate cups and plates at clean-up time
They Are Learning To:
Develop smaller muscle skills (self help, writing)
Understand their experiences better (abstract thinking)
Group objects in categories (math)
When the child works in the Library Area, he/she:
- Learns to Listen
- Has an opportunity to increase vocabulary by learning new words through reading and discussion.
- Learns about different concepts, people and places. Learns to enjoy books and reading.
- Visualizes the things he/she is hearing about.
- Begins telling stones from pictures and books in an orderly sequence.
- Begins hearing likenesses and differences in words.
- Recalls information that is seen and heard.
- See adults reading and enjoying stories.
- Learns to recognize the names of common objects, places and actions.
- Develops book awareness concepts, such as following pictures and print from left to right and top to bottom.
- Learns to handle books carefully.
Computers - The computer lab is an important component of the classroom. Students not only engage in mastering computer skills they also engage in cooperative activities with other students.
How children learn from the activities?
When children do this:
Try out a computer program with another child
Respond to program feedback
Operate a computer mouse, put a disk the computer, and turn on the printer
They are learning to:
Share and play cooperatively with others (social skills)
Follow directions, apply what they learn to new situations and understand cause and effect (thinking skills)
Improve their coordination skills. (physical development)
When the child works in the block area, he/she:
- Learns to use imagination to create something from his/her own thinking.
- Has the satisfaction of being able to make something.
- Learns about sizes, shapes, weights, and balances, height and depth, smoothness, roughness and volume.
- Is exercising his/her body.
- May be learning to play with others.
- Learns to communicate ideas through language when discussing similarities and differences.
- Learns to solve problems and make decisions.
- Creates patterns when building.
- Represents personal experiences through role play and pretending.
How Children Learn from the activities?
When Children do this:
Put blocks in trucks & dump them out.
Use blocks and wooden animals to create a zoo.
Balance one large block on another
They are learning to:
Understand size, weight, and number concepts (math, science)
Recreate the world around them (geography, social skills)
Control and coordinate muscles (physical condition)