“Montessori is a philosophy for life. It is the notion that we are helping ‘build the person that the child will become’. It is the underlying moral lessons of peace, humility, patience and empathy. It is helping children learn to love themselves, each other and nature. It is most importantly helping to create peaceful, humble, happy, giving people.”

Philosophy

By observing children closely, Maria Montessori came to believe that children are born with innate abilities that help them to learn. She discovered that children:

• Have an inner drive to learn
• Learn best through their senses: sight, sound and touch
• Have an innate need for order
• Learn best when working at their own pace, following their inner drive to learn
• Like to repeat an activity over and over until they have mastered it
• Have a strong ability to focus on an activity that they have chosen for themselves
• Can absorb enormous amounts of information by observing/listening/touching
• Seek independence and responsibility
• Pass through special “sensitive periods” when they can learn certain things more easily than at other times

Montessori felt that the world could seem chaotic to small children but that they could begin to understand it and sort it out if it was broken down into small steps and presented in a clear, simple format. Everything from zipping a jacket to adding large sums can be done this way. As children fulfill their inner drive to learn both the mundane and the complex, they gain confidence in themselves and are then eager to continue to learn and to take their place in society.

The Educational Method

The Montessori Classroom is a “prepared environment” designed to allow children the freedom to choose activities, work on them independently and learn at their own pace. The Montessori class is designed to help children grow socially, emotionally and cognitively.

The Montessori materials are beautiful, thoughtfully designed objects that the children work with in order to gain specific information. After children have “mastered” a material, they may choose to record their work on paper or simply put the work away and move on to another activity.

The Method As It Unfolds In The Classroom

There are five areas of learning and the children experience all of the areas throughout the year. Because they are working from their inner drive, children often spend greater time in one area than another, depending on their current interests and level of development.

1) Practical Life
The activities in Practical Life are designed to help children develop life skills. Montessori teachers often refer to these skills as “OCCI” which stands for:

• Order
• Concentration
• Coordination
• Independence

With these four skills, children can move forward in learning and in life. The Practical Life activities include manipulating/sorting small objects, as well as pouring, spooning and using tongs. It also includes large scrubbing activities.

All of these help children develop the skills necessary to take care of themselves. We encourage our children to accept responsibility for themselves each day: getting a snack, zipping a coat, wiping up a spill, doing a big project from start to finish.

2) Sensorial
This area of the classroom is composed of beautiful materials that focus on size, shape, color, texture, weight, temperature and volume. The activities help children begin to make accurate judgments and comparisons…to refine each sense for observation and perception of their world.

• Size
• Shape
• Color
• Sound
• Texture

3) Math
Montessori Math is based on manipulation of concrete objects. The very youngest children put pegs into holes or count wooden spindles to learn about numbers and to begin to recognize the numerals. When they have mastered 0-9 they move on to the teens, tens, hundreds and thousands. By using the materials to learn about numeration, place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions, children become ready to move into the abstract realm of math.

• Numbers and amounts 1-10
• Teens to 100
• Decimal system
• Fractions
• Numerals
• Geometry

4) Language
The aim of the language area is two-fold: to increase children’s ability to use spoken language and to begin to teach them to read and write by using phonics.

Vocabulary and language activities include matching cards, classification, sequencing, opposites and the vocabulary “three part cards” which children use to match pictures and words.

Reading and writing in Montessori are based on phonics – the sounds that letters make and the blending of those sounds into words. The youngest children begin with the sandpaper letters. They use sight, sound and touch to learn phonics and begin to build words with moveable letters. They do not necessarily have to be able to hold a pencil and write the words on paper. From there the children progress into actual reading. In this way, Montessori children actually move from writing to reading. The activities include:

• Phonics
• Sandpaper letters – see, touch and hear each letter and its phonetic sound
• Reading
• Journaling

5) Cultural Subjects
These areas help children develop an understanding of art, music, science, geography, their own culture and the culture of other peoples.

• Puzzle maps of continents and countries
• Geography
• Animals
• Seasons
• Planets
• Botany