MONTESSORI
Primary PRogram (2.5 - 6y)
"Early Childhood education is the key to betterment of society"
- Dr. Maria Montessori
How the Child Learns
In a Montessori classroom, children are free to move about as they want and work independently or with others. Materials and activities are available for the children to use, explore, and learn with. They learn practical life skills such as dressing themselves, picking up after themselves, preparing food, and using utensils. They also learn basic subjects that are taught in traditional classrooms like math, science, language, and history.
You may be thinking, “how are the kids learning if they are just going around the room playing with whatever they want?” The teacher is the guide in the classroom. She shows the children how to do each of the activities
When the teacher feels that the kids are ready to move on she will present new activities that build on what they have already learned. The teacher helps keep kids on task, teaches in small groups, and directs kids who are disturbing others. When done correctly, all of the children are engaged in learning in a quiet and well-run environment.
Practical Life
In order for children to excel in subjects such as math and language children need to learn to concentrate first. Concentration is key to all learning.
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The aim of practical life area is to teach children order, concentration, coordination, and independence.
Sensorial
Sensorial exercises were designed by Montessori to cover every quality that can be perceived by the senses such as size, shape, composition, texture, loudness or softness, matching, weight, temperature, ect.
Montessori saw the importance of the manipulation of objects to aid the child in better understanding his environment. Through the child’s work with Sensorial material the child is helped to make abstractions, he is helped in making distinctions in his environment, and the child is given the knowledge not through the word of mouth, but through his own experiences.
Language
As with all other areas of the classroom we start with concrete and go to more abstract concepts. In the second language classroom we will focus a lot in the beginning on learning vocabulary. This we will do through games, rhyming, songs, matching activity’s, and classification work.
We will also start introducing letter sounds and their forms (the alphabet itself). Much time is spent tracing the sandpaper letters and matching objects with them. After this we introduce the movable alphabet where reading and making words begins.
Mathematics
The Montessori math program address three separate concepts: number, quantity, and the relationship of the two together. The child uses concrete materials that isolate each concept. Then the child is shown how to label a quantity with the appropriate numerical symbol. The child then advances to a progression of sequential materials that combine number and quantity.
In the same way that a child can learn the “Alphabet Song” without having any idea of the sounds of the letters, similarly a child can learn to count without actually understanding what it all means, but the concrete Montessori materials make sense to all of it.
Science/Culture
The cultural area of the classroom is where the students learn about the world around them and the world as a whole. This area includes biology, zoology, geography, botany, and so much more.
Art/Music/Dance
You will see art, music, and dance happening in every area of the classroom. We have circle time at the beginning and end of the day filled with all these things. Arts and dance for festivals, songs and rhymes from learning letters and numbers – everything is integrated in all areas.