A child’s task during the primary years is...... self-construction and independence. The Montessori environment is designed to remove obstacles to development, laying a strong foundation for success in all aspects of life. Dr. Montessori’s concept in regards to teaching children based on their needs and personal interest lead to the Montessori educational method of today. There are four main areas
of learning in a Montessori environment 3-6 class:
Practical Life: In the Montessori Practical Life area, children are provided opportunities to develop independent skills. There are four main areas of Practical Life:
Care of the Person,
Care of the Environment,
Grace and Courtesy, and
Control of Movement. All children actively participate in caring for themselves and to beautify their environment with works such as zipping, bow tying, buttoning, sweeping, food preparation, caring for plants, arranging flowers, setting table for lunch or snack etc. The practical life area gives children the following necessary life skills:
independence
Building concentration
Strengthening memory
Developing sequencing skills
Sensorial
In the Montessori Sensorial area, children work with materials that help them enhance their sensing ability. Sensorial materials are designed to aid in the development of sensory motor skills. There are materials with different physical qualities and attributes such as color, size, shape, sound, texture, and weight. They will learn to compare, differentiate, reason. The Sensorial exercises are specifically designed materials that allow the child to refine their auditory sense, tactile sense, olfactory(smell) sense, gustatory(taste) sense, thermic(temperature) sense, baric(weight) sense, stereognostic (blind man’s) sense. Language: In Montessori, the child is first introduced and exposed to all short of Vocabulary, which means he learns the names of the things in and around his environment with the help of picture cards and objects. Then he becomes aware of the different sounds in a word. The child then learns the language phonetically until the point where he is taught the different “rules” in a given language and the exceptions to those rules he will need to know in order to spell and read fluently. The 3 year old learns language by building his vocabulary, learning the names of the things that belong in the environment, parts of fish, parts of flower, parts of tree etc. The 4 year old, than learns to define and enhance his vocabulary word and the 5-6 year old learn to comprehend his definitions. In short, language in Montessori is very vast and overlaps with all the areas of learning. Mathematics: The Montessori area of vast and fascinating. Math begins with manipulation of the concrete materials and gradually moves toward the abstraction of complex mathematical concepts. The journey into mathematics begins with a clear understanding of numbers 1-10. The students will than leap their learning into decimal system, linear counting, memorization of key, math facts and fractions. By the time a child completes the primary ( kindergarten) program, he/she can add, subtract, multiply and divide into the millions! Although these are usually concepts not taught until much later in grade school, the fun Montessori math materials and games make them effortless and joyful for young children to learn and understand. Geography: The child learns with the puzzle pieces about the world, names of the continents, and names of the countries in each continent, different kinds of land and water forms and much more. Science: Learning of science begins from living and non-living, vertebrate and invertebrate, vertebrate animal kingdom, invertebrate animals and their categories, parts of fish, flower, birds, mammals, sink and float, Land- air- and water, botany and many other.
