Classroom and Materials

Children learn how to use their imagination.

"Learning involves the whole child."

In a Montessori classroom, the child experiences the joy and excitement of learning through their 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 he/she is drawn to 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 International classroom, the teacher prepares the environment, guides activities, presents lessons and encourages the individual development of each child. Materials, or lessons, are specific to the Montessori Teaching Method. Dr. Montessori found that not only does every child differ from every other child but, not being a fixed, inanimate object, the child is in a constant state of flux, and differs from themselves, from day to day as they grow. The materials 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.

"The value of work-time activities turns play into learning."

 

TEACHING METHOD COMPARISON

MONTESSORI INTERNATIONAL

OTHER SCHOOL'S
Three-Year Age Span Traditional
Motivated by Self-Development All One Age
Self-Correcting Materials Teacher Motivated
Hands-On Learning Teacher Lectures
Individual Learning Group Learning
Teacher is Observer and Directress Teacher is Focal Point and Dominant Influence
Cycles of Activity Completed within Child's Time Activity Cycles Determined by Set Time
Few Interruptions Frequent Interruptions
Freedom to Move and Work Assigned Seats and Specific Class Periods
Material Used in Sequence with Presentations Materials Used with No Prior Instruction
Work of Joy and Sense of Discovery Work Because They are Expected to
Environment Provides Discipline Teacher Provides Discipline
Encouraged to Help Each Other Seek Help From Teacher
Child Chooses Materials Teacher Sets Curriculum
Child Sets Own Pace Teacher Sets Pace for Entire Group
Emphasis on Concrete Emphasis on Abstract
Reality Oriented Much Role Playing and Fantasy
Recognition of Individual Sensitive Periods All Children Treated Alike
Child Free to Discover Alone Teacher Continuously Guides Child
Carefully Organized Environment Materials Placed at Random
Multisensory Materials to Develop Specific Skills Play Materials for Non-Specific Skills
Self-Education Through Self-Correcting Materials Use of Reward and Punishment in Motivation
Respect of Child Foremost Community Needs to Take Precedence

Open Classroom, the Prepared Environment

At Montessori International, a true Montessori environment has been carefully prepared to allow your child to learn at all times. It encourages the child to make choices and promotes self-motivation, concentration and helps to ignore distractions. Most importantly, it teaches the child to follow through, to completion, any task the child attempts, reaching the inner rewards of accomplishment.

The Montessori classroom is a child's world, geared to the size, the pace and interests of boys and girls between 18 months and 6 years.

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 developed. All lessons are manipulative based on the fact that a child learns by doing.

 

Why Mixed Age Groups?

If classroom equipment is to be challenging enough to promote a learning response, it must be properly matched to the standard which an individual child has already developed during his/her past. This experience is so varied that the most satisfying choice can usually only be made by the child. A Montessori classroom offers the opportunity for a child to choose from a wide variety of graded materials. Children can grow as their interests lead them from one level of complexity to another. Having children 18 months through 6 years together permits the younger children a graded series of models for imitation and the older children an opportunity to reinforce their own knowledge by helping the younger ones.

Interaction of mixed age groups benefits both older and younger children.Two well-established facts are that preschool children mature at very different rates and their periods of readiness for academic subjects vary a great deal. Because interest is stimulated and the materials are at hand whenever a child is ready, some youngsters in a Montessori class begin to read and calculate at an unusually early age.

Non-Competitive Atmosphere:

At Montessori International, children compete with themselves rather than against their classmates.Because children work individually with the Montessori materials, there is no competition in the Montessori classroom. Each child relates only to his/her own previous work. The child’s progress is not compared to the achievements of other classmates. Dr. Montessori believed that competition in education should only be introduced after the child has gained confidence in the use of basic skills. “Never let a child risk failure,” she wrote, “until he has a reasonable chance of success.” Therefore, competition is with self. The child constantly competes to increase his/her knowledge and ability at his or her own individual pace.

Areas of the classroom:
Open Classroom | Why Mixed Age Groups | Non-Competitive Atmosphere | Sensorial | Housekeeping | Library | Technology | Block Area

Sensorial

All young children meet the world around them through the constant use all five of their senses. To examine a new object, a baby may 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 children quite naturally use all their powers of observation during their early years, Dr. Montessori felt this was the ideal time to give the them equipment which would sharpen their senses and enable them to understand the many impressions they receive through these senses.

Each of the sensorial materials isolates one defining quality such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, taste and smell. Sensorial equipment emphasizes 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 the sounds which are made when the child shakes them.

Through activities in the practical life area, such as performing domestic chores, a child learns future responsibilities, stimulates his/her imagination and learns appropriate roles for parents and children. Housekeeping

When a children play in the practical life area, they:

  • Learn what the roles of mothers, fathers, and children are.
  • Understand what it feels like to play at being someone else.
  • Are given opportunities to exercise their imagination.
  • Increase their ability to communicate with others about personally meaningful experiences.
  • Initiate and describe sounds from the environment.
  • Role play and engage in household activities such as cooking and vacuuming.



When Children Do This:

They Are Learning To:
Dress Up Develop smaller muscle skills which leads to self help, writing aid.
Pretend to be grown-ups Understand their experiences better to promote abstract thinking.
Separate cups and plates at cleanup Group objects in categories which builds math skills.

Library

When children work in the Library Area, they:

  • Learn to Listen
  • Have an opportunity to increase vocabulary by learning new words through reading and discussion.
  • Learn about different concepts, people and places.
  • Learn to enjoy books and reading.
  • Visualize the things they are hearing about.
  • Begin telling stories from pictures and books in an orderly sequence.
  • Begin hearing likenesses and differences in words.
  • Recall information that is seen and heard.
  • See adults reading and enjoying stories.
  • Learn to recognize the names of common objects, places and actions.
  • Develop book awareness concepts, such as following pictures and print from left to right and top to bottom.
  • Learn to handle books carefully.

When Children Do This:

They Are Learning To:
Turn pages of a book
Read a book from left to right, preparing for reading and writing readiness.
Scribble on paper
Use writing as a means of communication, preparing for reading and writing readiness.

 

Children, while in the computer lab, acquire and sharpen skills they will need in the modern world of technology.Technology

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:

They Are Learning To:
Try a computer program with another child
Share and play cooperatively with others, thus building social skills.
Respond to program feedback
Follow directions, apply what they learn to new situations and understand cause and effect, thus advancing their thinking skills.
Operate a computer mouse, put a disk in the computer and turn on the printer Improve their coordination skills for better physical and eye/hand development and coordination.

In the block area, children exercise both their bodies and their creative minds. Block Area

When children play in the block area, they:

  • Learn to use imagination to create something from their own thinking.
  • Have the satisfaction of being able to make something.
  • Learn about sizes, shapes, weights and balances, height and depth, smoothness, roughness and volume.
  • Are exercising their bodies.
  • May be learning to play with others.
  • Learn to communicate ideas through language when discussing similarities and differences.
  • Learn to solve problems and make decisions.
  • Create patterns when building.
  • Represent personal experiences through role play and pretending.

How do children learn from these activities?

When Children Do This:

They Are Learning To:
Put blocks in trucks and dump them out
Understand size, weight and number concepts, thus leading to improved math and science skills.
Use blocks and wooden animals to create a zoo
Recreate the world around them, thus improving geography and social skills.
Balance one large block on another Control and coordinate muscles, thus building their physical coordination.