MONTESSORI

an induction into Maria Montessoris

Educational Model for Children 3-6 Years

FIVE KEY CURRICULUM AREAS:

Practical

Life (or Daily Living);

Sensory
Math

Language
Cultural

or Cosmic Education:

Science; Social Studies, etc..

PRACTICAL LIFE

PRACTICAL LIFE CONTINUED

MORE

PRACTICAL LIFE MATERIALS:

PRACTICAL LIFE ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

FOLDING, CLEANING, WASHING (CLOTHES, DISHES, TABLES), POLISHING, BUTTONING, FASTENING, LACING, WATERING PLANTS, PREPARING SNACKS, SETTING TABLES, POURING WET AND DRY MATERIALS, ETC.

PRACTICAL LIFE
Authentic Activities (Work) & Materials

Independence;
Control; Coordination; Confidence; Concentration;

Community;
Tolerance.

Practical Life

Preparing snacks for and eating as a community

PRACTICAL LIFE CONTD:

Grace and Courtesy Lessons;

Care for Environments: Inside and Outside; Physical, Social and Cultural.

SENSORY DEVELOPMENT AND MUSIC ENRICHMENT

1) the Brown Stairs Tower 2) the Pink

SENSORIAL AND MUSIC ENRICHMENT contd

SENSORIAL AND MUSIC ENRICHMENT

Building Sensory Discrimination: Taste: Smelling Boxes Colour: Colour Tablets Shape: Metal Insets; Size/Volume: Brown Stair, Pink Tower; Red Rods, etc. Weight: Thermic Tablets Smell/Odour: Smelling Boxes Sound/Tone/Pitch: Sound Boxes; the Bells Texture: Rough and Smooth Boards; Fabric Box

SENSORIAL contd
Attractive, scientifically designed sensory materials set the stage for mathematics in Montessori environments

SENSORY DEVEOPMENT AND

MUSICAL ENRICHMENT

MATHEMATICS

MATHMATICS.

LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE: WRITING (CURSIVE) PRECEDES READING (!);

LETTER SOUNDS ARE INTRODUCED BEFORE LETTER NAMES

Metal insets and shape-tracing prepare the childs hand for writing, while letter sounds, matching games and letter-tracing (in sand, on chalkboards, with markers, etc.), prepare the child for reading.

LANGUAGE:
Casa students usually explode into reading by four or five years of age Encoding (building words) precedes decoding (reading words) in Montessori.

LANGUAGE:

CULTURAL or COSMIC EDUCATION

Cosmic Education entails both nature and supernature: the natural world and humankinds spiritual worlds.

CULTURAL/COSMIC EDUCATION Contd

First Principle of Science, Mathematics, Language and Cosmic Education:

Here then is an essential principle of education: to teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.
- Maria Montessori, quoted in Lillard (2007), p. 234.

MONTESSORIS PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCE

One of the greatest mistakes of our day is to think of movement by itself, as something apart from the higher functions Mental development must be connected with movement and dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practicebecome informed by this idea. Until now, almost all educators have thought of movement and the muscular system as aids to respiration, or to circulation, or as a means for building up physical strength. But in our new conception the view is taken that movement has great importance in mental development itself, provided that the action which occurs is connected with the mental activity going on. Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes about through his movements. Mind and movement are part of the same entity. - Maria Montessori, quoted in Lillard (2007), p. 38-40.

radical educational ideas

The study of a childs psychological development must be bound up with the study of his hands activities. Those children who have been able to work with their hands make headway in their development.
- Maria Montessori, quoted in Lillard (2007) , p. 56.

Free Play ?

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, OF CHOICE all day long.

The secret of success [in education] is found to lie in the right use of imagination in awakening interest, and the stimulation of seeds of interest already sown.
-

Maria Montessori (quoted in Lillard (2007), p. 114).

These children have free choice all day long.

Life is based on choice, so they learn to make

their own decisions. They must decide and choose for themselves all the time. They cannot learn through obedience to the commands of another.
-

Maria Montessori, quoted in Lillard (2007), p. 80.

MONTESSORI OUTCOMES:
Independence Control Solid Foundation Inner Peace

Love for the Environment Order Sense of Community Compassion

Montessori

Care for the World Tolerance Respect for Nature

Concentration Coordination Confidence Self-Esteem