Montessori Curriculum
Practical Life
The purpose of these activities focus on eye-hand coordination, sense of order, concentration and independence. Dr. Montessori realized the coordination of muscles, the harmonious carrying out of movement, and the capacity for refinement has all assisted the full development of a child’s mind.
These exercises build neurological pathways and the child prepares the foundational tools for the reasoning mind.
Sensorial
Activity associated with the sensorial materials support all the sensitive periods in some manner but are geared to the sensitive periods of order and the refinement of sensory perceptions. The child meets all the keys to the exploration of the physical world.
A child in a Montessori environment also builds their powers of intelligence, such as discernment of similarities and differences, memory, classifications, capacity for vocabularies and categorization, and strategies of making order.
In addition, a Montessori environment uses an experimental approach to expose a child to beautiful art and music. For example, children are exposed to art by a variety of well-known artists particularly. A child may look at an art print of a work by Monet or Renoir and discuss what they see with the teacher. These art prints are a natural part of the prepared Montessori environment that provides opportunities for children to develop a sense of appreciation and aesthetics.
Mathematics
A child discovers the wonderful world of numbers. Quantities that can be built and manipulated physically as a means to counting, but also to carrying out the four mathematical operations (decimal system). Dr. Montessori had an astounding discovery-if the young children could count to ten, they were ready for an introduction to the decimal system! (Montessori Method, p.182) Dr. Montessori developed the golden beads, which represent the hierarchies of the decimal system from the “units to the thousands” or the later representation of these hierarchies with Stamp Games, Dot games, and Bead Frames and so on.
Language
Dr. Montessori said, “Language is truly the expression of a kind of super intelligence.” The Developmental sequence for writing and reading; when a child reveals the Sensitive periods or Absorbent Mind for the language; starts with Oral language, Nursery Rhymes, Symbolic development, Classification, Sequence, Sequence with Relationship, and Opposites.
The writing developmental sequence is the Moveable Alphabet, Three Letter Phonetic words, Sentences, Sand Paper letter and Moveable Alphabet, Picture, Blending, Patterned vocabulary, Composition, Phases/Sentences/Moveable Alphabet, Preposition, Sentence Strips and so on.
Science
Geology is a shocking experience for 2.5 – 6 years old children in a Montessori classroom. They explore a variety of rocks. The layers of the earth are introduced: Inner core, the outer core, Magma, and Earth surface. They explore fossils, how and when it was made? Experiment of the Volcano Eruption: sorting the different rocks that formed after volcano eruption.
Prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs are very popular to the children. They love to learn about Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Triceratops. They will explore matching cards for Dinosaurs, books about Dinosaur fossils and foot prints resources. Children can divide the dinosaurs into types: three toes dinosaurs were the meat eaters while five toes were presumed the plant eaters. Drawing the dinosaurs would be exciting!
Children also explore geography by observing different types of land and water forms which were designed using the water or clay for the land forms.
For example, island – lake, bay – cape, peninsula – gulf, Strait – isthmus. They will use Land Water Hemisphere Map, Continents Puzzle Map, to learn about North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
In History, when children celebrate their birthdays in a Montessori classroom, the process involves several aspects of learning. Many Montessori teachers use a ritual to mark a child’s birthday. Often, this ritual involves a lit candle, which represents the sun. The children gather in a circle while carrying a small globe of the earth. This represents the orbit of the earth around the sun, each complete circle the equivalent of one “year” of life.
In addition, parents are invited to write a little “story” of landmarks for each year of the child’s life, which the teacher (or parent) reads as the child walks one circle for each year of his or her life. The birthday child senses the passage of time in his or her life, and each child’s importance as a part of the universe.
