Montessori Areas of Learning

Practical Life: Practical Life activities are the traditional works of the family and home. They allow children to gain independence and self-discipline, learn grace and courtesy, develop fine and gross motor skills, build concentration, and prepare for math and writing.  Children will learn daily greetings, say please and thank you, how to cough and sneeze, pour water, fold towels, and set a table, just to name a few.

Sensorial: Sensorial work covers every quality that can be perceived by the senses. The purpose and aim of Sensorial work is to give children a sense of self-identity and security in the learning environment.  Sensorial materials are based on a logical learning sequence, progressing from concrete to abstract.  Here are just a few:

• The Cylinder Blocks, Brown Stairs and Pink Tower develop visual discrimination of length, height and width.
• Sound cylinders refine the auditory sense.
• Color tablets assist child in identifying color and visually discriminate different shades.

Culture & Science: Culture covers Geography and History.  Geography covers concepts like continent, country, provinces, and capital cities.  Children use maps and flags to learn about different parts of the world.  In addition, children learn about other countries and cultures.

History covers calendar, seasons, family trees, birthday celebrations, timeline of child’s life, and stories of famous people to demonstrate how they have influenced the history of the world.

Science encourages children’s curiosity and gives reason to the world around him/her through observation and testing.  Children will have many opportunities to conduct experiments, explore items from nature with the use of a magnifying glass, learn life the cycles and parts of plants and animals, learn the difference between land, air and water, states of matter by observing how water and orange juice are exposed to low temperatures and so on.

Mathematics: Children learn Mathematics by using concrete materials, especially, during these years when they enjoy manipulating equipment. Then, with ease, they may learn abstract methods in Preschool and on.  Children not only see the symbol for 1, 1000, or 1/2, they can also hold each of the quantities in their hand.  In addition, children will learn the decimal system with bead materials and number cards, addition subtraction, multiplication and division with bead stairs and number rods.

Language Arts: The Montessori environment is enriched with vocabulary, both oral and written.  Children learn to listen, have discussions, and later write then read by learning phonetic sounds, sandpaper letters, moveable alphabets.