Montessori Curriculum

Areas of Everyday Living

The very first activities children take part in are ones that develop their ability to look after themselves and their surroundings. This stage in the curriculum establishes a link between the home and nursery. The various activities carried out by the children teach them how to care for their environment, themselves and each other. These activities assist the child to develop independence, concentration as well as hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills. These activities are divided into four main areas:

Refinement of movement: pouring from small jugs, transferring using tweezers, cutting, gluing, folding, opening and closing jars and threading and preparing snack for the day.

Care of the environment: sweeping, polishing, dusting, putting their activity away and watering the plants.

Care of self: washing hands, blowing nose, practice dressing skills on specially made frames which allows them to try zips, buttons, bows and buckles, laying a table.

Promoting grace and courtesy by greeting visitors and each other.

Sensorial

A child’s first learning experiences are achieved through their senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. Sensorial exercises were designed by Montessori to cover every quality that can be perceived by the senses such as size, shape, composition, texture, loudness or softness, matching, weight, temperature, etc. Some Montessori materials used are:

The pink tower exercise refines the child’s movement by placing the cubes one on top of the other with one single movement of the hand. While doing this movement, the child is refining visual motor coordination and is called upon to concentrate. Counting the blocks also prepares them for mathematics.

Knobbed cylinders are used to teaches the child visual discrimination of dimensions. It also prepares the child for writing by using correct coordination of the fingers for when they will hold a pencil. The child will be able to fit the cylinders with one precise movement.

Colour tablets provide the child with a key to align himself in the world of color.

Literacy

Language development is vital to all human development. The Montessori classroom is rich in oral language opportunities and materials which assist children in developing confidence and skill in expressing themselves. This encourages the natural progression of written expression and reading skills.

Some Montessori materials used are:

Sandpaper letters ensures that the child develops phonic awareness through tracing the letter with their fingers, seeing the letter and hearing the sound.

The Metal insets ensure that the child is developing accurate pencil control for later writing skills.

The large moveable alphabet encourages the child to begin simple word building.

Mathematics

Mathematics involves the introduction to pre-maths concepts such as sorting, matching and counting. The Montessori maths materials offer a systematic approach to learning through the use of objects, while slowly helping the child in understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems, and describing shapes, spaces and measures.

Some Montessori materials used are as follows:

The spindle box and spindles clarify the idea that the symbols represent a certain quantity of separate objects.It also introduces the concept of zero and its symbol and it reinforces the natural sequence of the numerals.

The large number rods teaches him/her to count accurately up to 10 as each partitions on the rod acts as a guide.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

This area of the classroom encompasses a variety of subjects that are supplementary to the Montessori Approach. Cultural subjects include: Geography, Zoology, Botany, Science, Art & Music. These subjects provide children an opportunity to explore their curiosity of different and worldly ideas.

Geography allows the children the opportunity to appreciate diversities by understanding cultures in other countries and global festivals Science allows the children to observe and work with hands-on experiments that will cultivate a lifelong interest in nature Botany, the children learn about plants (what they look like, how to take care of them, how they grow, etc.) so that they may appreciate nature in a more organic way.

Zoology shows children animals from all around the world (where they live, their unique Eco-systems, what they eat, how they grow, etc.) Lastly, the study of art & music allows the children a very unique opportunity to express themselves. Children have an expressive and uninhibited experience of moving, dancing and singing among their school peers.