Click The Montessori curriculum comes together when explaining the significance of the math area in the Montessori classroom.  Everyday Living, Sensorial, Language, group activities, and even snack are working to develop math skills in subtle or obvious ways.  The child’s ability to make choices, order, compare, organize, concentrate, and sequence are just a few of the essential tools that must be developed.  We see again in the math curriculum that each area of the room works hand in hand with the other to further all of these necessary skills developing in the child. 

            Numbers are a tool, and their purpose, like any other tool, is to allow us to do something with them that we couldn’t do without them.  Numbers are meaningful for the rest of our lives, we will use them every day.  If we rush the child too quickly into numbers, he will not be able to gradually discover for himself the need for them.  He will not be able to grasp, at his own pace, the significance of the power of math.  Dr. Montessori believed that we cannot push a child into learning, instead we can prepare their environment to include concepts and materials, introduce the child to them, then encourage use as the child is ready.  Again, we prepare the activities, and then we wait.
            While continuing to develop the materials that Maria Montessori invented, creating new materials, and putting new perspectives on old materials, we begin to understand that:  instead of perfectly presenting the answers to all the child’s questions (before he even has any questions), we should be content to set up the problem, and observe his means of solving it.  Have more confidence in auto-education – in the ability of the materials to teach. 
            Some of the skills that we introduce in the Montessori classrooms are:  comparing, classifying, one-to-one association, recognizing the empty set, set breaking, reversibility of thinking, counting on from a given point, conservation of quantity, estimating, recognizing greater/lesser/equal quantities, patterning, and realizing there’s more than one way to solve problems. These are the skills we want our math areas to foster.  In a Pre-primary classroom, there should be little hurry in getting to advanced decimal work or the operations.  The temptation is there, since such work looks more like what we adults consider to be “mathematical”, but the child has lots to ponder before he’s ready to grasp these functions. Luckily, in Montessori, we provide the equipment and introduce children to concepts at their own pace for learning.
            Activities that build on the mathematical mind are:  spatial relations, puzzles, shape recognition, dimension materials, measuring, reproducing designs, combining shapes to make designated shapes, soring by attribute/creating sets, graphing, recognition of repeating patterns, sequencing, grading, symmetry, and the concept of more/less/same.  Beginnings of quantification include:  sorting by quantity, verbal linear counting (wrote counting, saying numbers in order) – it often precedes any true sense of quantity – number constancy, 1:1 correspondence, counting backwards, the ability to pick up the count at any given point, recognizing symbols alone, 0-9, then associating quantities with symbols 0-9.   So you see, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done in the math area, but it begins with simple activities we can do every day.  We can count anything, and we encourage counting to keep children involved and engaged in the world around us.  For example, if you have steps in your home, you can count as you walk up or down, count how many pieces of food are on the child’s plate, taking a set number of bites, counting fingers & toes, counting shoes, people in the car, etc.  There is no end to counting, literally!
            As with language, going through the process is the focus in the classroom.  You will not see a lot of paperwork coming home from a pre-primary Montessori school because the actual work is done with the materials, and not necessarily written down because that is a separate process and not the focus of counting or math.  When children are ready to add writing into a work, they may do so, otherwise, simply using the materials is the lesson alone.  Written products are not representative of real knowledge of the student.  Manipulating the materials during class time is the practice that we observe, and by observing, we can gauge the child’s abilities on the given material and the knowledge they have of math concepts.
 
here to edit.

The Everyday Living/Practical Life Area of the Montessori Classroom
                The Montessori classroom allows children to choose from many areas of the classroom. This letter will explain one of these areas. The area is known as the Everyday Living or Practical Life, area. I will shorten these terms to EDL(Everyday living) and PL(Practical Life).
                The EDL/PL area consists of the perfect hands on materials for young children to learn from. Common items in this area are familiar items that you would find in a home such as: cups, bowls, pouring pictures, utensils, trays and water. These materials allow the child to manipulate freely and independently exercises such as: Pouring, spooning, squeezing, twisting, stringing, folding, pounding, washing and scrubbing, personal care lessons, food preparation and many more concepts.
These activities allow children to learn by practicing these skills and perfecting them. When children repeat these activities they are learning: Concentration, coordination, confidence, order and independence. These are all direct aims of these activities. These activities also: strengthen the pencil grip, develop observation skills, coordinate muscle movements, refine fine motor skills, and eye hand coordination as well as improve language skills. All of these skills are examples of valuable lessons that the child is gaining by spending time in the EDL/PL areas.
                Take note of the materials being used when observing children working in the EDL/PL area. In this area you will see that there is a sequence to the activities and materials. These activities are set up by the teacher to guide the child, for example: Large to small, long to short, hand to tool, and wet to dry. The intent is to move forward through these activities from the easy to the more difficult skills throughout the year. This allows the children time to master each new skill or lesson introduced through practice, manipulation and exploration while building the skills mentioned earlier.
                In the book “The Absorbent Mind” written by Maria Montessori, she writes about how children learn countless bits of information by absorbing everything in their environment: Language, attitudes and expressions. She held the belief that a child’s mind is like a sponge absorbing all information and stimuli, good and bad. The Montessori teachers take on the role of preparer, observer and role model to help lead the child to confidence and independence. They do this by keeping in mind the absorbent mind using detailed, sequenced, complete examples and activities. What we do around children matters. It is our responsibility to the children who are watching and observing us all of the time, to set a proper example in word, action and expression.

12/7/22

The Language Area in the Montessori Classroom
            Language in the Montessori classroom is a multi-faceted area of learning for a child.  When thinking of a language curriculum, people often think of:  letter recognition, learning to read, writing letters and writing words; however, there are many skills that are incorporated into their learning process.  We need to consider all of those skills in the child’s language development in the Montessori classroom.
            A child’s language development begins before the child enters into a preschool or kindergarten program.  These skills even begin before a child is born.  As a baby’s ears develop in the womb, A bond begins as the baby begins hearing our voices.  As children grow they develop the abilities to do such things as; listening, speaking, sorting, memory activities, rhyming, classifying, sequencing, observing, manipulating, and interpreting auditory and visual information. These skills are essential to successful and complete language development skills.
            Activities in the Montessori Language area of the classroom are directly influenced by activities and materials from other areas of the Montessori curriculum.  The activities in the Everyday Living area are the beginning step of language. Practicing these skills expand the child’s language skills creating a foundation for learning language.  The direct aims in the Everyday Living area of the classroom are: concentration, coordination, confidence, independence and order.  Practicing these skills lead the child to expanded interest in the classroom and it is important for the child to master these skills.  The Sensorial area is the second step in continuing language development by:  naming, comparing, differentiating and manipulating hands-on materials. Many hands-on materials were designed and developed by Dr. Montessori. She knew that physical manipulation helps the children to internalize these concepts.
            Reading to children often encourages questions and conversations. New vocabulary will be assimilated by hearing stories, having discussions and answering questions. These things are significantly beneficial to support language growth.  In the Montessori classroom the child has the opportunity to continually expand their language skills while they are being introduced to the abstract basis of our language which are, letters.
            The Sandpaper Letters which are made of boards with sandpaper letters on them. Dr. Montessori created this material to help the children to develop the skills of; auditory perception of sounds which correspond to the written symbol, to develop the visual and tactile perception of letters, and to help with visual memory. This material also aids in the preparation for both writing and reading.  The teacher introduces the child to these letters by tracing the letter with two fingers, following the same direction in which the symbol is normally written, while saying the sound of the letter.  Use of this material gives the child a threefold impression:  he sees the shape, he feels the shape, and he hears the sound of the letter.
            In the Montessori classroom children are introduced to learning the phonetic sounds of the letters before they learn the alphabetical names of letters in sequence - the alphabet.  The phonetic sounds are given first priority because these are the sounds they hear in words.  For example, a child can hear the phonetic sound “T” at the beginning of the word “top”.  He cannot hear the alphabetical sound (letter name) “tee”.
            Continuing in the Language curriculum is the process of training the ear to distinguish sounds at the beginning, ending, and then middle of words to further develop reading readiness.  The process of training the eye the left to right direction we use for reading is another step that must be reached before the child can ever be expected to read words.  We cannot take for granted these seemingly small but very necessary skills that the child must acquire to begin to read.
            Along with reading, many parents question the writing development of their child.  Preparation for writing is available in many areas of the Montessori classroom.  EDL/PL, Sensorial, Art, and many specific Montessori materials offer pre-writing skill practice.  Several factors must come together for the child to be ready to write.  One being the correct pencil grip, Dynamic Tripod Grasp, which is not generally developed until ages four and a half to six years old.  Children need to practice many activities that strengthen the fine motor control before a pencil is even introduced.  Pencil control must be mastered for the child to succeed at writing.  It just takes time and repetition.  In our classrooms we there are plenty of opportunities to practice writing skills.
            Dr. Maria Montessori believed that no human being is educated by another person.  He must do it himself or it will never be done.  A truly educated individual continues learning long after the years he spends in the classroom. He is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love of knowledge.  Dr. Montessori felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn.  Only then can education of the individual occur.

Being apart of the Montessori community across the nation allows us to hear encouraging stories like this one I received from a Montessori school in California. Enjoy!

"From Creeping to Leaping the Kindergarten Year – A Montessori Parent’s Perspective

As April approached during our daughter's last year before Kindergarten, my husband and I began the same process many Montessori preschool parents engage in every Spring: making the decision about where she would go for Kindergarten.  We loved the Montessori preschool, and had really seen our daughter thrive there for the past two years.  And we knew the mantra about kids in the program 'leaping'

in their learning during their third year.  On the other hand, when we moved to Redding, we researched potential schools for our kids, and chose our house based upon where we intended them to attend school - a wonderful charter school that really seemed to cater to our daughter's personality and to specific curricular offerings that were important to me and my husband.

When we thought about our daughter's progress at Montessori in particular, we discussed how much progress she had already made - we were amazed by her burgeoning math skills, her beginning writing, her ability to select work and focus...we thought perhaps the 'third year leap' was something she was already experiencing.  She had been so prolific and learned so many new and diverse things, how much more could she grow in the following year?

We decided to go through the lottery process at the charter school and make a decision later, if we were successful in securing her a spot.

As it turned out, we were not successful.  I was surprised at what a relief that was!  We were please that she could continue to hone her skills and talents in her own time, according to when she was ready, both in terms of interest and development.  We appreciated that she would be able to develop more ability to concentrate on her work over ever longer periods of time, and that she would learn to be responsible for progressing through her own education - that she would learn that her rewards (learning new information, skills, etc.) would be a direct result of the effort she decided to invest.

Fast forwarding to the beginning of her Kindergarten year at Shady Oaks, my husband and I were blown away at the changes we observed in her.  We thought she had been 'leaping' in her learning the year before - she hadn't even begun!!  She went from writing her name and the names of a few items around to developing whole sentences, and then stories, in a matter of a couple of months.  From reading a handful of words in beginning reader books and signs around town, she suddenly (within a period of a few weeks) moved on to reading whole stories by herself - and within a couple of months, again, she progressed to books several levels above what we have expected from a traditional 1st grader!  She's moved from adding single digits together to delving into large addition, subtraction, and multiplication - we're not even sure what work she's doing in the classroom that relates to this (she doesn't tell us a whole lot about what she does); it just comes up at the dinner table or while we're baking together.  And, being a Kindergartner this year, she is really getting the opportunity to explore her leadership skills.  It's been wonderful to watch her give lessons to the 'new friends' in the classroom, or hear about things the younger children are working on that she can sit near and watch, while she does her own work, and help with if they're struggling with something.  A great side-benefit to that, she's become extraordinarily helpful in the same way with her little brother at home as well.

In November of her Kindergarten year, we received a phone call from the charter school that there was an opening for her for immediate placement.  My husband and I struggled with the thought at that point.  We were really starting to see our daughter leap at Montessori, and we knew how much we and she both valued her self- direction, independence in learning, and the benefits of the multi-age classroom.  Still, we had been invested in the idea of this charter school, and it was difficult to just let go of that.  We decided to observe the classroom she would be placed to make the best-informed decision we could.

That morning, we talked to our daughter briefly about the task before us.  We wanted to know what her thoughts and opinions about this were and let her know we valued her input, though we were careful to explain that this was a decision that we were ultimately going to be making based on our assessment of the options.  She asked what some of the differences would be.  We talked about the whole class doing the same work at the same time.  We explained that she would be required to stay in her seat, and raise her hand if she wanted to ask a question or needed to get up for a drink or to go to the bathroom.

She looked at us like we had sprouted horns.

What if I want to do reading and someone else wants to do writing?

Well, that's not how other classrooms work - you'll have to read when the class is reading, and write when the class is writing.  What if I'm not done reading and it's time to write?  You'll have to save your place in what you're reading and come back to it next time, or maybe do it on your own after school.  What if I haven't had the lesson the class is working on yet?  Well, everyone gets the same lesson all together at the same time, so when it's time to work, everyone's had the lesson for that work.  And I can't get up to go to the bathroom without raising my hand and asking?  That's right - but they'll let you go, we promise!

The more we talked it over, the more ludicrous it seemed to us also, given the environment that Montessori provides.  Still, we went to our observation with open minds.  The children seemed happy enough.  The teacher was kind and engaging.  They were working on a math set while we were there, counting sides of a hexagon, drawing the shape repeatedly in columns on a worksheet, coloring it yellow (the hexagon tanagrams they used were all yellow), and writing six in the next column showing the number of sides for each hexagon they drew.  About five minutes after we got there, the teacher stopped that lesson and had the class move to a story rug to work on some reading comprehension.  This consisted of her holding up flashcards with common words (cat, hat, it, I, we, can, etc.) for the kids to say in unison three times, then the next card three times, and so on.  This lasted another 10 minutes, maybe, before they moved back to their desks for a new lesson.

The teacher had explained to us that the children needed a break from the math exercise, because they really couldn't concentrate on it for more than about 15 or 20 minutes at a time.  This was the beginning of the end for us.  We knew from our experience at Montessori, our daughter (and many others children in our classroom) had no problem working on a project for long periods of time, because they chose work they wanted to do and were interested in.  They didn't have to stop working because other students (who weren't really interested in the work at hand) got restless.

In fact, this classroom's whole day was scheduled out in 30-minute increments (or less) for various subjects.  Then they lost about 4-5 minutes each time they moved from one lesson to the next as they waited for the entire class to simultaneously finish one project, move, and settle in to the next.  While this allowed the children to move a little between tasks, it seems strange, having the Montessori experience to relate to, that kids who need to move aren't allowed until it is time for the whole class to do so.  And that kids that might not be ready to finish the task at hand are required to because others are, or the schedule says it's time.

We made our decision as we walked out the classroom door from our observation that this was simply not an environment that was best for our daughter.  She was clearly thriving with the Montessori method, and we didn't see anything that seemed it would provide her with a greater educational benefit.  We were happy to have the opportunity to make this decision ourselves, and know now that it really is the best choice for our family.  It means we will be driving out to Middle Creek Montessori twice a day every school day for nearly the next decade, between our two children.  (The charter school is less than a mile from our house - an easy walking or biking distance.)  Still, the opportunity this affords them is clearly worth it for us.

On a side note, my husband and I come from the polar opposite ends of the public education spectrum: one of us easily excelled in that environment, and the other struggled to make it through.  We're both intelligent, curious individuals who love to read and have taken many opportunities to further our education outside school.  But the system we grew up with, and which seems to have gone to further extremes, catered to good test-takers who don't necessarily "learn" the information as much as memorize it for quick regurgitation on tests, while punishing those who do not test well by grading them on how they take the test, rather than how well they actually know the subject matter.  Both of us have seen how the Montessori method would have made a world of difference for our own educations - for one providing a more engaging, less punitive environment that actually promotes learning, and for the other an environment that promotes actual and intentional learning, rather than simple memorization of facts without actually connecting the facts with long-term knowledge that builds upon itself.  I relish the opportunity for our children to be in control of their education; to explore and learn because it's something that they want to know, rather than something they will need to know for a test; to know that their learning, and not some arbitrary test, is both an objective in itself and a door to their future."

While I was studying in grad school I was able to participate in a project to promote early literacy in the Springfield, MO community. This was a great experience for me to be able to present workshops and talk to children, families, and teachers about the importance of early literacy. There is a misconception out there that says children do not and cannot learn to read and write until they reach Kindergarten, or even first grade. We here at Midland Montessori, know that to be false. We have 3 and 4 year old children who are reading chapter books, we have infants and toddlers who have already learned how to properly hold a pencil in preparation for writing. With the help of our brilliantly designed Montessori materials and partnering with parents to encourage reading to their children at home we have seen and will continue to see great success by our young children. 

During this month we celebrate books and the importance of reading with your children to promote literacy and language skills. Here is a short article that speaks to this. 

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_key_language_importance&AddInterest=1145

You can also check out the Literacy Council of Midland County for more information and resources.  

Enjoy!