The Montessori curriculum results from collaboration between adults who are specially trained to recognize and respond to impulses of development and children who spontaneously display those impulses when free to act upon and within a specially prepared environment.
The activities of the Montessori curriculum provide the children with opportunities to become engaged physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. By activating the many facets of the child’s being in the learning process, the “Montessori Materials” serve as the tools that the children use in their self-construction.
The following is an overview of our core curriculum in the areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Language Arts, and Mathematics. We have also included examples of works in Art, Music, Geography (both physical and cultural), Science,Technology and Whole Child Education. Please keep in mind that this only represents an overview of the course of study, and is not meant to be a complete list.
Practical Life One of the first goals of our program is to foster in the very young child a strong and realistic sense of independence and self-reliance. The practical life area of the Montessori classroom contains activities designed to focus attention, develop concentration and coordination, provide a motive for purposeful activity and strengthen the mind/body connection. These activities are specifically designed to prepare children physically and mentally for “how” to work and to provide the basics of inner discipline needed to learn. Children of all ages will engage with the practical life materials, but in different ways depending upon age and ability. Examples:
Dressing oneself
Learning home address and phone number
Pouring liquids without spilling
Carrying objects without dropping
Carrying liquids without spilling
Walking without knocking into furniture or people
Using knives and scissors with good control
Using simple carpentry tools
Putting materials away on the shelves where they belong when finished
Working carefully and neatly
Dusting, polishing and washing just about anything: floors, tables, silver
Sweeping and vacuuming floors and rugs
Flower arranging
Caring for plants and animals
Table setting-serving yourself-table manners
Folding cloth: napkins, towels, etc.
Simple use of needle and thread
Using common household tools: tweezers, tongs, eye-droppers, locks, scissors, knives
Increasingly precise eye-hand coordination
Simple cooking and food preparation
Dish washing
Weaving, bead stringing, etc.
Sensorial The sensorial materials are unique to Montessori. To the untrained eye, many appear to be constructive materials such as blocks;however,their intended purpose is not as open-ended as the typical blocks. They are materialized abstractions of sensory concepts such as measurement, color, sound,etc. Each piece of apparatus is built to specification using mathematical formulas to depict unit measures of growth. Almost every activity utilizes a base-ten construct to provide an indirect preparation to the child of the decimal system. The sensorial materials are used to help refine the child’s sensory perceptions—understanding differences in dimension, color, sound, tactile,etc.—and also to provide the foundation for the child’s work in math. Sensorial materials are designed to isolate the desired quality the material is used to introduce. Examples:
Discrimination of length, width, and height
Discrimination of volume
Discrimination in multiple dimensions
Discrimination among color tones
Discrimination among geometric shapes for shape and relative size
Discrimination among solid geometric shapes by sight and touch
Solving of complex abstract puzzles in three dimensions
Discrimination of intensity and nature of sounds
Discrimination among musical tones
Discrimination of texture by touch
Discrimination of weight by touch
Discrimination of temperature by touch
Discrimination of scents
Language Arts Language is an integrated part of every content area through day-to-day conversations, direct instruction, and dialogue that takes place. However, explicitly, the language exercises begin with spoken language work at age 3 (vocabulary cards, pictures, song, rhymes, poems,etc.) ultimately progressing through to the function of word study (parts of speech, grammar, punctuation,etc.) for the kindergartners. A few important notes about language in the Montessori class:
Lessons begin with phonemic awareness at age 3 orally. Once the child is solid in that verbal recognition (i.e.,mop begins with “mmm”), he will be introduced to the symbol for each sound using sandpaper letters. Letter names are not taught explicitly. Children will learn them and pick them up by the time they move onto 1st grade, but they are not taught as part of the Montessori curriculum.
Following the sandpaper letters, children are introduced to the moveable alphabet for word building. At this stage, we call this “writing” because the children are writing (or building) words with the cut-out sounds, even if they are not yet writing mechanically. In the beginning, this is not a reading exercise, and, as such, children will not be instructed to go back and read the words they have built.
Mechanical writing begins later in a Montessori class than in most traditional preschool and pre-kindergarten classes. Children will not do work with pencils until their hand has been trained to hold/grip/apply pressure and the necessary mind/body connection has been established. This is what the new student is doing in the practical life and the sensorial areas of the class: preparing the hand/mind connection for writing success
Pre-Reading Due to our multi-age classroom design, our youngest students are constantly exposed to the older children in the class who are already reading. The total environment of the Primary class tends to create and reinforce in our young children a spontaneous interest in learning how to read. We begin to teach reading as soon as that interest is first expressed.
Examples:
Using a total immersion approach, we help the youngest children to develop a highly sophisticated vocabulary and command of the language.
The children are taught through many early approaches to listen for and recognize the individual phonetic sounds in words.
We introduce the children to literature by reading aloud and discussing a wide range of classic stories and poetry.
We help our youngest students to recognize the shape and phonetic sounds of the alphabet through the 'sandpaper letters:' a tactile alphabet.
Reading · The development of the concept that written words are actual thoughts set down on paper. (This takes children much longer than most people realize.)
Sounding out simple three or four-letter phonetic words.
Early exercises to practice reading and to gain the concept of a noun: labeling objects with written name tags, mastering increasingly complex words naming things that interest them, such as dinosaurs, the parts of a flower, geometric shapes, the materials in the classroom, etc.
Learning to recognize verbs: normally exercises in which the child reads a card with a verbal "command" printed out (such as run, sit, walk, etc.) and demonstrates his understanding by acting it out. As the child's reading vocabulary increases, verbal commands involve full sentences and multiple steps: "Place the mat on the table and bring back a red pencil."
Reading specially selected or prepared small books on topics that really interest the child, such as in science, geography, nature or history.
An introduction to the world's classical children's literature at increasing depth and sophistication.
Handwriting- Control of the hand in preparation for writing is developed through many exercises, including specially designed tasks in the use of the pencil. Such exercises begin with very young children and extend over several years so that mastery is gradually, but thoroughly, attained.
Moveable Alphabets' made up of easily manipulated plastic letters are used for the early stages of phonetic word creation, the analysis of words, and spelling. They facilitate early reading and writing tasks during the period when young children are still not comfortable with their own writing skills. Even before the children are comfortable in their handwriting skills, they spell words. At first, by tracing letters into sand. Later, by writing on blackboards: unlined, wide-lined, and narrow-lined. Finally, by writing on paper: unlined, wide-lined, and narrow-lined.
Composition - before handwriting has been mastered, the children compose sentences, stores, and poetry through oral dictation to adults and with the use of the moveable alphabet.
Preparing written answers to simple questions.
Composing stories to follow a picture series.
Learning how to write letters.
Spelling - Children begin to spell using the moveable alphabet to sound out and spell words as they are first learning to read. The sequence of spelling, as with all language skills, begins much earlier than is traditional in this country, during a time when children are spontaneously interested in language. It continues throughout their education.
Learning to sound out and spell simple phonetic words.
Learning to recognize and spell words involving phonograms, such as ei, ai, or ough.
Developing a first "personal" dictionary of words that they can now spell.
Learning to recognize and spell the "puzzle words" of English: words that are non-phonetic and are not spelled as they sound.
Grammar- The study of grammar begins almost immediately after the child begins to read, during the sensitive period when he is spontaneously interested in language. It continues over several years until mastered. The idea is to introduce grammar to the young child as he or she is first learning how to put thoughts down on paper, when the process is natural and interesting, rather than waiting until the student is much older and finds the work tedious.
We introduce our children to the function of the parts of speech one at a time through many games and exercises that isolate the one element under study. Montessori has assigned a geometric symbol to represent each element of grammar. (For example, verbs are represented by a large red circle.) The children analyze sentences by placing the symbols for the appropriate part of speech over each word.
Once students have mastered the concrete symbols for the parts of speech, they perform more advanced exercises for several years with grammar boxes set up to allow them to analyze sentences by their parts of speech.
Sentence analysis: simple and compound sentences, clauses, verb voices, and logical analysis of all sorts of sentences are studied using many different concrete materials and exercises.
Mathematics Introduction to the math materials typically does not begin until age 4. However, indirect preparation for math is occurring daily through the child’s observations of older children’s work, oral counting games,songs and rhymes. The materials move from concrete to abstract and begin with introducing the concept of quantity before introducing the symbol that goes with it (just like sound before symbol in the language exercises). Following the child’s understanding of math concepts from 1–10, the children will be introduced to the decimal system using concrete representations of quantity (units, tens, hundreds and thousands) and will be as comfortable working with those numbers as with unit numbers. This often precedes or coincides with the child’s learning teens and tens. The curriculum provides exposure to all four operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction, division). Examples:
Introduction to numbers: learning the numbers and number symbols one to ten: the red and blue rods, sandpaper numerals, association of number rods and numerals, spindle boxes, cards and counters, counting, sight recognition, concept of odd and even.
Introduction to the decimal system, units, tens, hundreds, and thousands are represented by specially prepared concrete learning materials that show the decimal hierarchy in three dimensional form: units = single beads, tens = a bar of 10 units, hundreds = 10 ten bars fastened together into a square, thousands = a cube ten units long ten units wide and ten units high. The children learn to first recognize the quantities, then to form numbers with the bead or cube materials through 9,999 and to read them back, to read and write numerals up to 9,999, and to exchange equivalent quantities of units for tens, tens for hundreds, etc.
Linear Counting: learning the number facts to ten (what numbers make ten, basic addition up to ten); learning the teens (11 = one ten + one unit), counting by tens (34 = three tens + four units) to one hundred.
Development of the concept of the four basic mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication through work with the Montessori Golden Bead Material. The child builds numbers with the bead material and performs mathematical operations concretely. Work with this material over a long period is critical to the full understanding of abstract mathematics for all but a few exceptional children. This process tends to develop in the child a much deeper understanding of mathematics.
Development of the concept of "dynamic" addition and subtraction through the manipulation of the concrete math materials. (Addition and subtraction where exchanging and regrouping of numbers is necessary.)
Development of further abstract understanding of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication with large numbers through the Stamp Game (a manipulative system that represents the decimal system as color-keyed "stamps") and the Small and Large Bead Frames (color-coded abacuses).
Skip counting with the chains of the squares of the numbers from zero to ten: i.e., counting to 25 by 5's, to 36 by 6's, etc. Developing first understanding of the concept of the "square" of a number.
Skip counting with the chains of the cubes of the numbers zero to ten: i.e., counting to 1,000 by ones or tens. Developing the first understanding of the concept of a "cube" of a number.
Beginning the "passage to abstraction," the child begins to solve problems with paper and pencil while working with the concrete materials. Eventually, the materials are no longer needed.
Development of the concept of long multiplication and division through concrete work with the bead and cube materials.
Geometry · Sensorial exploration of plane and solid figures. The children learn to recognize the names and basic shapes of plane and solid geometry through manipulation of special wooden geometric insets. They then learn to order them by size or degree. Stage I: Basic geometric shapes. Stage II: More advanced plane geometric shapes-triangles, polygons, various rectangles and irregular forms. Stage III: Introduction to solid geometric forms and their relationship to plane geometric shapes.
Study of the basic properties and definitions of the geometric shapes. This is essentially as much a reading exercise as mathematics since the definitions are part of the early language materials.
Additional Areas Included as a part of the core curriculum is work in science, art, music and geography. These subjects are covered with the same fundamental approach as all other work in the classrooms, but will be interspersed throughout each of the content areas. Most artwork and science exploration lives in the practical life area, and music and geography are usually found in the sensorial area. These activities are approached in the same manner: individual lessons between the teacher and child, and the child’s subsequent independent work with those activities.
Art Examples:
Cutting
Gluing
Coloring
Painting
Sculpting
Drawing
Various Arts & Crafts
Music Examples:
Composer of the Month
Music Appreciation
Instrument Families
Playing Instruments
Song & Dance
Geography (Cultural & Physical) Examples:
The Primary Globes: specially prepared globes for the very young child that isolate single concepts of globe study-how land and water are shown, and the corresponding shapes of the continents that they learned from the puzzle maps.
The Puzzle Maps: These are specially made maps in the forms of intricate, color-coded, wooden jigsaw puzzles representing the continents, the countries of each continent, and the states of the U.S. They are presented to the children at an early age, and are at first enjoyed simply as challenging puzzles. Soon, however, the children begin to learn the names of given countries, and by age 6 are normally very familiar with the continents of the globe, the nations of North America, South America, and Europe, along with most of the states of the U.S. As soon as the children can read they begin to lay the puzzle pieces out and place the appropriate name labels to each as a reading and geography exercise.
Land & Water Formations: materials designed to help the very young child understand basic land and water formations such as island, isthmus, peninsula, strait, lake, cape, bay, archipelago, etc. At first, they are represented by three-dimensional models of each, complete with water. Then the children learn to recognize the shapes on maps, and learn about famous examples of each.
The study of the hydrosphere: ocean, rivers, lakes, the water cycle.
Cultural Geography · Countries are studied in many ways at all levels a number of festivals are held every year to focus on specific cultures and to celebrate life together: an example being Chinese New Year, when the classroom might learn about China, prepare Chinese food, learn Chinese dances, and participate in a special dragon dance parade. Anything that the children find interesting is used to help them become familiar with the countries of the world: flags, boundaries, food, climate, traditional dress, houses, major cities, children's toys and games, stamps, coins, traditional foods, art, music, and history. This interweaves through the entire curriculum.
Telling time on the clock
Time-lines of the child's life
Time-lines showing the activities of a day, week, month, year
Family trees
Science Examples:
Differentiation between living and non-living things.
Differentiation between animals and plants; basic characteristics.
Observation of animals in nature.
First puzzles representing the biological parts of flowers, root systems, and trees, along with the anatomical features of common animals. These are first used by very young children and puzzles, then as a means to learn the vocabulary, then are related to photos and/or the "real thing," then traced onto paper, and finally with labels as a reading experience.
Nomenclature Cards:
Botany: identifying, naming, and labeling the parts of plants, trees, leaves, roots, and flowers.
Zoology: identifying, naming, and labeling the external parts of human beings, insects, fish, birds, and other animals.
Advanced study of plants in class, greenhouse and garden: experimenting with soil, nutrients, light, etc.
Technology We believe in the power of technology as a valuable educational tool, therefore we’ve integrated various items of technology as an important part of our classrooms. Students use a variety of devices for exploring various subject areas and concepts using specialized software.
Whole Child Education Another important focus of our program. Students today face a rapidly-changing world full of new social norms, educational ideas and technology. We want to make sure our kids are well prepared to keep up! We update curriculum regularly to reflect changes in the world and in our community, and we emphasize relevant academic subjects, collaboration and team building and social skills. We want to equip students with the tools necessary to succeed and contribute meaningfully in the world. Examples: