About Montessori - Laying the foundation for a lifetime of learning. 2009

The Montessori Preschool Program

The Montessori preschool classroom is a "living room" for children. Children choose their work from among the self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves, and they work in specific work areas. Over a period of time, the children develop into a "normalized community," working with high concentration and few interruptions. Normalization is the process whereby a child moves from being undisciplined to self-disciplined, from disordered to ordered, from distracted to focused, through work in the environment. The process occurs through repeated work with materials that captivate the child's attention. For some children this inner change may take place quite suddenly, leading to deep concentration. In the Montessori preschool, academic competency is a means to an end, and the manipulatives are viewed as "materials for development."

Mathmatics

A child can learn basic concepts of mathematics in either of two ways. He can learn by using concrete materials during the years when he enjoys manipulating equipment; or he can learn by abstract methods when he is in the elementary grades. Dr. Montessori demonstrated that if a child has access to mathematical equipment in his early years, he can easily and joyfully assimilate many facts and skills of arithmetic.
In the Montessori classroom the child's first introduction to numbers is made with a set of red and blue rods representing the quantities one through ten. They also learn with the spindle rods. In a separate box there are forty five spindles. The child puts one spindle in the compartment labeled ONE, two spindles with the label TWO, etc. The first compartment is labeled ZERO and this is the childs first introduction to this symbol. He usually wants to put a spindle in this compartment but has to learn the ZERO means none or nothing.

Practical Life

"A child's work, is to create the man he will become. An Adult works to perfect the enviroment but a child works to perfect himself." Several of the practical life exercises involve the use of water with which most children naturally like to play. Carrying the water in a pitcher and pouring it into a basin helps the child to perfect his coordination. As he becomes absorbed in an activity such as scrubbing a table top, he gradualy lengthens his span of concentration. He also learns to pay attention to details as he follows a regular sequence of actions. Finally he learns good working habits as he finishes each task and puts away all his materials before beginning another activity.

Reading

The moveable alphabet
Word building