Classroom Overview
Our classroom is arranged into different areas, each with a specific focus.
Practical Life: This area serves as the link between the home and the school, since it contains familiar materials which provide tasks the child sees in his everyday life. Their familiarity draws the child to the work. All the tools are child-sized to aid in performing the tasks successfully. Practical life exercises are designed to help children gain independence, self-confidence, coordination, concentration and a sense of order. This area provides the foundation for all other areas of the classroom and is also a haven to which the child may return at times to renew himself.
Sensorial: Sensorial materials are designed to isolate and refine the information brought to the mind through the senses. They help the child sort and digest the immense amount of information received through the senses each day. The materials are didactic in nature and allow the child to learn from his manipulation and experimentation. The child learn the skills of discrimination, reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving which help him to master his environment.
Language: The purpose of the language area is to give the child a framework with which to interpret and define his own language. No one can “teach” language to the child—the ability to acquire language is innate. The Montessori materials are designed to give order and form to language, leading to both reading and writing.
Math: The math area allows the child to further develop his thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving powers. The direct aim of the math materials is to help the child work toward more abstract thinking. The math activities allow the child to work with concrete objects and tasks until he internalizes the mathematical concepts through repeated tactile and visual contact.
Science: The science area further helps the child refine his skills of observation and discrimination, learning to make judgments and decisions. He learns various experimental methods and applies these methods to the discovery of his environment and the world around him. The child learns how his body works and how he is related to nature. He also develops an appreciation for the beauty of nature and a respect for all living things. He learns about the balance of ecological systems and their importance to life on earth.
Geography: The geography area begins by mapping the child’s immediate environment, the classroom, and expands from there to study his city, state, country, continent, planet and the solar system. The study of geography is closely tied to the study of history and culture, and children learn about a country through its natural land formations as well as the study of the culture of its people.
Art: Art materials are changed frequently, giving the children the opportunity to work with many media. Art materials are placed on trays on the shelves so the child may choose what and when he wishes to create. Copies of famous paintings and models of various art forms are displayed through the room to help the child gain an appreciation for fine art.
Music: The child acquires an appreciation for music and a joy for performing and creating pleasing sounds through singing and playing instruments, as well as through listening to good music. Rhythm and movement are an important part of the music program.