THE MONTESSORI PROGRAMME

The Montessori classroom is a "living room" for children. Children choose their activities from open shelves with self correcting materials and work in distinct work areas - on tables or on rugs on the floor. Over a period of time, the children develop into a "normalised community" working with high concentration and few interruptions.  The classroom includes the following components:

The practical life exercises enhance the development of task organisation and cognitive order through care of self, care of the environment, exercises of grace and courtesy, and refinement of physical movement and co-ordination. The sensorial materials enable the child to order, classify, seriate, and describe sensory impressions in relation, length, width, temperature, mass, colour, etc. The Montessori math materials, through concrete manipulative materials, allow the child to internalise the concepts of number, symbol, sequence, operations, and memorisation of basic facts.

The language work includes oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics, and children's literature. Basic skills in writing and reading are developed through the use of sandpaper letters (loose alphabet letters), and various presentations allowing children to effortlessly link sounds and symbols and to express their thoughts in writing.

The child is also presented with geography, history, life sciences, music, art, and movement education.

Virtually every environment will also have an elliptical line on the floor. This is generally used for "walking on the line" activities that help children develop gracefulness and for the "silence game" where children can practice sitting without making a sound. The line is also frequently used for a large group meeting area. It is here, or in some other designated area, where the class meets as a whole. Often a class will have on or two large group meetings each day. One will usually serve as an opening meeting and precede a more individualised work period, and another will serve as a closing or transitional group time preceding the next activity (i.e., time out doors, lunch, dismissal, etc.)  The group meetings may be used for large group presentations of materials, movement, and music activities, group celebrations, snacks, games, and discussions.

THE TODDLER PROGRAMME

The toddler classroom offers very young children a unique year of self development in a tender atmosphere of special understanding, respect, and support. They are unique in that they provide a very specific structure which fulfils the social, physical, emotional, and psychological needs of each child. In these environments, there is space for movement, space for individual work, and space for group activities. The eating area and the sleeping area are separate from the other areas. Everything in the environment is proportionate to the child's size and is designed to be safe and aesthetically pleasing for children. The toddler classroom is simpler an slower paced than the early childhood (three to six year old) classroom.

Toddlers are given opportunities to work in the development of language skill, art, music sensorial, and practical life. The practical life area is particularly emphasised as the activities in this area give children the chance to develop skills to care for themselves and their environment in the following areas: control of movement, and grace and courtesy Practical life activities are simple and can be accomplished by each child. They offer repetitive cycle, which helps the child establish patterns of order and sequencing. Due the fact that these are very real activities, each child becomes grounded in reality, building the child's self esteem is the ultimate goal and this is accomplished through repeated successes with these activities.

Through song and dance, and freedom of choice, the toddlers have access to a variety of large muscle activities that offer them opportunities to jump, climb, balance, crawl, or skip. These exercises as well as creative art activities are offered for each child to choose. This freedom in a safe space is crucial to the toddler program. However, it is always tempered by two important limits that will be beneficial for a lifetime, respect for others and respect for the environment.

Web site designed and maintained by © AshiharaOnline 2003