Learning Areas
Our children have the opportunity to work in each of these areas every day. Activities are added and changed on a regular basis according to the individual needs of each child.
Practical Life: Help me to do it Myself
The Practical Life classroom provides the link between home and school. With child-sized tools that really work, the young child is able to perform the same activities he has seen adults do; polishing, scrubbing, sweeping and pouring. The pace is unhurried and an adult is nearby to help if needed but not to interfere.
The three year old is, of course, more interested in the scrubbing motion of washing a table than he is on getting the table clean! The motions help him to gain gross motor control and hand-eye co-ordination, which enable him to perform successively more precise tasks.
The motto of the young child is "I can do it by myself" and Montessori encourages and fosters this independence. Through Practical Life the essence of the child's needs are met by
"Help me to do it myself."
Sensorial: Awakening my Senses
Maria Montessori felt that the child's senses were the first and most natural way of appealing to the child's desire to learn and explore.
The Sensorial materials enable the child to learn such concepts as size, shape, colour, taste and sound. The Sensorial materials also provide the basis for development of other skills such as Maths and Language. They provide the foundation for later learning.
Mathematics: From Concrete to Abstract
Preschool aged children naturally have mathematical minds.
They have the capacity to reason, to calculate and to estimate. The concrete Montessori maths materials allow exploration and the wonderful journey from the concrete to the abstract through manipulation, experimentation and invention.
The Maths materials can be best summed up in the following quote:
"When I hear it, I forget it.
When I see it, I remember it.
When I do it, I understand it."
Language: I can write! I can read!
The child begins by learning the phonic sound of individual letters and then learns the relationships among letters which form words. How exciting it is when a child discovers the joy of writing and reading his own words!
