Dr. Montessori believed that language development was a crucial component for supporting the child’s learning journey. She observed that children have the desire to form letters before they can learn how to read. Therefore, preparatory works in the Practical Life and Sensorial areas are offered to children ages 2 to 4 to prepare their hands and minds prior to writing and reading.
Author Archives: Leila Farley
10
Mar
Mar
Children will benefit significantly from learning about the parts of a river. Our Parts of a River material encompasses many other natural processes studied in the Montessori Geography curriculum: types of clouds, the water cycle, glaciers and glacial landforms, and land and water forms. Water found on land originates from snow and rain. The precipitation […]
04
Mar
Mar
What is under our feet? We could say a mix of organic and inorganic matter such as decayed animals, plants, and weathered rocks which form layers. Bedrock is the foundation of layers in the soil. It is often buried under vegetation and unconsolidated materials but can be observed on mountain tops, near water streams, or […]
24
Feb
Feb
Do you remember learning about parts of speech, subject, predicate, direct object? Dr. Montessori knew just how to reach children when it comes to grammar. She used geometrical shapes and colors to symbolize each part of speech. The same method was used to analyze phrases within a sentence. Dr. Montessori developed a system of shapes and arrows to demonstrate the relationship between words/phrases in a sentence.
16
Feb
Feb
Geography Glaciers can be found on nearly every continent. Some of the most famous glaciers are the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, the Margerie Glacier in Alaska, the Furtwängler Glacier in Tanzania, the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers in New Zealand, the Pasterze Glacier in Austria, and the Biafo Glacier […]
08
Feb
Feb
Have you ever observed a wiggling worm around after a rainy day as a child? Children are always fascinated and become observant when seeing earthworms make their way through rough terrains. But, not all worms are created equally. They may share similar characteristics but are quite different if we look at them closely.
30
Jan
Jan
Mushrooms are a type of fungus that can be found on forest floors, but also on backyard lawns! We think it is especially important to introduce children to the study of mushrooms since most children might have misconceptions believing that mushrooms are plants, and that fungus means mushroom.
27
Jan
Jan
Dr. Montessori believed in a holistic approach to learning. Holistic learning is presenting knowledge, content areas as parts that are interconnected to a whole; she named this framework the Cosmic Education. Traditional education, by default, has separated content areas that cannot be fully understood without intermediate knowledge from other content areas. In order to provide children access to big ideas such as the formation of the universe as a starter, Dr. Montessori proposed that we introduce as a backbone for all content areas, stories to children entering the elementary years. Beginning at age 6, children are introduced to the Five Great Lessons through a series of visuals and impressionistic experiments: the Coming of the Universe and Earth, the Coming of Life on Earth, the Coming of Humans, History of Writing, and History of Numbers.
18
Jan
Jan
Mathematics 6-12 The Montessori Algebraic Peg Board is an excellent material to be used in the elementary years. It consists of a square wooden board containing 900 holes. The board is accompanied by hierarchical colored pegs and metal bowls with which learners are familiar. In some exercises, the colors won’t matter, whereas; in other exercises, […]
09
Jan
Jan
By studying ecosystems, children can think critically and construct an argument from the evidence that living organisms are interdependent and dependent on their environment.