Sunset Hills Montessori School - About Montessori

WHAT IS MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN?

SCHOOL DAYS INFORMATION - A MONTESSORI CLASSROOM

“A child’s work,” Dr. Maria Montessori wrote, “is to create the man he will become. An adult works to perfect the environment, but a child works to perfect himself.” So Dr. Montessori (1870-1952), engineer, physician, and educator, developed an approach to education that would aid the child in his/her work.

The first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) opened in Rome on January 6, 1907. Since then the Montessori method, based on careful observation of and respect for the natural development of the child, has spread worldwide with Children’s Houses on every continent but Antarctica. The Montessori approach recognizes that a child is more responsive to certain learning experiences at particular times or “sensitive periods”. Careful observation allows the Montessori-trained teacher to recognize these sensitive periods when a child is ready for a new learning experience. The teacher then can direct the child toward materials that will satisfy his/her developmental needs.

Dr. Montessori believed that the competition should be introduced only after the child has gained confidence in the use of basic skills. “Never let a child risk failure,” she wrote, “unless he has a reasonable chance of success.”

“It is true we cannot make a genius,” Dr. Montessori said. “We can only give each individual the chance to fulfill his potential to become an independent, secure and balanced human being.” That is the purpose of Sunset Hills Montessori Children’s House.

In a Montessori classroom the teacher’s most important work is done before the child enters the classroom. The most important work of the teacher is preparing the environment for the child to be able to develop order, control, concentration, and independence. How is this accomplished?

The child establishes order in his/her mind and his/her learning habits when there is a specific time, location, and meaning to everything in his/her environment. “…if we showed them exactly how to do something, this precision itself seemed to hold their interest. To have a real purpose to which the action was directed, this was the first condition, but the exact way of doing it acted like a support which rendered the child stable in his efforts, and therefore brought him to make progress in his development. Order and precision, we found, were the keys to spontaneous work in the school.”(Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind.)

In The Absorbent Mind, Dr. Montessori had the following to say about concentration: “The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior. Praise, help or even a look may be enough to interrupt him, or destroy the activity. It seems a strange thing to say but this can happen even if the child becomes merely aware of being watched. After all, we too sometimes feel unable to go on working if someone comes to see what we are doing.”

“The teacher’s (and parent’s) skill in not interfering comes with practice, like everything else…they should not be helped unnecessarily, nor interrupted, once they have begun to do something intelligent.” Our classroom procedures and materials encourage this behavior on the part of the children and adults.

The child needs to develop control over his/her body and his/her environment. Again, our classroom procedures and materials allow the child to establish this. The classroom is designed to fit the child, not the adult. The child in a Montessori environment is not only “allowed” to do activities that many adults consider beyond him/her, it is frequently his/her “responsibility” to do so.

Independence is also twofold in a Montessori environment. We want the child to be able to complete an activity on his/her own, and to choose his/her own activities that suit his/her developmental needs. In The Child in the Family, Dr. Montessori said, “Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his own shoes, dress, or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of independence.”

In Montessori we call everything we do work, defined as “purposeful activity.”

Whether a child is painting at the easel or diagramming a sentence, he/she believes that his/her activity has value. This idea is central to the Montessori classroom. It is also important for the child to know that work can be fun, and Montessori activities are designed to be enjoyable as well as educational.

The classrooms have mixed age ranges as follows:

Pre-primary 22 months to 3 years Primary 3 years to 6 years Lower Elementary: 6 years to 9 years Upper Elementary: 9 years to 12 years

Why do we have this age range? This allows for much greater flexibility in curriculum design and meeting individual needs. Free of the traditional grouping by age, children in a Montessori classroom can work at whatever level is appropriate. The children learn from observing one another and can also demonstrate their mastery of an activity by giving a lesson to another child. You will generally see at least 15 different activities going on at the same time, ranging from the very simple to the more complex. The children are working at their developmental ages, not their chronological ages. Any child may be advanced in one area, average in another, and perhaps a bit slow in a third, but this is easily accommodated in the Montessori classroom. The children can see where they are headed. For example, the children understand that if they play simple “I Spy” phonics games they begin to know the “sounds” of the letters. When they know the sounds of the letters they get to work with the sandpaper letters and the initial sounds objects (which they can’t wait to get their hands on!). Then they get to work with the movable alphabet to “write” words; and then they start to read. Because all of these activities go on all the time in the classroom, the child understands the progression without being told. Learning is not in isolation. Academically, there is no upper limit in a Montessori classroom.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Most Non-Montessori Pre-school Programs:	Most Montessori Pre-school Programs:
Children are different. Some can learn, others cannot.	All children can learn, they are the same all over the world.
No implicit trust and respect for every child.	Implicit trust and respect for every child.
Teacher centered.	Child centered.
Teacher is the transmitter of knowledge.	Children learn through their own discovery and experience.
Homogeneous grouping. Children are taught in a group.	Multi-age grouping. Children are directed individually.
Some are held back, some are pushed, others dropped.	Each learns at his/her own pace.
The teacher provides the answers.	Children correct themselves through control of error.
Children are dependent on the teacher.	Children work independently.
Teacher directed. Very little choice.	Self directed. Make their own choice.
Subjects are compartmentalized.	Subjects are intertwined.
Time period allotted.	No time restriction.
Competitive.	Non-competitive.
Rewards and punishment (grades are rewards or punishment).	Self motivation.
Test to evaluate.	Self evaluation.