Montessori Curriculum
Tailored educational activities and programs with a focus on real-life skills and experiences to unlock your child's potential.
Practical Life
This is the term used by Dr Maria Montessori to explain jobs or chores done by the family unit. The Montessori classroom is somewhat a duplication of the home. Educators and children work together in cohesion in all tasks that are required from cleaning, to food preparation, to washing dishes and vacuuming. Practical life activities provide children with the opportunity to develop a sense of being and belonging by participating in the activities of daily life and are paramount in preparing children for life.
The purpose and aim of Practical Life exercises is to help children develop coordination of movement, gain independence, adapt to their society, and develop the ability to concentrate.
Through the repetition of Practical Life activities, children learn to develop their gross and fine motor skills, problem solve effectively, and establish a strong sense of self by actively contributing in their world.
Practical Life is divided into areas such as Care of Self which incorporates activities connected with personal care and the maintenance of everyday life, such as washing hands, brushing hair, brushing teeth, food preparation and dressing.
Care for the Environment is focused on teaching children how to interact with their environment in a way that shows care and respect. These activities include watering plants, growing produce, sweeping, cleaning and arranging flowers.
Through Grace and Courtesy exercises children learn the skills associated with social interactions of greeting (shaking hands), introducing oneself and how to appropriately interrupt others.
Control of Movement is focused on teaching children to refine and coordinate control of their bodies through activities such as walking on the line and the silence game.
Sensorial
The aim of sensorial materials is the education and refinement of the senses: visual/seeing, tactile/touch, olfactory/smelling, gustatory/taste, thermic/temperature, baric/weight, stereonostic/tactile-muscular and chromatic/colour. These activities assist the child in the development of their intelligence, to differentiate even the slightest differences in order to truly observe and appreciate the world around them.
Dr Montessori saw the senses as the “doorway to the mind”. She considered sensory manipulation not only an aid to the development of the sense organs, but a starting point for intellectual growth. She believed that by helping children to order, compare, and classify sensory stimulation, their intellectual development would be greatly assisted and future learning would be more meaningful and useful.
The sensorial area offers materials that are specifically designed to refine children’s perception, discrimination, and judgment of sensorial information.
Indirectly, sensorial materials work to prepare children for their subsequent exploration of mathematical concepts, such as making measurements and understanding the decimal system. They also provide a foundation for different aspects of language, including adjectives, opposites, and a variety of new nouns.
Through work with the sensorial materials, children at Precious Cargo are given the keys to classifying the things around them, enabling them to develop the ways in which they experience their environment.
Problem Solving and Mathematics
Children come into contact with numbers early on in life, as our world is dependent upon mathematics, from counting coins to baking biscuits. Therefore, the practical purpose of helping children to develop mathematics curriculum is reality based. Concrete materials are used to present abstract mathematical concepts.
Dr Montessori believed that the environment should provide children with the opportunity to use their Mathematic Minds to understand abstract concepts, such as multiplication, division, and the decimal system. Work with the Practical Life and Sensorial materials brings order to children’s experiences, which is important indirect preparation for mathematics.
The mathematics area at Precious Cargo includes activities that introduce children to mathematical concepts through the manipulation of concrete materials. The activities support children in developing a sound foundation in basic mathematical principles, and the basis for abstract reasoning.
Mathematical activities lead children from early counting and matching experiences, towards an increasing understanding of number patterns, the four operations, number facts, and two- and three-dimensional shapes.
The focus in Montessori mathematical education is not getting the right answer, but rather the process of how an answer is reached and what is discovered along the way.
Language and Literacy
Language and communication are the crucial elements in life; therefore, they must be introduced at an early age for children to form a strong foundation. Educators read books to children daily and encourage children to comment and discuss. Songs, rhymes and music are strongly involved in language curriculum, whilst visual and/or tactile resources are used regularly to offer a visual aid to language.
The development of language (spoken and written) is vital in a child’s development. Dr. Montessori recognised this and she designed Montessori language materials specifically to capture the child’s interest, focus attention, and encourage independence and concentration. These materials are a fundamental component of our learning environment.
At Precious Cargo, young children are introduced to language in many forms, including stories, letters, poems, and songs. Our rich environment extends the children’s scope for discussion and constantly introduces new ideas and vocabulary. Games, rhyming songs, and poetry build listening skills, and as children show an interest in alphabet sounds and letters, they are guided to progress, step-by-step, through the literacy curriculum.
Culture
Dr. Maria Montessori saw that young children were interested in exploring the environment in increasingly complex ways. She developed certain areas within the prepared environment that allowed the children to gain appreciation of biology, geography, simple science and history. By celebrating many traditions with food, music and stories, children can begin to see the uniqueness of all cultures, yet understand how much we all have in common.
For example, when a child has a birthday, they will hold the world in their hands as they walk around the sun. When the child turns 2 they will do 2 laps; at 4 years they will complete 4 laps, and so on. This exercise is not only exciting for the child celebrating a birthday, but is symbolic and educational for everyone in the room.
The Montessori cultural curriculum introduces a wide range of activities that develop children’s understanding of the wider world. At Precious Cargo, children are exposed to materials that build their understanding of other countries, cultures, and peoples, including globes, charts and puzzle maps. Other activities, such as using picture and name cards, teach them to classify and name elements and species, supporting their understanding of the natural world.
The practical skills that we encourage through growing plants and caring for pets help to form a bridge between the children’s knowledge of their learning environment and the wider world.
Our garden areas are an extension of the classroom and the children enjoy planting seeds, tending to flowers, and digging in our vegetable beds. The children take an active part in composting, weeding and recycling, all activities that contribute to an enhanced understanding of the environment.
Extra Curriculum Activities
Excursions & Incursions
Children at Precious Cargo are involved in regular incursions and excursions, as a means of connecting with the community, and stimulating children’s curiosity by exposing them to a range of local attractions. Every excursion and incursion is carefully planned to ensure they benefit the children in a variety of ways. One week we might visit the zoo to learn more about animals and refine our senses, while the next we will enjoy a visit from the local retirement village to teach the children about empathy and consideration.
In addition to places chosen by staff, we always make a conscious effort to link incursions and excursions to individual child interests. Everything we do serves a purpose of expanding the children’s development, appreciation and understanding of the world around them. For example, we may have a practice evacuation when a smoke alarm goes off, leaving the children slightly concern. Then, we will invite the Fire Department to come and speak about fire safety, and what to do if they see a fire at home!
Community Links
Precious Cargo is extremely proud of the relationships we have established in our respective communities. So much so that each of our centres is ‘linked’ to a nearby external organisation with whom they have established a very close connection. Our Community Links program teaches children empathy and consideration, through exposing them to people of various ages, backgrounds and abilities. Depending on what is local to them, this may include; visiting the nearby primary school to read books and take part in activities, venturing to the local retirement village to engage and play games with the elderly, or visiting the local café for babyccinos.