The Underlying Organization of a Montessori Classroom - Montessori for Everyone. This is the time when many schools and homes are setting up for the coming school year. Commonly, classrooms go through several incarnations before teachers and parents hit the combo that’s “just right”. Arranging and rearranging the materials, shelves, tables, and chairs can be a lot of fun, but it’s tempting to always wonder if there’s another, better way that you just haven’t tried yet. A few simple principles should always be adhered to – they represent the classic Montessori classroom layout. As you can imagine, a preschool classroom layout is slightly different from an elementary one. The differences mirror the changing nature of the elementary child as they move from a wholly concrete environment to a more abstract one.
In a 3- 6 classroom, the area closest to the entrance of the room should be, if at all possible, practical life. Sometimes this depends on where the sink is, but since it is the first place that most young children begin working when entering 3- 6, it needs to be the first thing they see when entering the room. After that, each of the curricular areas proceeds around the room. Classroom Order: Practical Life. Sensorial. Math Language. Cultural. It’s easy to see the progression here; sensorial materials are usually the next step after practical life. Since many sensorial materials rely on the decimal system (1. Many children recognize numbers before letters, but soon they are ready for language materials. After the acquisition of language comes the ability to learn about culture – biology, history, geography, physical science, art, and music. In elementary, practical life exercises become integrated with the actual care of the classroom and materials; it’s no longer a separate section. Sensorial materials become the geometry area. Now, language takes the spotlight as the first area of study, and the cultural materials are separated into their own distinct areas. Classroom Order: Language Math. Geometry. Botany. Zoology. Geography. History. Botany precedes zoology, naturally, since plants are structurally simpler than animals. The category of history now encompasses art, music, health, astronomy, chemistry, physical science, and any other field of scientific study. Each area of the classroom also has its own color scheme to help with the organization of materials. They are as follows: Language – yellow; subcategories of pink, blue, and green for phonetic material. Math – red; subcategories of green (units & thousands), blue (tens), red (hundreds), and red (addition), green (subtraction), yellow (multiplication), and blue (division). Geometry – blue. Botany – green (naturally!)Zoology – red (for blood; represents animal kingdom)Geography – blue History – black These colors are used for materials (borders, cardstock, labels) and the containers the materials are put into. There’s some overlap (geometry and geography are both blue), but the materials in those two areas differ enough that it won’t be confusing. Within each area, the work should be arranged in order from easiest to hardest whenever possible. A perfectly color- coordinated elementary language area (click picture to enlarge): Everything I’ve mentioned so far is the ideal in terms of classroom layout and material color- coding. They are just guidelines, and there is flexibility in actually implementing these guidelines. Teachers and parents both will enjoy a look at Montessori curriculum as we explain Montessori Language Arts curriculum materials, activities, and philosophy. I have been working and observing in Montessori. I was fascinated by the whole concept of organizing. Print out a list of all the Montessori presentations. Below is just one of many possible ways to organize the primary Montessori experiences (primary being ages 2.5-6 years of age, or the developmental. How your classroom is arranged will depend on the shape and size of the room, the types and number of shelves, the amount of materials, and the amount of money you have to spend. Every classroom – school or home – will be different. Another note: I don’t mean to imply that a child can only work with the materials in order. A child can easily do a practical life work and then move to the cultural area and take out some nomenclature cards. Still, you will notice that a child newest to the 3- 6 classroom will spend more time in practical life and sensorial, and possibly need some encouragement (and some one- on- one presentations) to move beyond. In elementary, the children should be working from all areas of the room right from the beginning. Cultivating Dharma. In my training, I was shown how to do the geometrical form of multiplication (see math album 1 on albums page.) A couple of months ago I had some students who were struggling with division using the Stamp Game. They were not struggling because they didn’t understand it. They just didn’t like using the materials – they thought it slowed them down. Yet, they were unable to do long division purely in the abstract. If these were 2nd graders, I would have simply insisted that they continue with the stamp game. However, these are students brand new to the Montessori setting in 4th grade. So I worked through the Stamp Game with them making sure they understood each step, querying them at the right moments. Once I was sure they understood the logic behind it, I introduced them to the Geometrical Form of Long Division. Maybe this is already out there, but I have not seen it. I created the following lesson using graph paper, green, blue, & red pencils. Download pdf of lesson: Geometrical. This is a lesson/activity that they must do in order to learn it. Teacher must do each step carefully and in full sight of each student. Wait for students to finish writing problem. Color in one row of 3 in green. Mark number of rows above the thousands place in answer area. Ask how many are left over?
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