All posts filed under: Environment

The Five key learning areas of a Montessori classroom

During my research about Montessori, I have discovered something very fascinating: the five key learning areas. The fact that learning is divided into five subjects and that these subjects are all linked together, I thought it was genius. Then discovering all the Montessori apparatus and all what Montessori has done, I was definitely converted. In a Montessori classroom, you will normally find these five areas separated with the designated materials. At home, depending on the space you have and if you are looking to recreate a classroom, you can try to follow the learning areas or just put things together on your shelves. We are trying to set up a classroom so we are following this as much as we can. So a Montessori classroom is divided in five areas: the Sensorial area: The Sensorial area of the classroom helps children become more aware of smaller details that are often overlooked. Each sensorial activity focuses on one important quality such as colour, weight, shape, size, texture, sound or smell. For examples, the knobbed cylinders and colour tablets. Sensorial activities …

Montessori at Home – How to create an appropriate environment?

So the first step of our Montessori at Home Project has been to change our environment. The first room where we made the changes was our, what we used to call, Playroom. One of the main aspect of the Montessori philosophy is to keep the environment in order and tidy , the aim of it is to obtain a calm atmosphere. “The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.” Maria Montessori For Maria Montessori, the first three years of life are precious as she called it the “Absorbent Mind”. So the home is the first place a child is going to evolve so we should try to make the most of it first. “The first phase of the child’s development goes from birth to, let us say, six years of age. At this stage the child is partly at home, partly in school. The plane of education should take both the situations into consideration.” (Maria Montessori – Four Planes of Education, p. 2) Maria Montessori observed …