Principles & Results

The Principles

Activities promote the development of social skills, emotional growth and physical co-ordination as well as cognitive preparation. The educational principles are based around the following central themes:

• All children want to learn. With the freedom to investigate the work around them they will become active learners.
• From birth to 6 years, children have an absorbent mind.
• Everything that occurs in their life has a profound effect and therefore, the quality of early experiences are of fundamental importance to their self construction.
• Children pass through sensitive periods in their development.

The Prepared Environment children need a carefully prepared environment

The secret of the Montessori classroom is that Montessori Method is totally child focused. It is caring, non-competitive and co-operative. The children express their innate drives for knowledge and skills in ways that are natural for their level of development. In essence a framework and environment is provided in which your child can develop individually in ways which are appropriate to your child at the time. The children in each classroom cover 3-6 year age range in accordance with the Planes of Development identified by Dr Maria Montessori.

• Everything in a Montessori classroom is child-sized and all the activities are within easy reach to allow independence.
• The classroom is ordered and well planned. The curriculum and teaching materials are carefully selected and presented to the children. When children choose material they are free to work with it for as long as it provides a challenge. This provides a structure for their learning.
• The classroom is not over-crowded or over-stimulating. Attention is paid to the development of aesthetic awareness.
• There is emphasis on bringing about awareness of the real world and in particular, the children are encouraged to take care of and learn to understand and respect the natural world around them.

The Montessori materials cover developmental activities designed to meet the needs of children in five curriculum areas:

• Practical Life Skills
• Sensori-Motor Activities
• Language Skills
• Mathematical Skills
• Cultural Knowledge

(1) PRACTICAL LIFE - This section includes care of the person, care of the environment, grace and courtesy and preliminary movement. Practical Life activities include washing hands, peeling vegetables, learning how to say hello, just to name a few. With the various materials provided, children learn to use their hands, to listen and to concentrate. The materials meet the children's need for movement and are an indirect preparation for various learning skills and good learning habits that are useful for the rest of their lives.

(2) SENSORI-MOTOR ACTIVITIES - This section helps children in refining the senses and developing an orderly mind. Each piece of material is designed to develop one particular sense, e.g. Pink Tower for the discrimination of size in three dimensions, sandpaper letters for touching, sound boxes for hearing, etc. The material fosters curiosity and helps the child to become a trained observer. It stimulates pre-reading and pre-writing skills. It is designed to isolate a single quality, and be of simple and precise construction. It must be attractive and a pleasure to handle. The sensorial materials constitute a particularly important area providing indirect preparation for many future abilities.

(3) LANGUAGE - The term "language" is used in the Montessori classroom in the broadest sense. For the child, it includes listening with understanding, encouraging conversation and the use of language more accurately and consciously, and learning that words are made up of sounds of letters. Stories and poems are part of the language experiences offered and are all done before reading and writing begins. The desire for reading and writing occurs spontaneously.

(4) MATHEMATICAL- In the Montessori environment the child's initial introduction to numbers always starts with concrete experiences. "The child has already been awakened to mathematical ideas through the sensorial experiences. He or she has seen the distinctions of distance, dimensions, graduation, identity, similarity and sequence. He or she will now be introduced to the functions and operations of numbers." (MAA Publication, July 1989)

(5) CULTURAL - The children are given opportunities to experience their culture. According to their age and understanding, the children are introduced to simple geography, botany, zoology, art, science and the history of the human race. The materials in this section includes pictures of animals, birds, flowers, geography maps, puzzles and simple science experiments. Whilst these materials are divided into different sections, they all complement and overlap each other, although some will necessarily precede others.

Our Pre-School Environment

Our centre was established over 20 years ago (founded in 1981 by a group of parents interested in Montessori education) and is guided by the philosophy of Dr Maria Montessori. Dr Montessori's aim in developing a "method" was to provide an environment to support the child's natural potential and love of learning. The Northwest Maria Montessori Pre-school provides such an environment for children between three and six years of age.
The Pre-school operates in two campuses Essendon & Coburg with two streams Sessional and Extended day. (see timetable)
The most important environment for the child is the home environment. The Pre-school environment aims to support and build on the previous experiences of the child.
In this spirit of co-operation, staff and parents alike work to provide the best possible environment for the child to grow and flourish in.

The role of the teacher in a Montessori classroom

The teacher's prime objectives are to:

• maintain order and beauty in the Prepared Environment
• facilitate the development of the child
• allow development to progress unhindered
• encourage independence and self-sufficiency
• ensure there is a great respect for the Prepared Environment, children and adults
• promote learning by creating a climate for discovery
• extend and enrich the child's own interests
• help the child develop his or her special abilities and realise his or her potential
• help the child develop an inner discipline to control his or her behaviour
• develop a teacher-child relationship that is warm, happy and rewarding
• be a good role model
• observe the children to make sure the Prepared Environment is meeting their needs, that the materials are involving and maintaining their interest and through closer observation know when a child is ready for the next challenge.
  

Results

In the Montessori environment confidence and self-esteem are developed and the child's joy of learning is paramount.

The child works to create him/herself. A child from a Montessori pre-school develops:

• A love of order
• A love of work
• A love of silence and working alone
• Mutual aid and co-operation
• Profound spontaneous concentration
• Obedience
• Independence and initiative
• Attachment to reality
• A lack of possessive instinct

And most importantly, happiness :)