Lessons from Montessori

This section focuses on the standard, “Children demonstrate strategies for reasoning and problem solving” (Early Childhood Iowa, 2012, p. 99). Through this standard, a child will: show interest in and find a variety of solutions to questions, tasks, or problems; recognize and solve problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and through interactions and discussions with peers and adults; share ideas or make suggestions of how to solve a problem presented by another person. Adults must support these benchmarks by providing opportunities for each child to try new ways of using materials, creating a safe environment with developmentally appropriate materials that offer an appropriate amount of stimulation and choice for each child to explore and play with, allowing each child time to process experiences and information, talking through problems with children to model problem-solving, holding class meetings to discuss issues that may occur and have the children brainstorm solutions, and choosing appropriate materials that promote creativity, self-expression, number, and emerging literacy skills (Early Childhood Iowa,

In terms of understanding of the world the children used their senses to investigate objects and materials by used. The children also constructed letters with an object and adapted their work where necessary.

For example, during a cooking activity children are learning many skills through this creative process, they may feel happy and excited about cresting their own food. They are sociable by working with adults to assist them and cooking for

2.2 - Explain why young children require extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity.

All seven areas need to be fulfilled through well planned, purposeful play that is balanced between child-initiated and adult-led activities. The seven areas of learning and development are divided into two sections: Prime Areas and Specific Areas. The Prime Areas are:

12. Assist children in a variety of activities that promote language, physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and aesthetic

There are some considerations in terms of children’s intellectual development that teachers should keep in mind. First, education is exploration. This is where teachers allow children to interact with the environment by providing rich experiences and environment. Second, children do not think like adults. This is where children have

He argued that the earliest years of a child’s life are the most important in a Childs education and lay the foundation for all later learning. Young children, he argued, learn best through self-activity, talk and play. (Tovey, 2012).

children’s education should be based on their interests and their active involvement. An activity using

There are five activities of instruction (pre instruction, content, learner participation, assessment, and follow through). Pre instruction motivates learners, inform learners of objectives/ agenda, inform and orient learners. Content information activities are new information, provide content and process information. Learner participation activities allow learners to engage with content. Assessment activities could be formal testing or informal testing. Follow through activities include providing job aids, promote retention, and encourage transfer of learning. Five activities of instruction were used when designing instruction. Pre instruction is the presentation (handout about gift cards). Content is demonstration. Learner participation is demonstration. Demonstration is the best method because the learner can get hands on practice which is needed for psychomotor skills. Assessment is the test. Follow through would be a video link/handout given at the beginning of

Second,orginized activities are good for children because they show optimisum or a healthy mental attitude is crucial.The

In reality, the children move about the classroom independently, choosing the order of their learning activities. There may be 15 or more activities, or ?jobs? as they are called in some Montessori classrooms, occurring at the same time with small groups or individual work, yet the classroom remains quiet, yet busy and productive, sometimes with the soft hush of classical music playing in the background. Many Montessori school classrooms place a card around the child?s neck with the day?s objectives written in the form of a checklist for the students to monitor themselves. This checklist encourages the students to take responsibility for their own learning, as well as discourages prompt-dependence, since the student need not wait for instruction. Some of the activities in a Montessori classroom include reading, pre-reading using phonics, math, discovery science and writing. Children learn skills in a way that he or she is not aware that learning is taking place. For example, a child playing in the sand box with a small rake is not aware that he or she is learning fine motor skills and how to hold and control a pencil. Another observation in a Montessori classroom is that most classrooms tend to span three grade levels. This practice allows to children to become mentors to younger students. Also, the large gap in developmental levels allows children to ?learn at their own pace? (Keller, 2001), which is another important Montessori

Watching a small child discover how to operate his or her favorite plaything is awe inspiring. The look of wonder at the item as it's carefully chosen from amongst their belongings and studied ever so carefully for each and every nuance. How that little face lights up with each new discovery no matter how large or small. The sounds of delight an even dismay at an unwanted result are beautiful. Consider an educational system that would continue to utilize a child’s natural curiosity, unyielding ingenuity and thirst for knowledge. Montessori education creates that environment for children by allowing them the freedom to not only gain knowledge in a natural progression, but also provide a basis on which to continue to grow no matter where

“Intelligence is frequently rendered useless through lack of practice, and that this practice almost always consists in a training of the senses. (Maria Montessori, the discovery of the child). Due to the absorbent mind of the child, the child uses their senses to develop in his/her environment. At this age he does not have a whole lot of experiences, he is still discovering and learning anything the environment has to offer. In a Montessori classroom, the prepared environment helps stimulate all the senses and helps aid in its learning process. The sensorial area of the classroom, especially, focuses on the sensory need of the child. All the materials in this area deal with the seven senses the child uses to learn. These seven senses are visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory, kinesthetic, and stereo gnostic senses. Each are all equally important for the development of the child.

“It is exactly in the repetition of the exercises that the education of the sense consists the aims of the exercises are not that the child shall know colours, form and the