Spontaneous Observer of Nature

Roskos and Neuman (1994) too note that "from Pestalozzi to the present there has been an abiding belief in the importance of the physical environment as an agent in young children's learning" (p. 251) And that this belief forms "the cornerstone of an interactionist view of human development" (ibid). Skilled teachers, therefore, working with the age that is mentioned in this module, devise ways of doing so focusing on a variety of listening, talking, reading, and writing activities.

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.

The Montessori system of education was developed during the first half of the 1900’s by Dr. Maria Montessori as a result of her extensive research observations and experimental testing (Lillard, 2005, pp. 16-18). Dr. Montessori was of the belief that children contain an innate desire to learn and her research showed that, when given the

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

Students spend most of their time working on the floor where they have their own individual carpets. They put them down to outline their personal workspace. Instead of there being various toys and games spread through out the classroom, there are specific sensory materials and manipulatives that are self correcting and purposeful to student’s learning. On the walls students’ work fill spaces throughout the classroom, similar to the walls of a Head Start classroom. Montessori classrooms are made up of mixed grades and ages, something that is not typical of traditional classrooms.

As children grow through early and middle childhood, they are learning and developing many skills and abilities, including conservation, theory of mind, language, autonomy and initiative,

Finding ways to keep students interested in schoolwork and increasing their cognitive abilities has been a constant struggle for teachers. It is common knowledge that when a child’s interest wanes, it becomes harder for them to learn and retain knowledge on the subject. One tool that can be used to combat this issue would be the use of an outdoor classroom or learning outdoors. During the late 60’s and 70’s outdoor education was highly recommended in curriculum guidelines to enrich educational experiences, but later declined in the 80’s (Eaton, 1998). Today, outdoor education only plays a small role in children’s education experiences, despite the benefits it could provide. Teachers should take advantage of outdoor education to increase children’s cognitive skills, provide physical and emotional benefits, and decrease the bio phobia many children seemed to have developed.

There are a whole lot of programs or curriculums out there that try to talk about the environmental and academic needs of children. In this paper, I will try my best to discuss the five components of the

Inspired by the work of Itard and Seguin, two almost forgotten French doctors, Maria Montessori took the idea of scientific approach to develop her theories, principles and beliefs in early childhood education, which through observation and experimentation. All the learning activities and teaching materials are purposeful and aimed to stimulate senses, mind, and provide self-esteem and achievement.

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

The success of the Montessori method depends on how the environment us set up, it is essential that it is prepared and simplified for the students’ understanding.

“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher 's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”

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

The education system back in her era focused on teaching the children to memorise word to word from books and posters and Children sat in rows at desks at the classroom learning from a blackboard and slates. This method of education wasn’t stimulating and exciting for children. Nevertheless through her experience Montessori discovered children want to learn, and they will do it in their own time frame and they shouldn’t be forced.

Dr Montessori emphasizes the importance of the development of imagination. How do cultural activities in a Montessori prepared environment aid in the development….