Waldorf to Montessori, Bank Street to Reggio.
There's a lot of options when it comes to early childhood education.
So this series is a who's who and a what's what
Let's get started.
Hey, welcome to my classroom!
So, where are we?
We are in the Rogers classroom of Sauganash Montessori School.
- And, you are...
Tell me a little bit about Montessori.
So, within all the materials
in the classroom the children are independently able to explore the
different academic areas.
Tell me a little bit more about just Montessori as it is as a philosophy.
So the Montessori philosophy is based on
She's from Italy and it started in 1907, it started in Rome
and it actually started in low-income housing, so the parents would go out to work and leave
the children and Dr. Montessori recognized that there was a need for
these kids to be doing something so she started the classroom she started just this.
The fun part of story is one day she was late or she didn't show up
and the kids actually went in, opened the cabinets and set up the class on their own.
Kids don't know the difference between working on you know spelling and
like play if they really love the spelling. So the materials in the
classroom become kind of their play and we call it work out of respect for the child.
Ok so tell me where are we are we?
We are in the sensorial. So, the sensorial area is just another way for
the students to be able to better develop their senses.
So for instance this is a sphere, and what a sphere feels like verses what a cylinder feels like.
Thick, thin.
large and small. This is a coveted...
Oh my gosh this would get lost!
You know they are very responsible...
So we have these two boxes with matching sounds
And now imagine 30 students in here working and doing this!
I know catalogs like the back of my hand and there are many things I've never ever seen before.
tell me about these.
These are the Montessori materials, these are materials created over a hundred years ago by Maria Montessori.
Of course over the years they've been adapted and need to make sense with the modern times.
So this is how we teach place value. So units, tens, hundreds...
and thousands.
Is she on the $1000 bill?!
She is on it. And on the back were two students working diligently which I thought was the coolest thing ever.
This is how we teach squared and cubed numbers. So this chain folds up into a small square.
So the children can see that this is a five squared. And then it opens up and
they count them and then they know how many is in five squared.
Your rug. I see two different colors.
Two different lines so we sit here this is where we might do our community time.
and then if there's any activities that require motion or movement I have them step onto the blue line.
So we might walk. A lot of our activities work on equilibrium and balance.
Is there any big major misconception when you hear somebody say "Montessori"?
They think we're really strict.
they also think that we're very unstructured and yes it is unstructured
but it's kind of a controlled chaos. The children are free to do what they want
but they have parameters.
This is called the practical life area.
because simply it is just practical life.
I love, I have this obsession with tiny bowls and spoons.
What is this? So this is all part of the practical life area.
This is where children can work on their fine motor skills. Pouring, spooning, tonging.
This is the greatest place ever!
Alright, our students have to get back in the room so thanks for visiting!