Montessori Moments

“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.” — Maria Montessori

In Lower Elementary, students work with the Wooden Hierarchical Material. This lesson starts with a small unit and shows how numbers grow by tens, reaching up to a million. Students are then asked to imagine how big the material would be if it kept going. One student was amazed to discover that the numbers kept going past a thousand. That child’s imagination and wonder had been ignited.

Learn more about the Wooden Hierarchical lesson

“Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word.” — Maria Montessori

Especially with young children, when they need to observe our movements, we must silence our voice to focus their attention on our actions. If we are talking, they will watch our faces; they are still sensitive to language and how it is formed. With older children, it sometimes helps to talk through the steps. But other times, silent actions draw even more attention.

Try it at home: talk and show, or show without speaking, and see if it changes your child's engagement.

Children take in a lot from the world around them. They are continually learning as they observe, listen, and "mess" with the things in their environment. Our goal is to support the development of learning that is already happening and challenge each child to see what else they can discover, learn, or become an expert at.

What are things your child has learned that you didn't even realize they knew or had taught themselves?

Experience is important. Children need to try new skills, visit new places, and meet new people and cultures. These opportunities help them build a framework for understanding and integrating new information.

• Gideon: "Kids learn from their mistakes."
• Alysia: "We should treat the environment nicely."
• Michael: "You learn easier with material."
• Mila: "Children learn what they see around them."

Creating compassionate and supportive classrooms is essential. Classrooms where children are kind, helpful, and encouraging to those around them.

Recommended viewing: Montessori: Let the Child Be the Guide, filmed in a Montessori 3-6 year old classroom in France over the course of a few months. Free to watch on Kanopy with your Delta County Library card.

Mixed-age classrooms give children an opportunity to be both learner and teacher. As they observe older students, they see what they will be working on in the future and how their present work is preparing them. As they grow in the classroom, they become leaders who know the expectations and can support newer students.

Being able to teach a concept to someone else is where we see true mastery of the skill.

“The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.” — Maria Montessori

In the Montessori classroom, we look at the whole child: academic, social, emotional, and physical. Each facet affects the others. If a child is physically exhausted from lack of sleep, their self-regulation skills will be lower, leading to frustration with friends, assignments, or waiting their turn. As we support children in each area, we are preparing them to be balanced adults. Our job as educators is not just about the momentary grades but about helping them develop the skills they need for success in life.

Our job as parents and educators is to help children find their place and role in the world. One way we do this is by planting seeds of wonder and curiosity. We don't know which seeds will blossom and become lifelong learning, hobbies, passions, or careers.

For this reason, the Montessori classroom covers a wide range of topics: biology, geometry, geography, social studies, art, music, language, social skills, and practical life skills. As we introduce children to these subjects, we are giving them the keys to unlock doors of new possibilities.

We do not know what future jobs, inventions, challenges, or life skills our children will need. We must sow many seeds of knowledge and wait patiently to see which ones grow.

Children are born curious and full of questions. We want to keep that light of curiosity burning by supporting the development of their intrinsic motivation: the motivation that comes from within. Intrinsic motivation keeps us going when the work is hard or the road to learning is long. It provides personal satisfaction and joy in the process.

Extrinsic motivation is external: doing something for a reward or to avoid punishment. It works in the short term but is not self-sustaining and can lead to apathy and burnout.

We help children build intrinsic motivation when we give them space to repeat an activity as long as needed to gain mastery, follow their interests deeply, try new skills on their own, and make limited choices that build ownership in their work.

Through observation, Maria Montessori realized that children learn through the use of their hands. A hundred years later, brain studies support what she observed in the early 1900s.

She began creating and adapting materials to help children gain understanding by seeing and working with objects before moving into abstract pencil-and-paper work. These materials are designed to be used over and over throughout the ages in increasingly complex ways.

Example: In the Primary classroom, a child begins counting chains, learning the linear sequence of numbers. Then they start to skip count using the same chains, preparing them for multiplication. In the elementary classroom, they use those same chains, squares, and cubes to explore exponents and the square and cube of a number. From this one example, we can see how the child builds on past learning to create a stronger understanding of new concepts.

In the Montessori classroom, children have more freedom than in traditional schools. They often decide what to work on first, where they work, and who they work with. But freedom comes with the balance of responsibility.

Teachers check in with children to see how their work is progressing, monitor that they are on task, and if someone is not able to be responsible with their choices, they will limit options to help the child be successful.

This balance is one of the hardest tasks in the classroom because it requires constant observation and assessment. But it is essential. Through this balancing act, children learn to manage social interactions, build teamwork skills, develop their work ethic, and manage their time. These are the same skills that are integral to success as adults.